Autodesk 3ds Max vs. Cinema 4D

Autodesk 3ds Max

Cinema 4D

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Autodesk 3ds Max	Score 8.7 out of 10	N/A	Autodesk offers 3ds Max, 3D modeling and rendering software for design visualization, games, and animation. The vendor states that users can produce professional-quality 3D animations, renders, and models with an efficient and flexible toolset to help create better 3D content in less time.	$235 per month per user
Cinema 4D	Score 9.5 out of 10	N/A	Maxon, headquartered in Germany, offers Cinema 4D, an animaton suite for 3D artists, which the vendor states is suitable for beginners and seasoned professionals alike, who can take advantage of Cinema 4D’s wide range of tools and features to achieve stunning results for demanding, fast-paced 3D production.	N/A

Pricing

Autodesk 3ds Max

Cinema 4D

Editions & Modules

Monthly Subscription: $235
per month per user
Yearly Subscription: $1875
per year per user
3-Year Subscription: $5625
3 years per user

No answers on this topic

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Autodesk 3ds Max	Cinema 4D
Free Trial
Yes	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

Flex pricing available for limited usage. Minimum plan $300 for 100 tokens. 3ds Max costs 6 tokens per day.

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More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	Autodesk 3ds Max	Cinema 4D
Considered Both Products	Autodesk 3ds Max Roohi Malhotra Sr. Graphic Designer Chose Autodesk 3ds Max In Autodesk 3ds Max you can do camera animation with ease, its complex in Cinema 4D. Even I think same with light setup. Setting up light is quite easy in Autodesk 3ds Max as compare to Cinema 4D. Overall Autodesk 3ds Max is less complex in compare to other 3D softwares. Helpful? RH Rob Holmes Owner / Designer Chose Autodesk 3ds Max Back when 3d programs were becoming more powerful and stable, 3d Studio (yes, it was 3d Studio before it was 3ds Max, more on that later) and Maya were owned by different companies. At that time, you had to Incentivized Helpful? RR Ron Ruvalcava 3D Illustrator/Animator Chose Autodesk 3ds Max Sketch-up week to be vertically integrated to produce concept all the way to high-end render, an animation (effects, particles, soft-body, etc..) All 3 other softwares are fully capable, it just comes down to what software an operator is most familiar with and if it works in … Incentivized Helpful? Arbaz Malik FX TD Chose Autodesk 3ds Max [Most] people like to use Maya for modeling but Maya is only good for soft surface modeling not for hard surface. The [Autodesk 3ds] Max has no limitations in this field, it is open to [making] hard or soft surface modeling. [It] even has great command on fx effects [made] by … Helpful?	Cinema 4D Roohi Malhotra Sr. Graphic Designer Chose Cinema 4D Well, I go for cinema 4D if I want to create dynamic animation instead of Autodesk 3ds Max as I can easily create that animation compared to Autodesk 3ds Max. Incentivized Helpful? ZL Zacheray Long Multimedia Specialist Chose Cinema 4D C4D is more responsive with an interface that works better for me. It is just as widely supported by render farms and plugins, so it edges out primarily on usability and speed. New users will not find 3DS Max intuitive, although I'm sure seasoned users find it very natural. Incentivized Helpful?

Best Alternatives
	Autodesk 3ds Max	Cinema 4D
Small Businesses	Onshape Score 7.4 out of 10	CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Score 7.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Onshape Score 7.4 out of 10	GIMP Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises	Navisworks Score 9.3 out of 10	CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Score 7.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
	Autodesk 3ds Max	Cinema 4D
Likelihood to Recommend	9.3 (13 ratings)	9.7 (5 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	10.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	9.0 (4 ratings)	10.0 (1 ratings)
Support Rating	10.0 (1 ratings)	10.0 (1 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Autodesk 3ds Max	Cinema 4D
Likelihood to Recommend	Autodesk For print media for marketing and for 3d animations for web spots and TV ads/movies/programs. It is less suited for quick 3d graphics or images that you get from AI image programs, but it is much more powerful than most AI image programs. Incentivized Walter K. Gibson, Jr. Assistant Director of Admin Systems Read full review	Maxon Photorealistic Rendering (it takes a LONG time to render for print, but it's insanely realistic). Commercial Production Graphical Integration into print materials (and digital) We did a lot with brochures and billboards. Hi Res rendering takes hours, but the output set us FAR apart from the run-of-the-mill competition we had. Incentivized RL Ryan Lester President Read full review
Pros	Autodesk 3ds Max includes some of the inbuild modifiers which can be very good in the case of beginners. 3rd party Rendering support makes 3ds Max a powerful software for rendering out realistic images. Autodesk 3ds max in comparison to its rivals is lightweight and fast, also the animation case also. Incentivized Jitendra Choubisa Assistant Professor Read full review	Maxon Seemingly endless selection of tools clear and powerful manipulation tools effect use of hotkeys for navigating the 3D space Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Cons	Autodesk working in 2d is very frustrating and unreliable. It just lacks the precision How scaling affects units (or doesn't) There needs to be a way for modifiers to address a change of scale in the object. Booleans are not intuitive. Especially for architecture, creating an opening and putting a door or a window is an incredibly cumbersome process. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Maxon Weak UV mapping interface. Redshift integration is not 100% seamless yet. Weight-mapping is a nightmare. Incentivized ZL Zacheray Long Multimedia Specialist Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	Autodesk It satisfies 95% of my 3d visualization need. The left over 5% is handled by a few other programs. If Max just can't perform a specific task I can do that elsewhere and then bring it back to Max to finish up. But, it's rare that this occurs in my work Incentivized RH Rob Holmes Owner / Designer Read full review	Maxon No answers on this topic
Usability	Autodesk It is a very difficult program to learn to use and even harder to use well. But once you get to using it it is a great software package to know how to use. Getting to be good at using it takes lots of use. Incentivized Walter K. Gibson, Jr. Assistant Director of Admin Systems Read full review	Maxon For reasons mentioned before: an intuitive interface and speed of the viewport, speed of loading, and ease of plugin integration. The MoGraph module encourages experimentation and the creation of highly modifiable scenes. Crashes are extremely rare and the support team and community are hyper-responsive to requests for help. For real... Maxon's staff hangs out in Slack and Discord communities, regularly assisting users with issues. No support ticket required. Incentivized ZL Zacheray Long Multimedia Specialist Read full review
Support Rating	Autodesk I have contacted support many times and have had a good experience. They have always been helpful Incentivized RH Rob Holmes Owner / Designer Read full review	Maxon Maxon's staff regularly hangs out in Slack and Discord communities, ready to assist. This goes beyond the support ticket system, which is also extremely robust. Hundreds of optimizations and bugs are fixed in every patch, even when the user experience is already 99.9% smooth. This is a proactive, not reactive, support and engineering team at Maxon. Incentivized ZL Zacheray Long Multimedia Specialist Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Autodesk Sketch-up week to be vertically integrated to produce concept all the way to high-end render, an animation (effects, particles, soft-body, etc..) All 3 other softwares are fully capable, it just comes down to what software an operator is most familiar with and if it works in the production pipeline for the client. Incentivized RR Ron Ruvalcava 3D Illustrator/Animator Read full review	Maxon Well, I go for cinema 4D if I want to create dynamic animation instead of Autodesk 3ds Max as I can easily create that animation compared to Autodesk 3ds Max. Incentivized Roohi Malhotra Sr. Graphic Designer Read full review
Return on Investment	Autodesk 3ds Max has one of the best control tools that can help someone to sculpt almost anything. With the vertex tool and polyline edit function we can create almost any complex geometry. Default rendering is equipped with almost everything that is needed for process, V-Ray for 3ds Max is the best 3rd party plugin for getting crisp renders. The four view port tools for viewing the model helps from each and every angle. The moment and selection tools in the 3ds Max are quit easy to operate. Incentivized vijay kumar Sr Lighting Artist Read full review	Maxon Producing quality training content reduces mistakes and improves ebitda for our restaurants Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
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