Maxon announced its spring product updates on 10 April 2022. These include a large collection of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. Maxon also adds ZBrush digital sculpting software to its product lineup, following its recent acquisition, (see: Architosh, “Maxon Closes Pixologic Acquisition—Accelerates Growth,” 24 Jan 2022)
Pixologic is now part of the Maxon company but will remain in Los Angeles.
Maxon product updates, key takeaways
- Cinema 4D S26 offers better integration with other Maxon tools.
- Forger now offers a selection of polygonal primitives (simple three-dimensional shapes).
- Magic Bullet Suite 16 adds new Halation and Optical Diffusion tools for Looks.
- Redshift now has CPU rendering.
- Trapcode Suite now offers M1 Mac support for all Trapcode tools.
- Universe 6 receives new creative tools.
- VFX Suite 3 introduces Real Lens Flares.
- Zbrush joins the Maxon family of high-end graphics products.
Cinema 4D S26
Maxon product updates include its Cinema4D package
Cinema 4D S26 offers better integration with other Maxon tools, unifying the entire 3D workflow. It also provides the ability to integrate Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code with Cinema 4D’s Script Manager. This loads, runs, and debugs Cinema 4D scripts from VS Code.
Forger
The latest version of Forger reveals the first stage in Maxon’s plan to provide powerful hard-surface modeling capabilities to 3D artists. Built with Cinema 4D’s polygonal foundation, Forger now offers a selection of polygonal primitives, including capsules, cubes, spheres, cylinders, planes, pyramids, tanks, and tori. These primitives can be shaped and crafted into complex creations with Forger’s set of sculpting tools, using Apple Pencil.
Magic Bullet
Maxon product updates to Magic Bullet Suite 16 add two new film and lens emulation tools for Looks, Halation, and Optical Diffusion. It also offers the first incarnation of its new Color Management system OpenColorIO.
Redshift
Redshift has added CPU rendering. This allows users to use Redshift’s powerful materials and photorealistic rendering on any modern system and a growing number of creative tools including Houdini, Maya, 3ds max, Blender, Katana, Vectorworks, and Archicad. The new Redshift Standard material is easy to use and offers a range of shading models for improved photorealism.
Redshift is also M1-native. In recent tests from LearnSketch.com one can see that the M1 Max is remarkable at Rendershift rendering, which is GPU-based.
Trapcode Suite
Maxon product updates to its Trapcode Suite 18 now offer M1 Apple Macintosh support for all Trapcode tools. Particular now has Layer Maps. Fluid Random Swirl controls are no longer disabled in the Designer. Pre-run now migrates data from older projects.
Universe
Maxon product updates to Universe 6 add new tools to enhance an artist’s workflow. Sketchify adds sketch- and cartoon-like effects to footage. ChromaTown creates chromatic streaks and blurs for warpy looks and transitions, while Box Bokeh provides square or diamond-shaped lens bokeh effects. Stretch Transition adds a stretchy crossfade between clips for a warp-like transition. Combined with over 70 new presets, Universe 6 helps artists to get impressive results quickly and intuitively.
ZBrush
Maxon acquired ZBrush in December 2021. ZBrush is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing, and painting. It uses a proprietary “pixel” technology that stores lighting, color, material, orientation, and depth information for the points making up all objects on the screen.
Maxon CEO, David McGavran explains the rationale for Maxon product updates:
“Our goal is to provide artists with trailblazing technology and workflows to create in all dimensions. This expansive update across all of Maxon’s creative tools comes together to provide incredible value and opportunities for creative expression in Maxon One.”
About Maxon
Maxon develops professional-quality software for editors, filmmakers, motion designers and visual effects artists. Maxon One subscribers can immediately download all product updates via the Maxon App.
The Maxon App is an all-new desktop application that provides a more intuitive way to install and update your favorite Maxon application, as well as manage your Maxon licenses. You can download a 14-day trial of the entire Maxon One package from within the Maxon App. This allows you to test all the new features from the entire Maxon product range.
- More information about the Maxon app.
- Video overview of Maxon’s latest updates.