Light material: used only on lights in the scene (not mesh lights, only actual light objects). Object material: used on scene objects and can also be used on particles generated by the X-Particles particle engine.īackground material: specifically intended for use on the cyEnvironment object. Only selected Cinema 4D materials in the scene are converted to Cycles 4D materials, but those materials are not deletedĬycles 4D has three basic types of materials: Only selected Cinema 4D materials in the scene are converted to Cycles 4D materials, and those materials are deleted after conversion These are: Modifier keyĪll Cinema 4D materials in the scene are converted to Cycles 4D materials and the existing Cinema 4D materials are deleted after conversionĪll Cinema 4D materials in the scene are converted to Cycles 4D materials but the existing Cinema 4D materials are not deleted The converter supports certain modifier keys to determine what happens to the Cinema 4D materials in the scene. If the image has an alpha channel, that is connected using the Alpha output port of the node.
In all cases, bitmaps are handled through an Image Texture node. Reflectance - the converter looks for the first layer in the reflectance channel which is of type GGX or Beckman amd uses that to add glossy reflection as a GGX Multiscatter node.The converter will handle the following channels: Others, such as the Hair material, Nukei, etc. Note that this can only be used on ordinary Cinema 4D materials. This will create a new Cycles 4D object material with a node tree already set up. To use the converter, select a Cinema 4D material in the material manager, then go to the main Cycles 4D menu and click 'Convert Materials'. In many cases you will need to tweak settings in the nodes and possibly add other nodes, but the converter will give you a good start. It is possible to convert simple Cinema 4D materials into an approximation in Cycles 4D. Note: a limitation of Cinema 4D means that these sub-menus will not appear in R14 or R15. X-Particles (fmaterials or use specifically with X-Particles).Volume (for volume rendering, including materials for use with the X-Particles domain object and with Turbulence 4D).Surface Extended - a group of more complex surface materials.Surface (for materials to be applied to an object).However, there are a large number of preset materials in three sub-menus. Selecting one of these will give you a basic node tree for that type of material. Creating Materials Material ManagerĬycles 4D materials are created in the Cinema 4D material manager and have their own menu entry:įrom here, you can create the three basic types of Cycles 4D material - Background, Light, and Object. Most or all of the surface shaders will work but as you might expect, those which generate effects which use Cinema's inbuilt renderer will not. But in one or two places you can use some of the Cinema 4D shaders, such as Brick, Checkerboard, etc. You should note that in a Cycles 4D scene you cannot use Cinema 4D materials. This is very powerful and flexible - far more so than the material system in Cinema 4D itself. Cycles 4D uses a node-based material system.