Platform

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Cross-platform support for Mac & Windows

x

x

x

x

x

64-bit architecture

x

x

x

x

x

OpenGL 3.0 support

x

x

x

x

x

Extensive API: C++, Python, C.O.F.F.E.E.

x

x

x

x

Interface & Workflow

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Context-sensitive, fully-searchable HTML help

x

x

x

x

x

Commander

x

x

x

x

x

To Do List

x

x

x

x

x

Multiple projects open at once

x

x

x

x

x

Customizable toolbars / layouts / menus

x

x

x

x

x

Light and dark interface schemes

x

x

x

x

x

Unlimited view windows

x

x

x

x

x

Heads-up display

x

x

x

x

x

Custom pop-up menu

x

x

x

x

x

Non-modal tools with realtime feedback

x

x

x

x

x

Collapsible Managers & Palettes

x

x

x

x

x

Selection / display filters

x

x

x

x

x

Custom User Data per object

x

x

x

x

x

Doodle viewport annotation tool

x

x

x

x

Layer system for object & material management

x

x

x

x

x

XRef external instancing / referencing system

x

x

x

x

Tablet support for Wacom and other pen tablets

x

x

x

x

x

3dconnexion 3DMouse support

x

x

x

x

Stereo display in Viewport

x

x

x

x

OpenGL Viewport

x

x

x

x

x

Object highlighting

x

x

x

x

x

Available in 11 languages

x

x

x

x

x

Arabic interface support

x

x

x

x

OS X Lion Fullscreen support

x

x

x

x

Retina Icons

x

x

x

x

Solo Button

x

x

x

x

Annotations Tag

x

x

x

x

User Participation

x

x

x

x

New Crashhandler

x

x

x

x

Misc Workflow Enhancements

x

x

x

x

Camera

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Camera, Target Camera, Stereo Camera

x

x

x

x

x

Motion Camera

x

x

x

Camera Composition Helpers

x

x

x

x

x

Camera Focus Picker

x

x

x

x

x

Camera Calibrator

x

x

Camera Morph

x

x

x

Camera Crane

x

x

x

Data Exchange / Format Support

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

QuickTime support

x

x

x

x

x

AVI support

Win

Win

Win

Win

Win

Image formats - float with layers: PSD, TIFF, OpenEXR

x

x

x

x

x

Image formats - float: HDR, DPX, RLA, RPF

x

x

x

x

x

Image formats: BMP, IFF, JPG, PICT, PNG, TARGA

x

x

x

x

x

Quicktime VR object, panorama

x

x

x

x

x

CINEWARE compatible

x

x

x

x

x

After Effects compositing exchange with 3D data

x

x

x

x

Nuke exchange

x

x

x

x

Photoshop exchange

x

x

x

x

x

Apple Motion compositing exchange with 3D data

x

x

x

x

Apple Final Cut Pro compositing exchange

Mac

Mac

Mac

Mac

Digital Fusion compositing exchange

Win

Win

Win

Win

Shake compositing exchange

x

x

x

x

Support of DXF, DWG, 3DS, DAE, FBX, DEM, LWS, STL, VRML2, OBJ, COLLADA, Alembic

x*

x

x

x

x

IGES importer

x

x

Okino connection - seamless CAD file import via optional PolyTrans software (Windows only)

x

x

BodyPaint 3D exchange - 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage and Lightwave

x

x

x

x

Support of most current FBX and Alembic formats (FBX 2014 & Alembic 1.5)

x

x

x

x

* Import only

Modeling Tools

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Prime

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Studio

Parametric object primitives

x

x

x

x

x

Scene Objects: Floor, Sky, Environment, Stage, Foreground, Background

x

x

x

x

x

Parametric spline primitives

x

x

x

x

x

Extrude, Lathe, Loft, Sweep

x

x

x

x

x

Polygonal modeling tools with N-gon support

x

x

x

x

Subdivision surfaces

x

x

x

x

x

Modeling Generators: Metaball, Boolean, Symmetry, Array, Atom Array, Instance, Connect, Spline Mask, Python

x*

x

x

x

x

PolyPen Tool

x

x

x

x

Bevel Deformer

x

x

x

x

Enhanced Cogwheel

x

x

x

x

Improved Symmetry Object

x

x

x

x

Deformer Falloff

x

x

x

x

Mesh Check

x

x

x

x

Sculpting

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Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Sculpt functionality

x

Sculpt Brushes

x

Baking

x

C++ Sculpt Brush API

x

Python Support for lib_sculpt

x

R16 Sculpting

x

UV Editing

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

UV Editor

x

x

x

x

Interactive UV mapping by projection types

x

x

x

x

Optimal UV mapping to automatically remove seams

x

x

x

x

LSCM unwrapping and relaxing

x

x

x

x

ABF unwrapping and relaxing

x

x

x

x

UV Peeler

x

x

x

x

UVs for Caps

x

x

x

x

UV Enhancements

x

x

x

x

Materials & Texturing

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

12 standard material channels: Color, Diffusion, Luminance, Transparency, Reflection, Environment, Fog, Bump, Normal, Alpha, Glow, Displacement

x

x

x

x

x

Transparency with absorption, total internal reflections, exit reflections

x

x

x

x

x

Blurry reflections and transparencies

x

x

x

x

x

Normal maps: tangent, object or world

x

x

x

x

x

Displacement: intensity (centered), red/green and RGB

x

x

x

x

x

Choose Photoshop PSD layers per usage

x

x

x

x

x

Animated textures (MOV, AVI, sequence) with viewport preview

x

x

x

x

x

Selectable viewport resolution and channel display per material

x

x

x

x

x

Shading models: Lambertian, Oren-Nayar

x

x

x

x

x

Fresnel Shader incl. physically correct IOR

x

x

x

x

x

Noise Procedural shader with 32 different noise algorithms

x

x

x

x

x

Layer shader

x

x

x

x

x

Proximity-based Proximal shader

x

x

x

x

x

Procedural surface shaders

x

x

x

x

x

Texture baking: surface color, illumination, Ambient Occlusion, Normals, displacement and more

x

x

x

x

x

Sub-polygon displacement

x

x

Sub-Surface Scattering

x

x

x

Terrain Mask shader

x

x

Brick, Wood, Weathering, Pavement and Normalizer Shaders

x

x

x

x

Sketch & Toon Art, Hatch, Spot (halftone) Shaders

x

x

3D Painting with layers, all blend modes and Photoshop file compatibility

x

x

x

x

x

Multi-brush painting of multiple material channels in single stroke

x

x

x

x

x

Raybrush painting directly onto rendered result

x

x

x

x

x

Projection painting

x

x

x

x

x

Exchange projections with Photoshop

x

x

x

x

x

Camera Mapping

x

x

x

x

x

ProjectionMan camera mapping workflow tool

x

x

x

x

x

Texture Manager

x

x

x

x

Grass Material Shader

x

x

Brick Shader Enhancements

x

x

x

x

Reflectance Channel

x

x

x

x

Lighting

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Light Types: Omni, Spot, Infinite, Area, Square Spot, Parallel Spot, Square Parallel Spot

x

x

x

x

x

Hard, Soft, Area shadows

x

x

x

x

x

Visible, Volumetric and Inverse Volumetric lighting

x

x

x

x

x

Noise within light illumination and/or visibility

x

x

x

x

x

Include/exclude light diffusion, specular, shadow per object

x

x

x

x

x

Custom lens flares

x

x

x

x

x

Caustics

x

x

Color temperature in Kelvin

x

x

x

x

x

Photometric brightness setting in Candela and Lumen

x

x

x

x

x

Support of IES light data

x

x

Rendering

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Render up to 128,000 pixels square / 32 bits per pixel

800 x 600

x

x

x

x

Bucket rendering

x

x

x

x

x

Render instances

x

x

x

x

x

Color profile support

x

x

x

x

x

Camera white balance

x

x

x

x

x

Linear workflow

x

x

x

x

x

Adaptive antialiasing

x

x

x

x

x

Multi-Pass output

x*

x

x

x

x

Object buffers - specify unique alpha channels per object

x*

x

x

x

x

Ambient Occlusion

x

x

x

x

x

Global Illumination (IR 2.0, QMC, mixed)

x

x

x

x

Physical Renderer with physical camera, high-qualitiy depth of field, high-quality motion blur

x

x

x

Stereo rendering

x

x

x

x

Depth of Field post effect

Pass

x

x

Vector Motion Blur post effect

Pass

x

x

Position Pass

x

x

x

x

x

CineMan Renderman-compliant bridge

x

x

Sketch and Toon non-photorealistic rendering

x

x

Pyrocluster volumetric particle rendering

x

x

Physical Sky

x

x

3D Sound Rendering

x

x

x

x

x

Picture Viewer : RAM player, color correction, image merge, anaglyph preview and more

x

x

x

x

x

Watermark post effect

x

x

x

x

Render Queue batch rendering system

x

x

x

x

Universal Sampler (GI-QMC)

x

x

x

x

Radiosity maps

x

x

x

x

Subsurface-Scatering

x

x

x

Embree Integration

x

x

x

Light Mapping

x

x

x

x

Normal Pass

x

x

x

x

Team Render (Number of Nodes)

x (3)

x (3)

x (unlimited)

Team Render Server (Number of Nodes)

x (3)

x (3)

x (unlimited)

BiRender - Non-Photorealistic Rendering (Sketch and Toon & Hair)

x

x

* Only available thru AE CINEMA 4D Layer

Animation

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Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Easy one-click record button to keyframe Position, Scale, Rotation, Point Level animation and user-defined parameters

x

x

x

x

x

Record dot animation of all animatable parameters

x

x

x

x

x

Automatic keyframing

x

x

x

x

x

Cappucino - realtime keyframing

x

PowerSlider animation toolbar for playback and keyframe manipulation

x

x

x

x

x

Timeline - up to four timeline windows with customizable track display and dopesheet or F-Curve view modes

x*

x

x

x

x

F-Curve Snapshot and Reduced Modification curves

x

x

x

x

Constant Velocity option per track

x

x

x

x

x

Keyframe reduction

x

x

x

x

Keyframe baking

x

x

x

x

ASCII animation import

x

x

x

x

Non-linear animation / motion mixing system

x

x

x

x

Constraints: PSR, Up-Vector, Clamp, Mirror, Parent, Aim, Spring

x

x

x

x

Driver tag

x

XPresso - node-based Expression Editor

x**

x

x

x

x

Virtual Walkthrough tool - first-person scene navigation and animation

x

x

Interaction Tag

x

x

x

x

Animation Dots

x

x

x

x

Motion Tracker

x

* One Timeline window only

** Does not include the Python Node

Dynamic Animation

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Basic particle system

x

x

x

x

Thinking Particles node-based particle system

x

Rigid Body dynamics for MoGraph objects

x

x

Rigid Body dynamics

x

Joints, Springs, Motors

x

Soft Body dynamics

x

Aerodynamics forces

x

Plastic & Breaking Springs

x

Breaking Connectors

x

Cloth dynamics & dressing functions

x

Hair dynamics

x

Spline dynamics

x

MoGraph Tools

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Cloner object

x

x

Fracture object

x*

x

x

Matrix object

x

x

MoInstance object

x

x

MoText object

x

x

Tracer object

x

x

Spline Mask object

x

x

x

x

MoSpline parametric spline generator with L-system functionality

x

x

Effectors for Position, Scale, Rotation, Color, Time using Falloff, Shader, Random, Formula, Delay, C.O.F.F.E.E., Python, Inheritance, Sound, Spline, Step, Target, Time or Volume effectors

x*

x

x

PolyFX polygon fracture deformer

x

x

MoGraph Selection tag

x

x

Beat Shader

x

x

MoGraph Multi-shader

x

x

MoExtrude

x

x

* Fracture Object, Plain and Random Effectors only after registration

Character Animation Tools

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Character object / autorigger

x

CMotion - parametric walk system

x

Joints with full dynamic IK

x

x

x

x

Skin Deformer supports linear, spherical and blended deformation based on joints

x

x

x

x

Weight Manager and tools

x

x

x

x

Auto weighting

x

x

x

x

PoseMorph morphing and hierarchical mixing system

x

Mirror, Naming and Paint Tools

x

x

x

x

Weight effector

x

x

x

x

VAMP tool for translating weights, morphs, selection, textures, Uvs and vertex maps between different geometry

x

Tension tag

x

Quaternion tag

x

Point Cache tag

x

x

x

x

Muscle deformer

x

Visual Selector

x

Hair Simulation and Rendering

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Guide-based Hair system

x

Hair instancing

x

Feather object

x

Fur system

x

Hair styling tools: Move, Scale, Rotate, Brush, Comb, Clump, Curl, Cut, Push, Straighten, Add Guides, Mirror, Set Roots

x

Hair dynamics

x

Hair shading system with multiple speculars, texture-defined root and tip colors, and variable transparency, thickness, length, scale, frizz, kink, density, clump, tighten, displace, bend, curl, twist, wave, straighten

x

Content

Lite

Prime

Broadcast

Visualize

Studio

Essential presets and demo scenes

x

x

x

x

x

Advanced presets and demo scenes

x

Broadcast Library, incl. materials, cameras and objects

x

x

Visualization Library, incl. materials, presets and architectural objects*

x

x

Lite Library, incl. materials, cameras and objects

x

x

Completely reworked Content Library

x

x

x

x

*Some advanced procedural presets like Door, Window, and Staircase Builder are based on technologies that are not built into in the Visualize version and are therefore only available in Cinema 4D Studio