Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation software. It’s used in procedural and polygonal/subd modeling, lighting, rendering, animating, and texturing. There are many versions of Cinema 4D; Cinema 4D Studio, Cinema 4D Broadcast, Cinema 4D Visualize, Cinema 4D Prime and BodyPaint 3D.

Cinema 4D was used in the creation of many AAA games like Syndicate, The Outsider, WARHAMMER and many other games. In the movie industry it was used in movies like Smurfy Adventure, Iron Man 2, Wonder Woman, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Beowulf, War of the Worlds and many other movies.

Learning Cinema 4D isn’t only essential for games and movies designers, but it’s also helpful for teachers (there’s a free version of Cinema 4D for educational purposes) as it allows teachers to create a more immersive and compelling experience for their students. It can also be used by engineers (Mechanical, Architecture, etc.) to demonstrate their ideas in an engaging way. Finally it can help entrepreneurs in creating a small demonstration for their ideas that’s more appealing than just plain text.

This post is a road map for anyone willing to start learning Cinema 4D online for free from scratch, the post will present and compare between the best online sources where beginners can start from and follow along, the sources stated in this post are full structured courses so you won’t find a link to a single video or a group of unrelated tutorials.

Start Learning Cinema 4D for Free from Scratch

Greyscalegorilla

Greyscalegorilla is the first free online outlet where beginners can start learning Cinema 4D through video tutorials, you don’t need to register in order to have access to the video tutorials, just go to the website and you’re ready to go.

Structure: The course is divided into two main sections; the intro section and the projects section. Each section is divided into lessons and each lesson covers certain topics in Cinema 4D. The instructor makes it very easy for beginners to start with him and follow along.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just click on the lesson you’re interested in and the video will start.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

Free. The course is well-structured and organized for beginners The instructor makes it very easy for beginners to follow along. Covers the majority of the topics you should be familiarized with as a beginner.

Cons

The only drawback is that the course doesn’t cover the latest version of Cinema 4D, though that won’t be a big problem for beginners.

Verdict: This is the best place for Cinema 4D beginners to start from.

Behance

Behance is the second free online outlet where beginners can start learning Cinema 4D through video tutorials, you don’t need to register in order to have access to the tutorials, just go to the website and start the tutorials.

Structure: The training is divided into 10 video tutorials, each video tutorial covers a certain topic in Cinema 4D.

Interface: The interface is very simple, just go to the website and click on the lesson you’re interested in and you’re ready to go.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

Free. The course is well-organized for beginners.

Cons

The course covers an old version of Cinema 4D.

Verdict: Though this is a very good source for beginners to start learning Cinema 4D, but Greyscalegorilla course covers more topics in more depth.

Cineversity

Cineversity is the third free online outlet where beginners can start learning Cinema 4D through video tutorials, this outlet is similar to the two above as you don’t need to register in order to have access to the training videos.

Structure: This training is divided into sections, and each section is divided into topics, and each topic is broken down to lessons that cover that topic.

Interface: The interface is very intuitive, just click on topic you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to a new window where you will find all of the lessons discussing that topic.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

Free. The course is well-organized and structure for beginners. The training gives you some insides about modeling as a whole. Perfect duration for each lesson.

Cons

The course covers an old version of Cinema 4D.

Verdict: This is a perfect source for beginners to start from if you’re not comfortable with the long duration of the videos on Greyscalegorilla.

Cinema4D.ws

Cinema4D.ws is the fourth free online outlet where beginners can start learning Cinema 4D through video tutorials, you don’t need to register in order to have access to the tutorials.

Structure: The course is divided into sections (Basics, Modeling and Sculpting) and each section is divided into lessons, it’s more of a “learn by doing” than a beginners tutorial, also I’ve to warn you that there’s no audio in these tutorials!

Interface: the interface is quite simple, just click on the section you’re interested in and the lessons available will appear, and when you click on the lesson you’ll be directed to the video’s window.

Now, the pros and cons:

Pros

Free. Covers the very essential basics of Cinema 4D.

Cons

No audio.

Verdict: The absence of audio makes it not suitable for beginners.

Maxon C4D YouTube Channel

Maxon C4D YouTube Channel is the fifth online outlet where beginners can start learning Cinema 4D through video tutorials, this’s the official Cinema 4D channel (Cinema 4D is developed by Maxon).

Structure: The training is divided into 108 video tips that covers the basic concepts of Cinema 4D.

Now the pros and cons:

Pros

Free. The tips covers the majority of the basics of Cinema 4D.

Cons

Doesn’t cover Cinema 4D in depth, so it’s not a stand alone solution for learning cinema 4D.

Verdict: It’s suitable for those who wants to get an over view about Cinema 4D .

Bottom Line

The recipe for learning Cinema 4D

The best place to start from is Greyscalegorilla if you’ve no problem with too long lessons, but if you prefer chopped lessons then Cineversity is your way to go. If you’re a Maya or 3DS Max user and you’re curious about Cinema 4D then Behance is your best option. If you’re an Engineer/Entrepreneur/Teacher/Else and want to know how can Cinema 4D help you , then Maxon C4D YouTube Channel is the best place to start from on.

Remember that the first step is always the toughest step, and the aim of this post is to provide you with resources that will help you take your first step in Cinema 4D.

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