Maxon has rolled out a major release for all its products packed with new creativity-boosting upgrades and tools, including a new Cinema 4D particle system, NPR rendering in Redshift, and a brand new tool Red Giant Geo, an approachable yet powerful way to add 3D objects to After Effects.
Maxon One offers one of the most powerful creative toolsets for realistic sculpting, creating impressive VFX, designing professional graphics or visualizing industrial and architectural content, and adding finishing touches with compositing, editing, and filmmaking tools. Just in time for NAB Show, the industry's global event, Maxon has introduced a series of new features across a range of Maxon One apps including Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Red Giant.
The most exciting update is the integration of GPU-accelerated new Unified Particles, allowing artists to create complex particle effects, emitting particles from shapes, other objects, and even other particles, all based on physically-accurate properties, and control them using user-friendly modifiers.
These new particles are part of Cinema 4D's Unified Simulation System, which interacts seamlessly with Pyro, Cloth, rigid bodies, and soft bodies.
A collection of these incredible particle presets is included in Cinema 4D's Asset Browser, and there's also a free training course available on Cineversity to help you start exploring the possibilities. New presets will be added continuously.
Simulations have been improved with updates to Cinema 4D's Connector Object with streamlined workflows, and artist-friendly behaviors. Rigid body simulations now allow users to automatically connect multiple objects, Aerodynamics offer more realistic simulation, and all simulations can now be cached to external files.
Other enhancements include Property Transfer, which makes it easy to transfer tag data from one object to another, and a new Keep Spacing option for the Smooth Edge tool. The Asset Browser now automatically triggers the Place tool while dragging assets to a scene and instantly creates auto-generated dome lights for HDRI assets.
Redshift now features non-photorealistic rendering to add a classic cartoon feel to an animation, more flexible Standard Volumes, support for AMD graphics, alpha mask support for Redshift area lights, and more.
New shading nodes draw lines around contours and make it easy to get cel-shaded and other stylized looks on the Toon Shader and halftone shading with the Tone Map Pattern shader.
New Standard Volume Nodes make it easy to quickly add variation and fine detail when rendering volumes like Pyro and clouds. The Standard Volume shader now works within global environment fog.
Area lights can now be masked with the Opacity Texture option or adjusted with the Opacity slider, and mesh lights have been overhauled to behave like standard area lights, with visibility options and AOVs.
Lastly, Red Giant introduces Red Giant Geo, a new tool to add 3D objects to After Effects in a familiar way. With seven supported file formats, use integrated cloner options to create quick and easy arrays in box, sphere, or cylinder shapes, and use any layer or comp to customize textures and materials using the full power of After Effects.
This release also includes performance updates for direct link in Unreal Engine 5 for Cineware, the bridge between Cinema 4D and other applications. As for After Effects, there are also several new features, including the Cinema 4D Asset Browser that gives you access to the massive library of 3D objects right from within After Effects.
As usual, new Capsules are available to Maxon One users every month, which contains a wide variety of assets for any kind of project. The latest release includes Ivy Generator, allowing artists to add animated ivy to the surface, and some commonly used items, including nodes and materials.
The whole list of updates for Maxon One software is huge, so watch the introductory video above and check out the release notes for every app here. Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.