Cinema 4D: The Artist's Project Sourcebook [With DVD ROM]

Cinema 4d is great for any design-oriented individual who is more comfortable with bezier curves than Hypershades and Non Uniform Rational B-Splines. Other 3d programs do more, but Cinema 4d is written with the graphics designer in mind. So it should come of little wonder that eventually a very good designer would share their experiences with this program. Along comes Anne Powers. Exceptionally well written. Most books leave you scratching your head after successfully animating a bouncing ball and making a pathetic rocket ship... This is a cookback of different recipes, each giving you a starting point for your own exploration.

Amongst a wide range of Cinema 4D books I chose this one because it covered a wide range of modelling projects and was presented in a unique and interesting way. I thought that if I could do these projects I would would be well equipped to do just about anything. Well I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't long before I was powering through the tutorials and achieving the same outcomes as presented in the book. The dialogue is friendly and the lessons are delivered in an easy-to-follow conversational manner. It is a quantum leap away from so may other 3d text books which can be very 'dry' and make you lose interest within a very short time. I keep this book in my bag all the time and often find myself reaching for it when I reach a roadblock in my modelling. The book was originally written for C4D V8.5 and while there are a few differences between this and V9, they are fairly minor and you can soon get around them. Even better, I received a free pdf update to V9 via email. Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of buying this book has been the support offered by the author Anne Powers. She has assisted me with a project and I have learned even more through the process. I highly recommend this book not only for the content and presentation but also for the support from the author.

I like Anne Powers style. The first chapter is about building a dozen primative designs. But in the first paragraph of the first chapter she says go look at the finished designs on the DVD. I've never seen a better approach to tell you just what you are trying to do before you get started on the actual doing. It seems like so many computer forget to tell you just what you're trying to do. After you know what you're trying to do, then step by step, each illustrated. you build the model. Chapter 2 gets a bit technical, you may be tempted to skip it --so she starts it by saying that if you are planning to become proficient don't even think about skipping it. And so it continues, you're building a car, adjusting surfaces, designing birthday cakes - with legs that dance. Besides C4D, there is also a chapter on BodyPaint 3D, the companion software from Maxon. There is also a chapter on using C4D in conjunction with other packages such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Zbrush and more. This is a sourcebook, a tutorial on how to use the software. It just happens to be one of the better writting of these I've ever seen.

Cinema 4D is a great 3d modelling and animation tool that is (for this type of software) not too expensive, and very powerful. However, for newbies like me the number of options is very, very intimidating. I recently purchased a copy of Cinema4D, and while I enjoyed working through all the tutorials in the manual, I found they too quickly got into some of the finer points of the product, and I felt rushed. Anne Powers' marvelous new book gets it just right. You very quickly are doing modest little scenes that *look great*. She also has you leap right into animation in the first chapter, so while it's far from slowgoing, she still keeps the steps reasonable, and it felt like I was actually absorbing some of the lesson rather than just following it along. I also appreciate that she often doesn't have you import something 95% done, and you just click a few times to add one feature. Many examples have you building from scratch, which is especially helpful for those of us learning from the ground up. There's not alot of verbosity following each step explaining *why* you're doing it, and some may find that a flaw. But, I've found that as long as I take a little time to see what I'm doing, and what the results are, that this is not a problem, since Anne does keep each project very manageable. Finally, the DVD that comes with the book is *truly* useful. There's far more than source files for the examples. There are links to further study on each chapter's topics, extra artists work, detailed discussions on the most recent version (v8.5 as I write this), and more. Perhaps an industry veteran would find this all a bit simplistic, but I appreciated the pace and level of detail. She also leaves you with lots of great ideas and templates to use as a basis for your own work.

I have been working with Cinema 4d for about 9 months and have had to feel my way around the program due to the lack of books in English. I have to say, this book has taught me so much. The projects are easy to follow and well written and there are clear pictures to help you. She covers so much information, from modeling to rendering, that will help any 3D artist with whatever they are trying to achieve. This book is a must-have for any 3D enthusiast. Kudos to Mrs. Powers for writing this terrific book!