C4D

OK, I've seen these mentioned many times. I've had it explained somewhat, but the person doing the explaining was in a hurry and I still didn't quite get it. What are they, how do you get them, and how do you use them? It seems that most people use them in just about anything they do, and I haven't the foggiest clue of how to do it.

Also, it'd be nice if people could make some tutorials that explained exactly what they were doing and why, rather than just listing the steps. I've tried to read tutorials before, and I just can't follow them. It's like if I was to tell someone the steps to writing a piece of music, but failed to first explain the theory they were using to do it. I can click a menu item, but that doesn't mean I understand why I've clicked it.

 

I may as well add that this is the exact same somewhat vague description I've already gotten.

Is this a PS plug in? Is it a completely separate program. How does it work? How do I get it? I would say that 90% of the tutorials I've ever seen involve C4D's, and thus are no good to me if I can't use them.

 

I haven't even attempted to do things like stacking the same image on top of itself yet. I'd probably just do stuff with the single render itself.

Plus usually about the time I get to using effects, the images are merged. GIMP won't let you manipulate the image as a whole without doing so. And most of my effects so far have been for the entire image and not just a single part of it.