MAXON CINEMA 4D Continues to Dominate Motion Graphics Arena

April 18, 2010 9:26 am

BROADCAST DESIGNERS AND ANIMATION PROFESSIONALS ACROSS ALL MEDIA PLATFORMS RELY ON TARGETED TOOLSET FOR QUICK WORKFLOW AND RENDERING

Las Vegas, NV – April 12, 2010 – At the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, announced that CINEMA 4D continues its domination as the industry-leading 3D motion graphics toolkit for studios and visual production facilities creating dynamic broadcast graphics. The new Broadcast Edition builds on the motion graphics legacy of MAXON’s flagship CINEMA 4D software application – known for its ease of use, quick workflow, fast rendering, rock-solid architecture and seamless export to leading compositing tools like Adobe After Effects, Apple Motion and Final Cut Pro.

The list of the broadcast industry’s most widely recognized networks where CINEMA 4D plays a pivotal role in the production pipeline includes FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, HBO, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, The Discovery Channel, The Cartoon Network, Turner Network Television, The Weather Channel, MTV, ESPN, CMT, Comedy Central, TMZ, NFL, HGTV, USA Network, National Geographic Channel, Univision and many others.

“The CINEMA 4D Broadcast Edition exemplifies MAXON’s uncompromising commitment to bringing content creators at every level the most powerful, flexible and accessible 3D motion graphics solutions across all media platforms,” said Paul Babb, President and CEO, MAXON USA. “Despite the down economy, the demand for motion graphics artists is on the rise and the customization afforded in the Broadcast Edition helps artists share project files and enhance workflow – a competitive advantage in any graphics production environment.”

The following represent facilities and artists that are successfully using CINEMA 4D to create spectacular motion graphics:

Entertainment Tonight and The Insider
When Entertainment Tonight and its sister show The Insider, the first two syndicated news magazines to deliver their programs in HD, report on the hottest film, television and celebrity stories, they typically incorporate graphic elements from those projects – elements that might have taken hundreds of artists several weeks to produce. By contrast, the shows’ team of five artists often need to create their seamless blend of work in a matter of hours. For the last three years, MAXON CINEMA 4D has become the key component enabling the programs’ artists to create multiple versions of an animation that, for instance, might combine the graphics of Dancing with the Stars or Alice in Wonderland with the shows’ logos, imagery and text. Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, produced by CBS Television Distribution, are delivered to network affiliates every weekday, and MAXON CINEMA 4D has allowed its 3D artists to create unique looks that highlight the exclusivity of their stories, whether it's a behind-the-scenes peek at the production of a TV show or a first look at a movie trailer.

Images courtesy Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, produced by CBS Television Distribution

Erik Photenhauer, senior graphic producer at Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, says that CINEMA 4D makes it possible to feed the shows’ high-volume graphic appetite. “CINEMA 4D allows us to have a 3D department in single workstation. One seat essentially can do it all, including final compositing through our After Effects pipeline. Being able to share our files among all workstations has been invaluable to our production.” Making changes in the MAXON program saves significant time for the Entertainment Tonight and The Insider team. “In CINEMA 4D we’ve been able to create virtual staging rooms that play off our shows’ core graphic looks. By resurfacing, relighting, and moving some elements around to meet the design needs of a specific project we can quickly create custom looks and highly-polished production values under extremely tight deadlines.”

Images courtesy Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, produced by CBS Television Distribution

Noah Rappaport - The Disco Biscuits video On Time
Noah Rappaport, best known as a visual effects and broadcast motion graphics artist, has used MAXON CINEMA 4D for the past five years to complete many music videos and national commercials. Rappaport is making his directorial debut on a recent project for the Disco Biscuits music video On Time; approaching the production as perhaps only a visual effects artist could. Working closely with Ghost Town Media (Los Angeles), which completed the motion tracking and compositing, the video features a CGI robot in a night club seamlessly blending into the action of the dance floor with its very human movements and later becoming intimate with a seductive human female.

Images courtesy Disco Biscuits and Ghost Town Media

With five weeks from preproduction to post to complete the project, Rappaport assembled a 3D team, recruiting from the international talent pool that has formed around CINEMA 4D to meet the challenge. "My team consisted of: Rodolfo Roth in Brazil, who built the model to specifications; Anton Moss, who textured the model in Philadelphia; Brian Horgan in Dublin, who masterfully rigged the model to work with pre-captured motion-capture files, as well as traditional key-framed animation. Two weeks after we started shooting, I already had created animatics from CINEMA 4D to plan each shot and to have on-set." Using high dynamic range (HDR) photos he had taken of the club set, Rappaport and David Torno of Ghost Town were able to light the composited scene quickly and realistically in CINEMA 4D using Global Illumination and minimal directional lights. "I've always been impressed with the scalability of CINEMA 4D," says Rappaport. "No matter the size of the project or its requirements, I know that I can turn to CINEMA 4D to save us a huge amount of time and for impressive results."

The upThink Lab - Discovering Ardi
The upThink Lab, a video production and post studio in Atlanta, has brought Ardi, the world’s oldest partial hominid skeleton, to life using MAXON’s CINEMA 4D. In 2008 Rod and David Paul of Primary Pictures, an HD video production house in Atlanta, tapped the upThink Lab to create graphics and 3D animations for the two-hour Discovery Channel documentary “Discovering Ardi," which aired in October 2009. Primary Pictures had already been collaborating with the Middle Awash research team (which found Ardi in Ethiopia) and the Discovery Channel for nearly 10 years to develop the documentary. Configuring and animating Ardi’s partial skeleton was a painstaking process, says Doug Urquhart, who co-founded upThink with Erik Huber in 2007. In order to present a scientifically accurate film, all of the 3D models of the skeleton needed to be flawless and properly aligned. “And we knew there was no way we were going to attempt to create accurate 3D models of our own for the fossil remains,” recalls Urquhart, who has been working with CINEMA 4D since 2002.

Images courtesy Upthink Lab

Three different skeletons were used for the animations: The actual fossil that had been scanned and positioned correctly; a composite skeleton created in C4D based on high-resolution micro CT scans; the reconstructed skeleton upThink modified and rigged for the show. Using CINEMA 4D, artists were able to have all three in one scene file. To create the walking fossil assembly, Urquhart used CINEMA 4D to attach the fossil fragments to the walking rig. Animations showed floating fossils finding their places on the rig as it walked. “I think this part in particular really shows the capability of CINEMA 4D,” says Urquhart. “All of the walk cycle animations were created only weeks before the show aired and I’m proud of how this came together. CINEMA 4D makes tackling enormous creative challenges fun and enjoyable.”

Loica - Yo Tomo and Kia promo
Over the past four years, Loica of Santiago, Chile, has grown from a small motion graphics and VFX boutique into one of the largest post-production facilities in Chile. Throughout that time, each department at Loica – from designers to 3D modelers and compositors – have made extensive use of MAXON's CINEMA 4D on projects for ABC, National Geographic Channel, The Food Network, VH1, Canal 13 and Chilevisión. "From the beginning of every project, our designers use CINEMA 4D as their preferred 3D app because it's simple and effective to achieve professional results," says Francisco Chaigneau, a principal of Loica.

Images courtesy Loica of Santiago, Chile

In Yo Tomo, a TV spot that's part of a campaign roughly equivalent to the Got Milk? campaign in the U.S., slow-motion splashes of milk collide in mid-air and transform into human faces and torsos that kiss and then tumble to fill a live-action glass of milk. The spot required Loica to track live actors and camera data in CINEMA 4D. After placing emitters, exporting from CINEMA 4D, and generating the fluid mesh in RealFlow, Loica brought the project back into CINEMA 4D for texturing, lighting, camerawork, and several render passes. On a recent Kia Sorrento promo for the Food Network's Iron Chef, a graphic designer (not a 3D designer) at Loica was able to use CINEMA 4D to completely execute the 3D animation and rendering of the car. The objective of the project was to match the cell-shaded character animation of the car to a 3D environment, which, along with the rendering, was accomplished natively in CINEMA 4D. "We were able to re-render the client’s requests in no time," says Chaigneau. He adds, “CINEMA 4D is our main 3D workhorse. The great upgrades have kept it current and competitive, and it's allowed us to train our staff very quickly.”

Images courtesy Loica of Santiago, Chile

About MAXON Computer

MAXON Computer is a developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D software products have been used extensively in the film, television, science, architecture, engineering and other industries. MAXON has offices in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, France and Japan. MAXON products are available in ten languages directly from the website and its worldwide distribution channel. Specially priced learning editions of the company’s software solutions are also made available to educational institutions. For additional information on MAXON visit www.maxon.net.

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