When to use Fusion vs C4D

I've recently acquired Cinema 4D (although the question could apply to any 3D modeling program) and am going through tutorials, etc. One of the things that comes to mind is the fact that Fusion offers a variety of 3D functionality as well, and there's naturally some overlap.

For those of you who use both Fusion and 3D software, where do you draw the line between the two apps, i.e. when do you use Fusion's 3D engine and when do you switch over to your dedicated 3D software?

Like many of these kind of discussions, this can really depend on what you're trying to accomplish. Personally, I don't use Fusion for any 3D geometry generation, I'll generate geometry, animation, camera animation etc, in 3D applications and bring that geometry into Fusion. I don't use many of the motion graphics capabilities of Fusion, so maybe someone can comment on using those in Fusion rather than a 3D application.

I use Fusion solely as a compositing application, but use Fusion's 3D capabilities in combination with C4D to accomplish looks and control I can't get in C4D alone. I really like using Fusion's particle system over a 3D's particle system for most scenarios, mostly because of the speed. I'll use projection mapping techniques in Fusion rather than relying solely on 3D to reduce render times for animations. Using the 3D duplication node can be used efficiently like the moGraph tools in C4D.

If there is anything you have in mind specifically, maybe we can try to help decide what tool is best for it, or how to use them in combination.

I prefer Maya (w/Vray) over Fusion for a bulk of the animation work. Traditional 3d apps afford you more capabilities and flexibility for modeling, texturing, animation, rendering and dynamics. As mentioned, Fusion shines with its compositing capabilities and integration. Check out some of CMIVFX's training. One I'd recommend which deals with this is the Fusion Teleportation: https://cmivfx.com/store/628-fusion-teleportation

I use Fusion solely as a compositing application, but use Fusion's 3D capabilities in combination with C4D to accomplish looks and control I can't get in C4D alone.

Thanks, Ryan. That's the perspective that I was thinking would be sensible.

While you can certainly do 3D in After Effects, I was impressed with how Fusion just seems to think in 3D right out of the box. From what I've done with it thus far, it seems like it would be very natural to bring in 3D elements from C4D and continue right along.

And thanks very much for offering to help with specific goals. At the moment I don't have any as I'm still getting a feel for the wheel. but the people here have been very supportive. It's clearly a cool community.

My approach tends to be first exploring the range of what's possible with the equipment and tools I have, and then creating within those boundaries. I've been playing with Fusion for a few weeks and have a pretty good sense of what it can do, and now I'm doing the same with C4D. That leads, of course, to figuring out the strengths of each platform to come up with the best workflow.

Traditional 3d apps afford you more capabilities and flexibility for modeling, texturing, animation, rendering and dynamics. As mentioned, Fusion shines with its compositing capabilities and integration.

Thanks, Jeff. Seems to be the consensus thus far, and the tutorials also look great.

As a related question, I'm wondering why people do multi-pass renders out of the 3D app into their compositing app. While I understand that it gives you the ability to tweak each layer in compositing, it seems more sensible to me to get things exactly the way you want them in the 3D app and then just bring it over as a finished product.

Obviously there's much I don't understand about this, or there wouldn't be multi-pass rendering / importing in the first place. I'm sure this sort of functionality exists because it's needed in the real world. What am I missing?

It's really about the control you want, and the speed you need to accomplish it in. You can get great results directly from 3D, but after you let an animation render for 4 days, and want a deeper ambient occlusion pass, or a brighter reflection on a certain object, it's much faster to tweak the multi-pass render than it is to re-render the 3D again. For me, it's next to impossible to get the exact look directly out of 3D, so I need the ability to have multi-passes to achieve the look I want.

Here's an excerpt that probably will explain this for you much better than I can.
http://3drender.com/light/compositing/index.html

Wow, what a great link. Exactly the sort of thing I was trying to understand. Just bought the Kindle version of the full book and very much looking forward to the read.

And 4 day renders? Yikes.

Thanks!

I realize this is going all over the place, but since I'm hijacking my own thread I'm strangely at peace with that.

So, since I already got one great book from Ryan, I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions on one that covers the basic principles of character animation in 3D (I specify 3D since I know there are a number of different disciplines) - preferably something that comes in Kindle format since that's where I do most of my tech reading.

I'm not looking for information about getting a job as an animator since I already have a career in software development that I enjoy. I know some books cover career opportunities as well as skills, and I'm not really looking to burn chapters on that topic. I'd like to find something that focuses on the animation aspects, and also speaks to an audience with zero prior experience.

Got any good reads that you'd recommend?

One of the best reads in character animation I've read is: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywor ... j8oc5uwp_b

This really goes over the principles, rather than execution in a specific software. I prefer learning software execution from video tutorials, and there are a lot of resources for those....Plural Sight, cmiVFX, FXphd, etc....

Hopefully someone else here can expand upon this, I'm not a 3D character animator...but have done 2D and cell character animation, and The Animators Survival Kit has been a great resource.

Thanks. That one seems to be held in high regard, but it's dead trees only (and also out of stock). I'm hoping there are equally good books out there who support the Kindle format.

And yeah, like you, in this particular case I'm looking for software agnostic advice that teaches me how to think like an animator.