GazzaMataz

And another thing I find that is starting to nag! When I render a scene (which usually contains Xref characters) it will start rendering relatively fast. If I run out of time and have to stop the render and come back to it, say from half way through, it can take up to 10 minutes preparing before it starts to render. I thought this had something to do with hair but my scene doesn't contain hair. When I just render a single frame it takes no time at all or when I switch SDS off it renders with hardly any processing - anyone else experienced this? This is all rendering using Redshift BTW and I am not on the very latest version.

I actually find when I have C4D and AE running concurrently sometimes when I flick between apps AE will just sit there with a spinning ball for a minute before it responds. Also closing down both apps can take ages and even when C4D has apparently quit Task manager says it is still running… So I think it is both memory management and GPU drivers?

Think this is an Xref thing on experimentation. Soon as I add Xrefs which use rigged characters using the character Object they take much longer to load and save…

Thanks Cerbera! Don't think I will bother upgrading the RAM in my workstation just yet then 🙂

Would help adding more memory? I often wonder if 32gb is enough. I monitor it in Task Manager and it always says there is some spare but it's all those invisible swap files that get created. I normally only have AE and C4D running concurrently.

I work in C4D practically everyday along with some After Effects. I find that as the day draws on C4D seems to get more sluggish and that a restart of the app brings it back to speed. Could this be a memory/cache thing or does C4D need a restart every now and then anyway. Incidentally I am using C4D R24 and with 32gb RAM on my Threadripper system.

So overall it appears from most people here that R25 is another underwhelming update to C4D… What I would like to know is who comes up with the new improvements? Is it Maxon HQ? Do they listen to the users? Is it based on what other software developers are doing? If it is based on listening to the users there must be a lot of users out there that wanted a new UI which I find very hard to believe… I found that R23 was the most buggy version of C4D I had ever used S24 was MUCH better, in fact R23 nearly put me off using C4D but I don't really want to learn another 3D app. Now I need to learn the new UI and am nervous 🙂

@3D Pangel Good luck on getting a newer GPU they seem to be pretty scarce and expensive when you do find them…

Actually apart from the improvement in Xrefs and Parent Constraints I forgot to mention I would like to see improvements in the viewport! When doing character work I find that when I have more than two characters in a scene C4D really starts to chug…

Well I would kind of argue this one. When I used to do graphic design work we did a lot of InDesign work and Powerpoint stuff. But the clients where taking this work away from us so that they could do it in house and save money. Nine times out of ten though the jobs used to come back to us to fix since the people they used to create the work did have the creativity or software knowledge to make these projects look good. I think that ability you are born with. Same principle applies to artistic things including 3D. You can have so much automated stuff but it all looks a bit similar bit like a lot of websites which all seem to be off the shelf these days. Innovation comes out but gets consumed by automation and becomes bland. Going a bit off topic here but it does apply 🙂

Actually when comparing various 3D packages one thing I love the most about C4D is that you can cut and paste almost any object and paste it into a new scene without it renaming everything or adding 'pasted item' as a suffix (Maya) and being able to have more than one file open at a time. I find that invaluable. You might be able to do this in Blender but I have never used it but I have used all the other big ones including Maya, Max, XSI and Lightwave…

Sorry I should have said Blender is free and very good software 🙂 I actually think it kind of parodies the in-house software that Pixar and Dreamworks (?) use Caricature and Marionette - although that was probably more just for character work…

I think many studios are looking at Blender since it is free and when you have quite a few staff and other overheads, loads of subscriptions can add up and in this day and age clients are getting thriftier and thriftier…

And then there is cloth… I use Marvelous Designer 🙂

I think most 3D artists just don't like spending any money 🙂 But on that list of prices I think you have to perhaps factor in Redshift and X-Particles which does put the annual price up a bit…

Thanks for that Everfresh I will download and give that a look 🙂 My method was key the object in place, then constrain it to the hand and move the hand. Place the object in hand in a different location and key it's position then set the constraint to 0%. Usually I used to get jumps. Anyway enough of that since I am now hogging this thread 😛

This was shown to me five years ago so my memory was vague when writing this post and I thought it was a new tool 🙂 I don't think I ever tried Orestis workflow it was a bit fiddly…

Here is the parent thing I was talking about, it appeared in R18:

Well they did bring out that parent constraint tool which I have never used cos I cannot find it, but I still find the parent constraint problematic. Try getting a character to pick an item up and then put it down somewhere else... It will jump all over the place. I tend to go back to the old fashioned method of just parenting two separate items and just turning the visibility on and off.

I would like them to overhaul the Xrefs and Parent Constraints since they never work properly. Been waiting for them to fix this for years and I know I am not the only one wanting this 🙂

Well looking at your specs if you want to use something like Redshift or Octane (you'll probably be better off with Red since it can be subscribed to with C4D) you will need either one very expensive GPU like the RTX 3000 series (if you can get one) or two cheaper RTX 2000 series ones, but on your budget that like like a no. You can always buy a couple of used GPUs like I did on eBay, or maybe you could always get a new system and pay for it in installments? Failing that just use what you have to learn what you can and when in a better position get a better system, it will be a fun journey for you 🙂

Tell us the specs for you current workstation and I am sure we will help you upgrade your current system to make it more productive. I always find reading CG Director helps a lot for this sort of stuff: https://www.cgdirector.com/ BTW making a feature length film will take you a long time on your own. I made a four minute short about then years ago and it took me months...

I used PageMaker first - didn't like that much then switched to Quark which was way better. The InDesign came along and I switched to that although I very much preferred the keyboard shortcuts in Quark. Then I dropped working in print since I went multimedia and then 3D and I have tried all the main 3D apps and still prefer C4D. Saying that I haven't tried Blender yet and after all the crashing I encountered in R23 I am tempted but I will give S24 a try first! Don't think I will ever use an iMac or a MacPro as my main workstation anymore though until GPU rendering doesn't require bloody great GPUs 🙂

I don't think humans will really take any notice of what they are doing until they are so upto their eyeballs in shit that they cannot find anywhere else to go since there too much shit everywhere 🙂 There's making a living and making a fortune and would you really want to be worth billions? Mind you if I had billions I would start cleaning up the oceans 🙂 Anyway this might be going a little off track…

Actually I have just thought (it happens)… When Tim Cook was spouting off about how Apple would be so carbon free I am not sure how he can justify that. If you think picking up a book or a magazine uses no electricity or drawing on a piece of paper who can you then justify using an iPhone or Tablet to do the same thing which uses energy? If we all uses so many electronic devices then think of how much more energy we are using than say back in the 1980s or 1990s?