BoganTW

In Melbourne the animation / film students I see at various lectures and catch ups are all Maya people. Not much else is considered. And with the Mograph students and young professionals doing it, it's all largely C4D, but they are also keeping an eye on (if not using) Blender and Houdini. But the Meet Ups and the local Node(?) festival is pretty much a C4D thing entirely. They've also had guys like EJ from Eyedesyn and Tim Clapham (who is local) turn up to give presentations with the software.

I just understood - and correct me if I'm wrong - that anyone with a brain realised years ago feature development for Maxon became lopsided because they decided to do the big core rewrite - which is still only now building up and entering final stages - and they decided to shift the redo off a heap of features to after this had been done. And lo and behold, finally as the core is starting to take place, there's a reportedly big release imminent that at lasts shows attention paid to various outdated areas. Given that the timeframe to do all that is evidently a long one - glacial, probably, but now hopefully entering latter stages - I don't know why people are still stamping their feet. There's always this assumption that stuff they haven't touched in years will never be touched again, and simultaneously an awareness they've been working on the core, but knowledge of the latter never affects the thinking of people about the former. The new core will be different, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that once it's in place, other things might be different as well.

No, that's not my only statement. They can obviously post here, and obviously still will years from now. Let's check what Cutman is saying about C4D over at CGTalk in 2025, or what IceCaveMan will have to say a few releases from now when Maxon slip back to a couple of lacklustre releases. There will be a 'dern, der DERN dern' noise on the soundtrack and a big fat thread will ensue for the 50th time bashing Maxon. If you don't like reading VERY occasional posts like the one I made, maybe take your own advice? There are plenty of regular whiners, and maybe less frequent posters with positive comments about C4D. I'm not particularly triggered by this, but I notice the occasional dissenting opinion drops jaws and starts the 'how dare you sir' stance. Again, shrug. I'm simply suggesting if people are reeeeeally unhappy with Maxon, and sooooo unhappy with the super slow updates, maybe they could do themselves and us a favour rather than whining about it in every single what's up with C4D thread that has ever appeared in this forum. A novel idea, I know.

In 2032 there will still be C4D users jumping into every second thread determined to let the world know which features haven’t been updated, how they hate what Maxon has become, and how Blender gives them choices. Shrug. Maybe use some different software instead? You’ve had ten years to observe this state of affairs. If a better software option is out there for you, what are you waiting for?

VF upgrades wouldn't hurt. Even some presets if they could make things more realistic for different materials.

NAB is next month. I'm guessing it will be there and the Motion Show will come right after.

Well the Discovery in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was kind of phallic shaped (quite long, single ball-shape at front, double boosters at back), then it went through a big vertical tunnel and finally climaxed the film with the birth of a baby. So a new vulva shaped ship will really keep things moving up among the stars.

I think more than 7 million people so far have seen Maxon's appearance in the Apple Event this week, so while they're not doing things the Blender way, they're maybe doing okay here and there.

The Maxon Training Team channel has just started a six week (12hrs?) series on rigging which appears to cover a lot of character stuff. But I agree, character animation is maybe the least covered C4D topic in the various tutorials out there, so I would not be surprised to hear that Blender (among other apps) has it better.

These sort of conversations are always intriguing. And after any decent release of C4D (it's been a while, but R20 was one, S26 is apparently another), I go to the Luxology forum to see what Modo users think. There's usually a few people there going, jeez I wish Modo had that feature, that's amazing, and another guy going, yes I tried C4D recently and [UI and various features} are amazing! Nigel / 3D Kiwi is maybe there but often sometimes not as I guess he's riding his bike or doing some cool Lego project. There is too much C4D training appearing as of late to keep up with, all free on YouTube, and more again on Cineversity. The Maxon Training Channel has heaps as of late, when Chris fires RocketLasso up again you get regular solid content, and the PolygonPen channel has very good, lengthy modeling tutorials. I know Blender has heaps of tutorials (including geniuses like Ian Hubert) but C4D is no slouch in that department. I have refrained from listing maybe a dozen other sporadic but solid C4D tutorial channels but they're all findable with a search. Edited to add, yeah the OP is leaving in a bit of a huff but there are plenty of other people hanging around here who enjoy chatting so I'm not really directing my comments at the guy who is going to Blender.

The Maxon Training Channel is running red hot at the moment, they have too many new weekly tutorials to keep up with, and each usually runs a couple of hours. S26 next month is apparently (according to our poster in the know) a big one. Well overdue, yes, but apparently some good stuff is imminent. You should enjoy Blender. It's a nice community, apart from the (I'll imagine) minority of users who seem to spend more time patrolling and trolling other forums about other software than they do enjoying their own. April will be a big month for C4D, they have S26, RocketLasso back in full swing, the 3D and Motion Show doing a ton of new shows, probable new training here for S26 stuff and likely a ton of Youtube content from folks checking out and discussing whatever is about to drop next month. Plenty to keep us busy for a while. I have my new iMac and I'm subbing (C4D, not Maxon One) next week.

Without pulling this thread into some of the contentious areas raised by Nio's (very smart) post above, I have one general suggestion. Maxon should encourage a campaign of artworks supporting and encouraging anti-war themes. So no one will have to raise things like, does the lack of Maxon sanctions against ten or twenty other worthy candidates mean the company support's X in their continual war against Y? (and I had a couple of paragraphs of obvious examples that I decided was better off not to be specific about). There are plenty of locales besides the Ukraine who have stories to tell about how various countries - or often just the one - have carried out bombing campaigns or coups against them. I'm sure art from some of their citizens would be meaningful and moving. One thing that governments sometimes do after sanctions don't work, is that they bomb or start a war against the country they're pissed off with. If Maxon is going to come out in support of sanctions, fine, but if things escalate and a few more countries start sending soldiers in to get killed, I hope Maxon never puts up a page saying, we support the troops, thank you for your service etc etc. That would probably be a bit much I think.

Since we’re all talking politics (something I thought was precluded on this forum) I’ll just note that it’s a good thing the invasion and bombing of Iraq didn’t sideline US customers back in the day, that would have been particularly disruptive.

Yep, that's him.

Understood and no problem. I'll see if I can get to it when it happens.

Matthew (Mash) above has done top notch 'here's the new features' videos for a few different C4D releases on day one, certainly for GSG recently and also on his own cool Youtube channel. So he presumably knows which way the wind blows. Before he left C4D land ICM was a veteran traveller of all things C4D so if he's popping his head back into the door to check how things are going, it's fair enough, and this is a thoughtful and useful thread TBH. This post needs even more acronyms.

Nice to hear. Will be pleasant to see a different tone to the discussion. That bloke at CGTalk will still be upset though. The way he carries on you'd think Maxon staff had cast him and his girlfriend as the couple who met the droogs in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, then personally strapped on rubber noses to help reenact the moment.

The summit sounds a great idea, not sure if it will happen on or outside my Aussie work hours though (weekends are great). Fun timing as I finally get my new iMac first week of March and a new C4D sub two weeks later. TBH I'm more excited by the new opportunities to learn the app in depth via the increased training and support than I am by currently getting a certification, but it's definitely of interest.

How much is the trainer worth? Enough to invest that much money in themselves getting certified? And can they claim the expense back on tax afterwards? (That's a yes in Australia). If they made the training all up a hundred bucks I'm not sure if I'd trust the general quality of the trainers TBH.

At least with the Maxon training you’ll actually learn stuff.

On the Maxon certification page, there’s a document that lists all the topics you’ll be tested on. It’s very comprehensive and covers all of C4D. https://www.maxon.net/en/certification/c4d-topics-list The list includes tons of links to pages that explain individual subjects in depth, so you could quite easily work through the topics. read, follow, digest and practice and repeat, and teach yourself many of the fundamentals that Maxon and various employers presumably think are useful. This can be done for free without paying a cent to Maxon, presumably because the goal is for people to learn this stuff. If people think costs are high or the test is too stressful they can still learn and benefit from learning without blowing any cash or taking the test. There are some trainers on Skillshare and elsewhere who note in their videos that they are Maxon certified trainers, and surprise, they know their stuff and their training is good value. For those unconvinced, there aren’t too many cops running around banging on doors asking folks if they’ve been certified by Maxon, so if folks who find the whole concept stressful skip it, I’m not sure if their lives will take a turn for the worse. Overall though I think the certification process is a useful thing and I don’t have many doubts that anyone who passes it will comfortably know their way around the software.

There are some people out there who are certified. I guess they found the process okay. At the Maxon Training channel they've just started a regular series that they say will tackle all the tricky bits and pieces you'd need to know to pass the certification test. They've recently done refractive materials and rigging. I guess they have enough subjects to spend the next couple of years covering the other stuff. I think the costs are fine if you know everything and don't expect to take the test five times to pass it. If you do it could get more expensive. Overall though I think the test is meant to be a test of whether you actually know the stuff they're testing you on, and if you think the test is too difficult or unfair then you should probably save your money and not take the test until you feel more confident.

Quite a thoughtful thread. Thanks for keeping things on topic Igor.

Jesus Christ, ICM... I've never used ZBrush, never had an interest in using it, never sculpted anything, never had an interest in sculpting anything, and never had a need to. Was this ambiguous from my earlier questions? I also never used InDesign, Illustrator, and probably three or four other programs in the Adobe sub I had, but Premiere and (to a lesser extent) AE received some use. I'll be skipping both for Resolve as it can cut, colour and comp all I need for my needs. Having heard that Maxon are picking ZBrush up, I'm assuming they'll be letting paying customers of Maxon One have access to it at some point. I'm getting that sub with my next iMac, so will have a look when it comes out. But I'm not in a burning hurry to have a look at it, hence me stating earlier in this thread exactly that. But if it's there as part of the sub I'll likely have a look. I have heard the UI is annoying though, and watched a training video on the app a handful of years ago where the instructor spent the first five minutes warning people that the UI was annoying. Go figure. If you're going to 'indulge' my questions, great, but maybe change your tone while you're at it. If not, don't bother. Even better - a possible future path to avoid pointless clashes in this thread, and on this forum - I'll avoid commenting on your C4D posts in future on these threads if you avoid commenting on mine. Conversations on these topics are generally fine but I strongly suspect if we were face to face in a pub or bar we'd find common ground on something within about 60 seconds and would go from there. But being grilled in bold type over something I've never claimed to use seems typical of the hostility that probably lies in the future in these conversations if we keep going back and forth. I'm beginning to question the worth of threads here on Maxon topics where 80% of the posts seem to come from ex-C4D users who have no interest in the app currently, and where people who express an interest are viewed with repeated hostility and suspicion.

I'll have a read, thanks - but 'why the heck Pixologic didn't start charging instead of doing this'? I'm assuming it's because they wanted to go to Maxon, instead of charging money and doing it themselves. Ask IceCaveMan how many companies are charging subs these days, I'm guessing he could write us both a long list. Pixologic could have done the same, yet they decided to go with Maxon. Stop the presses. Re 'we in this community dislike what Maxon became' - they're a software company that people pay money to, and some people are unhappy that it's now by subscription instead of the earlier pay-it-and-get-it software model. Am I missing something? I'm assuming charging for software can't be that bad, as you just said it would have been a good idea if Pixologic had done it. One other obvious choice is that they could have easily given all their code to the Blender guys for free, so everyone in the world could download ZBrush perennially in the future and never have to pay for it again. Yet for some reason they chose an option that suggests money will exchange hands and they might make a decent wage and profit, go figure. My comment here (and you should have seen the longer version I just edited then deleted when your comment popped up, as I value your input and didn't want to sour the thread) is coloured by the fact that I've never worked for Maxon, and am not particularly bothered by anything they've done, which makes me an ideal customer of their software going into 2022. Back to IceCaveMan - who I readily concede knows his stuff. What's your alternative to Photoshop? Did you find a good one, or did that app (or others) keep you paying money to Adobe? I'm ditching Premiere permanently for Resolve.