MAXON Computer GmbH was founded in 1986 by the
current CEOs Harald Egel, Harald Schneider and Uwe Bärtels. The company's
headquarters is located in Friedrichsdorf, Germany, just north of Frankfurt
Main.
In 1998 MAXON opened its U.S. subsidiary, MAXON
Inc., in California and added its U.K. subsidiary, MAXON Ltd., in 2001. MAXON
products are sold by over 40 distributors in over 70 countries worldwide.
In early 2000 the Munich, Germany-based
Nemetschek AG (www.nemetschek.de) acquired a 70% share of MAXON. 30% remain in
the ownership of the company founders.
MAXON Computer has established itself as one of
the leading software developers for 3D graphics. MAXON began as a publisher of
computer trade magazines and hardware and software developer. Over the years,
MAXON's focus moved exclusively to the development of 3D software packages for
graphics.
MAXON's product line is centered around its core
applications CINEMA 4D, a leading animation package for media production, and
BodyPaint 3D, its pioneering 3D painting package. These applications are
characterized by their speed, dependability and state-of-the-art technology.
MAXON Computer works closely with numerous
hardware manufacturers, often being the first to adapt its software to the
newest technologies. MAXON's client list includes BMW AG, Henkel KgaA, mobilcom
AG, Siemens VDO, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Vitra and many more. |
MAXON CINEMA 4D R14 Now Available
Eagerly Awaited Features Like Sculpting, New Camera
Functionality and Rendering Enhancements.
MAXON
has announced availability of CINEMA 4D R14, the next generation of its
industry-leading 3D motion graphics, visual effects, painting, and rendering
software application. CINEMA 4D R14 delivers eagerly awaited features including
a new, fully integrated sculpting system, new camera matching functionality, the
debut of exchange plugins to two key applications (The Foundry‘s NUKE and Adobe
Photoshop Extended), improved integration with Adobe After Effects and a huge
number of other powerful workflow feature enhancements, listed below.
MAXON’s leading 3D painting application, BodyPaint 3D, has also received a major
upgrade to R14, which includes many features of its sister product CINEMA 4D
R14. The major addition to BodyPaint 3D R14 is the all-new sculpting toolset,
which allows users to add details and refinements to their models and bake
displacement and normal textures for use in their main 3D application.
Chris Broeska, Producer at Fuse, a leading 3D animation and virtual photography
studio in Minneapolis, states, "R14's new arsenal of animation tools make our
workflow faster and more fluid than ever. With the addition of the new sculpting
tools we can do everything we want all in one application. CINEMA 4D just keeps
getting more awesome!"
Availability and Upgrade Path
CINEMA 4D Release 14 and BodyPaint 3D Release 14 are available through MAXONs
authorized dealers. Customers with an active MAXON Service Agreement (MSA) valid
through September 4, 2012 will automatically receive their upgrade. Current
customers who do not have an active MSA can purchase an upgrade through MAXONs
authorized dealers.
CINEMA 4D Release 14 Highlights
MAXON offers four versions of CINEMA 4D, each catering to the needs of 3D
artists in different industries. Note: The features listed below may not be
included in every configuration.
Click here for further information. Key features and benefits include:
Digital Sculpting
Dynamic new sculpting tools give artists complete control to create finely
detailed models with tools like Pull, Wax, Smooth, Flatten, Inflate, Knife and
Pinch. There are powerful preset options for brushes, stamps, stencils, and
attributes for size, pressure, symmetry options and more. A powerful layer
system allows for maximum flexibility in the creation process while the Bake
option recalculates the millions of sculpted polygons into displacement and
normal maps that can be applied to low-poly count base meshes for further use in
renderings and animations.
Improved Modeling Toolset
New interactive work plane modes, dynamic guides and a completely redesigned
snapping system offer a powerful, unified 3D workflow to model dramatically
faster and accurately align elements. Controls to interactively position the
world grid to move, scale and rotate objects, as well as the ability to
intuitively snap objects and components to the grid plane, grid lines or grid
points are provided along with other key parameters.
Camera Enhancements
The new Camera Calibrator in R14 offers an integrated solution to match a 3D
camera image to a 3D environment – a perfect solution for architects and
designers to present their creations. Users can integrate 3D objects into the
photographed environment for visualizations or use CINEMA 4D’s camera mapping
workflow to create digital matte paintings and set extensions.
The new Motion Camera, Morph Camera and Camera Composition Helper tools in R14
help to quickly frame a 3D scene following artistic rules or easily create
realistic and dynamic camera animations while the new Camera Focus Picker gives
users control to interactively set focus distances.
Better and Faster Rendering
Multiple enhancements in R14 bring digital artists a more flexible toolset to
achieve greater rendering realism and compositing control that result in
outstanding image quality. New and improved shaders and materials are now
available for simulating wood grain, weathering effects and normal mapping.
Global Illumination has been enhanced with new technologies such as Radiosity
Maps and the unified sampler from the Physical Renderer, to let users achieve
higher-quality renders in less time and with greater accuracy. New render
effects also power up the post-processing workflow. Relight scenes, pull
position-based mattes and reconstruct objects with the new Position Pass or
perform quick and easy color correction with new interactive grading curves. New
algorithms in R14 provide up to twice the speed for caustics, while further
enhancements to subsurface scattering render materials such as milk, wax and
skin more efficiently.
Integration
Brand new to CINEMA 4D, the highly anticipated seamless integration with The
Foundry’s award-winning NUKE compositing application allows R14 users to
directly export a NUKE project file to reconstruct a multi-pass render and
provides full support for OpenEXR and FBX files. The new Photoshop Extended
exchange plug-in opens and manipulates CINEMA 4D scenes into a Photoshop 3D
layer, offering new opportunities to illustrators, photographers, digital matte
painters and motion graphics artists to share CINEMA 4D files with the broader
Photoshop design community. Enhanced integration with After Effects brings new
levels of performance to directly import and export native CINEMA 4D files.
Misc Productivity-Boosting Features
CINEMA 4D is renowned for outstanding ease of use. With numerous enhancements to
the R14 interface, artists can perform common tasks faster and more efficiently.
R14 now offers greater levels of realism and control with increased versatility
over dynamics with aerodynamic forces, plastic springs and breaking connectors.
Users can now create much more believable animations of flying or breaking
objects. The improved editor view now displays soft shadows and features new
object highlighting options. Individuals and teams can manage tasks using the To
Do list and the Commander, a filtered search box that appears directly under the
cursor, which gives quick and easy access to all commands and tags. An improved
XRef system offers options to offset the animation, scale or pivot of each
referenced scene, which is especially useful for team collaboration. Finally,
Arabic speakers can now use CINEMA 4D in their native language with new Arabic
interface translation and a mirrored layout designed for right-to-left readers.
This is just a brief overview of the 200+ improvements CINEMA 4D R14 has to
offer. Learn more about the new features and watch informational videos
here.
System Requirements
Minimum system requirements include Windows XP, Vista or 7 running on Intel or
AMD CPU with SSE2-Support; Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher running on an Intel-based
Mac and 1024 MB RAM, DVD ROM drive and an OpenGL graphics card. Standard DVD
installation can take up to 7 GB of disk space. |
CINEMA 4D Studio
Everything You Need for High-End 3D
CINEMA 4D Studio is
the very best that MAXON has to offer for
professional 3D artists. If you want to create
advanced 3D graphics but need a helping hand to
ensure you create jaw-dropping graphics quickly
and easily, then this is the choice for you.
CINEMA 4D Broadcast
The 3D Motion Graphics Powerhouse
CINEMA 4D Broadcast
has everything you need to create dynamic
broadcast graphics quickly and easily. If you
are a motion graphics artist looking to add 3D
to your existing suite of tools, then this is
the ideal choice for you.
CINEMA 4D Visualize
The Professional Solution for Architects & Designers
Whether you need to
visualize a mobile phone, a building, a car or
anything else, CINEMA 4D Visualize provides
everything you need to produce fantastic images
and animations quickly, easily and to any level
of realism.
CINEMA 4D Prime
Professional 3D Starts Here
Renowned for its
ease of use, speed and professional results,
CINEMA 4D Prime is an ideal choice for all
graphic designers looking to add 3D to their
toolset.
BodyPaint 3D
For all Your 3D Painting Needs
Wouldn't it be great
if you could have all your favorite image
editing tools in a single 3D environment?
Wouldn't it be great if they worked in
conjunction with your 3D application rather than
against it? Well, that is exactly what BodyPaint
3D does!
MAXON Service Agreement
No more surprises when planning next year's expenses
The MAXON Service
Agreement (MSA) is optionally available to MAXON
customers. Participating customers are kept
up-to-date with the newest releases of CINEMA 4D
and/or BodyPaint 3D.
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