Celebrating 10 Years of Python in Cinema 4D with a Major Milestone

It's been 10 years since Python was introduced in Cinema 4D R12, offering plugin developers and pipeline TDs a robust and industry-standard scripting language. To celebrate this milestone, we're excited to announce that the next release of Cinema 4D will incorporate Python 3 for greater performance and security.

Python support has become a cornerstone of Cinema 4D's vibrant community of third-party developers and a key tool for enterprise customers integrating Cinema 4D in their pipeline. Over the years, the Python API has been continually extended to provide users with access to new Cinema 4D functionality and greater parity with Cinema 4D's C++ API. Python can be used in Cinema 4D to create everything from simple expressions, fields and effectors to complex geometry plugins, shaders and support for additional file formats. Python powers many of the most popular tools for Cinema 4D, from the CV-ArtSmart tool that facilitates easy exchange of artwork between Cinema 4D and Adobe Illustrator to the ePMV plugin that allows medical illustrators to easily visualize protein structures.

Upgrading the Python engine from 2.7.7 to 3.7.7 in the next release of Cinema 4D offers many key advantages. Python 3 delivers better performance, security and improved Unicode support for handling extended character sets. We have also made it easier than before for our own developers to make new Cinema 4D features available within the Python API.

This change will require some tweaks to most Python plugins, scripts, and other uses of Python in Cinema 4D. If developers have predominately used Cinema 4D's API the changes should be minor, and most changes can be made in a backwards-compatible way so there's no need to maintain a separate code base to continue supporting older Cinema 4D releases. In fact, the 2to3 tool included in every Python distribution makes it easy to identify compatibility issues and can directly patch your code. Supporting Python 3 and the next release of Cinema 4D shouldn't be hard, but we did want to ensure developers are aware in advance of the Fall 2020 release so they can prepare their plugins or reserve a bit of extra time to patch pipeline tools after the release.

As usual, our talented team of SDK Support Engineers are available on the Cinema 4D developer community to answer any questions and share more information about this exciting new leap forward for Cinema 4D's Python API.