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I didn't know where put this post, because it is partially about performance in character animation and partially about Blender. I choose this thread, I hope it's OK 🙂 I did some stress tests in C4D and Blender last week. I think, I experienced everything what I heard before about both softwares. The goal was clear - take a rigged model and make some tests - make a few copies of this model with riggs, add some density enviro to scene, make operation on keys with all bones selected etc. Of course these weren't a huge tests, I didn't touch many areas of 3d soft. But I have some conclusions 🙂 First of all, both programs impressed me. And yes - Blender has a better performance. Generally I have this feeling that all actions made in Blender are "lighter": from selecting objects to working with riggs. And yes - C4D is super user-friendly. And I think this is the price, we have to pay. But I have to mention that I could work with more than one riggs in a scene in C4D. It wasn't smooth, but was possible 🙂 And I think that this wasn't super heavy rigg. What next. Cycles is very nice and Eevee for quick previz is just amazing. I wonder how works Redshift, Octane and now Renderman in Blender. My general impression about C4D - is super solid software, maybe hasn't cool new toys on board, but "basics" work great. One test was pretty interesting. I took a heavy FBX file from Motion Builder. MoBu also has TAKE system and C4D could read all this TAKES - this is great! Blender had some problems with import enviro in proper way and, what is the most important, with import animation. Why? Because animation was in second TAKE in MoBu, not first, and I think Blender imported only first TAKE. I couldn't find the way to choose from which TAKE Blender should import animation data. Maybe there is some way to fix that, if you know a solution, please let me know 🙂 I had a similar problem when I downloaded model with rigg (also FBX) from website and I tried to import it. In C4D I hadn't any problems - everything was super easy, I didn't have to change even singular option during importing process. On the other hand in Blender I didn't find solution for import file with good result. I tried different settings - check that, uncheck another, and any combination didn't work. The only and quick way to import this model to Blender was first import it to C4D and export new FBX from C4D. After this additional step I finally imported the model to Blender 🙂 And it wasn't 100% perfect, there were some problems with bones. But it worked. And for me these two tests are essence. I think that in C4D this basics operations will work great. OK, I will have some problems with performance but I "get to these problems" in easy way 🙂 In Blender first I have a problem but when I will solve this problem, there will be reward for me - better performance for example. I have to add that my PC is rather old one - I bought it 8 years ago. So I can imagine that my experience could be much better 🙂 And of course this was a super quick test, all of these are only my impressions. So, to be honest, I'm surprised and I think both programs are great. I consider using both of them. Thanks!

@FLima great test! I see that you are experimenting a lot with Blender. Any new impressions about it? You mentioned before that you hate Material editor. Any new pros or cons? And another question. If you, guys, consider to using Blender for character animation for example, would you move whole pipeline to Blender or just this animation part? Can we for example get the same quality with Cycles, like with other renderers? I mean, we know that character animation is probably better in Blender (has better performance), but what with other features? I always heard that export/import anim between soft is risky, so better stay in one.

@FLimaI found yesterday. This is Renderman, but it has some nice features, also light linking:

@FLima Hehe, what a coincidence! Yeah, this stop motion vibe never gets old 🙂 And this is always great news when I hear that people keep it alive, even if this is "CG stop motion". What is fascinating, and I agree with you, I have seen many beautiful works made in C4D, many amazing videos, but actually only a few short animations driven by character animation. If we get for example Blender we have - "I lost my body" - feature film!, one episode in second season of "Love, Death & Robots", "Next Gen" and of course shorts from Blender animation studio. And I wonder - is this difference between C4D and Blender that huge? Is this true, that you can't do stuff like that in C4D? Or maybe people who use C4D aren't interesting stuff like character animation? People who use C4D often have amazing design background, so they create beautiful images (perfect composition, colors etc.). And this is hard to belive that these people have to change soft, when they want to transfer their design skill (which they improve for many years in C4D) to "character animation short movie". I'm really sorry about you're stuck. I'm sure that you have watched this short: What do you think about this rigg? Maybe people from Nebula Studios had also problem like you and they found a solution? Maybe they will kindly share their wisdom 🙂 I crossed my fingers for finding solution for your problem!

Hello, everyone! I read the whole of this interesting discussion and wise words were spoken from both sides - customers and people from Maxon. First of all this is great that people from Maxon are here and are involved in discussion - thanks a lot! All these emotions clearly show us one thing - we all like/love C4D and want to use this program (even I, although I'm fresh user 🙂 I see one major problem - customers don't get what they want, or they don't know what they will get. So maybe the easiest solution is an official roadmap? Maxon publish simple roadmap - "Now we are working on..., In the next release you can expect... etc.". Customers could participate in making this roadmap. For example - I read a lot of complaints about performance when you work with heavy riggs and also people ask for refreshing modelling tools - put this on roadmap - and then everybody can see - "Ah, OK, they are working on that - great!" Just like that. What more - people can evaluate, where C4D is going. If you can't see in roadmap any new features or improvements in e.g. sculpting tools - OK, clear situation, now I know that I have to invest in e.g. ZBrush. And this is in my opinion much better because like @FLima said - we invest our time in tools we use. Good to know in which one we have to invest this time. OK, now my personal example. I'm preparing a script for short animation and looking for some technical solutions. I made some tests in other programs, now it's time for Cinema. Like I mentioned before, I'm fresh users, but I really love work in Cinema. But I heard that C4D has problem with performance. For me, this could be a huge problem. And @RBarrett few posts before explain that - they know about that and working on that - great news! But I read that by accident, "somewhere" on forum 🙂 Will be great if I could find this info on official website. And I think this "where C4D is going" thing is very important. Because this will give us answers - what in the future I could do in C4D. Can people like me count on C4D in near future, when they prepare projects driven by character animations? A lot of people ask about Redshift - will be native renderer or not? What about Body paint? Clear statements could begin some discussion with customers. Customers could say, that they don't need Body paint, there is one popular soft for that and there is no sense to fight with them. And this is also some feedback for Maxon - people don't want features for Body paint, because they have used another soft for 3-4 years, and we don't have to bother with Body paint. Great feedback - we can move some of our resources from Body paint to Modelling tools. Of course this is only an example 🙂 I start to repeat myself, so to summarize my post - DISCUSSION, we all have to find way for better communication (all - Maxon and community, because we are in one team). Thanks!

Hello! This is my first message here, so hello everyone! 🙂 I'm here, because I'm preparing my new short animation project. I made a short test in Blender and now I want to try C4D. First of all I heard that, Cinema is great for small/one-man team and like every soft C4D has also some disadvantages, but overall when you don't have a bunch of developers (and in general big team), C4D allow you to achieve your goal, maybe road will be a little bumpy 🙂 But I heard also that C4D isn't great in character animation. My project will be stylized as stop motion animation. This is great ref.: @FLima You wrote about issue I'm afraid the most - performance. Of course every case is different and everything depend on complexity. I don't expect riggs and animations like from e.g. DIGIC or ILM. So maybe for me, C4D will be just fine? What do you think about it, my great friends? Can you evaluate with your professional eyes complexity of riggs in "ROSEMARIE`S LIFE" (ref. above)? Can C4D make it? @FLima I imagine that your custom rigg was pretty complex, right? And sorry that, you have to switch to another soft with your project. Can you tell me which one you choose? It's nice to be a part of this great community! 🙂 PS Hot discussion in "CINEMA R25 RELEASE" room 🙂