Production Rendering Techniques in Cinema 4D

Introduces advanced features of the CINEMA 4D rendering and lighting toolsets.

This course introduces the many advanced features of the CINEMA 4D rendering and lighting toolsets. Discover how to better simulate real-world surfaces, photography, and lighting scenarios. Author Donovan Keith shows how to add realistic shallow depth-of-field effects with the physical renderer, use blurry reflections to create a type treatment, and light scenes with HDRI photographs and global illumination. Plus, learn tricks for achieving similar effects under tight deadlines.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Using the exercise files
• What you need to know about this course

1. Physical Renderer

• Modifying depth of field
• Animating rack focus
• Tweaking shutter speed and motion blur
• Creating textured surfaces using blurry reflections
• Using blurry transparency to create frosted glass
• Optimizing physical sampling settings

2. Global Illumination

• Understanding global illumination
• Lighting with Quasi Monte Carlo global illumination
• Utilizing Irradiance Cache global illumination
• Choosing a global illumination mode for animated scenes
• Optimizing material settings for global illumination
• Optimizing sampling settings
• Making use of Net Render effectively

3. Image Sweetening

• Setting up high-dynamic-range image (HDRI) lighting
• Grounding objects with ambient occlusion
• Preventing over- or underexposure with color mapping

4. Strategies for Speeding Up Renders

• Optimizing and selectively applying anti-aliasing
• Baking global illumination
• Baking your own HDRI maps
• Using environment maps instead of reflections
• Lighting selectively with inclusion and exclusion lists
• Faking global illumination with bounce lights
• Using negative lights to darken parts of scenes selectively

Conclusion

• Next steps