C4D learning curve

[josephus]

I'm an "aging" residential architect having used cad since the 80's. I learned Acad pretty much on my own. My son an I used FormZ for about 10 years for our presentation work, he did take a FZ class at ASU, so between that, the excellent manuals, and excellent tech support we got going pretty quick. Earlier this this year I sold both my FZ licenses, partly because I closed our arch practice due to lack of profitability (got a job , but probably mostly due to my/our continued frustration with the lack of development of the software to provide us with parametric architectural modeling tools and the lack of a professional-quality renderer like VRay, Mental Ray, AR, etc. Anyway, one of my clients has asked me to make some revisions to some of the FZ exhibits, and as Autodessys has yet to trot these things out (yes, they have been "promised" for over a year), I am thinking of getting C4D to do this. The caveat is that I'm going to have to be able to function pretty quick. My son and I also in an attempt to greater profitability invested in Archicad a couple of years ago, which was probably a good choice given the options, but the learning curve was an ABSOLUTE nightmare. My son is a pretty bright young fellow (he was trained as a nuclear engineer besides a lot of other things dad is admittedly rather proud of), but trying to learn Archicad was about the most trying experience we both went through. I've come to the conclusion that to become quickly proficient in that software requires an on-site "guru".

 

All that said, with C4D, how is tech support? Between the manuals, tech support, and forums like this, am I likely to be able to start producing quickly without pullilng out the little hair that remains?

 

Any and all comments would be greatly appreciated.

[NOOXY]

Hello I started using C4d about 4 years now and it was all self taught..but with the help of this forum ur skills quickly grow and with time and effort it's to me hands down the easiest 3d software to get into..

 

 

good luck

[William Alexander]

C4D is pretty easy to learn in a relative manner. I'd highly suggest Cineversity (sic). Link/s can be found on the C4D web site. The material by Dr. Sassi is very good. I'd spend a few dollars and sign on to www.pixelcorps.com for a month or so. There is some very in depth training material there for C4D. Very logical piece by piece break down of the application and application of the nuts and bolts 'Very digestable' bites, for "anyone's ability" !!!!!!!!!!!

 

WDA

[josephus]

thx for the comments. I downloaded the demo and indeed does not look too intimidating. I'll see how far I get w/the help menu and going through the interface. Glad there are some good tutorials out there...will check those out as well, however would not purchase until I've purchased c4d first.

[Billabong]

we have a good bit of free tutorials on our site, check'em whem you have the time

 

http://www.c4dportal.com