Cinema 4D For Interior Design

As an interior design, I need to know at least one 3D program to bring my designs to life. Drawing is great as a first step to sketch concepts and to get clients agreeing on ideas, but later these designs have to be transferred into a more realistic format as a test for the design and the overall ambience. In big companies, they have special people that would do the visuals, but when you are a starting designer out of university you need to have few programs under your sleeve. Otherwise, good luck finding a job. 

When I was doing my Interior Design BA in the University of Salford, the course was flexible and didn't demand a specific program for projects. 

In the second year, we were given an introductory sessions on AutoCAD 2D, 3Ds Max and lots of Sketchup. Most people in my course, preferred the interphase of Sketchup because it was free via google and the easiest of them all and you can get some great results depending on your level. Some students even experimented in adding the V-ray plug in on sketchup. 

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Generally, most highly ranked companies require 3Ds Max knowledge, especially in the Middle East. The results are stronger and the possibilities are endless. The four people in my course that used 3Ds max ended up with AMAZING visuals. They really stood out from all the other projects. But 3Ds max is VERY geeky with zillion tools. 

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I graduated from my BA still lost between all those programs, and unsure which one to focus all my energy on. Sketchup was very annoying to me because of the fact it works in just one view and you will keep rotating the object till you get something right. It just wasn't for me. Then I focused on 3Ds max, but the biggest problem other than it being really complicated it was not mac compatible. I tried it throw windows parallel. It was a nightmare. Then, I read about Cinema 4D. Only few interior designers use it. It is mostly used for graphics and motions, but you can achieve good visuals with it. So, I decided to give it a try! 

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I signed up for an into class in Dockland media and I think I found the program for me. It was only a two day class just to get into the program and to see if I even like it. It was taught by Ozgur Gorgun, and he was very good. He explained the basic tools throughly and he was patient through the examples. 

In the crash course, I learnt basic tools, short cuts, drawing 3D objects and 2D shapes. There was also a quick over view on light, materials, rendering and how to save and export files. It was short and sweet, but now I have to work on it more often to prefect it. 

The teaching was from 10am to 4:30pm with an hour for lunch and short coffee breaks every two hours.  

This is the hallway to the class

The teaching was done on the projector, step by step

Each student get assigned a computer to follow the explanation
and given a notepad to take notes. Mine was almost full after the second day

The cafe. You get free tea and coffee with the class. 

These are some of the things we did and learnt about in class. 

I just had to do a little graphic! 

Overall, I really liked what I learnt so far in Cinema 4D and I can't wait to sharpen my skills. It's like if 3DsMax and Sketchup have a baby it will be Cinema 4D. The tools are clear and you can get help from their user friendly help library. You can work in four views and apply materials easily. 

NOTE: You can request a student copy for Cinema 4D from their website, and you can also see examples for Architecture projects and more in their gallery. 

Pic 3 from gallery

Pic 69 from gallery