Maxon’s unexplained AI teaser draws fresh anger from 3D artists

Maxon has posted a cryptic X video teasing a possible new AI tool for 3D artists, prompting criticism before the company has said what the software does or whether it belongs in Cinema 4D.

The teaser gave no functional details. Its relationship to Maxon’s planned Tencent Cloud integration, Cinema 4D’s existing AI assistants or an entirely separate product remains unclear. That uncertainty did not prevent a sharp response from some artists, who accused the company of pursuing AI without users in mind and called the prospective feature a “slop generator.”

The reaction follows earlier criticism of Maxon’s AI initiatives. Digital Twin, a standalone tool aimed at creating marketing and commercial imagery from cleared-for-use CAD models, also drew objections after an early announcement referred only briefly to AI-generated backgrounds. Maxon later said it was relying on a third-party AI agent that was not trained on Maxon users’ work.

Maxon has separately announced a partnership with Tencent Cloud to integrate Tencent’s HY 3D engine into Cinema 4D. That workflow is designed to generate base 3D models and UVs from text prompts or image references, which artists can then refine, animate and render using Maxon tools.

The company has described HY 3D as optional and intended to speed ideation and prototyping rather than replace 3D artists. It says it does not train proprietary generative models for the integration, does not use customer content to train AI systems, and that use of the feature would not grant Tencent Cloud or other third parties rights to train on customer data.

Tencent developed the underlying model, which Maxon says was trained on Tencent’s games library. A Tencent research paper on Hunyuan3D 2.1, however, says the model was primarily trained on public 3D datasets including Objaverse and ShapeNet. When asked about training data, Maxon told CG Channel that the question was for Tencent and that it was checking with the company.

Some replies to the new teaser identified a potentially practical use for AI in 3D software: generating UVs, the mapping data used to apply textures to models. HY 3D’s existing announced workflow similarly promises base models, UVs and, for generated characters, a rig.

Adoption of AI 3D-model generators remains limited among the artists surveyed by Poliigon. Poliigon’s survey of 3,779 artists found that 68% never used AI 3D-model generators and fewer than 5% used them daily or several times a week. By comparison, 22% said they used AI in their work at that frequency, a broader measure that includes uses beyond 3D-model generation.

HY 3D was scheduled to arrive first in Cinema 4D for iPad in late 2026, followed by the desktop application. Maxon has said the Cinema 4D subscription price will not rise because of the features, although cloud-based AI tools may carry separate pricing to be announced at launch.