rasputin

Hey guys, I don't know if you've encountered this problem when seeking to share your C4D renders on Facebook: Facebook's image publishing algorithm features a rather harsh compression standard. (I guess they have to use it, given the bazillions of images they are forced to store on their servers everyday.) In most images you publish, Facebook is going to make them come out with nasty artifacting, especially all sorts of ugliness around your sharp edges. It also tends to make your fields of solid color full of bad artifacting, and will make your color gradients come out with ugly banding. The more "toon-y" and less photorealistic is your image, the worse will be the artifacting. I've had a couple of my image posts almost completely ruined by Facebook's compression, which bummed me out plenty. Even if your render is already compressed and low-filesize--- as with a JPG--- Facebook will even compress it further. Well, I think I've discovered a bit of a workaround to making your image posts to Facebook look better, a bit closer to how they originally looked when you first rendered them in C4D. Export your C4D render as a 16-bit PNG. Import your C4D render into Photoshop, then choose the ADD NOISE filter. Make sure the filter is set to Gaussian and Monochrome. Then you want to dial in a Noise setting that is extremely subtle, like 0.5% or 0.6% The resulting noise should be extremely subtle, and not change your C4D picture unduly. You can always FADE the effect under EDIT after application, until the noise is almost imperceptible. I don't know why--- someone clever here will perhaps know--- but the slight noise added to the image completely "short-circuits" Facebook's compression algorithm, and your image will be posted with very little... almost no... banding and artifacting (which were far worse, visually, than the slight Noise you're adding) I also notice that Facebook tends to post your image slightly cooler and slightly less saturated than it appeared when first rendered. You can prep for this by making your image 2-3 degrees warmer in Photoshop under HUE/SATURATION, and you can use 2-3 degrees of Vibrance added, before you post to Facebook. With these steps-- admittedly, they are a workaround, not a cure--- your image in Facebook should look closer to your original artistic vision. ras

Hey guys, I have been trying to learn the new R20 Node Material system... just by diving in. Here is a "dummy" scene I've created, with an abstract object, that doesn't mean anything, modeled from Volumes. I just understand the very basic concepts of Nodal materials... but I hope to eventually understand the more mathematical aspects of it. My biggest hope with Nodes is that I'll be able to start creating Materials, made with bitmaps, where the texture repeats absolutely don't show at all. Any tricks you know in this department? Best, ras

Wowee, thanks, guys. I see I am not alone in wondering this, which is reassuring, haha. I'll try using the correction deformer approach. It never occurred to me that a Volume-built mesh could be considered just another Deformation.

Hey gang, This is definitely a dumb n00B question... The answer is surely simple, if only I could figure it out. I'm building compound Volume objects, using the new R20 Volume Builder approach (see screencap). When I drop my mesh objects as Children of the Volume Builder, the Materials they had been earlier assigned are no longer visible, either in Viewport or render. In this case, my array of cones should be red; my sphere, blue. But the compound Volume object created is just whitish. What's the trick to getting your individual Volume objects to retain their Material? (I will probably kick myself when it's shown to me). Thanks, ras

yeppers, that was the plan! The image is based on a 1969 photograph I tried to semi-replicate.

Hey guys, Here's my latest scene, modeled, lit and textured within C4D. The dress and pillow were made in MD, but textured in C4D. Corona render, 64 passes, about 1hr. ras

Hey guys, Here's a new scene and render I created this week, using the Corona Beta for C4D. It's called "Memorabilia". Corona Render=64 passes, about 1 hour render time. Most of the models and textures are mine, three are imported from a free 3D models site: the sheep, Jesus and Lady Liberty. I'm really lovin' Corona! It has a "buttery" look to it that I like... their AA is lovely. And I love their light falloff, too. Click the image to enlarge it a bit. ras

Somewhere online there is a plugin called "Corona Tools". I think the plugin is now discontinued, but it's still floating around out there. With just one click, this pluggie will change all your C4D Materials and parameters to the Corona format. Takes about 3 seconds. I did it just today, as a matter of fact. Really works.

It only took about 20--30min to do 64 passes, which is what they consider to be a full, thorough render... even though things already look very good by the time you reach 34 passes. I like the look of Corona... the light falloff looks real to me, subtle where it needs to be, and the AA always makes everything look buttery-smooth. I have to say, I like the way Corona is very straightforward to use... it's kind of foolproof, in fact. Not a surfeit of knobs to twiddle to make things happen. You just set up your scene, light it, and go. It's never given me an ugly or wrong render, never adds artifacts or weirdness. Never looks toon-y, 2-dimensional. Corona also does a beautiful DOF, I find. It can use all your native C4D shaders, and 3rd-party shaders, too, which is cool. Supports Layers and vertex maps en all. Corona's SSS looks very good... more organic and subtle, I think, than C4D's.

Out of curiosity this morning, and still learning all the little features of the Corona for C4D Beta, I wondered if Corona could render out C4D Hair. I was dubious, since C4D's Standard Renderer has, for a good while, always produced the best-looking Hair... ie., that looked silky and natural, like real hair. But to my great surprise and pleasure, I see that Corona can indeed render out C4D Hair... and it looks very good indeed! There is a bit of a workaround in setting it up, though: Your C4D Hair object needs to be set to Generate, and then you have to choose one of its Generate styles. I chose the Circle Type, which causes each strand to be rendered out in what I take to be basically a circle spline swept over the individual "virtual" hair splines. In the OM, your Hair object has to include both a C4D Hair Material... and also a Corona Material, side-by-side. In the Corona Material's Diffuse Channel, I entered the C4D Polygon Hair Shader, then set that shader to Illumination--->From Hair Materials. The Corona Material will take all its features from the C4D Hair Material, like Color, Specular, Thickness, Scale, Curl, and all the other options. But then, with the Corona Material, you can add further channels: Corona's native Reflection, Translucency, and Diffuse colors. My biggest worry was that Corona Render would not give the C4D Hair all the lavish AA that it needed to make the hair look silky, shiny, and not like straw, noodles, tentacles or needles. That was always the Standard Render's strength. But hey, I was pleasantly surprised: Corona antialiased the Polygon Hair strands beautifully, as you see here. Cool. ras