Maxon Cinema 4D 7 [Paperback]

Arndt Von Koenigsmarck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2001

Maxon Cinema 4D is a flexible and powerful modeling, animation, and rendering tool. It's used to create a wide variety of images, including special effects, broadcast titles, character animations, and more.

Maxon Cinema 4D 7.0 provides a thorough introduction to the software, while the companion CD contains a demo version of Cinema 4D, as well as sample scenes and animations from the book. Readers will learn how to use Cinema 4D to create special effects, character animations, and 3D modeling. Project examples in each chapter illustrate key features of the software. The last chapter in the book dissects and fully deconstructs a full-featured animation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Maxon's Cinema 4D is arguably the most underrated computer 3-D animation application available. It is hardly known outside its own user base and yet offers a broad and deep feature set and tremendous flexibility. Maxon Cinema 4D 7 is perfect for the beginning user as well as the intermediate and somewhat advanced user. It introduces many important basic concepts and techniques, and goes deeply into the more advanced features as well.

The author wastes no time in getting past the interface introduction and into a working example. The best way to learn is by doing, and sculpting a fairly complex model is exactly what gets done before the first 50 pages are over. Subsequent chapters cover organic and mechanical modeling, radiosity and caustics, Hypernurbs, and an invaluable tips and tricks section.

By far, the chapter on expressions is worth the cost of the book. Expressions and the COFFEE language used in Cinema is one of its most powerful features, and the 50 pages of examples and description in this chapter shed light on this powerful tool. Need to make a hose attached to two different objects (one at each end)? The example is here, as are things like properly deforming a spring (its length changes, but the diameter of the wire itself doesn't) and automating the movement of the nested sleeves of a piston.

The only complaint is the lack of color pictures throughout the book. While heavily illustrated, the chapters on radiosity and materials sorely lack the necessary accompanying examples. They are on the CD, along with the project and data files, but that isn't quite the same as having them on the page next to the words.

For anyone who's used or is planning to use Cinema 4D, this book is as important as the manuals that come with the application. --Mike Caputo

From the Back Cover

Untitled

Maxon Cinema 4D is a flexible and powerful modeling, animation, and rendering tool. It's used to create a wide variety of images, including special effects, broadcast titles, character animations, and more.

Maxon Cinema 4D 7.0 provides a thorough introduction to the software, while the companion CD contains a demo version of Cinema 4D, as well as sample scenes and animations from the book. Readers will learn how to use Cinema 4D to create special effects, character animations, and 3D modeling. Project examples in each chapter illustrate key features of the software. The last chapter in the book dissects and fully deconstructs a full-featured animation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (December 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201731363
• ISBN-13: 978-0201731361
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,372,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really nice! But could be better...., February 27, 2002

By 

Jordi Rosello Anguita (Barcelona, Barcelona Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maxon Cinema 4D 7 (Paperback)

Really nice! But could be better.... All book is focused in learning of medium and expert concepts of 3D modelation, and animation. The learning is routed on two examples, modeling of a piston/ckrankshaft, and human body.
The author explain various methods of modeling to achieve the same final objective; and provides the pros and conts of this various ways.
COFFEE and other interesting things are explained, but only focused in this examples.

BUT... all pictures in book are in B&W, could be more examples, and some textures, or plug-ins...

This review will be updated!!!

see you

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed project-based tour of Cinema 4D 7, September 29, 2003

By 

"chromecity" (Chrome City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maxon Cinema 4D 7 (Paperback)

This was the first book I ever purchased for Cinema 4D and it remains the best 3rd-party Cinema 4D book that I've ever purchased. Admittedly, that is partially because there are surprisingly few English language Cinema 4D books to choose from. But Arndt's book provides a solid basis in modeling, animating, and rendering in Cinema 4D 7. Maxon revised the application interface substantially in Cinema 4D R8.x, but much of the information in this book still carries over fine into R8.x. But you should probably have a good understanding of both Cinema 7 and 8 before trying to undertake one of the projects in this book using R8.x.

This book delves into some focused modeling and animation projects and given its subtitle, "A Workshop for 2D/3D Graphics Pros", that's what you should expect. The person who wrote this up as a "bad book" because it didn't tell them how to install Cinema 4D seems really lost. The manuals that come with Cinema do a fine job of guiding you through the installation - if you even require any assistance. This isn't Cinema For Dummies. Instead, what it is is a trip through some interesting projects that provide some knowledge and thorough usage of many aspects of Cinema 4D 7. It doesn't particularly matter if you are familiar with those aspects as the text provides ample introduction to nearly everything except the most trivial facets (installation of the software, configuration of your machine). Much of the modeling makes use of 3 custom plug-ins (EdgeExtrude, EdgeBevel, and Cutter) which are provided for no additional cost by the author.

Overall, as of late September 2003, this is still the best English language 3rd-party companion book available for Cinema 4D. Could it be improved? Certainly. As other reviewers have mentioned, the translation gets in the way a little at times and the subject matter could be expanded plenty. Arndt has written other more recent German language books and I'd love to see them show up in English. He's obviously a very talented Cinema user and author. This book probably deserves more like 4 or 4.5 stars, but the earlier 2-star review was a blatant injustice and needs to be offset. That's why I went with 5 stars.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, August 5, 2003

By 

Adam Trachtenberg (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maxon Cinema 4D 7 (Paperback)

I noticed that some reviewers downgraded this book because it doesn't offer elementary information that is available (in mass quantities) in the Cinema manuals. This is patently unfair, as the book does not aim to replace the manuals or to provide a basic introduction to Cinema 4D. Rather, it is a guide for intermediate to advanced users that provides clear instruction on some the darker corners of Cinema 4D XL7--information that one would be hard-pressed to glean from the manuals, or even from months of experimentation.

It is precisely this that makes the book so valuable! Mr. Koenigsmark explains in exacting detail the nuances of Cinema's material system--including the lightly-documented but powerful SLA shaders. He provides one of the best explanations of radiosity that you will find anywhere. He explains COFFEE scripting. He provides detailed modeling tutorials that address the peculiar strengths and weaknesses of the program. In short, assuming you have a basic understanding of the program to begin with, this book will take your 3D skills to a new level. Very highly recommended.