Cinema4D/Maxwell Render V1.5 HDRI Tutorial - Updated
Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:28 pm
Basic Tutorial for Rendering HDRI in Maxwell Render V1.5
By Tyrone Marshall AKA Continuumx
Disclaimer: This tutorial requires basic level of understanding of Cinema 4D release 9.52 software see www.maxon.net for details or your program manual for help. It is also recommended that you read the Maxwell Render V1.0 manual as well.
Tutorial assumes you can setup basic scene with Cinema4D camera and have your scene elements established including Next Limit camera tags, material tags, and Cinemaxwell plugin available.
Steps:
01 Scene Setup
Have your scene ready with maxwell render camera and tag, objects with cinema 4d material and next limit material tags.
02 Create Sky Object
Under "Objects" menu of Cinema 4D, select "Scene" and then "Sky'
A sky object is placed into your scene.
03 Apply Skymap Tag
Select this sky object and apply a Next Limit "Maxwell Skymap" tag from object tag menu under object's file menu.
04 Select Channels
Click on the Next Limit "Maxwell Skymap" tag. Under the attributes menu, enable "Bckgnd. Map Screen Mapping Enable".
See notes below for what channels are supported in Cinema 4D. For this example, only the color and luminance channels will be used. The Cinema 4D color texture map channel controls the background channel. The Cinema 4D luminance texture map channel controls the illumance channel. You load your HDRI maps in these texture channels.
Note: The plugin now allows very good HDRI control. I personally prefer to use Cinema4D to get the general idea of my scene established, using this procedure. Then I render the scene out to a Maxwell Render scene format file and bring up studio for finer control and editing of this scene.
05 Create HDRI Material
Create a new Cinema 4D material.
06 Set Channels
Activate only the color and luminance channels.
07 Load HDRI Image
Load your HDRI into the texture map channels for both color and luminance channels.
08 Apply HDRI material to Sky Object
Apply this material to your Sky object. This is a logical application for the Skymap Next Limit tag for establishing HDRI because in Cinema 4D our Sky object acts as a skydome during normal radiosity rendering through Cinema 4D. When you apply the HDRI Cinema 4D material to the Sky Object. A texture tag will be generated automatically.
09 Maxwell Skymap and Attributes Manager
Now again select the Maxwell Skymap tag so the settings become visible in the attributes manager of Cinema 4D.
10 Texture Tag to Sky Map Texture Tag Slot
Drop the Cinema 4D Texture Tag from the Sky Object to the Texture Tag slot in the Maxwell Sky Map Tag from the attributes manager.
Note: Remember this basic rule for using the current version of Cinemaxwell, to apply any Cinema 4D material that includes a map of any kind to an object to be rendered in Maxwell Render should always have its material texture tag be dropped into the corresponding Maxwell Material texture tag slot.
11 Setup Cinemaxwell Plugin
Select the Cinemaxwell plugin by Next Limit. Do not activate the skydome, leave all other illumination off such as physical sky as your scene will be lit by the HDRI.
12 Render
Click on the Cinemaxwell plugin render button. Done!
Notes:
HDRI information used in this scene
This HDRI was created in Cinema 4D version 9.5 by myself. You can see the original text about how this was created here:
ref: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.ph ... stcount=67
GET HDRI FILE NOW!
Notes:
Cinema 4D Channels to Maxwell Render Image Based Mapping
C4D Color Channel----------------Background
C4D Transparency Channel------Refraction
C4D Reflection Channel-----------Reflection
C4D Luminance--------------------Illumination
How to Control the X and Y offset of the HDRI?
Use the X and Y Offset in the actual Cinema 4D Texture Tag for the HDRI to control the rotating of the HDRI in the X and Y using this feature.
By Tyrone Marshall AKA Continuumx
Disclaimer: This tutorial requires basic level of understanding of Cinema 4D release 9.52 software see www.maxon.net for details or your program manual for help. It is also recommended that you read the Maxwell Render V1.0 manual as well.
Tutorial assumes you can setup basic scene with Cinema4D camera and have your scene elements established including Next Limit camera tags, material tags, and Cinemaxwell plugin available.
Steps:
01 Scene Setup
Have your scene ready with maxwell render camera and tag, objects with cinema 4d material and next limit material tags.
02 Create Sky Object
Under "Objects" menu of Cinema 4D, select "Scene" and then "Sky'
A sky object is placed into your scene.
03 Apply Skymap Tag
Select this sky object and apply a Next Limit "Maxwell Skymap" tag from object tag menu under object's file menu.
04 Select Channels
Click on the Next Limit "Maxwell Skymap" tag. Under the attributes menu, enable "Bckgnd. Map Screen Mapping Enable".
See notes below for what channels are supported in Cinema 4D. For this example, only the color and luminance channels will be used. The Cinema 4D color texture map channel controls the background channel. The Cinema 4D luminance texture map channel controls the illumance channel. You load your HDRI maps in these texture channels.
Note: The plugin now allows very good HDRI control. I personally prefer to use Cinema4D to get the general idea of my scene established, using this procedure. Then I render the scene out to a Maxwell Render scene format file and bring up studio for finer control and editing of this scene.
05 Create HDRI Material
Create a new Cinema 4D material.
06 Set Channels
Activate only the color and luminance channels.
07 Load HDRI Image
Load your HDRI into the texture map channels for both color and luminance channels.
08 Apply HDRI material to Sky Object
Apply this material to your Sky object. This is a logical application for the Skymap Next Limit tag for establishing HDRI because in Cinema 4D our Sky object acts as a skydome during normal radiosity rendering through Cinema 4D. When you apply the HDRI Cinema 4D material to the Sky Object. A texture tag will be generated automatically.
09 Maxwell Skymap and Attributes Manager
Now again select the Maxwell Skymap tag so the settings become visible in the attributes manager of Cinema 4D.
10 Texture Tag to Sky Map Texture Tag Slot
Drop the Cinema 4D Texture Tag from the Sky Object to the Texture Tag slot in the Maxwell Sky Map Tag from the attributes manager.
Note: Remember this basic rule for using the current version of Cinemaxwell, to apply any Cinema 4D material that includes a map of any kind to an object to be rendered in Maxwell Render should always have its material texture tag be dropped into the corresponding Maxwell Material texture tag slot.
11 Setup Cinemaxwell Plugin
Select the Cinemaxwell plugin by Next Limit. Do not activate the skydome, leave all other illumination off such as physical sky as your scene will be lit by the HDRI.
12 Render
Click on the Cinemaxwell plugin render button. Done!
Notes:
HDRI information used in this scene
This HDRI was created in Cinema 4D version 9.5 by myself. You can see the original text about how this was created here:
ref: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.ph ... stcount=67
GET HDRI FILE NOW!
Notes:
Cinema 4D Channels to Maxwell Render Image Based Mapping
C4D Color Channel----------------Background
C4D Transparency Channel------Refraction
C4D Reflection Channel-----------Reflection
C4D Luminance--------------------Illumination
How to Control the X and Y offset of the HDRI?
Use the X and Y Offset in the actual Cinema 4D Texture Tag for the HDRI to control the rotating of the HDRI in the X and Y using this feature.
