Cinema 4D Essentials
2 January 2023
74 lessons · 18h 49m
Cinema 4D Essentials is a curated reference course designed to help you master the most important and widely used tools in Cinema 4D—the ones you’ll turn to every day as a motion graphics artist.
Originally released as a PDF guide, this updated version brings everything together in a streamlined, video-based course experience right here on the CG Shortcuts site. Instead of recreating content that has been covered extensively online, this course pulls in the best explainer videos from around the web, carefully selected for clarity and relevance.
Organized by category—Modeling, Mograph, Animation, Materials, Rendering, and more—it’s your go-to reference when you need a quick refresher or want to explore a tool in more depth. Plus, each lesson includes links to Maxon’s official manual and other trusted resources for further learning.
Whether you're just getting started or brushing up on your workflow, this course is the perfect companion to the Ultimate Cinema 4D Guide.
Lessons
Lesson 1 is always free to preview.
- Workflow
- 1
Custom Layouts and Palettes7m - 2
Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts in Cinema 4DLockedFree2m - Scene Building
- 3
Asset BrowserLockedFree11m - 4
Place & Dynamic PlacementLockedFree7m - 5
PrimitivesLockedFree14m - 6
Scene Organization With LayersLockedFree3m - Materials
- 7
Texture ProjectionLockedFree25m - 8
Project Asset InspectorLockedFree5m - 9
UV UnwrappingLockedFree2h 2m - 10
Material/Texture Stacking & MixingLockedFree7m - 11
RS Standard MaterialLockedFree25m - 12
DisplacementLockedFree2m - 13BumpLockedFree6m
- 14
TriPlanarLockedFree2m - 15
Color User DataLockedFree16m - 16
RampLockedFree7m - 17Maxon NoiseLockedFree3m
- 18
Color LayerLockedFree10m - 19Material BlenderLockedFree12m
- 20JitterLockedFree17m
- Lighting
- 21
Light TypesLockedFree11m - 22
Dome Light & HDRI LightingLockedFree11m - Camera
- 23
Redshift Camera TypesLockedFree7m - 24Choosing The Right LensLockedFree15m
- 25Bokeh and Depth of FieldLockedFree40m
- Rendering
- 26
Render SettingsLockedFree45m - 27
Render QueueLockedFree8m - 28
Motion BlurLockedFree5m - 29
Render FasterLockedFree16m - Modeling
- 30
Axis CenterLockedFree1m - 31
Selection ToolsLockedFree15m - 32
Modeling ToolsLockedFree29m - 33
DeformersLockedFree— - 34
BooleLockedFree35m - 35
Cloth SurfaceLockedFree8m - 36
ExtrudeLockedFree1m - 37
LatheLockedFree6m - 38
LoftLockedFree4m - 39
SweepLockedFree16m - 40
ConnectLockedFree3m - 41
ThickenLockedFree21m - 42
SymmetryLockedFree3m - 43
Vector ImportLockedFree13m - 44
RemeshLockedFree10m - 45
Volume BuilderLockedFree34m - 46
Subdivision SurfaceLockedFree22m - 47
SplinesLockedFree21m - Animation
- 48
Animation TimelineLockedFree16m - 49
AlembicLockedFree2m - 50
BakingLockedFree1m - 51
Track ModifierLockedFree15m - 52
Vibrate TagLockedFree1m - Mograph
- 53
ClonerLockedFree35m - 54
Mograph CacheLockedFree1m - 55
Voronoi FractureLockedFree59m - 56
Plain EffectorLockedFree14m - 57
Random EffectorLockedFree13m - 58
Shader EffectorLockedFree11m - 59
Step EffectorLockedFree4m - 60
Inheritance EffectorLockedFree9m - 61
Push Apart EffectorLockedFree4m - 62
Delay EffectorLockedFree7m - Rigging
- 63
Morph Deformer + Pose MorphLockedFree3m - 64
ConstraintsLockedFree10m - 65
Tension TagLockedFree22m - Simulation
- 66
Rigid Body DynamicsLockedFree39m - 67
Cloth & Softbody DynamicsLockedFree32m - 68
Rope DynamicsLockedFree22m - 69
Field ForceLockedFree32m - 70
Turbulence ForceLockedFree3m - 71
Wind ForceLockedFree7m - 72
Friction ForceLockedFree4m - 73
Rotation ForceLockedFree4m - 74
ConnectorsLockedFree18m
