Compare Cinema 4D versions | Cinema 4D Prime
 | Cinema 4D Broadcast
 | Cinema 4D Visualize
 | Cinema 4D Studio
 |
| Platform | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Cross-platform support for Mac & Windows | | | | |
| 64-bit architecture | | | | |
| Outstanding stability | | | | |
| OpenGL 3.0 support | | | | |
| Extensive API: C++, Python, C.O.F.F.E.E. | | | | |
| Interface & Workflow | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Context-sensitive, fully-searchable HTML help | | | | |
| Multiple projects open at once | | | | |
| Customizable toolbars / layouts / menus | | | | |
| Light and dark interface schemes | | | | |
| Unlimited view windows | | | | |
| Head-up display | | | | |
| Custom pop-up menu | | | | |
| Non-modal tools with realtime feedback | | | | |
| Collapsible Managers & Palettes | | | | |
| Selection / display filters | | | | |
| Custom User Data per object | | | | |
| Doodle viewport annotation tool | | | | |
| Layer system for object & material management | | | | |
| XRef external instancing / referencing system | | | | |
| Tablet support for Wacom and other pen tablets | | | | |
| 3dconnexion 3DMouse support | | | | |
| Data Exchange / Format Support | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Quicktime support | | | | |
| AVI support (Windows only) | | | | |
| Image formats - float with layers: PSD, TIFF | | | | |
| Image formats - float: HDR, DPX, RLA, RPF, OpenEXR | | | | |
| Image formats: BMP, IFF, JPG, PICT, PNG, TARGA | | | | |
| Quicktime VR object, panorama | | | | |
| After Effects compositing exchange with 3D data | | | | |
| Apple Motion compositing exchange with 3D data | | | | |
| Apple Final Cut Pro compositing exchange (Mac only) | | | | |
| Combustion compositing exchange | | | | |
| Digital Fusion compositing exchange (Win only) | | | | |
| Shake compositing exchange | | | | |
| Support of DXF, DWG, 3DS, DAE, FBX, DEM, LWS, SRL, VRML2, OBJ formats | | | | |
| IGES importer | | | | |
| CAD file import via optional Okino PolyTrans | | | | |
| BodyPaint 3D exchange - 3ds Max | | | | |
| BodyPaint 3D exchange - Maya | | | | |
| BodyPaint 3D exchange - Softimage | | | | |
| odyPaint 3D exchange - LightWave 3D | | | | |
| Modeling Tools | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Parametric object primitives | | | | |
| Parametric spline primitives | | | | |
| Extrude, Lathe, Loft, Sweep NURBS | | | | |
| Polygonal modeling tools with N-gon support | | | | |
| HyperNURBs subdivision surfaces | | | | |
| Modeling Generators: Metaball, Boolean, Symmetry, Array, Atom Array, Instance, Connect | | | | |
| Deformers: Bend, Twist, Bulge, Shear, Taper, FFD, Formula, Wind, Explosion, Melt, Shatter, Wrap, Polygon Reduction, Spherify, Spline Rail, Spline Deformer | | | | |
| Displacement Deformer | | | | |
| Camera Deformer | | | | |
| Smoothing Deformer | | | | |
| Spline Wrap Deformer | | | | |
| Shrinkwrap Deformer | | | | |
| UV Editing | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| UV editor | | | | |
| Interactive UV mapping by projection types | | | | |
| Optimal UV mapping to automatically remove seams | | | | |
| LSCM unwrapping and relaxing | | | | |
| ABF unwrapping and relaxing | | | | |
| Materials & Texturing | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| 14 standard material channels: Color, Diffusion, Luminance, Transparency, Reflection, Environment, Fog, Bump, Normal, Alpha, Specular, Specular Color, Glow, Displacement | | | | |
| Transparency with absorption, total internal reflections, exit reflections | | | | |
| Blurry reflections and transparencies | | | | |
| Normal Maps: tangent, object or world | | | | |
| Displacement: intensity (centered), red/green and RGB | | | | |
| Choose Photoshop PSD layers per usage | | | | |
| Animated textures (MOV, AVI, sequence) with viewport preview | | | | |
| Selectable viewport resolution and channel display per material | | | | |
| Shading Models: Phong, Blinn, Oren-Nayer | | | | |
| Fresnel Procedural Shader | | | | |
| Noise Procedural Shader with 32 different noise algorithms | | | | |
| Layer Shader | | | | |
| Proximity-based Proximal Shader | | | | |
| Procedural surface shaders | | | | |
| Texture baking: surface color, illumination, ambient occlusion, normals, displacement and more | | | | |
| Sub-polygon displacement | | | | |
| Sub-surface scattering | | | | |
| Enhanced Brick Shader | | | | |
| Pavement Shader | | | | |
| Sketch & Toon Art Shader | | | | |
| Sketch & Toon Hatch Shader | | | | |
| Sketch & Toon Spots (Halftone) Shader | | | | |
| 3D Painting with layers, all blend modes and Photoshop file compatibility | | | | |
| Multibrush painting of multiple material channels in single stroke | | | | |
| Raybrush painting directly onto rendered result | | | | |
| Projection painting | | | | |
| Exchange projections with Photoshop | | | | |
| Camera mapping | | | | |
| ProjectionMan camera mapping workflow tool | | | | |
| Lighting | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Light Types: Omni, Spot, Infinite, Area, Square Spot, Parallel Spot, Square Parallel Spot | | | | |
| Hard, Soft, Area Shadows | | | | |
| Visible, Volumetric and Inverse Volumetric Lighting | | | | |
| Noise within light illumination or visibility | | | | |
| Include/exclude light diffusion, specular, shadow per object | | | | |
| Custom lens flares | | | | |
| Caustics | | | | |
| Colortemperature in Kelvin | | | | |
| Photometric brightness setting in Candela and lumen | | | | |
| Support of IES light data | | | | |
| Rendering | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Render up to 16,000 pixels square / 32 bits per pixel | | | | |
| Bucket rendering | | | | |
| Render Instances | | | | |
| Color profile support | | | | |
| Camera White Balance | | | | |
| Linear Workflow | | | | |
| Adaptive anti-aliasing | | | | |
| Multi-Pass output | | | | |
| Object buffers - specify unique alpha channels per object | | | | |
| Ambient Occlusion | | | | |
| Global Illumination (IR, QMC, Mixed) | | | | |
| Depth of Field post effect | | | | |
| Vector Motion Blur post effect | | | | |
| CineMan Renderman-compliant bridge | | | | |
| Sketch and Toon non-photorealistic rendering | | | | |
| Pyrocluster volumetric particle rendering | | | | |
| Physical Sky - realistic sky shading with 2D and 3D clouds, accurate sun and star positions, fog and atmosphere effects | | | | |
| 3D Sound Rendering | | | | |
| Picture Viewer with RAM playback (including sound), history, AB compare, histogram, layer view, color correction, full screen mode | | | | |
| Render Queue batch rendering system | | | | |
| Up to 3 Network Rendering clients | | | | |
| Unlimited Network rendering clients | | | | |
| Animation | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Easy one-click record button to keyframe Position, Scale, Rotation, Point Level animation and user-defined parameters | | | | |
| Record-dot animation of all animatable parameters | | | | |
| Automatic keyframing | | | | |
| Cappucino - realtime keyframing | | | | |
| PowerSlider animation toolbar for playback and keyframe manipulation | | | | |
| Up to four timelines windows with customizable track display and dopesheet or F-Curve view modes | | | | |
| F-Curve Snapshots and Reduced Modification Curves | | | | |
| Constant Velocity option per track | | | | |
| Keyframe reduction | | | | |
| Keyframe baking | | | | |
| ASCII animation import | | | | |
| Non-linear animation / motion mixing system | | | | |
| Constraints: PSR, Up-Vector, Clamp, Mirror, Parent, Aim, Spring | | | | |
| Driver tag | | | | |
| XPresso - node based expression editor | | | | |
| Virtual Walkthrough tool - first-person scene navigation and animation | | | | |
| Dynamic Animation | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Basic particle system | | | | |
| Thinking Particles node-based particle system | | | | |
| Rigid Body dynamics (limited to MoGraph objects) | | | | |
| Thinking Particles node-based particle system | | | | |
| Rigid Body Dynamics | | | | |
| Joints, Springs, Motors | | | | |
| Soft Body Dynamics | | | | |
| Cloth dynamics & dressing functions | | | | |
| Hair dynamics | | | | |
| Spline dynamics | | | | |
| MoGraph Tools | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Cloner object | | | | |
| Fracture object | | | | |
| Matrix object | | | | |
| Instance object | | | | |
| Text object | | | | |
| Tracer object | | | | |
| Spline Mask object | | | | |
| MoSpline parametric spline generator with L-system functionality | | | | |
| Effect Position, Scale, Rotation, Color, Time via Falloff, Shader, Random, Formula, Delay, C.O.F.F.E.E., Inheritance, Sound, Spline, Step, Target, Time or Volume | | | | |
| PolyFX polygon fracture deformer | | | | |
| MoGraph Selection tag | | | | |
| Beat Shader | | | | |
| Multi-shader - affect texture based on clone color | | | | |
| Extrude Deformer | | | | |
| Character Animation Tools | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Joints with full dynamic IK | | | | |
| Skin Deformer supporting linear, spherical and blended deformation based on joints | | | | |
| Weighting Manager and tools | | | | |
| PoseMorph morphing and hierarchical mixing system | | | | |
| Mirror tool | | | | |
| Naming tool | | | | |
| Paint tool | | | | |
| Weight Effector | | | | |
| VAMP tool for translating weights, morphs, selection, textures, Uvs and vertex maps between different geometry | | | | |
| Cluster Deformer | | | | |
| Morph Deformer | | | | |
| Jiggle Deformer | | | | |
| Tension tag | | | | |
| Quaternion tag | | | | |
| Point Cache tag | | | | |
| Point Cache Deformer | | | | |
| Correction Deformer | | | | |
| Surface Deformer | | | | |
| Mesh Deformer | | | | |
| Squash & Stretch Deformer | | | | |
| Visual Selector | | | | |
| Hair Simulation and Rendering | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Guide-based Hair system | | | | |
| Hair instancing | | | | |
| Feather object | | | | |
| Fur system | | | | |
| Hair styling tools: Move, Scale, Rotate, Brush, Comb, Clump, Curl, Cut, Push, Straighten, Add Guides, Mirror, Set Roots | | | | |
| Hair dynamics | | | | |
| Hair shading system with multiple speculars, texture-defined root and tip colors, and variable transparency, thickness, length, scale, frizz, kink, density, clump, tighten, displace, bend, curl, twist, wave, straighten | | | | |
| Content | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Essential presets and demo scenes | | | | |
| Advanced presets and demo scenes | | | | |
| Broadcast Library incl. materials, cameras and objects | | | | |
| Visualization Library incl. materials, presets and architectural objects | | | | |
| Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |