Cinema 4D R20 details announced

Maxon has announced details of Cinema 4D R20, now with a node-based material editor, Mograph Fields, CAD data import, Volume modelling, improvements to Pro Render and much more. 

Node-Based Materials

Cinema 4D R20 adds a node-based material editor, making it easier for artists to visualise complex shaders and reuse maps in multiple channels for easier editing. Over 150 searchable nodes are included including a new generic material called the “Uber Material”, a simplified easy to use material designed to be usable for most common purposes. 

Field

Falloffs allow you to adjust an effect based on simple shapes. The brand new Fields allow you to layer those shapes, link them to multiple effects, and more. Using a field you are able to control the strength of an effect, including MoGraph Effectors, a Deformer, a Vertex Map or Selection tag.  Several Field types are included from simple shapes to shaders or sounds, to objects and formulas that can all be layered with standard mixing modes and grouped.

CAD Import

R20 adds the ability to import Solidworks, STEP, Catia, JT and IGES files including objects, splines, instances and hierarchies.  NURBS data is tesselated to convert it to polygonal geometry using a scale-based interface that allows the user to adjust the detail level based on the object’s size. In addition to geometry, the display colours and materials from the CAD file are retained.

Volume Modelling

A new volumetric modelling toolset enables the user to model by adding and subtracting shapes using Boolean-type operations or create animated growing effects by turning noises and the new MoGraph Fields into actual geometry. These new features use new OpenVDB-based Volume Builder and Mesher tools to create a new procedural way to create objects. The results can be smoothed or reshaped using voxel modifiers or re topologised using VDB remeshing and edited using the sculpting toolset.

Pro Render improvements

Cinema 4D’s Pro-Render implementation sees some improvements too, with a new simplified sub-surface scattering shader, linear motion blur for simple PSR animation and Sub-Frame Motion Blur for deformations, a new multipass rendering workflow, out of core textures when GPU rendering, a shadow catcher and more. 

Many more features are included. R20 is due out in September 2018. You can find out more on Maxon’s website and read a full list of changes in the release notes.