The Cinema 4D 9 Handbook provides a complete introduction to the powerful and affordable C4D program, and teaches the fundamental principles of 3D. In this completely updated edition, users will find insightful tips and techniques for maximizing C4D and learning the vast array of new features in version 9, including interface enhancements like the new HUD and modeling shortcuts. Also covered are the new modeling procedures including N-Gons and auto-selection, tweak-selection, along with subpoly displacement, cloth, hard IK, and motion blending. Throughout the book, the in-depth tutorials have been updated and revised to utilize the new tools and facilitate the process as necessary. The projects have been broken into shorter, concise tutorials to allow users to complete them more easily, and many completely new tutorials are included. New coverage of the texturing system is now included and the lighting material is completely updated. In addition, some simple motion blending and cloth tutorials have been added to the animation coverage. For those just learning Cinema 4D and new to 3D graphics, this book provides the one resource they’ll need to get up and running!

If you are new to Cinema 4D ? this is the book to get you started. Despite its ease of use Maxon?s Cinema 4D R9 is an incredibly powerful and diverse package. The Cinema 4D 9/9.1 Handbook teaches how to harness this power and flexibility through a project-based approach that allows you to create impressive projects as you learn C4D?s array of tools and functions. The book is best for beginners. It explores the most powerful and frequently used aspects of the program and explains how best to use them. Through intensive tutorials, you will learn ideas and techniques not covered in the manuals. You will also learn about the theory and why things work the way they do. Plus, if you have been using earlier versions of C4D, this volume will get you up to speed with the new tools and functions quickly. Cinema 4D R9/9.1 is a major upgrade, including updates to most facets of the program. The book has been updated to reflect these changes, including new chapters on NURBS, Polygon Modeling, Materials and Texturing, and Cloth. The organization of the book has also been reworked to provide a better workflow and all chapters have been updated to reflect any feature changes in R9/9.1.

If you are new to Cinema 4D – this is the book to get you started. Despite its ease of use Maxon’s Cinema 4D R9 is an incredibly powerful and diverse package. The Cinema 4D 9/9.1 Handbook teaches how to harness this power and flexibility through a project-based approach that allows you to create impressive projects as you learn C4D’s array of tools and functions.

The book is best for beginners. It explores the most powerful and frequently used aspects of the program and explains how best to use them. Through intensive tutorials, you will learn ideas and techniques not covered in the manuals. You will also learn about the theory and why things work the way they do. Plus, if you have been using earlier versions of C4D, this volume will get you up to speed with the new tools and functions quickly. Cinema 4D R9/9.1 is a major upgrade, including updates to most facets of the program. The book has been updated to reflect these changes, including new chapters on NURBS, Polygon Modeling, Materials and Texturing, and Cloth. The organization of the book has also been reworked to provide a better workflow and all chapters have been updated to reflect any feature changes in R9/9.1.

HIGHLIGHTS * Explains the standard C4D workflow—where to start, how to start, and when to finish * Explores a variety of ways to use the modeling tools—primitive methods and NURBS, NURBS editing, polygon creation, and HyperNURBS * Teaches how and when to use the texture capabilities for creating textures from scratch, stylizing textures, creating photorealistic textures, and using textures to denote geometry * Covers procedural, bitmapped textures, and mapping textures to surfaces * Teaches animation tools contained in C4D, along with cinematography and camera movement, function curves, and the new Motion Blending function * Includes extensive sections on the new character animation functionality within C4D, including the use of bones and the theory of movement, forward and inverse kinematics, setting up FK and IK chains, and how to use them to create a desired motion * Explains how to put cloth on animated characters, and how Sketch and Toon can transform your models into stylized drawings * Includes a companion CD-ROM with book images, tutorial files, a demo of C4D 9, and more

On the CD! C4D DEMO * Includes Mac and PC installation files for the C4D 9 demo IMAGES * All images from the book in full color TUTORIALS * All backgrounds, textures, and image files necessary to complete the tutorials in the book BONUS TUTORIALS * A few extra tutorials from previous editions DOCUMENTATION * Maxon’s documentation for C4D R9/9.1 PRINT ME * Contains printable files that can be used as references, such as keyboard shortcuts

Great Tutorials

This book has great tutorials on beginning to model and good descriptions of the functions of Cinema 4-D through those tutorials. It does leave some features/buttons out. However, the walkthrough practice modeling it gives you, knowledge of basic buttons and the knowledge of how to go about exploring the rest of the functions, as well as the fact the tutorials are easy to follow, easily makes up for it not being a modeling dictionary. If you’re just starting modeling or just want a layout for the basic features of Cinema 4-D, I highly recommend this book.

Needs better organization

This book, like Tony Alley’s "3D Modeling with Cinema 4D R9" is geared towards beginners. Unlike Tony Alley’s book, some of the lessons are disorganized and do not clearly outline an approach to modeling, animation, lighting, or creating materials. The examples are fairly good in the beginning of the book, but towards the end, the author has individual paragraphs for each animation tool but never clearly describes how to use them. By attempting to cover so much material, the author leaves out details that gives one a somewhat muddy understanding of the program.

not worth it

bought this book! its ok i guess, not that many tutorials on basic product modelling rather more on animation which is not why i bought the book. cd rom is ok.

not worth it

bought this book! its ok i guess, not that many tutorials on basic product modelling rather more on animation which is not why i bought the book. cd rom is ok.

cool beans

I took a class on maya in college a year ago, spend most of my time in maya. When I received a full copy of cinema 4d I thought ill give it a world & see what the fuss is about.
This book is pretty simple, I was amazed at how simple 3d can be. As a Maya user, there is no node based system, no user control, no history in cinema that iv come to know in maya.
cinema turns 3d from a high end user to a hobby. some may find this strange, im one of those that want that level of control maya has to offer however for anyone just starting out who doesn’t want to know the why behind modeling & whats really going on then cinema 4d is your flame & this book will guide you in a world of fun.

The projects are ok, short & to the point, you get a well coverage of modeling, animation, rigging, rendering even cloth & toon. after browsing the book I must say it would take anyone a month to learn cinema & another month to master cinema using what you learn in this book which is unheard of in Maya. I highly enjoyed this book, found it less detailed keeping the reader more on skill then brainy concepts that make you feel as if you just earned a P.H.D. If you buy this book, congrats!

Only partially satisfied

As a fan of two previous versions of the C4d Handbook I looked forward to working through the tutorials in the v9/9.1 book. The enclosed CD (necessary for the tutorials) refused to load and/or allow its files to be copied for use in Cinema 4D. I returned the CD to the publisher with explanation and received a new CD. Same problem. Returned it and got a third CD. Same problem. Very frustrating. The book looks well written as usual. Too bad it is usless to me.

Great book

This book makes learning Cinema 4D easy. The book has a good flow to it, and continually builds upon itself to help you remember the basics.

Disappointing

I bought the book on the basis of a couple of strong reviews on Amazon (5 stars at time of purchase). This despite the author’s previous book on Cinema 4D (the R8 version) rating only 1 star. Perhaps the problems with the earlier book had been fixed for this most R9 version? Sadly, this was NOT the case. All the criticisms levelled at the previous version are still valid for this version. I urge you to read the reviews for the R8 version of this book before you consider purchasing.

Save your money and avoid this book.

The Anne Powers book is still the BEST Cinema 4D book in my opinion... even after taking into account the fact that it currently covers 8.5.

Worth every penny

I have read this book from cover to cover. I was asked by CreativeCow.net to write a review for it. You can check out the review there. Suffice it to say, this is by far one of the best books I’ve ever read covering a 3D app; in this case, Cinema 4D. If you’re just starting to get your feet wet in Cinema 4D, then this is THE book for you. As the above reviewer pointed out, the accompanying CD comes with a demo as well as all the images from the book in full color. So, if you can’t make out the details from the picture in the book, you will find a clear, full color version of the same image on the CD. The books is intended for beginners and is extremely well written to meet your needs as a beginner. Of special note, is the coverage of character modeling, boning, skinning and animation. The coverage is quite extensive and will enable you to create a complete and fully-animatable character. I could not recommend a better book for beginning Cinema 4D users then this one.

From Beginner to Intermediate Level

Aimed at the beginner through intermediate user, this book uses a series of tutorials to lead you through the design and implementation of several projects using Maxon’s Cinema 4D. Through these projects, most of the features of the program are illustrated and the reader quickly understands what the program is all about.

To be sure, Cinema 4D has so many features and capabilities that they cannot all be covered in a book even twice this size. Instead the book attempts to teach the core, fundamental capablilities of the program and leave the reader to experiment with the other features by himself.

The CD of the book is more complete than usual. It has a Demo version of the program for both Mac and PC. It has all the images used in the book. There are some extra tutorials that come from earlier versions of the book. These files can (mostly) be downloaded from the Maxon web site, but having them here on a CD is a lot faster and more convenient than downloading.

I really like the writing style that the authors use, for me it comes across as clean, easy and yet conveys the information I wanted.