Maxon Cinema 4D is a flexible and powerful modeling, animation, and rendering tool. It's used to create a wide variety of images, including special effects, broadcast titles, character animations, and more.

Maxon Cinema 4D 7.0 provides a thorough introduction to the software, while the companion CD contains a demo version of Cinema 4D, as well as sample scenes and animations from the book. Readers will learn how to use Cinema 4D to create special effects, character animations, and 3D modeling. Project examples in each chapter illustrate key features of the software. The last chapter in the book dissects and fully deconstructs a full-featured animation.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 7 Ratings

Bad Book - 2003-01-27
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book because I read from other reviews that it was good, but it's a disappointment. First of all, this book doesn't have a picture of the Cinema 4D XL's user interface, showing the toolbars, icons, and other items when a person opens up the program. This is important for teaching beginners to show them what the interface looks like and what it means. Second, the author doesn't show the steps how to do things using "Follow these steps: 1) Click this icon 2) click that, 3)... etc. Other books are much better because they offer numeric steps to teach or tell people how to do something. Third, this books does even have character animation. For beginners, it's hard to figure out how to open the Cinema 4D XL program because the author doesn't show how to use the provided cd to start the software. It's a boring and disappointing book to read. Not recommended for buying.

A detailed project-based tour of Cinema 4D 7 - 2003-09-29
Reviewer Rating:
This was the first book I ever purchased for Cinema 4D and it remains the best 3rd-party Cinema 4D book that I've ever purchased. Admittedly, that is partially because there are surprisingly few English language Cinema 4D books to choose from. But Arndt's book provides a solid basis in modeling, animating, and rendering in Cinema 4D 7. Maxon revised the application interface substantially in Cinema 4D R8.x, but much of the information in this book still carries over fine into R8.x. But you should probably have a good understanding of both Cinema 7 and 8 before trying to undertake one of the projects in this book using R8.x.

This book delves into some focused modeling and animation projects and given its subtitle, "A Workshop for 2D/3D Graphics Pros", that's what you should expect. The person who wrote this up as a "bad book" because it didn't tell them how to install Cinema 4D seems really lost. The manuals that come with Cinema do a fine job of guiding you through the installation - if you even require any assistance. This isn't Cinema For Dummies. Instead, what it is is a trip through some interesting projects that provide some knowledge and thorough usage of many aspects of Cinema 4D 7. It doesn't particularly matter if you are familiar with those aspects as the text provides ample introduction to nearly everything except the most trivial facets (installation of the software, configuration of your machine). Much of the modeling makes use of 3 custom plug-ins (EdgeExtrude, EdgeBevel, and Cutter) which are provided for no additional cost by the author.

Overall, as of late September 2003, this is still the best English language 3rd-party companion book available for Cinema 4D. Could it be improved? Certainly. As other reviewers have mentioned, the translation gets in the way a little at times and the subject matter could be expanded plenty. Arndt has written other more recent German language books and I'd love to see them show up in English. He's obviously a very talented Cinema user and author. This book probably deserves more like 4 or 4.5 stars, but the earlier 2-star review was a blatant injustice and needs to be offset. That's why I went with 5 stars.

Great Book! - 2003-08-06
Reviewer Rating:
I noticed that some reviewers downgraded this book because it doesn't offer elementary information that is available (in mass quantities) in the Cinema manuals. This is patently unfair, as the book does not aim to replace the manuals or to provide a basic introduction to Cinema 4D. Rather, it is a guide for intermediate to advanced users that provides clear instruction on some the darker corners of Cinema 4D XL7--information that one would be hard-pressed to glean from the manuals, or even from months of experimentation.

It is precisely this that makes the book so valuable! Mr. Koenigsmark explains in exacting detail the nuances of Cinema's material system--including the lightly-documented but powerful SLA shaders. He provides one of the best explanations of radiosity that you will find anywhere. He explains COFFEE scripting. He provides detailed modeling tutorials that address the peculiar strengths and weaknesses of the program. In short, assuming you have a basic understanding of the program to begin with, this book will take your 3D skills to a new level. Very highly recommended.

You Want to Learn to Model from A Master? Cinema 4D Style? - 2003-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
I have about 17 years of 3d applications experience. I had virtually hit a wall. Nothing really worked the way I think. Enter Cinema 4D. This book opened my eyes and opens up the power within Cinema 4D. I have made it through Chapter two and it is a wonderful read and experience. I like the way the book allows you to think about what you are modeling so that you can get yourself to where Arndt wants you to be. I would recommend this book again and again. I had to so much fun, I did some of the exercises more than once, because Arndt's method to to teach you to think about what you are modeling. I found the steps to be about intermediate level. I basically put down the Cinema 4D tutorials and have become engrossed in this book. Not every single step is mentioned, and I like that because there are places for one to 'think' like Arndt in modeling things like Hypernurbs and figuring out what modeling technique is best for what you are setting out to do.

I would buy more books from this author.

C4D :) - 2005-07-10
Reviewer Rating:
I picked this book up as it was the only c4d book I've seen locally at any of my stores and when I first picked it up bout 6-8months ago I was being too literal with reading his instructions,. sometimes his prose when translated to english leaves me wondering he'll say do something "and then this will also be selected" which could be interpretted as ok so have both selected,.. minor translation issues notwith standanding,.. as a Pretty much Complete beginning Im Managing this just fine Even using a book for 7 on 9.1 and unlike most 3d books I've found his ultimate task in this book is something really interesting to model and each piece he shows you how to do it using all the different methods avail when I picked the book back up when I attempted to model something I started reading it again after spending some time importing stuff I'd done elsewhere and rendering it c4d and then I wasnt struggling with translation and a unknown system everything made sence
In short this book Is Quite Good and Quite Possible to be done by a Complete modeling Novice BUT my advice if you do fit those categorys,.. Play around with the program for a while,. I know everyone says familiarize yourself with it,. but In this case its soo true once you get used to the way everything moves in this you'll wonder why everything isnt structured so well

Good book :)

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