To coincide with the launch of Cinema 4D 11.5 (see opposite), Maxon has added a new Broadcast Edition aimed at motion graphic professionals. The software is based on version 2 of its MoGraph plugin (available separately for $658).
The key to MoGraph, and so to the Broadcast Edition, is the concept of the "clone". Clones are automatically-generated copies of 3D objects that can be arranged in linear, radial, grid and nested arrays, either in space, along splines or on the surfaces of other objects.
Once generated, these clones can be animated, coloured and disrupted via a range of "effectors", allowing the creation in minutes of high-impact motion graphics that look as if they took weeks to set up.
MoGraph 2's improvements include the ability to use rail splines to define clone orientation, scale and volume spread. You can also now loop or fix cloned animations.
It also extends cloning into entirely new areas. The PolyFX object allows you to treat the polygons of objects and segments of splines as clones - great for shattering and reassembling effects.
The MoSpline object lets you create organic line-based patterns, then apply effectors to these. And the Camera Shader lets you project any camera view on an object's surface.
MoGraph 2's standout capability, however, is its dynamics system. Based on the Bullet Physics Library, this lets you quickly add a whole host of realistic gravity-based effects to clones, complete with collision control. Trying to create similar effects, say of a tumbling stack of boxes, would be almost impossible via keyframing.
The advances that make it a breakthrough release come from its host, however. Of particular relevance are Cinema 4D 11.5's RAM playback of animations, tighter integration with After Effects and, above all, render instancing, which boosts rendering speed.
This tight integration makes Broadcast Edition the natural choice for broadcast professionals looking to quickly and easily add 3D impact and creativity to their work. It comes highly recommended.
