Cinema 4D Free Trial: 3D Motion Graphics from Maxon

Cinema 4D is especially popular in motion design: broadcast graphics, brand animations, title sequences and product visualisations. Its MoGraph toolset makes it easy to animate hundreds of objects at once.

What Cinema 4D offers

• MoGraph: Cloners, effectors and fields for procedural motion design.
• Modelling: Parametric and polygon modelling for products, logos and scenes.
• Simulation: A unified system for cloth, soft bodies, particles and liquids.
• Redshift rendering: GPU-accelerated rendering included with every Cinema 4D subscription.

Getting the free trial

1. The Download button opens Maxon’s official trial page.
2. Install the Maxon App and sign in with a Maxon account.
3. Start the 14-day Maxon One trial, then install Cinema 4D from the app.

Maxon One is Maxon’s full bundle, so the trial also lets you try ZBrush, Redshift and Red Giant tools. Only the latest releases are offered as trials. Cinema 4D runs on Windows (including Windows on Arm) and macOS. A recent graphics card makes the biggest difference, since Redshift renders on the GPU.

Subscriptions

After the trial you can subscribe to Cinema 4D on its own, which includes Redshift and Team Render nodes, or to Maxon One for the full bundle. Maxon also has educational licensing; see the official site for current prices.

If you want a free 3D tool for motion graphics, Blender is open source. For character animation pipelines, compare it with Maya.