In one of our last introduction sessions with Stephen, we were given an intro to Cinema 4D, a software used for 3D animation which is meant to be intertwined with After Effects.
At first were were shown examples of how the software can be utilised, from professional people to more simplistic designs that we ourselves were capable of recreating. I really did struggle with getting to grips with Cinema 4D, as the interface is completely different to that of any other software that I've seen. However, I found the work shown to be really interesting and enlightening to the capabilities of how clever Cinema 4D can be - it also made me realise how, when intertwined with After Effects, the work produced could be at a professional level, something that I'm looking to re-create myself.
We looked at the tools of the programme - this, again, proved quite difficult for me as I struggled to get to grips with remembering what each tool was for, although generating shapes by using the top tool, and scrolling along the design board were things that I could pick up, and proved quite easy to get to grips with, some things that were more about editing the shape and even creating the animation itself just confused me at the over-complexity of the software, which I didn't like at first.
I struggled to get to grips with Cinema 4D in it's entirety, I think after a lot of practice and playing around with the software, which is what I normally do to get to learn a software, will prove better and mean that I can experiment and play with the software at my own designated pace and can discover things we were not taught in the session. Overall though I was really impressed with the work shown in the session and some of the things we could produce very quickly, although I still believe the tools are hard to get to grips with.