With several leadership appointments to drive its transformation towards a globally-focused software development company, David McGavran, CEO, speaks about Maxon’s (www.maxon.net/en-us) recent changes and where it’s headed.
What do you hope the changes in leadership and positioning will do for Maxon and what are your goals moving forward?
“This has definitely been a positive and transformational time at Maxon. We have staff all over the world and the new executive leadership team is ardently working together to streamline operational initiatives. This new emphasis will enable us to better solve key content creation challenges for our customers, leverage and expand our strategic partnerships and facilitate our development team to respond in a more agile way to bring state-of-the art features and workflows to fruition.”
What are you most excited about regarding Maxon’s presence at NAB?
“Maxon has a reputation for offering NAB attendees with engaging and instructive presentations that expand their understanding of Cinema 4D and design practices in general. As usual, we will be offering four days of guest artist demonstrations. These people are rock stars of the industry, presenting their motion graphics and VFX work, while sharing valuable techniques and workflows.
“We also have a strong presence at Post|Production World offering in-depth training sessions on Cinema 4D for entry-level artists and seasoned professionals. Our team members will also be hosting a booth at the Broadcast Education Association’s co-located conference to showcase how Cinema 4D can benefit broadcast industry educators, students and professionals seeking to advance their professional 3D skills.
“The Maxon community is a strong and loyal one. So, I’m personally excited about the numerous networking opportunities we’ll be hosting and participating in so that I can meet and get to know as many of our customers as possible.”
Is there any technology you’re making a point of seeing on the show floor?
“The NAB show floor offers incredible access to the latest technologies. I’m most excited about the visiting the new E-Sports Experience area at the show since our Cinema 4D technology is leveraged heavily by content creators in the broadcast graphics area. We’re hearing a lot of buzz around incorporating new techniques in AR/VR/MR to bring exciting content to sports fans online and at live events. I’ll also be walking the South Hall floors to see what’s new in post production and am excited to get a closer look at companies involved in trending technologies such as virtual production and artificial intelligence. And, the new AI + Cloud Campus at the show is definitely on my list.”
Maxon has a history of offering 3D modeling, animation, graphics and rendering solutions to the post community — what are some of the newest or most significant?
“The latest version of Cinema 4D (Release 20) introduced some noteworthy high-end features geared towards VFX and motion graphics artists. The addition of Fields for the MoGraph toolset has revolutionized its workflow making it easier for motion artists to create complex effects. The other major features — node-based material system, volume modeling and a new robust CAD import — have also been extremely well received.”
Within the post market, what do you view as the most disruptive force in 3D and how is Maxon addressing this to help artists stay competitive?
“I would have to say GPU rendering and the growing demand for 3D content for new content delivery systems like AR.
“Our own engineering efforts on ProRender and integration with leading rendering engines like Redshift and Octane offer our community numerous GPU rendering options to meet today’s heavy production demands. And, partnerships with hardware companies like Nvidia, AMD and Intel allow us to stay on the cutting edge of GPU technology.
“As I mentioned earlier, we’re hearing more and more about creative teams creating 3D content for virtual and augmented reality. This requires the ability to handle heavy rendering workloads with speed and quality. We’re definitely looking into ways we can help our customers serve those markets with ease.”
Creating motion graphics content quickly is a given in today’s fast-paced production environment. How does Cinema 4D and the MoGraph toolset help artists create authentic content to meet these challenges?
“Faster, better, cheaper is the continued mantra in the content creation industry. Cinema 4D is acclaimed by motion designers worldwide as the most powerful, and easy to learn 3D package for achieving the challenges of today’s sophisticated and fast-paced production demands. Our MoGraph toolset, in particular, provides an array of tools that allow artists to put content into motion and freely engage in the creative process from the earliest stages of concept to final delivery.
“We are continually inspired by those customers who push the limits of our tools to deliver pioneering content in virtually every area of the entertainment industry.”
Maxon’s MoGraph toolset in Cinema 4D was recently honored with its first Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Can you talk about that as well as this year’s Oscar-nominated films in VFX that were created with the software.
“Maxon introduced MoGraph in 2006, and it continues to be cited by VFX and animation professionals worldwide for its essential role in the demanding, fast-paced production processes on some of the most highly acclaimed movies of all time. The Academy recognized Per-Anders Edwards with the Sci-Tech Award for his contribution to the initial MoGraph design and development efforts for Cinema 4D that '…provides a fast, non-destructive and intuitive workflow for motion designers to create animated 3D graphics, as used for title design and fictional user interfaces in motion pictures.' The good news is Per still leads MoGraph development at Maxon. So, users can expect that same passionate drive towards innovation.”