Cinema 4D

If you are looking for ease of use, Cinema 4D is famously intuitive to pick up. Powered by OpenGL, real-time viewport of this 3D animation software baffles with a depth of field and screen space reflections making it easier to control these effects efficiently. Because this view looks so good, Cinema 4D lets you export preview renders so you can submit them to clients for approval. The Bodypaint tool is now also supported by the real-time viewport, meaning that you get to see the results of your changes to the textures as you make them. To increase the overall rendering speed, Cinema 4D features a LOD tool that simplifies objects based on their distance to the camera and other factors.

There are multiple ways to tackle animation in this 3D animation software. It comes with a vast array of intuitive tools for character animation. For instance, record your mouse movement as position data. You can choose between forward and inverse kinematics. You can also set up cyclical movements, such as walking, with a parametric tool. Last but not least, add a muscle system to create naturally flowing movements.

The newest releases of this 3D animation software improve the weight painting workflow significantly by adding it possible to mirror the work from one side of a character to the other. In addition, it has become easier to integrate live footage seamlessly with 3D animated objects. A feature called Scene Reconstruction creates colored point clouds and geometry based on tracked features enabling you to marry both components precisely.