9.5.2

WORKFLOW • 131
4. Workow
There are many features in CINEMA 4D that help you to work more quickly, i.e. improve your workow.
These include:
 To move, zoom or rotate a camera, use the icons at the top right of the
viewport (drag the desired icon). The fourth, right-most icon toggles the active
view panel between single-view and all-views.
 Dene shortcuts for the commands you use the most. Also, create an icon
palette and populate it with the commands. You’ll then be able to reach the
commands more quickly.
 Many commands can be performed with a quick drag-and-drop rather than a
trek through the menus. For example, to assign a material, drag and drop it from
the Material manager onto an object in the Object manager or viewport.
 What if the Object manager is not the active tab when you drag-and-drop a
material from the Material manager? Simply drag the material on to the Object
manager’s tab. After a short delay, the Object manager will become the active
tab and you can drop the material onto the object.
 Many primitives have handles — e.g. to control the llet radius. Drag these
handles to change the values interactively in the viewport.
 To move several keys or sequences in the Timeline, select them all and drag
to move them all at the same time. Likewise, you can copy multiple keys by
selecting them and Ctrl-dragging them.
 You can create a spline by creating its points one by one. Alternatively, draw
the spline using the Freehand tool and its points will be created automatically
(Objects > Create Spline > Freehand).
 There is no need to lock axes in order to move, scale or rotate an object
along a specic axis. Instead, drag the small handle (or the entire axis) — an
arrowhead, cube or sphere depending on whether the Move, Scale or Rotate
tool is selected — that’s at the end of the desired object axis. You can also drag
these handles to move, scale or rotate selected polygons, points or edges.
 To select several points, edges or polygons, don’t click them one by one.
Instead, select the Live Selection tool and ‘paint’ over the points or polygons to
select them. You can hold down the 9 key to temporarily select the Live Selection
tool. As soon as you release the 9 key, you’ll be returned to the previous tool.
This is an ideal way to select different elements while you’re in the middle of
using a particular tool, such as Knife or Extrude.
 Wherever you are in the program, check if there’s a context menu by right-
clicking (Windows ) or Command-clicking (Mac OS).