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Introducing a new UI is always risky. An new UI encourages people on the fence about the program to finally commit to leave and learn something else. That will always be the situation no matter the platform or the history. Normally, you would introduce the new UI with some killer must-have features so it encourages users to make the transition. Now, C4D's history since R20 has not been stellar. The way perpetual license holders have been treated just gets worse with each passing year. The focus on scene nodes as a "tech demo" is not garnering enough interest from the users as far as I can tell or Maxon would be splattering scene nodes use cases all over their web-site. Maybe I missed it, but they are not readily apparent. R23 was pretty good with the new UV and animation tools. R24, or the "Beeple release" as I like to refer to it, was great for those who like to grab hunks of stuff from the asset browser and through it all over the scenes like garnish. In view of long standing feature improvements that continue to go unaddressed (particles, fluids, character animation, light linking, updates to AR, a good symmetry tool), not sure where asset browser fit in the priority but my guess is not very high. So the history of new features from a company that is NOT known for keeping up with the industry has not been stellar. What set C4D apart was the UI...and now they changed it. That was a very risky move as it was part of their identity. Again, given their history since R20, you don't want to make a misstep when you change the UI given a declining perception from users regarding whether or not C4D will be able to keep up with other programs. But to introduce the new UI with such lackluster features is just not a smart move. I don't understand the thinking. Were people desperate for a new UI? So the UI could have waited until they had enough new features to warrant sticking with the program through that transition. Honestly, I think Maxon would have been better off to NOT release anything right now. Not sure what is coming, but it has to better than what they included in this release. But hey....their revenue is locked in with subscriptions so maybe they hope they can get away with it. Well my message to Maxon is this: Hope is a bad strategy. Dave

Cinema 4D is now Blender.

I really hope the multi factor authentication isn't mentioned in the same breathe as a new feature 😅

What an odd update. I didn't really know what to expect. This, I did not expect. Not much to be said about it. I agree that Maxon seems to heading into a "Houdini for designers and Motion Designers" direction, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Being a user interface designer myself, I understand the effort and time that was spent on the new refreshed GUI. Still feels very thin, though, and the newer features seem to be stuck in perpetual beta limbo for now. Will good come from it? Only time will tell. On a positive note: the looks of Blender and C4D no long visually clash when running them side-by-side on my multi-screen setup 😉 "Curiouser and curiouser", Alice exclaimed.

So not only did they deliver features NOBODY asked for or were already available as free plugins, they also broke plugin support YET again to make it even MORE of a headache for the user, AND the developers? Wow! I just read up on the changelog (if you can call it that) and this is truly pathetic. I think this is the worst C4D release I've seen yet, by far.

Nah come on man, dont do that. Igor is a talented and awesome person. Lets not turn this into a flame war and weird and pointless observations such as this. Keep within the topic of C4D's new update.

Sooo....let me see if I got this right. What is new in R25 (top items): New interface (not sure if that is a plus as sometimes a new interfaces have a learning curve_) Spline import Capsules. ???? Am I missing something? This is where my prediction that subscriptions invite lack of updates due to a captured financial base come true. Judging that their launch show today immediately glossed over C4D's new features with a pretty cool presentation on a Red Giant plugin (Bang) may reinforce my fear that this release is in fact very lean. Today is a good day for....Blender. Dave

Capsules are actually pretty amazing. It allows anyone to essentially create a "plugin". Without doing any coding at all. So now any casual developer needs to think if it makes sense to write actual code to create a deformer or modifier, or just do it with nodes and never have any c4d upgrade compatibility problems ever again. I expect to see lots of neat new features coming from the community in future. Even possibly from myself. https://www.maxon.net/en/cinema-4d/features/capsules

I seriously wasn't sure if this was just an elaborate april fools joke... but then I looked at the calendar and remembered that it's Autodesk. Best part is, it seems like you can only buy a minium of 500, which is 1500$!

Did you guys see this? Autodesk Tokens. 🤣 At least Maxon hasn't gone this off the rails, close as it is!

Yes, I've always liked this site but used to consider it a sort of CGTalk light but then got burned out on forums in general (because of CGTalk) for awhile, but I am really enjoying the new more comprehensive coverage of other DCCs and their relation to each other as well as to Cinema, and the overall organization and responsiveness of this site. Well done! And I have a Rookie badge now. 😄

Yes, I really could not believe this. We are all media professionals. Appearances matter!! We work in an industries where appearances mean quite a lot. With the pandemic well into its second year, everyone has had ample time to acquire a decent webcam and make their backdrop somewhat presentable, even if not a perfect 10 on Room Rater. Instead it all reminded me of zooming with the grandparents who aren't quite sure how everything works or where to look, or if the thing is even on. The whole thing was just shambolic. And personally, I don't get any joy or excitement of anticipation from 15 minutes of commercials. Do they think because many of us make commercials that we also like watching them? No one in their right mind likes commercials. Just get to it already and spend the extra time showing what's new or something.

Keep your plugin up. Just state what versions of C4D it is compatible with. It will still be useful to perpetual users who won’t go to R25.

I'm sure you're right. They've been moving in this direction for quite a while. The problem: If you need scene nodes, and are happy working with them, then you'll be happy with Houdini. So why wait for 'Houdini Light' (C4D), when you can get 'Houdini Max'? If you're a solo freelancer it's cheaper (Indie), and if you're a bigger studio $5K is perfectly affordable. If they continue on the current trajectory C4D is going to get crushed between Blender on one side and Houdini on the other.

worst release ever. There is not even one new function that is needed in the work. I was hoping for this release, but now I definitely decided not to renew my subscription and go to blender + houdini.

I'll just leave this here...

R.I.P. dear Cinema4D Thanks to project management

The Maxon R25 web-page is now up. So on this page you can filter what is new by the following categories: Create, Animate, Render and Workflow. Create -- Empty. Nothing to see here. Please move on. Animate -- Another complete goose egg of nothing. Render -- Okay....I think there is a pattern here of nothing and now we have three strikes. Workflow -- Hooray! Something! Five things of something: UI, Capsules, Spline Import, Asset Browser, and Scene Manager. Now the asset browser add on seems like something that missed the R24 bus -- but when you are starving, you'll eat anything. Now the time between R24 and R25 was a bit shorter, but look at what Blender can get done in that same amount of time. So where did all the energy go? Dave

My thoughts exactly. C4D is now Blender, minus the actual improvements and updates the software goes through.

Er... OK. Great. I think that's saved me another upgrade fee.

I am also excited. I subscribed for one year. During this time I will observe how C4D compares to the competition. I am optimistic. As long as Maxon avoids something like the reflectance channel (GUI catastrophe) during the transition to the node system everything will be fine. They should follow the same approach like they did with the uber material and the node system. I am exited for a fast and and powerful new C4D but the transition period should be over with R25.

soOoo... today's the day, hm? I can't help it, despite all and everything, I'm still excited for C4D-news 🙂 I hope, Redshift RT is going to be announced; and some real-life goodness coming from the new scene-node-architecture. Performaaance! Rawrrr! 😄

I have to say the whole node graph / capsules system looks incredible - i really need to update myself on that stuff as i haven't used or looked at any of it. One of the things i always loved so much about C4D was it's ability to do things in any number of ways, fast iterations and flexibility.. It's almost hinting at a Houdini level of complexity/capability so it is nice to see this stuff being developed further..

Also, it is so amazing to watch Blender's announcements. There is literally a conversation between the devs and the userbase, a horizontal comunication "Yes, this feature people have been asking, but we had to postpone to improve this other one.." and their enthusiasm... it is night and day compared to the darkness of a communication and constantly ignoring its userbase that Maxon does so well.

Exactly hence jumping to Blender, who are at the cutting edge of 3d software development. Max, similar to the main Adobe apps, is an old legacy codebase with any new `features` bought in and bootstrapped on top of the old.. Innovate or die as they say.

A bold statement for a cow. 😉

Software is not dance classes (which are frequently sold in packages of n). You can't practice on your own without software in the same way you can practice dance moves on your own without a dance instructor present. The really insidious thing about all this though is that it tracks employees time place and performance and participation data to a very invasive degree. It's really obtrusive.

Maybe it's because its an 'R' release and if there are few perpetual licenses purchased, it gives a good reason 'on paper' not to have another R release.

Give it time. Anything that is sketchy, anti-consumer, gives money with little effort, Maxon loves it. PS: the tokens are absurd... Cant believe they expire after a year!

im pleased overall with the UI and preset changes. the biggest little thing that annoys me the total lack of any redshift assets.. its been a while now and the lack of materials or objects with redshift materials is surprising.

Anyway - on a positive note: It looks like Igor made the right decision with 'Core4D' : )

Yes, Capsules allow nodes to work with the old object manager, but with none of the speed and improved handling ability as of yet. But nodes and capsules do give the user a great deal of flexibility and power to create that exists nowhere else in Cinema, so in that respect I think it is very valuable to have during the interim, and will allow users to learn and incorporate nodes into the their workflow even if they don't yet deliver on their full promise.

When Scene nodes were introduced last year the big feature was speed and ability to handle large numbers of objects. Remember that demo video with millions of swarming objects? Remember also that 'Scene nodes are incompatible with the object manager' etc? It seems to me that 'Capsules' are just a temporary mash up to stick the two things together. What's the likely result? The speed and capacity of the old Object Manager - not Neutron. Overall value: zero.

I don't think people are necessarily complaining about the interface. They are complaining about something that nobody asked for and getting almost nothing else. Makes you think at this point, doesn't it? This borders on intent at this point.

Wow. Sorry, I'm more impressed with the wires than the interface. Haha. Beautiful! Of course, you knew that already. There are some very good changes with the interface that will make things more comfortable after getting used to it.

I have to admit the new UI took me a lot longer than I thought it would to fully get used to, and I am still not as fast in it as I am in the previous versions, but it has, at last, begun to feel a little bit more like home. I know it's a big shock to begin with, but the nice things in it do shine through in the end - the VP for modelling now, for example, is an absolute joy, and has never looked clearer, cleaner, or more attractive IMO. "A typical model, yesterday". And although I never thought in a million years I would say it, as I flick between 24 and 25 now, 24 does feel a little bit 'toy-town' or 'yesteryear' in comparison. CBR

I like the new icons. I think they are both easy to read and stylish. I also appreciate the ability to make interactive menus. I always use my own custom layout so the layout change is only inconvenient to me when doing tutorials and I have to use to the default one. That said, the new layout does have some good changes such as putting the items you need closer to where you usually need them. This mirrors some of my own layout preferences, so I think this layout is something people will quickly get used to and like. Capsules are a nice addition as it allows some of the power of nodes within the current architecture, and will give users a taste of the strengths (but notably not the speed) of nodes and how to use them without waiting for the 3-4 years the full transition is still likely to require. The track tools also look very nice. All in all not as bad as the initial reactions here would indicate, but also nothing to get super excited about either, except for the fact that progress is being made even if very incrementally.

The most entertaining part of the presentation was Paul Babb doing the low-rent version of the Jensen 'kitchen' scene. I felt sorry for the guy - knowing what was coming. Looked like he couldn't get off stage quick enough.

And here I thought CV-Art Smart and Springy keys were invented like a decade ago, guess they are new features though, go figure! At least they have a beta of Eevee you can choose to pay even more for, once its ready for Prime Time. Too bad the viewport will still be too slow to animate in.

its end of c4d for me. there is still no updates for lot of things. and maxon shows to us just blenderized interface and features and copiend icons from blender... well gratefull interface for switching to blender. now c4d customers can easly adapt to blenders ui. thank you maxon. and good bye.

I don't understand this either. What is Maxon basing these changes on? Did they get tons of complaints about the interface and workflow from their largest clients? It had to come from somewhere. Its pretty but I have to look for everything. Haha

As EJ says: "I think this is going to be one of the most talked about releases in a very long time..." LOL!

Yes. You missed the "preset system" ! It's also one of the "rich feature" from R25 !!! And the cylinder icon was also updated. It's now slightly bigger than before, 1 pixel if I'm correct. Apparently it will be easier now to click on it, and be more creative.

I really cant believe this... What a disaster... more gimmicks, more and more gimmicks. I guess that meme "My expectations were really low but... " kinda fits in here. Maxon, what a joke..

Always late to the party 🥳 as judge dredd would say " I am the law! "

That is correct. My maintenance plan was extended prior to the 8/30/21 deadline until 6/2023. All releases of Redshift prior to that date will be permanent licenses and available for all apps -- not just C4D. So I am pretty confident that prior to 6/2023, Redshift RT for Blender should be available -- thereby knocking down (IHMO) a significant barrier to Blender and that being that the Cycles render engine is not known for its speed. Cycles is a good render engine, but Redshift is just so much better. Learn more about Redshift for Blender with this tutorial Dave