Material Nodes

With the introduction of Cinema 4D Release 20, materials can also be made up of node-based networks. This offers hitherto unknown possibilities for creating materials.

A Node Material integrates almost seamlessly into the old material system. Many material channels no longer exist because nodes are based on a physically-correct concept (which is why, for example, the Environment channel no longer exists, which itself was a "cheap trick" that simulated real reflections), whereby other material tabs such as Basic, Illumination, Editor and Assign are still available..

This makes it possible for Node Materials to work with the usual renderers.

Please note the Node-Space. If you've created a Node Material with an external renderer, this will not, for example, work with the Physical Renderer. The Node Editor will remain empty if the Node Space does not fit. Node Materials that don't work with the current Node Space will have a warning icon next to them.

Everything you need to know about Node Materials can be found in the following sections.

General information about the node-based material system

The node-based material system introduced in Cinema 4D R20 is a universal material system that can be used alternatively to the standard or physical material systems. It can in particular be used to define complex material properties that cannot be realized using other material systems.

This is possible because the Nodes, among other things, evaluate information supplied by the render samples and integrate this information into the calculation of the material. The Node system also uses physically-based BSDF shading, which – comparable with a physical material – calculates diffuse shading using dispersed reflections.

The anacronym BSDF stands for Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function – a method that emulates the physically correct transmission and reflection behavior of surfaces, i.e., reflections and transparencies are rendered realistically.

To make it easier to get started with the new material system, a Uber material, which can be created from the Material Manager's Create/Materials menu, can be used which is based on nodes but makes many of the channels and options used by other material systems available.

A Node Material integrates almost seamlessly into the old material system. Many material channels no longer exist because nodes are based on a physically-correct concept (which is why, for example, the Environment channel no longer exists, which itself was a "cheap trick" that simulated real reflections), whereby other material tabs such as Basic, Illumination, Editor and Assign are still available.

When texturing a scene using a node-based materials, the following information is important:

• The standard material system's shaders cannot be combined directly with Node Materials. However, for the most important shaders such as Fresnel, Gradient, Noise an Ambient Occlusion, corresponding Material Nodes are available whose functions in part go far beyond those of the respective shaders.
• When applying materials to scene objects such as a Sky or Floor object or to a Background or Foreground object, luminous properties must be used. If only a diffuse material property is used, these objects will remain black.
• Adding an environment color, i.e., an additional environment lighting using the Environment object has no effect on node-based materials.
• Currently, no functions for simulating physically-based Subsurface Scattering effects are available.
• Using Global Illumination as a render effect has no effect on node-based materials because they have no Color channel by default. The surface shading is instead created by a diffuse scattered reflection, as can also be done with a Lambert (Diffuse) or Oren Nayer (Diffuse) reflectance layer in the standard or physical material systems. However, there is an optional mode for this, for example, in case you want to use standard or physical materials side-by-side with node-based materials with active Global Illumination. To do so, enable the option in the Project Preferences menu.