A negative edge is simply an edge having a negative weight. It could be in any context pertaining to the graph and what are its edges referring to. For example, the edge C-D in the above graph is a negative edge. Floyd-Warshall works by minimizing the weight between every pair of the graph, if possible.
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Ever since I saw the demonstration of Cinema 4D XL R8 atSiggraph 2002 this summer, I wanted to review it. I was veryimpressed with not only the new features but the simplification ofmany of the procedures, especially the look of the AttributeManager. Last year I used Cinema 4D XL for the first time. This wasversion 7.
The can be found by clicking on the the highlighted word'review.' I mention this specifically because I had tospend time learning the program before I could review it.Subsequently, I have reviewed another 3D program and I realized inretrospect and comparison how easy it was to learn Cinema 4D.Before I actually review the product by discussing how the newfeatures work and the learning curve necessary to use them, I willdiscuss the features of Cinema 4D R8. I will be reviewing the XLbundle using Windows 2000.Maxon has changed how it is selling Cinema 4D R8. One canpurchase the core of the program, which is Cinema 4D R8 and thenadd modules on to it.
One can also purchase two pre-bundledversions, Cinema 4D XL or Cinema 4D Studio bundle.The price for the new user for the core of the program, Cinema4D R8, is USD $595.00. The price for Cinema 4D XL R8 is $1695.00and for the Studio bundle $2495.00. I will discuss what compriseseach bundle shortly. I will also list a few of the upgrade pricesfor the US and Canada. ZMaxon seems to have gone out of its way to provide links toinformation about its products. Thecontains an exeptional display of information about this productthrough movies, displays, and text.
Another source for informationabout Cinema 4D as well as a demo of this version can be found atanother place on.I like to have a perspecive when writing a review because, then,I feel it is easier for the reader to evaluate the product. I,also, like to follow forums on the product to see what basicquestions users have. Prior to reviewing Cinema 4D XL R8, I checkedforums regulary and discovered that there were still a number ofusers who were either newbies to any Maxon product, interested inadding modules to this version of Cinema 4D, or consideringpurchasing it for the first time. Thus, I am taking the perspectiveof exploring Cinema 4D as a new user. Since I am more experiencedin using 2D programs, although I use and have reviewed many 3Dprograms, this is not an artificial way for me to approach thisprogram and review.As I stated in the beginning, I first saw this programdemonstrated at Siggraph 2002. What struck me initially was the newAttribute Manager.
No longer willone have to open a miriad of possibly different dialog boxes tomake changes. All changes can be made from the Attribute Manager'swindow. The following screen captures show the correspondencebetween the Object Manager and the new Attribute Manager.
It is hard to praise the Attribute Manager enough. While writingthis review, I often went back and forth between R7 and R8. While Iliked R7 and have worked with it, everytime I go back to it, I keepforgetting to open palettes and keep looking for the AttributeManager.
I can't say enough about everything being in one place.One can reference and manipulate almost (and I have to use thatword) any property from this Manager.In a similar vein, no longer will one have to group objectsbefore making multiple selections since R8 allows for multipleselections. As can be seen by the table below, two objects wereselected in the Object Manager and both were rotatedsimultaneously. Maxon's Cinema 4D XL R8 bundle comes with a comprehensive indepth 1,000 pages manual for the core of the program, a manual foreach of the modules, and a tutorial manual. There are also otheron theMaxon website and in some of the graphic communities described onthe website. The manuals for the different modules also containstutorials where appropriate.Since I review products and believe manuals to be helpful, Ialways pay attention to the manuals that come with the product.Often a tutorial manual can determine how easy it is to learn a newprogram. Initially I explored the tutorial manual that accompaniedthe core Cinema 4D R8.
This tutorial manual is one I recommendstrongly. It is excellently organized and unusually well writtenand thorough. This manual is one of the easiest to follow that Ihave used. It is task oriented rather than project oriented as wasthe one for R7.
It has sections on modeling, animation, lights,etc. It also summarizes each section and shows how the skillslearnt can be applied to other areas.One of the basic properties of a program is its interface.
If itis not easy to maneuver around in it or to customize it, it willaffect the productive use of the program. The Basic interface ofCinema 4D R8 is similar to that of R7 except it has added a few newareas such as the Attribute Manager. Just oneexample of many how the Attribute manager can save time can befound in one of the tutorials. In a prior version, I would have hadto have not only the Material Editor open but other palettes aswell. Instead, I In R8, I can manipulate everything by means of theAttribute Manager.
Each time I would click on an object orproperty, for example, in the object Manager, or the MaterialEditor, I could make all my changes on it through the AttributeManager. Thus, if I was doing an animation, and had the timelineacross the bottom of my screen and didn't want to open the MaterialEditor, I could make changes to a specific material through theAttribute Manager. Changing Properties for an Animation inthe Attribute ManagerThe interface of Cinema 4D is very flexible. Individual toolpalettes can be created and savedwhile 'Editors' like the Material Editor can be moved toa new location and docked. This layout can then be saved.
There isan icon in the upper left corner of the tool bar thatone can click on to access a drop down menu showing differentinterface configurations. See the screen capture on the left.Again, I can't stress how handy this is.
I guess, while I neverthought R7 was clumsy, in comparrison to R8 it is because R8 has somany features that have been streamlined without losing any oftheir power. There are also many predefined and specialized toolbars that can be added permanently or 'at will' to theinterface. The example on the right shows a few of the variousselection tools and commands.Maxon has also madeothers more areas of the program more powerful to increase and streamlineworkflow such as OpenGL.According to Maxon, with a video card that supports OpenGL, thespeed rate is 2- 4 times faster than R7. In addition, this newOpenGL supports adaptive plane redraw (PC Only), genlocking forrealtime texture mapping, and improved textureinterpolation.As an aside, it was nice to see that Maxonis realistic in its benchmark systems.
In the Advanced Renduringmodule, it states that its benchmark system is a 1 GHz Athlon with256 MB of memory. For a machine to be used for 3D images as well asanimation, this above machine is even on the slow side, in myopinion. But a lower level machine is so much better than a higherlevel one that no one can afford to own but a professional studio.When I tested it on my more powerul Athlon, it rendured in a littleover 7 minutes.
Maxon's time for their benchmark machine was 20minutes.Maxon has also beefed up it renderingcapabilities. It is up to 40% faster than previous version ofCinema 4D. It also takes advantage of innovations in CPU technologysuch as hyperthreading.For those individuals not familiar withmulti-rendering, I'd like to spend some time describing its merits.It allows for 'layered rendering'. The example in thetutorial was so clearcut that I have used it, along with otherexamples from this manual, throughout this review. The concept ofmulti-rendering is that once rendered changes such as object colorscan be changed in an image editing program and the file does nothave to be renderd again. This, of course, can be a huge timesaver. In addition, Cinema 4D R8 integrates with Adobe AfterEffects 5.5 to expand on this concept.
As can be seen in the imageon the right, the warm light and the cold light set layers can beexpanded so that the colors of these two lights can be changed and,thus, the color of the car.Before one starts to render a scene, render options should beset. Cinema 4D R8 allows for a lot of fine tuning. The screen belowjust shows a few of the options for multi-pass rendering sincefly-out menus can be activated.Cinema 4D R8 has expanded on its import and export formats. Thefollowing is a list of the file formats that a Cinema 4Dfile can be exported to.Some of the newformats are STL import/export; UZR which enables 3D models to beviewed on the internet without additional software; improvedShockwave 3D export which will deliver correct lighting,reflecions, and bone deformations. Also new Flash export willcreate SWF files for both still and animated imagery.The tools for animation have also been improved, especially thenew F-curve to fine tune changes of state, motion, etc. In ananimation.
Even someone not very familiar with creating animationsshould find the timeline and F-Curve easy to use. Example of an F-Curve Creating aVariable Rotation of a PropellerThe Timeline has been improved with drag and drop functionality.Objects can be dragged into the timeline window; X, Y, and Zcoordinates can be animated separately and each track can displayan F-Curve. These are just a few of the improvements.The new Node Editor called XPresso adds a lot to the field ofanimation and lets non-programmers visually build expressions andscripts. XPresso can be used with the Thinking Particles for someoutstanding particle effects and with Mocca for advanced characteranimation.The screen capture above shows how easy it is to access theXPresso Editor. All one has to do is right click on an object, inthis case a cube, in the Object Manager.One can build all sorts of relationships visuallywith the XPresso Manager by connecting nodes and creatingrelationships. To quote from the manual, page 915 ' In earlierversions of Cinema 4D, to create extra interactions between objectsrequired you to manually program C.O.F.F.E.E. Expressions; and youcan still do so if you like.'
Someextremely useful tools have been added to the Cinema 4D collection.Some of these are: edge selection tools, edge selection mode, andhyperNURBs weighting. However, as is true of all many facetedprograms, a list does not do justice to describe all the variousnew features.
In edge selection mode, the user has the ability tocut, extrude, level, and weight edges.One can take a hyperNURB, in this instance a cube dropped into ahyperNURB on the Object Manager, make it editable, and then select3 edges using the new Edges Selection Tool which is the middle toolof the tools on the left and the Live Selection Tool which is thetool on the right.The circle shows the three edgest that are being selectedthrough the use of the Edge Tool and the Live Selection Tool. Toweight these edges, for example, all one has to do, is hold downthe period key and drag the mouse to the left or right. Numbersnear the bottom of the screen on the left will change as the mouseis dragged either left or right.There are many other new features to the core of Cinema 4D R8such as light inclusion/exclusion where lights for a scene can beturned on or off to create articial landscapes. Shaders have beenimproved, for example, to take advantage of new gradient functions.Color and Xray properties can be enabled for objects in theviewport for easy identification. In the same manner, a Null Object's identifying shape - a dot -can be changed as well as its color.
This is especially useful ifone has a number of null objects.Since I am reviewing the XL bundle, I will reviewthe modules starting with Thinking Particles. I amintroducing each one separately so that readers can gain a goodperspective, I hope, on each one.Thinking Particles is a modular based particle system.
It usesbuilding blocks - nodes - as does XPresso. It builds on XPresso'ssystem, and when they are teamed up together they can create somevery powerful effects. All of these effects can be as simple orcomplicated as the user wants to make them. Obviously, the learningcurve for the new user will be steep, but the tutorials are a greatway to start.
The manual that accompanies each module also has alot of information to help the new user as well as the moreexperienced one. The effects produced through Thinking Particlesare controlled by object and particle interaction. One can get faraway from simple particles reacting to wind or gravity. TheseThinking Particles can work as independent groups, take manydifferent shapes, change shapes as they move, and individualparticles can take the motion of another object. To see ThinkingParticles in action go to products and click on the module ThinkingParticles. Then click on the Quick Time screen to activateit.A few paragraphs above is a very simple XPresso statement in theXPresso Editor. Following is a much more complicated relationshipof actions, states, positions, etc.
Also in the XPresso Editor thatcombines Thinking Particle Expressions with XPressoExpressions.Below is the Object Manager and a frame of thisanimation which contains shapes deforming and moving in and out ofthe window. These examples are from one of the tutorials that Idid.
The reason I keep stressing the excellent manuals and tutorialsprovided by Maxon is because I cannot see how users could learnthese modules on their own without them. Since I was not familiarwith Thinking Particles before I began to work with this module, Iknow that I would have been lost had I not had progressively builttutorials.PyroCluster can also be integrated withThinking Particles to add special material effects like explosions,smoke, dust, fire, etc. PyroCluster is a volumetric shading systemwhich puts a procedural volume around each particle. Pyro Clusterwill interact with either the regular particle system that comeswith Cinema 4D's core package or it will interact wth ThinkingParticles.PyroCluster works with easily accessible gradient controls.
Onecan animate Puffs, i.e., particles that have had aPyroCluster material appplied to them the normal way or throughspecial gradients. The following graphics show a very basic andelementary set up for a PyroCluster effect. While one can edit multiple parameters and get very compicatedeffects, the standards such as smoke, clouds, fire, etc havedefaults that can be used as is or as a starting point.One can preview each frame by selecting the preview option.PyroCluster also adds a lot to 2D images. These effects can besaved in a 2D format and worked with as a post-render image.To see a QuickTime example of PyroCluster, go tothe end of the PyroCluster module summary on and clickon the QT screen. Be patient, it takes a long time for the QT movieto start.Cinema 4D XL comes with two rendering packages. Both are verydifferent.
Advanced Render allows for morecontrollable parameters to be offered when rendering andNet Render allows for rendering to be able to beaccomplished over a network. This is especially useful when thereis one server (in this case a server is the machine on which C4D R8runs) and multiple client machines. Since I am not in a situationwhere I can experiment with Net Render, I will just describe it.Again, there is a description of this module in more depth on the.Net Render couples the idea of improved speedby rendering using multiprocessors with the idea of working with anetwork. Basically, here is how Net Render works. There are twoprograms, a server program and a client program. The server sends afile to the client program machine to be rendered. This machine, inturn, sends it back to the server when the rendering is complete.Thus, multiple renderings can be done at one time.
In Net Render,the server license is not free, but with the Studio bundle, theclient licenses are unlimited according to the Maxon documentation.The XL bundle comes with 1 server and 3 client licenses.Advanced Render adds its own advanced renderingengines to Cinema 4D R8 to create an environment of realism. Usingit, one can control Radiosity, Caustics, Depth of Field, and theability to produce highlights and glowing effects.Advanced Render through the manipulation of the radiositycontrols gives the user the ability to use a skydome to simulatenatural enveloping lighting.
Adding to this is the ability tomanipulate the dials that control the caustics. Caustics controlshow the light will look that reflects off of objects.While depth of field is simulated in most 3D packages to somedegree, the Cinema 4D R8's Advanced Render module brings incontrols such as the ability to animate perspective over a periodof time.The highlights and glow portion of this module has the abilitywhen activated to analyze a scene and add highlights.One of the most exciting modules of the XL bundle is theMOCCA module. MOCCA stands for MOtion Capture andCharacter Animation. In the introduction to the MOCCA module itstates that this module is a toolset collection created to buildand amplify character developement.
It is not a quick fix to createinstant animators since this cannot be done. The tutorials in themanual first review forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, and thesoft kinematics before going into MOCCA and creating a fullyanimated character.I didn't fully work with the MOCCA module since I do not docharacter animation and, thus, couldn't honestly test it out. Iworked with parts of the tutorials to become more familiar with theseparate components.
MOCCA uses a soft-IK system that can beaffected by dynamic forces as well as gravity, inertia, etc.XPresso enters into to this aspect of the Cinema 4D with the MOCCAmodule by allowing for easier manipulation of these propertiesthrough sliders.Below is a screen capture of the MOCCA plugins.Two of the tools in MOCCA are a bone manipulation tool for aneasy setup of bone chains as well as bone splitting. Bones can alsobe mirrored thus reducing the amount of work involved. I addedbones to the tail by just clicking with the control key using theBone Tool. Notice how these bones are arranged in the ObjectManager as children of each other. Animation of transitions has been made easy through thePose2Pose library. All poses can be stored in this library andtransistions between them can be controled by the click of abutton.
MoMix groups motion into tracks that can be placed on atimeline and mixed.With the Cappucino tool you can 'sketch' animation inreal-time. You can manipulate 3D objects so as to see a roughoutline of the animation.The Posemixer is an invaluable tool for creating facialanimations. Features such as brows, noses, as well as phonemes canbe mixed together. These new poses remain linked to the others thatwere used in their creation so that editing can be done at anytime.Once again, I suggest you look at the MOCCA module on theunderproducts to see some of these tools at work.The BodyPaint 3D upgrade installed perfectly with Cinema 4D XLR8. While it is the same basic program as the standalone BodyPaint3D V6xxx, this new one is necessary if it is to be integrated withRelease 8.
For more information, contact Maxon.Beforestarting to use BodyPaint 3D as an integrated part of Cinema 4D, itis wise to change the interface. In the top left corner of thescreen, you will see a button that looks like the one on the right.When you click on it, a menu will fly out listing the presetinterface configurations. One of these is for BodyPaint. And youcan set up your screen to look exactly as if you were working inBodyPaint 3D as a standalone application.There are a lot of materials on the web that relate to Cinema 4Dand various versions.
More and more are being added for R8. Maxon'swebsite under Support and Resources list various communities,forums, tutorial sites, sites for downloading plugins, and forums.Some of my favorite forums are the, theCinema 4D forum on, the Cinema 4D forum on, and the Cinema 4D forumon.If you want to find out more about this excellent and actually'learnable' program even for newbies, I suggestdownloading the demo at Demoversions and then going toDocumetation and downloading the tutorials and examples,and if you are new to Cinema 4D, start with the tutorials. If youalready are a Cinema 4D user, you might want to look through theQuickStart Tutorials found at supporttutorialsCinema4D R8 QuickStart. As always, I invite you to visit my web site,All supporting images are copyright, andcannot becopied, printed, or reproduced in any manner without writtenpermission from the artist. is a regular Renderosity Front Pagefeatured column, where Paula investigates and comments on graphicsoftware, techniques, and other relevant material through herreviews, tutorials, and general articles.