Copies, fields, splines, deformers and sims, the way you think about them in Cinema 4D. Here they render while you tweak them, sound can push any value, and the same file plays on a projector or an LED wall. Free to use.
a stuffed teddy dropping, squishing and bouncing back
Cinema 4DDynamics and cloth
→Rigid bodies, cloth and soft bodies
Drop it, drape it, stuff it. One solver handles flags, jelly, balloons, sand and stuffed toys.
PBDSimSolver→PhysicsWorld
And the rest of the window.
The managers you keep open all day, under the names Kinematic gives them.
the Objects panel: a scene, its render, a circle and an oscillator
Cinema 4DObject Manager
→Objects
Everything the scene makes, each with a small live picture and its steps in order: box, twist, bevel.
Properties for a brick pattern, in groups
Cinema 4DAttribute Manager
→Properties
Every setting of the node you pick, in groups. Right-click one to key it or drive it with an expression.
the keyframe editor with three lanes
Cinema 4DTimeline and F-Curves
→Timeline and keyframe editor
Play, scrub, loop and mark. Shape the curves, or draw one freehand and let it settle into a few clean keys.
a gradient and checkers into a composite, then a blur
Cinema 4DXpresso and nodes
→The canvas
The same scene as wires. Drag from an output to an input to connect them, and double-click a component to step inside.
Nothing to make editable
Every move in the viewport becomes a node.
Model the way you do now. Add a shape, pull its handles, bevel, cut, place copies, sculpt. Each tool writes an ordinary node right after the step it changes, so the model reads top to bottom as a list of steps and any of them opens again later.
Ctrl+B the viewport, the canvas, or both
a temple modeled step by step in the viewportthe viewport above, the same steps as nodes below
Render
It renders while you work.
There is no render queue between you and the look. Materials, HDR skies, shadows, fog and bloom all render live, so the frame you tweak is the frame you send out.
Put the shine where you want it. Right-click the spot on the model and choose Place by highlight. The light moves to put the shine there.
Finish the look in place. Tone map with ACES, AgX or PBR Neutral, and take depth, normal, position, ID and motion passes out beside the color.
Write a file when you need one. An MP4 or numbered frames, at any size, from the command line with no window open. ProRes and 10-bit H.265 are one setting on the video output.
particles driven by a song: loudness sets how many flya shape swelling and twisting with a voiceground raised by a song's bass, mids and treble
Simulate
Simulate and light in the same scene.
Fire, smoke, liquids, cloth and rigid bodies run in the same graph as your copies and your camera, and they can reach past the screen into a real lighting rig.
Turn the knobs while it burns. Change the buoyancy or the wind while the sim runs, then scrub back through it on the timeline.
Light the room with it. The color of the fire can drive real stage lights over Art-Net, with more than 1,500 fixtures ready to patch.
Hand it on. Bake fire and smoke to OpenVDB frames, or save cloth as an Alembic cache for another 3D app.
a ring catching fire, flames climbing into smokestrobes on every beat over sweeping color beamsa column of water letting go across a tank
Perform
Send it to projectors, LED walls and streams.
The loop you built does not have to end as a file. Send it to a projector, an LED wall, a vision mixer or a stream, from the same graph, while it runs.
Press F1. Perform Mode clears the editor away and the output fills the screen. Esc brings the editor back.
Map it onto the room. Pin the render to a wall or a building with the Projection Mapper, and blend two projectors into one wide picture.
Send it anywhere. NDI to a vision mixer, Syphon to another app on a Mac, or a live stream with the sound mixed in.
a projection map, livethe Projection Mapper: three tilted panels and a curved shapea spiral on a wall, with the window cut out
Moving over
Moving over from Cinema 4D.
Your scenes come with you, your hands already know the moves, and the first hour has a plan.
01
Bring your scenes. Take them back out.
Scenes, curves, type, skies and sound open as they are. Renders and caches leave in the formats your other apps read.
Cinema 4Dand the rest of your kit
Into Kinematic →
FBXmaterials, cameras, lights and instancingAlembicUSDpoint instancers tooglTFOBJSVGpaths to extrudeFonts.ttf and .otfEXR and HDRskies for lightingMP4 and MOVWAV, FLAC, MP3
← Back out
FBXAlembica whole animated cacheUSDglTFOBJOpenVDBfire and smokeLayered EXRcolor, masks, depth, IDsProRes and H.26510-bitPNG and EXR frames
↔ Live, as it plays
NDIevery platformSyphonon a Mac
Kinematic
Kinematic does not open .c4d files (these are proprietary). Save as FBX, Alembic, USD or glTF on the way over. Every file Kinematic opens and saves
02
Your hands already know the moves.
The first time you open a viewport, Kinematic asks how you like to move around: Kinematic, Blender, Maya or Houdini. Pick Maya and Alt with the left, middle and right buttons orbits, pans and dollies, the moves your hand learned in Cinema 4D.
Change it any time from the viewport's Navigation menu or Preferences.
In the viewport
QNavigate
WMove
ERotate
RScale
TUniversal tool
FFrame the selection
HomeFrame everything
1to9Look from the front, top, sides and corners
5Perspective or flat
Shift+1Pick whole objects. Shift 2, 3 and 4 pick points, edges and faces
SpaceThe modeling tools at the pointer. Type to find one
?Every viewport key, in a list
Everywhere
Ctrl+Shift+PCommand palette
Ctrl+BViewport, canvas, or both
Ctrl+ZUndo any change, running or not
EOn a node: open its own editor
F1Perform Mode
Fingers set on E, R and T? Move, rotate and scale sit on W, E and R here. Open Preferences, then Shortcuts, click a command and press the key you want. Two commands on one key get flagged.
03
Your first hour.
From a fresh install to a loop that reacts to your voice.
Minute 1Download and open it
No account, no license key. The Welcome screen has Explore demos.
Minute 3Set your hands
The first viewport asks how you like to move around. Pick Maya for Alt and drag.
Minute 5Open the cubes
In the app, open 10,000 cubes on a noise field from the Demos browser. Click a node on the canvas and change any number while it plays.
Minute 20Let sound push it
Add a mic and an envelope follower, then drag its output onto a number in Properties. Talk.
Minute 40Send it out
Press F1 and the loop fills the screen. Or send it over NDI, or render a file from the command line.
Fair is fair
Where Cinema 4D is still ahead.
Cinema 4D is a great tool with a great community. Here is where it does more than Kinematic today.
01
Redshift for photoreal finalsPath-traced frames for broadcast and film. Kinematic renders live with PBR materials, HDR light and shadows. It is not a path tracer.
02
Years of polish in the motion toolkitThe Cloner, effectors and fields sit together in one tidy place. Here the same work is a few small nodes you chain.
03
Presets, plugins and trainingA deep library of presets and plugins, and years of motion design courses built around it.
04
After Effects round tripsClose ties to the compositing tools many motion designers live in.
05
Your .c4d filesKinematic does not open them (these are proprietary). Scenes come over as FBX, Alembic, USD or glTF.
Use both. Build in Cinema 4D, bring it over with FBX, Alembic, USD or glTF, and use Kinematic where it has to react, run live or go out to a room.
Side by side
What it costs.
What matters when you pick a tool for a studio, a class or a tour, with the price where it belongs: at the end.
Kinematic$0Any use, any revenue, every seat. No account, no license key.
Cinema 4DAbout $9001A year, for Cinema 4D alone. Maxon One costs more. The free version is a trial.
What you need
Kinematic
Cinema 4D
Copies, effectors and fields
Yes
MoGraph
3D text, splines, sweeps, deformers
Yes
Yes
Fire, smoke, liquids and cloth
Yes
Yes
Copies that move with sound
a live mic or a file
from an audio file
Path-traced final frames
live PBR, HDR light, shadows
Redshift
Webcam, mic, MIDI and OSC on any value
Yes
through plugins
Projection mapping, DMX lighting, NDI
Yes
No
Synths, samplers and plugin hosting
Yes
No
Platforms
macOS, Windows, Linux
macOS, Windows
Price for paid work
$0
about $900 a year1
yes, built inpartly, or through add-onsno
Prices from Maxon's own page, in US dollars, checked October 2026: maxon.net/en/cinema-4d.
Yes. Build in one and perform in the other. FBX, Alembic, USD and glTF go both ways.
Does it render like Redshift?
No. Kinematic renders live with PBR materials, HDR light and shadows. For path-traced finals, render in Cinema 4D.
Is there 3D text?
Yes. Extrude your own .ttf or .otf with bevels and end caps, lay type along a path, or pull the outlines out as curves and sweep a tube along them for neon.
Can I comp the renders somewhere else?
Yes. Render ProRes, H.264 or numbered PNG and EXR frames, and take depth, normal, ID and motion passes out beside the color.
Is it really free?
Yes, even for commercial use, with no account and no license key. Install it on every machine in the studio.
Open these first
Demos to open first.
They are all in the app, under Help, then Browse Demos. Each one opens as a copy, so change anything you like.
ten thousand spheres, one on every point
10,000 cubes riding a noise field
gold boxes tumbling in orbit around a center
a dotted path, then a tube swept along it
a column, before and after a twist
the Objects panel: a scene, its render, a circle and an oscillator
Properties for a brick pattern, in groups
the keyframe editor with three lanes
a gradient and checkers into a composite, then a blur
the viewport above, the same steps as nodes below
a glossy red skull, the shine placed across its brow and eyes
a glass torus lit by an HDR sky
a cabin with glass, timber and a metal roof
the Projection Mapper: three tilted panels and a curved shape
Create10,000 cubes on a noise fieldTen thousand cubes ride a moving noise field, each one driven by its own value.In the Demos browser
Create10,000 spheres, built onceTen thousand colored spheres, built once. Only the camera moves, so every frame stays light.In the Demos browser
CreateAstronaut orbitAn imported model drawn 31 times: one in the middle, thirty in a ring around it.In the Demos browser
PerformTwisted torusA torus with a helical twist and a pulsing tube, copper to gold, from a custom material.In the Demos browser
SimulateOrbital gravityMetal boxes orbit a center of gravity, tumbling and glinting as they fade in and out.In the Demos browser
PlayShader volume bloomThree glowing rings that follow a microphone. Until one is wired in, a slow wave stands in.In the Demos browser
SimulateBurningA burning ring throws up a pillar of fire that mushrooms into dark smoke.In the Demos browser
PerformSwirls on a projectorThree moving swirls through the Projection Mapper, out to a projector on a second display.In the Demos browser