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What’s New In Cinema 4D S24 and Redshift Rendering Comes to Mac

By Mike Maher

Published: April 13, 2021 Last Updated: April 13, 2021

Maxon rebrands while adding new animation tools and more to Cinema 4D and finally releasing Redshift for the latest Mac computers.

Here are all the new features and tools worth knowing about.

New in Cinema 4D S24

The new update for subscribers adds quite a few new tools that just make life easier. You’ll find everything from a new asset browser that makes it much simpler to view, find, and search compared to the old content browser, to new animation tools that will help speed up your character animations.

The best part of every Cinema 4D release is the in-depth dive of new features from C4D mad scientist Chris Schmidt. He’s back with the S24 new features in this massive overview from Rocket Lasso.

If you see any features below you want more on, be sure to hop into this Rocket Lasso tutorial for tips and tricks on using the new tools, and even how to customize your assets in the asset manager.

Asset Browser

The new C4D Asset Browser makes it so much easier to find your assets, such as 3D models, materials, HDRI, motion capture data, and more.

The advanced search tools make it easy to find assets based on category or compatibility, like finding all your materials compatible with third-party render engines—Redshift, Octane, Arnold, or Corona. Search the assets included with your Maxon subscription, or browse your local files on your machine.

Placement Tools

Creating an environment, adding props, and creative exploration is as simple as dragging-and-dropping objects onto one another, painting objects onto a surface, or allowing objects to fall into place with the help of dynamics.

Animation Tools

Everyone who creates keyframes will enjoy improved curve evaluation and other workflow enhancements, while Character Animators will enjoy even more powerful retargeting and pose workflows.

Perhaps the most powerful addition is the new Tween tool that will help you fine-tune your animations.

Scene Manager

Use powerful node-based assets to construct procedural geometry or entire scenes in this new hierarchy-based view. Or, view the same objects in a continually evolving Scene Nodes editor.

Cinema 4D S24 is available for immediate download for subscribers.

Redshift for Mac

Maxon also announced that the powerful GPU render engine Redshift is now available for macOS, supporting M1-powered Macs and Apple’s Metal Graphics API.

Redshift has rapidly become one of the most beloved third-party render engines in the 3D industry, given its rapid speed on NVIDIA PCs. That well-known power is now optimized for M1 and Intel-powered Macs.

We’re seeing some crazy results when rendering with Redshift on Mac Pro. A typical frame from the very effects-heavy game cinematic we created for Mythic Legends, an action-packed strategy mobile game by Outfit7, previously took twenty-six minutes to render per frame. Now, it’s rendering in only fifty-eight seconds!
– James Rodgers, Director at Lunar Animation

Redshift for Intel-based Macs will be available this week. Support for M1-based Macs will be made available with the release of macOS Big Sur (11.3). As is typical with Redshift, updates to enhance stability and optimization will be regular and ongoing.

Here’s the complete list of system requirements.

Maxon Moves

Moves by Maxon has made a few improvements as well, specifically making it faster and easier to send capture data directly into Cinema 4D S24.

We previously covered Moves by Maxon in our interview with design and animation studio Hobbes. Check out “How an iPhone Facial Capture Choreographed 200 Drones” to see how the studio used Moves facial capture data to choreograph a nighttime drone performance above a Michigan ski resort.

Drone Technology — *Here, 200 drones are demonstrating facial capture data. Image from “High in Heavens – Behind the Scenes” via YouTube.*

Moves by Maxon is immediately available from the Apple App Store and is compatible with iPhone® XR, iPhone® XS, iPhone® XS Plus, iPhone® 11, iPhone® 11 Pro, and iPad Pro® (3rd Generation).

A New Look for Maxon

Image via Maxon.

Finally, Maxon released the company’s new brand identity, which should come as no surprise that after acquiring Redshift and merging with Red Giant—it’s a red logo. The logo represents the new Maxon focused on all aspects of 3D and VFX.

Senior Brand Manager Leo Hageman designed the logo under the direction of Maxon’s executive team.

After bringing the Maxon, Redshift, and Red Giant teams together, we felt it was important to establish a new look and feel for Maxon. This new logo is an important part of that identity. We wanted something that embodies our unified product lines, passionate team, and shared goal of empowering creatives.
– CEO David McGavran

Once the new logo was approved and registered, Maxon brought in Toronto-based animation and design studio Tendril to animate the modern mark.

Cinema 4D S24 is available now to subscribers via the new maxon.net website. Redshift for Mac is expected to release later this week.

For more animation tips and advice, check out these articles:

Cover image via Maxon.