Material menu

Apply

This function is used to create a Material tag for the active objects and assign the active material to it (alternatively, you can also click on the arrow icon on the far left in the Material Manager).

Alternatively, you can simply grab the material with the mouse and drag & drop it onto the desired object in the Object Manager. If you drag the material onto a Material tag (see Texture mapping), the old material in the texture is replaced by the new one. However, if you drag the material onto the object name, a new Material tag is created for the material.

Render Materials

You can use this to trigger the recalculation of the preview images for the selected materials. The preview images are normally updated automatically, e.g., when you edit the settings of a material. However, the recalculation of materials is also influenced by the Material Preview preset, which you can find in the Preferences menu in the Renderer/Redshift category. There, the automatic recalculation of materials can also be delayed or even switched off completely if the Redshift is currently busy rendering an image, for example. However, even when importing external formats such as DXF or 3D Studio R4, the preview image of the materials is not calculated automatically and can be updated here.

Render All Materials

This function is used to calculate or update the preview images of all materials.

If you load a scene, you may see so-called artifacts with some materials, as the preview images are saved with the scene in a highly compressed form. Even if you import external formats such as DXF or 3D Studio R4, the preview image of the materials is not calculated automatically.

The calculation can be canceled with the Esc key. On the Macintosh, you can also use the key combination Command + . be canceled.

Sort Materials

This function sorts all materials alphabetically.

Alternatively, you can also sort the materials using drag & drop. This has the advantage that you can sort the materials by color or texture, for example. Automatic sorting would not allow this.

To sort manually, click on the relevant material, hold down the mouse button and drop it in the desired position. The reordered material is always inserted into the list flush right. If the new position of the material is outside the visible area of the Material Manager, drag the mouse to the top or bottom edge of the window and the list will scroll in the corresponding direction.

Redshift Material Tools

This menu item is only available if Redshift is selected as the active renderer in the Render Settings.
Here you will find various functions that can be used, for example, to convert classic materials into native Redshift materials or Redshift Shader Graph materials into Node Editor materials. In some cases, these functions can also be called up one after the other, e.g., to first convert Classic Materials into Shader Graph materials and then into Node Editor materials.

Note 1:

You will also find these functions again in the Redshift menu under Materials/Functions if the Redshift menu has been activated via the Preferences settings under Renderer/Redshift/Redshiftmain menu.

Note 2:

It is recommended to use Node materials for Redshift, which are operated via the Node Editor. Over time, these will replace the older Shader Graph materials and also offer a more advanced material preview in the Viewports.

Use Node Materials for Presets	Redshift materials can be created as shader graph or Node materials. This option determines which of these types should be used for new materials. If the option is active, new materials are created as Node materials that are processed in the Node Editor, otherwise as Shader Graph materials that are processed in the special Shader Graph Editor. However, these types of material not only differ in this respect, but also offer slightly different functions in some cases. The same option can also be found as a default setting in the Preferences settings in the Renderer/Redshift section.
Convert Materials	This can be used to convert selected Classic Cinema 4D materials into Redshift Shader Graph materials. Classic Node materials are not supported. The original, Classic materials remain unchanged. Shader Graph materials can then be converted to Node Editor materials in a second step if required, e.g., with Convert to Nodes.
Converting and replacing materials	As with Convert Materials, you can convert selected classic Cinema 4D materials into Redshift Shader Graph materials. Classic Node materials are not supported. However, the original, Classic materials are replaced. In addition, the material links in the Material tags are exchanged. The objects covered with the original, classic materials are therefore textured by the converted, Shader Graph materials.
Convert All Materials	This allows you to convert all classic Cinema 4D materials in the Material Manager into Redshift Shader Graph materials in one go. Classic Node materials are not supported. The original, Classic materials remain unchanged. If required, Shader Graph materials can then be converted to Node Editor materials in a second step, e.g., with Convert all materials to Nodes.
Convert and replace all materials	As with Convert All Materials, all classic Cinema 4D materials in the Material Manager can be converted into Redshift Shader Graph materials in one go. Classic Node materials are not supported. The original, Classic materials are replaced. In addition, the material links in the Material tags are exchanged. The objects covered with the original, Classic materials are therefore textured by the converted, Shader Graph materials.
Convert to Nodes	This converts the selected Shader Graph materials into new Node Editor materials. The original Shader Graph materials are retained and their existing object assignments also remain unchanged. Please note, however, that this may result in a different appearance of the materials, as Shader Graph materials may also contain elements that are not supported by Node Editor materials.
Convert and replace with Nodes	This converts the selected Shader Graph materials into new Node Editor materials, replacing the original Shader Graph materials. The material links of the existing Material tags are updated accordingly. Please note, however, that this may result in a different appearance of the materials, as Shader Graph materials may also contain elements that are not supported by Node Editor materials.
Convert All Materials to Nodes	This converts all Shader Graph materials in the Material Manager into new Node Editor materials. The original Shader Graph materials are retained and their existing object assignments also remain unchanged. Please note, however, that this may result in a different appearance of the materials, as Shader Graph materials may also contain elements that are not supported by Node Editor materials.
Convert and replace all materials with Nodes	This converts all Shader Graph materials in the Material Manager into new Node Editor materials, replacing the original Shader Graph materials. The material links of the existing Material tags are updated accordingly. Please note, however, that this may result in a different appearance of the materials, as Shader Graph materials may also contain elements that are not supported by Node Editor materials.
Create Materials from Selected Substance Assets	This function is only relevant if you have used Extensions/Substance-Engine/Load Substance... to load a Substance 3D Asset (.sbsar). The result is a classic material in which the individual components of the Substance 3D asset are implemented via channel shaders. These selected, classic materials can then be converted into Shader Graph materials using this function. These can also be converted into Node Editor materials using the Convert to Nodes function, for example. However, if your goal is to use Node materials for Substance 3D assets anyway, you can also shorten this process by dragging the required .sbsar files of the Substance 3D assets directly from the Finder or Explorer onto the Cinema 4D interface. This directly creates redshift Node materials of these substances.

Material Exchanger...

What does the plug-in do?

Now, suppose you have exported a scene with various materials from your CAD program. Once you have imported the scene into Cinema 4D, you will want to replace all materials with the better Cinema 4D materials. You need a Cinema 4D reference file containing the new replacement materials with exactly the same name.

You will be asked to enter this reference file when you call up the plug-in. Once you have done this, you can specify whether you want to replace all materials with the same name in your file or only individual materials. A dialog will then ask you for each individual material.