Cinema 4D R9 brings together in one package all of the tools and power necessary to run with the big boys at a fraction of the cost of the "studio" packages. Cinema 4D is sneaking up on the likes of 3DSMax and Maya because they provide the same studio level performance at a very reasonable price. In fact, the price point allows hobbyists all over the world to enjoy the art of CG while building industry coveted skills in a solid package. Everything from the workflow enhancements in R9, new tools, the addition of N-gon support, the advanced renderer, and on through the MOCCA module all speak volumes about how solid Cinema 4D is and where it is going. As of this review, R9.1 was released adding an additional 50 new enhancements at no extra charge.

Let's take a look at some of these enhancements. There are so many, in fact, that we can't cover them all in one review. However, we have tried to provide you with not only a little about each tool but also a short video tutorial where appropriate. If you would like to see more video tutorials, just stop in and register as a member of C4D Cafe. It's free.

R9 Summary of Advancements
According to MAXON's press release, R9 provides over 100 new functions and improvements from the prior version (R8.5). What this means to me is that every time I sit down with Cinema 4D R9 I am constantly finding something new to play with. There is a whole work bench full of new modeling tools from N-gons, new geometry paint brush (paints vertex maps too!), to many of the existing tools like the knife, matrix extrude etc being dramatically improved and many now have real time feedback that allow parameters to be tweaked while you watch the results in real time.

R9 places much of the focus on speeding up the workflow. Yes, the modeling tools help but I'm talking about additions like the head's up display (HUD) for keeping the information you need in the view port, the tweak mode for fine tuning a mesh faster, and the improved selection tools. We will look at each of these in detail.