Create Amazingly Realistic Renders Using Advanced Render in Cinema 4D

on Dec 15th 2011 with 112 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Maxon Cinema 4D
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 30 Minutes

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Maxon’s 11th release of Cinema 4D introduces significant improvements to Advanced Render. AR 3 now uses two new algorithms (Irradiance and Quasi-Monte Carlo), making it much easier and faster to get clean, and beautiful renders than ever before. In this tutorial we will learn how to take advantage of these amazing new features!

Republished Tutorial

Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in June of 2009.

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By

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Hi my name is Mountaga Kane, and I am a 17 year old digital artist living in Pennsylvania. When I first became interested in 3d, I decided to start out with Maxon's Cinema 4d because of its mid-range price, ease of use, and short render times. In my free time I like to watch cheesy B movies with friends, and help to moderate the 2d graphics forum: www.audigex.com.  

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  • Viktor

    Nice tutorial very useful for cinema 4d but I would like to ask you what are your amterial settings

    • M.Kane
      Author

      Hi, there’s supposed to be a zip with all the project files, I must not have sent it to Kaleb. Check back soon to get the zip and more Cinema 4D tutorials. Also, this was more a tutorial to test the waters, if you have any suggestions for tutorials e-mail me and I will see what I can do. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial :)

      • Bob

        I would really like to see some advanced text :D
        great tutorial
        gotta love pokemon :b

      • http://kaleb-3d.com Kaleb Aylsworth

        Sorry about that! You can use the download link to get the project files now:)

  • Mr Crumpets

    I saw this,and I thought, hey, wasn’t this supposed to be made for moi? And then I saw the name :o. Congratz on getting on cgtuts though.

  • Guest

    Where is the archive?

  • Salman

    can we get torrent downloads for tutorials here too?

  • http://pandukom.blogspot.com belo

    yeah,,,,
    i love cinema 4D..
    absolutely video tuts too..

  • http://behance.net/alexbeltechi Alex Beltechi

    Awesome, and *just* what I needed. Thanks

  • http://noisejunkies.net Rafael Guerra

    Really nice…i haven´t upgraded to 11 yet though…maybe its the right time.

  • http://ns-1.deviantart.com Mimo

    Dude that was awsome, just what I need to know about lighting in C4D…

    Keep it up

  • Robbie Stewart

    holy shit this makes me want them to make a CGI pokemon movie. final fantasy advent children anyone? fucking epic idea!!

    • Viktor

      Haha like Clouds hear or particle effects

  • http://seansteezy.com/ sean steezy

    Thats an awesome pokeman ball. these are some crucial skills, thanks!

  • Max

    wow cool tut thanks!!
    pls more tuts about Cinema 4D!!!

  • http://papacidero.deviantart.com/gallery Carlos Eduardo Papacidero

    Fantastic !

  • John Doe

    Sweet, Keep the Cinema 4D tutorials coming.

  • AzteKpr1de

    Wow nice XD, but I don’t have Cinema 4D =(. We really need more Maya and Zbrush tuts =P.

    • http://kaleb-3d.com Kaleb Aylsworth

      We are trying to keep it as balanced as possible between all of the major packages that our readers are asking for:) There will be more Maya and Zbrush on the way very soon!

  • http://garimpoweb.wordpress.com/ josé carlos

    These tutorials are the best, I love cinema 4d.

    thanks

  • Nathan

    Gotta Love ScreenCast…

  • Simon Bronson

    Thanks Mountaga,

    that was really informative and helpful. I’ve never used the color mapping effect before, I’m sure its going to come in handy.

    cheers.

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Yup, color mapping is really useful in pinch. Remember its not just for indoor either, you can use it for over/under exposed outside shots too.

  • http://papacidero.deviantart.com/gallery Carlos Eduardo Papacidero

    Follow my first Try:
    http://twitpic.com/8ta7c

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Hey Carlos, nice render and thanks for reading my tutorial. I’m glad people find it useful.

      • http://papacidero.deviantart.com/gallery/ Carlos Eduardo Papacidero

        Mountaga, tanks for this Tutorial, i always have problems with illumination and render settings … Now i will try the “studio” render …

        Another “outside” render:
        http://twitpic.com/8ww5e

      • http://papacidero.deviantart.com/gallery Carlos Eduardo Papacidero

        And now the Studio Render !
        http://twitpic.com/8zq1d

        Tanks Again !

  • Ray

    Really, really good tutorial!! Thanks!

    Couple of questions… in your workflow – any reason why you don’t use the preview renderer in C4D with low settings?

    And…

    Also, any reason you don’t use the ‘Create Sky’ option to get a sky and sun (your way has more control I am guessing)?

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Well you can easily do the same thing by switching to the hardware viewport shader. I just like using my way because with it I can render to the picture view with the final dimensions in low settings (including ray effects like reflection) and I at the same time I won’t put unnecessary strain on my gpu.

      For your second question, you are absolutely right I could use the new (and amazing) physical sun and sky. However for exterior shots I prefer to use a HDRI mapped sky object because you get more subtle lighting. I will however use the physical sun and sky for interior arch/viz because the haze and ozone settings just add a distinct touch of quality. It all depends on what type of look I am going for, sometimes I may even use the hdri/sky object method for interior renders.

      Hope I helped :)

      • Ray

        Yeah, thanks – good explanations.

        Looking forward to more on C4D from you Mountaga!

  • Mike

    Thanks very much for that, I learnt alot

  • http://www.designshard.com Max Stanworth

    Id love to see more “Text” orientated Tuts such as creating some awesome e3D type with different textures and lighting etc some thing you can render and import to photoshop and use in other digital art.

    something like this but different http://www.gomediazine.com/tutorials/photoshop/illustrative-typography/

    • http://vernalkick.co.cc Kevin

      I totally AGREE with you! We definately need text & Studio shots

      !LOVE TYPO!

  • http://www.behance.net/mikael Wobblz

    Great tutorial. Im installing the 11th edition and im going to try it out now.

    Id love to see some material tutorials. It would be a nice sequel of this one.

  • http://twitter.com/arnold_c arnoldc

    thanks! where’s the file anyway?
    I love to hear more Cinema4d in cg tuts…that could be awesome!

    the tut site is getting more better

  • http://labs.dariux.com Dario Gutierrez

    Nice render!! I love Cinema 4D.

  • FDL

    !!!!!men, this tutorial is awesome!!!!! thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

  • m-_g

    Thanks a lot Mountaga !

    It’s the first time I can render an objet looking real, with DOF and “true” lighting…

    It’s quite easy to follow for strangers (I’m french), and the result is quite good.

    I will try the second part (studio lighting) tomorow

    My first try : http://gallery.me.com/fugoo#100037&bgcolor=black&view=grid

    Hope there will be more C4D tuts, they are very good here.

    m-_g

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Hey glad you liked it!

  • PatWeiss

    Hey Mountaga,

    thanks so much for your Tutorial. I learned so much about setting up a studio-setup! I now i now where my mistakes were! i appreciate it! Very useful. Next time i’ give it a try!

    Thank You! I cant say that enough! :)

    Cheers,
    Pat

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Hi Pat,

      Glad you liked it and I’m even more glad it was so useful for you.

  • Matt

    Great tutorial.
    Although, I and many have been waiting for the associated files to properly follow it. Are they going to be available soon?

  • John

    Good but nothing new really. This sorts of tutorial is avaliable around the web. What I want is how to do models that is not just som knifed squares, like a car maybe. keep it up anyway

    • http://kaleb-3d.com Kaleb Aylsworth

      You’ll be happy to see what’s coming up on Monday then!!

  • http://www.dsaportfolio.com.br/ Diego SA

    The name of the tutorial does justice to the final result. This pokeball looks so realistic! Awesome! Pokemon, LOL!

  • Andrew

    …should auto light also be disabled in the render settings when using GI/HDRI?

    …many places i’ve seen state that it ought to be off, or perhaps it doesn’t make that much difference?

    andrew

    • Mountaga
      Author

      What version of Cinema 4D are you using? In r11 auto light is automatically turned off, in older versions you have to manually turn it off when you enable Global Illuminatiion

      Cheers

      • Andrew

        …great, thats fine then…

        …i have only ever had r11 and didn’t see any difference between having it on or off in renders, so wasn’t clear if it did automatically turn off, as when adding GI the check mark was still on auto light…

        many thanks,
        andrew

  • anonymous

    This does not fucking help me!@!!!!!

    • Mountaga
      Author

      Well what will help you than? Like I said before e-mail me ideas for tutorials and I’ll see what I can do, that way you get the tutorials you want.

  • Jon

    This is a great tutorial, and I really appreciate you writing it. I always have a lot of people asking me to render their logos in 3D for them, and usually a studio setup is the best (and quickest) way to go about it.

    One problem I’m having though, is actually right towards the beginning of the studio render, when you create the spline for the backdrop. I do exactly as you say, and create a rectangular spline, make it editable, and then make sure that it’s not a closed spline. All goes well up to this point, until I try to add a chamfer. It seems that C4D won’t let me select single points on the spline. Basically, it’s automatically selecting the back bottom corner point (the one that’s to be chamfered), the corner point above it, and the top middle point (the one for the “roof”). Any idea as to why I can’t just select the bottom corner point by itself? I’ve worked with C4D quite a bit in the past, so it’s not like I’m a complete novice at this, but I’ve honestly never come across this problem before. I’m using release 10.5.

    Thanks ahead of time for any advice you might be able to give me, and thanks for the great tutorial, both parts of it!!!

    • Jon

      Nevermind. I’m still not sure exactly what I was doing wrong, but I started playing around with the selection tool a bit, and I was finally able to select just the points that I wanted to.

      Thanks again!

      • Mountaga
        Author

        Hmm, my only guess would be you using loop or ring selection by accident? They cursor looks like regular selection, so sometimes I accidentally use it before switching back.

  • http://www.irvingling.com Irving

    Great understanding of lighting to create a fine balance between each aspect.

    GI really is smtg special.

    great tutorial.

  • http://www.pixomax.com/ Mike

    How come mine doesn’t become as intense and light when i turn up the “key” and “fill light” just before the color mapping part? Anyway really nice tutorial! :D

    • http://www.pixomax.com/ Mike

      And also when i turned on GI it didn’t start going dark before rendering. Please help! :D

      • Mountaga
        Author

        First off, what version of Cinema are you using?

  • Mac.soft

    Thank’s for this tutorial !

  • http://www.areavirtual3d.com.ve luciano

    Hi,
    Great tutorial Carlitos, I am experimenting with GI and sky textures, but some materials seems to absorb more blue light from sky texture than others…any idea how to avoid this so blue reflections from sky?

    • M.Kane
      Author

      You can go into the illumination tab of a material and edit the “Receive GI” saturation.

  • Ahmed

    i want to download the video

    how can i download it???

  • dreadsnipa

    hey, I’m having a big problem. Everytime i load up the outside scene and try to render the wood texture screws up. Can someone please help me?

  • http://www.joyoge.com/ joyoge designers’ bookmark

    Nice render! I love Cinema 4D, thanks for the tut..

  • Franco

    Where are the textures?

  • 3D_pro

    …as Franco is already asking where are the textures, Joe?

  • Jason

    Why can’t we download the video tutorial? C’mon guys.. if we can watch it here for free at any time why not make it available for download?

    BTW what’s the file format of the video?

    Thx!

  • Suko

    Great tutorial! I really liked how you explained everything you did, and why you did it. Thx.

  • patrick riley

    aperture not arputar

    not VIGNET its pernounced veinet

    Just letting you know for future tuts.

    hazystudio.com

  • eli

    It’s not letting me use soft shadows on the back two poke-balls. What’s going on here?

  • Mutes

    Brilliant!

  • Erium

    Great tutorial thanks for your work.

  • http://www.digitartist.net Miguel Ruiz

    Realy.. Realy.. Nice tutorial.. thanks.. this is the best tutorial I’ve seen…

  • Kevin

    Name

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