Maxon releases Cinema 4D 2025.3 with new liquid simulation system
Maxon has released Cinema 4D 2025.3, the latest version of its 3D software for motion graphics, VFX and visualization work.
It’s a significant update, adding a GPU-accelerated liquid simulation system, support for UDIMs and texel densities, AI search in the Asset Browser, and native support for Laubwerk plants.
Particle simulation toolset expanded to support liquid simulation
The headline change in Cinema 4D 2025.3 is the extension of the particle simulation toolset introduced last year in Cinema 4D 2024.4 to support liquid simulation.
Users can convert existing particle systems into liquid particles using the Liquify modifer, or generate liquid particles using the new Liquid Fill emitter.
Liquid particles support liquid-specific properties like Surface Tension and Viscosity, and can be meshed to a polygonal surface using the new Liquid Mesh object.
Liquids are compatible with existing particle modifiers and forces, and as part of Cinema 4D’s Unified Simulation System, can interact with other simulation types, like cloth or rigid bodies.
Suitable for small-scale simulations for ads and motion graphics work
Liquid simulations use a PBD (Position Based Dynamics) system rather than a fully fledged FLIP solver, so the toolset won’t be ideal for large-scale simulations like rivers or oceans.
However, it does look suitable for smaller-scale fluid simulations for commercials or motion graphics work: the type of shot you might once have used a third-party tool like RealFlow for.
The recording of the livestream embedded at the top of the story shows examples including beer pouring into a glass, chocolate sauce pouring over a cake, and liquid flowing along a path.
The demo also discusses workarounds by which features of FLIP solvers – like white water and bubbles within liquids – can be recreated using Cinema 4D’s other existing tools.
Support for UDIMs in the UV Editor
The other major change is support for UDIMs in the UV Editor.
Originally developed for 3D texturing software Mari, the tiled UV layout format has been widely adopted in other DCC applications: Cinema 4D was one of the few major apps not to support it.
Cinema 4D 2025.3 supports the UDIM and UVTILE standards, including the capability to place UV elements within UV tiles, move or rotate them within a tile, or move them between tiles.
The UV packing system also now supports UDIM tiles, with the option to pack to specific tiles, and new options for handling packing of multiple objects.
However, UDIMs are not supported in BodyPaint 3D, Cinema 4D’s 3D texture painting toolset.
Games artists get support for texel density
In addition, Cinema 4D now supports texel density, often used in game development workflows to balance the file sizes required for textures against their visual quality in-game.
The update adds a dedicated set of tools to “get, set and match texel density across elements, tiles, and objects”, with presets for first-person, third-person and top-down games.
AI search in the Asset Browser
Other changes include support for AI-based searches in the Asset Browser.
Unlike conventional searches, AI searches are image-aware, so a search for ‘furniture’ will return results, even if the word ‘furniture’ does not appear in the title or keywords for an asset.
AI searches can be combined with conventional searches to fine tune the results, and are executed locally, so “no assets are shared with Maxon or used for training”.
Edit Laubwerk 3D plants natively inside Cinema 4D
The update also improves support for the 3D plant models developed by Laubwerk, which Maxon acquired earlier this year.
A new parametric Plant Object makes it possible to adjust the properties of Laubwerk plants, including age and seasonal variations, directly inside Cinema 4D.
The complete library of Laubwerk plants has now been added to the Capsules library, available to Cinema 4D subscribers. Older versions of the library can be imported in LBW format.
Price and system requirements
Cinema 4D 2025.3 is compatible with Windows 10+ and macOS 13.6+. It is available rental-only, with Cinema 4D subscriptions costing $109/month or $839/year.
Read a list of new features in Cinema 4D 2025.3 in the online release notes
Read more about the new features in Cinema 4D in the online manual
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.