Skip to content
#3 in Cinema 4DUdemyCinema 4dPaid courseAll LevelsCertificate

Cinema 4D Complete : Vol. 1 The Essentials (Udemy.com)

Master the essentials of Cinema 4D

Created by: Lionel VICIDOMINI

Last updated January 2022

Our take

Based on the ratings of 508 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2022. No course pays to be reviewed.

This is the first of Lionel Vicidomini's multi-volume series, and it is deliberately narrow: six hours and 55 lectures on the interface, the object and attribute managers, parametric objects, generators, snapping and the workplane, ending with a small flying saucer modeled from primitives only. Nothing on polygon modeling, lighting or rendering; modeling is Volume 2. It suits people who want to understand what every panel does before they build anything. Reviewers who came from Maya, or who already used C4D, said they still picked up things, workplane options and math modifiers among them.

Students rate the teaching highly; reviewers call the explanations thorough and easy to follow, and one bought the rest of the series straight after. The complaints are consistent. The course was recorded on an older version of Cinema 4D and last updated in January 2022, so some menus and options have moved, and a one-star reviewer said he could not finish exercises when the commands were not mentioned. The captions are auto-generated with plenty of typos, and one reviewer found the lecturer's phrasing misleading too. A working freelancer also felt too much time went on tools that rarely get used.

With 508 reviews and a 4.4 rating, and 460 of them at four or five stars, most people finish happy. Next to the beginner masterclasses listed alongside it, this reads more like a video manual than a make-something-cool course; there is one workshop and no quizzes. If you want a hands-on project on day one, a neighboring beginner course is a better fit. If you'd rather know the software properly and then continue into Volume 2 on modeling, this is a sound starting point, as long as the version gap is kept in mind.

Best forPatient beginners, or Maya converts, who want to understand every panel in Cinema 4D before they start modeling.
Skip it ifYou want to build real projects right away, or you're on the newest C4D release and need menus that match the screen.

Pros

  • Covers interface details most tutorials skip: workplane, snapping, layer manager, object manager tricks
  • Short lectures (55 in six hours) that are easy to jump between and use as a reference
  • Taught by a Maxon Certified Instructor who reviewers call thorough and easy to follow
  • Ends with a practical flying saucer build using parametric objects only

Cons

  • Recorded on an older Cinema 4D version and last updated January 2022, so some menus and options have moved
  • Captions are auto-generated with many typos, and shortcut keys pressed on screen are not always shown or said
  • Only one small project and no quizzes; a working freelancer felt too much time goes to rarely used tools
Very thorough explanation and easy to follow. A great introduction to Cinema 4D. I purchased the remaining courses from this author!
James Wilcox, a student

Listed as all levels; truly beginner-friendly with just basic computer skills, though intermediate users report picking up overlooked tools.

icon
What you will learn

  • The basics of Cinema 4D
  • Understand how 3D works
  • How to master the interface
  • Create a simple scene without modeling

Course content

6 sections · 55 lectures · 6 hours of video 1 articles

  1. 1Getting to know the Interface 4 free previews18 lectures · 1.9 hours
  2. 2The Object Manager9 lectures · 48 min
  3. 3The Attribute Manager 1 free preview6 lectures · 43 min
  4. 4The Primitives and The Generators6 lectures · 41 min
  5. 5Moving and Arranging Objects9 lectures · 1.1 hours
  6. 6Modeling a Flying Saucer7 lectures · 44 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Anyone willing to learn 3D as well as intermediate 3D users willing to expand their knowledge
  • Artists who want to dive into the 3D world
  • 3D artist who want a better understanding of the tools

What you need before you start

  • Basic computer skills

icon
Course Description

This training is the first volume of the most complete Cinema 4D course you will find !


You’ll dive into the basics of Cinema 4D, and how to get a good understanding of the core concept of this wonderful 3D application.


I’m Lionel VICIDOMINI, a Maxon Certified Instructor and Motion Designer based in Paris, France. I believe that in order to truly master a software you have to learn it by the details. I have created this training, the first one of a series, to create a video manual of Cinema 4D and to be the most thorough possible while being entertaining.


In this volume you will see:


  • A complete tour of the interface

  • How to navigate efficiently in the 3D viewport

  • The display options of the viewport

  • How to customize the interface

  • The hidden options of the object manager

  • Tips and tricks on how to manipulate lots of objects

  • The coordinate system

  • The layer manager

  • The software preferences to know

  • How to set up your project and save the changes

  • The library and how to search it

  • The parametric objects explained

  • How to move, scale and rotate your objects quickly and efficiently

  • The generators

  • Workplane and snapping settings explained

  • How to place your objects exactly where you want

  • Practical workshop: how to model a toy Flying Saucer using parametric objects only


This training is aimed for the beginner eager to jump into the 3D world, as well for the more seasoned graphic designer who wants to deepen his knowledge of the features of this wonderful software.

You don’t need to watch every single video to learn Cinema 4D, you can do it gradually by jumping from video to video along your way. Each lecture is designed to be short and packed with information.

You can follow this tutorial with Cinema 4D Lite which is bundled with After Effects CC.

In the next volume you will learn everything there is to know about modeling.

Are you ready to dive into the 3D world ? Let's get started !



icon
Udemy Discount

The discount is applied through our link. Open the course from here and Udemy's current promotional price is applied at checkout on most courses, no code to type.

Some courses are excluded from Udemy's promotions. If the price does not drop, clear your browser cookies and use the button again.

icon
Instructor Details

Lionel VICIDOMINI

Lionel VICIDOMINI is a Certified Maxon Instructor, Maxon Master Trainer, Adobe Certified Instructor, french motion designer, based in Paris, working for advertisement and television.

As an instructor he has taught Cinema 4D, Blender and  After Effects for 15 years in several prestigious schools and training centers in Paris. He also works directly for Maxon for which he conducted several online webinars.

Lionel uses Cinema 4D, Blender and After Effects extensively for his work and like to intricate the 2D and 3D world seamlessly. He is the translator of the french UI of Cinema 4D.

He is also one of the administrator of the french site Motion Café which boasts 60k followers.

icon
More courses by Lionel VICIDOMINI

$74.99

$69.99

$84.99

$69.99

icon
More Cinema 4D courses

$39.99

Free

$39.99

$74.99

$74.99

$69.99

icon
Reviews

4.4

508 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Andrejs Gavrilkins on 12/9/2024

I really liked the course because it gave a wider picture of simple tools which dont usualy get covered in tutorials. Although I am intermediate C4D user found out about many new things. For example the biggest one was about using workplane options, but also using math modifieres. Thanks Lionel.

By Tim Garber on 9/26/2023

I like that he spends a lot of time on the basics. I am one who learns best by understanding what and how everything works. I've done other courses where they just show you what to do and nothing ever stuck. This is a great class. My only negative isn't the presenter's fault. Someone needs to review the captions because they are not always accurate. I'm sure they're automatically generated, which is not optimal for someone with a strong accent. Generally he is easy to understand, but certain words bare low resemblance to what he is trying to say and the caption will be sometimes be equally off.

By Beloslava Karamfilova on 8/7/2023

I really liked this course. I have experience with a couple of other 3D softwares like Solidworks, Inventor, Rhino, 3Ds Max ect. and I always find that it's good for me to start learning the basics when I'm starting out with a new program. I do recomend the course if you're used to CAD programs and workflow, because I did find that the logic in Cinema 4D is a bit different and the instructor explains it very comprehensively. Overall, the content was very good, the teaching was simple and straightforward and I'm excited to start Vol.2 of this series.

By Eyad Lotfy on 3/20/2023

That course is terrifyingly amazing introduction to the UI, i never felt confident using C4D. I have watched alot of courses some of them were paid too, and far much more expensive and I didn't learn with such great detail(and it is not boring at all, short bites is a great way of teaching C4D)

By Canan Özkurt on 10/11/2022

Dersin içeriğini, hocanın anlatımını, örneklendirme şekillerini çok çok başarılı buldum. Cinema 4D'ye yeni başlayan biri olarak kursun tamamını anladım ve uyguladım. Konular anlaşılır, akıcı ve özenli hazırlanmış. Dil sürçmeleri, tekrarlı ifadeler, video sorunları vs. yok. Gönül rahatlığıyla tavsiye ediyorum.

By Anton R on 10/6/2022

Great course for beginners. Lionel explains the basics of C4D in great detail and there's a good little practice tutorial of modeling with primitives in the end. I learned a few tricks and shortcuts along the way, and, most importantly, what to be aware of and why some things work the way they do.

By J A on 8/7/2022

On the whole very good. At the Fork on lesson 52 /53 / 54 (Modelling the vents) using the full version of C4D (for 52) when you come to lesson 54 and are using the boole it didn't work with the array in the group. I ended up doing lesson 53 for those who use the Lite version of the software and followed along from there - that worked fine. It also got a little frustrating using more recent versions of the software because of the changes in interface, navigation and icons... but understand it's difficult to keep the training right up to date. The Instructor is good and overall the course content is professional.

By Orko on 9/26/2021

I felt that the caption can be more clear as there are a lot of typo error. The lecturer's slang can be quite misleading sometimes. It will be good to display the keys which the lecturer had keyed, as mentioned the caption is not that clear. It will be a good effort to draft up the caption, instead of using voice translating.

By Dewayne McAllister on 9/16/2021

I think the tutorial set was very informative for introducing someone to C4D, and also principles of using the other 3D packages. The only thing that I didn't like was that he didn't got into depth with many of the Generators or any of the Deformers or MoGraph operators at all. That was very disappointing. I hope these things are covered in deep detail in the other tutorial sets that he has

By Peter Nurman on 3/12/2021

For someone who is new to Cinema 4D and modeling the instructions were clear and easy to follow. His explanations were good especially when it come to what could be completed in the full version of Cinema 4D and Cinema 4D Lite. I'm looking forward to learning more in part 2.

Showing all 10 reviews on CourseDuck

Read all 508 reviews on Udemy

icon
Quality Score

No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.

Content Quality
/
Video Quality
/
Qualified Instructor
/
Course Pace
/
Course Depth & Coverage
/

Overall Score : 88 / 100