Intro to Cinema 4D Flashcards
What timeline mode is better for controlling velocities (eases)?
F-Curve mode. The Dope Sheet mode is better for moving keyframes around in time.
What is this?
It is the all-powerful Commander. It allows you to search for almost anything inside the program with a word search. The shortcut is SHIFT+C. This is a shortcut you should try to commit to memory.
If a parent and child have different materials, does the parent’s material apply to the child?
No. If there is a material applied to the child, it will receive that material.
What do these control (located at the upper right of the Viewport window)?
From left to right: Moves camera (left/right & up/down), scales camera (back and forth), and orbits camera. The hotkeys are 1,2,3.
What does this expand or collapse?
The Material Manager. This is where all of your materials are stored.
If I am stuck and there is no one around to help me, what can I do?
- Try right-clicking on the object or operation in question and selecting ‘Show Help’ at the bottom of the drop down list. 2. Google search 3. Ask ChatGPT 4. Ask someone on Reddit (r/Cinema4D) 5. Join Core4D.com ($5 every 3 months) this is the best forum for advice.
What button opens the Render Settings window?
What button renders your project?
This button will start your render. The Picture Viewer will then open and display the progress of your render.
If my Redshift render is noisy what setting should I change?
You can easily change the quality from low to medium inside the Redshift section. You can also look into noise removal operations as Redshift comes with a few options.
What are two ways to apply a material to an object?
- Drag it directly onto the object in the Viewport 2. Drag it onto its name in the Object Manager. You will need to do #2 if the object is grouped.
Explain: X, Y, and Z coordinates
You can think of ‘X’ as left and right, ‘Y’ as up and down, and ‘Z’ as depth or back and forth in space.
What does the Target tag do? (You can access this by right-clicking on an object and finding it under the Animation Tags category.)
When applied to an model, light or camera, it will force that object to face the target object of your choice.
What does this do?
Moves one frame forward. Hotkey is ‘G’.
What would you adjust to render at a different resolution?
How do you specify the save location and file name for your render?
Click the folder in the circled area. If you are doing a mulit-pass render (render passes for use in After Effects), you would enter the same information in the Multi-Pass Image section as well. Give it the identical name and save location as your main render (copy and paste the information into this field).
What do I do if the program is acting funny?
Restart the program or reboot your computer. Also, look to see if there is an update for your current version (.2, .3, .4 etc.). The program can be buggy at times. You might not want to jump to a whole new version (e.g. from 2025 to 2026), until at least one update has been released (e.g. 2026.1).
What hotkey activates the Scale tool?
T (maybe think of ‘t’ as in transform)
What does this do?
Expands or collapses the timeline.
What does this icon do?
It allows you to move the object’s anchor point. After activated, you can then use the move tool (E) or other axis tools to move this point. REMEMBER to deactivate this icon once you are finished.
How do I undock a window?
Click on the hamburger icon in the upper-left of the window and choose ‘undock’.
What is the issue with this disc?
There isn’t enough geometry to create a smooth edge appearance at this viewing distance. Increase the rotational segment number until you achieve a smooth appearance.
What does this control (located at the top of the Viewport)?
It controls how you see your geometry in the Viewport. The quality decreases as you descend the list. If you want to see the actual polygons (wireframe), you need to choose an option with ‘Lines’ in the name.
What does this do?
Plays the Timeline.
What type of render creates a low-quality fast render? And what is this render good for?
A Viewport render. This is good to get a general sense of timing, pacing, and the animation. This can often be used as a placeholder if an edit is occurring at the same time.
What window does this expand or collapse?
Asset Browser. Here you will find textures, HDRIs, models, scenes, presets and more. Explore it!
Where should my Node Editor go if I have 2 screens?
On a second screen. This widow requires a lot of real estate in practice. Click on the hamburger icon and choose ‘undock’. Move and expand the window on the second monitor and then go to Window>Customization>Save Layout As…and name it. This will add it as a new layout option at the top of the interface.
What would you adjust to render at a different frame rate?
You need to actually change it in two places. The first is inside the Render Settings window and the second place is in Project Setting (CMD+D). Project Settings will appear in the Attributes window. You need to set both of these at the beginning of your project or any set keyframes could get their timing altered. Additionally, don’t work in fractional frame rates like 29.97, the program doesn’t deal with it correctly. In the case of 29.97, work in 30 instead.
If you wanted to switch this render from a PNG sequence to a MOV file, where would you make that change?
What does this do?
It will toggle the active view. If you are in a single view, it will toggle a 4-up view. To solo any of these other views, simply click the same symbol in any of the windows.
How do I create a new material?
Expand the Material Manager (looks like a crystal ball) and click the plus symbol.
What are these?
Primitives. They are basic shapes that can be adjusted with parametric controls. Their parametric condition can be broken by hitting the ‘C’ key. The object will then be an editable polygonal object.
Why is it important to organize objects into the template categories?
Scenes can quickly become a visual mess without some kind of organization (dozens or 100s of objects are not uncommon). You don’t need to use this system, but some kind of system is professionally necessary.
Which button creates a null object?
What does this do?
Brings the playhead to the start of the timeline.
What kind of light should you use to light a scene with an HDRI image?
Dome light. Drag the HDRI image from the Asset Browser into the highlighted field or click the folder icon and load an HDRI from your hard drive (make sure it’s in the ‘tex’ folder!).
What does this object do?
It is a Subdivision Surface and it creates object smoothing. This allows for detailed, smoothed shapes with a low polygon count.
What does this control?
It is the preview range. It determines how long the the timeline plays before looping back to the start of the range. It does not control what frames are ultimately rendered. That information is determined inside of the Render Settings window.
If you are not doing a multi-pass render (render passes for After Effects), which box should you uncheck?
You should turn this off as it might create unnecessary renders.
What do these do?
From top to bottom: Move, rotate, scale. The hotkeys are: E, R, T, respectively.
How do you change the color of a Standard material?
Click the swatch or you can select the eyedropper and sample a color anywhere on screen.
What do these lighting controls do? And what are the difference between the two controls?
They both control light intensity. Use the top slider first, and if you need much more light, the bottom slider is a multiplier of the top value.
What do these do?
They lock the axes of your choice and disable the selected axis when moving an object directly in the Viewport. For instance, if you activate ‘Y’, you won’t be able to drag objects up and down. This can be very helpful and eliminate unwanted movements. This does not lock the ability to move an object in the Coordinates Manager.
What does this do?
For the selected object, it will add keyframes for position, rotation, and scale.
What does this do?
Moves one frame back. Hotkey is ‘F’.
Where do you specify which frames to render?
If you wanted to render from the start of the Timeline to frame 100, you would enter 0 in the top box and 100 in the lower box.
What button actives the Redshift Renderview?
