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.
- 1
Custom Layouts and Palettes7m - 2
Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts in Cinema 4DFree2m - 3
Asset BrowserFree11m - 4
Place & Dynamic PlacementFree7m - 5
PrimitivesFree14m - 6
Scene Organization With LayersFree3m - 7
Texture ProjectionFree25m - 8
Project Asset InspectorFree5m - 9
UV UnwrappingFree2h 2m - 10
Material/Texture Stacking & MixingFree7m - 11
RS Standard MaterialFree25m - 12
DisplacementFree2m - 13BumpFree6m
- 14
TriPlanarFree2m - 15
Color User DataFree16m - 16
RampFree7m - 17Maxon NoiseFree3m
- 18
Color LayerFree10m - 19Material BlenderFree12m
- 20JitterFree17m
- 21
Light TypesFree11m - 22
Dome Light & HDRI LightingFree11m - 23
Redshift Camera TypesFree7m - 24Choosing The Right LensFree15m
- 25Bokeh and Depth of FieldFree40m
- 26
Render SettingsFree45m - 27
Render QueueFree8m - 28
Motion BlurFree5m - 29
Render FasterFree16m - 30
Axis CenterFree1m - 31
Selection ToolsFree15m - 32
Modeling ToolsFree29m - 33
DeformersFree— - 34
BooleFree35m - 35
Cloth SurfaceFree8m - 36
ExtrudeFree1m - 37
LatheFree6m - 38
LoftFree4m - 39
SweepFree16m - 40
ConnectFree3m - 41
ThickenFree21m - 42
SymmetryFree3m - 43
Vector ImportFree13m - 44
RemeshFree10m - 45
Volume BuilderFree34m - 46
Subdivision SurfaceFree22m - 47
SplinesFree21m - 48
Animation TimelineFree16m - 49
AlembicFree2m - 50
BakingFree1m - 51
Track ModifierFree15m - 52
Vibrate TagFree1m - 53
ClonerFree35m - 54
Mograph CacheFree1m - 55
Voronoi FractureFree59m - 56
Plain EffectorFree14m - 57
Random EffectorFree13m - 58
Shader EffectorFree11m - 59
Step EffectorFree4m - 60
Inheritance EffectorFree9m - 61
Push Apart EffectorFree4m - 62
Delay EffectorFree7m - 63
Morph Deformer + Pose MorphFree3m - 64
ConstraintsFree10m - 65
Tension TagFree22m - 66
Rigid Body DynamicsFree39m - 67
Cloth & Softbody DynamicsFree32m - 68
Rope DynamicsFree22m - 69
Field ForceFree32m - 70
Turbulence ForceFree3m - 71
Wind ForceFree7m - 72
Friction ForceFree4m - 73
Rotation ForceFree4m - 74
ConnectorsFree18m
