Material Manager

Topic overview

• The Material Manager - In a nutshell
• Assign materials
• Related topics
• The Material Manager - In detail
• Create, conimage and sort new materials
• Influencing the material preview in other managers
• Group materials
• Edit materials
• Use of classic materials
• Further functions

The Material Manager - In a nutshell

Create, name and organize your materials in the Material Manager. Use materials to define the appearance of your objects and define their appearance and simulated surface properties. An object can then appear to be made of metal, wood or glass, for example. Alongside geometries, light sources and cameras, materials are among the most important components of your scene.

You can show or hide the Material Manager by clicking on its icon in the Cinema 4D interface (see red outline in the following illustration). By default, the Material Manager is therefore not visible in the Cinema 4D layout in order to save space. The Material Manager can also be called up directly via the Cinema 4D Window menu or using the shortcut Shift+F2.

Cinema 4D is conimaged by default so that double-clicking in the Material Manager automatically creates a standard material that matches the selected renderer. As Redshift is used as the default renderer in the Render Presets, double-clicking in the Material Manager creates a Redshift standard material.
As an alternative to double-clicking, you can also click on the + symbol at the top of the Material Manager or use the Create menu of the Manager.

Materials are represented by preview images (see blue outline in the image above), whereby a simple geometry is assigned to the material and rendered. The shape of this geometry - a sphere by default - can be defined in the Preferences settings and its Material category under 3D Preview Scene. However, this is a purely cosmetic change and has nothing to do with the actual settings of the material itself.
The arrangement of the materials can be changed manually using drag & drop directly in the Material Manager, or you can use the icon buttons at the bottom left of the Material Manager to switch between different list and row arrangements. The display size of the material preview renderings can be adjusted using the slider at the bottom right of the Material Manager. You can edit the name of a material by double-clicking in the text area directly below the material preview - or to the right of it if the materials are displayed in a list.

Assign materials

The following video demonstrates how you can assign materials to your objects from the Material Manager. You can either drag the material preview directly onto a geometry in the 3D view or onto the name of the object in the Object Manager. In each case, this creates Material tags on the object, which establish a connection between the object and the material from the Material Manager and can be used to control the projection type or size of the material, for example.
Several materials can also be assigned to the same object. The order of the Material tags in the Object Manager is decisive here. A Material tag further to the right conceals materials to the left of it. Rearranging the Material tags in the Object Manager can therefore change the appearance of the objects (also shown in the video).
Finally, a material from the Material Manager can also be dragged onto a Material tag that already exists on the object in the Object Manager to replace the assigned material. The projection settings of the previous material are retained. This can be seen at the end of the following video.
Finally, it should also be mentioned that when a Material tag is selected, the material linked to it is also displayed in a colored frame in the Material Manager. You can also double-click on a Material tag to select the material linked in the tag, making its basic properties visible in the Attribute Manager, among other things.

Related topics

Here you will find the most important jump points for topics related to materials and the Material Manager:

• Preferences: In the Preferences in the Edit menu, you will find many settings that can affect the appearance and calculation of materials. Pay particular attention to the Redshift presets and the Material presets.
• Node materials: Redshift materials are defined by Nodes, which are created by default in the Node Editor. Here you will find all information on how to use the Node Editor and here you will find an overview of all Redshift Material Nodes.
• Preconimaged materials: Cinema 4D already offers many materials for direct retrieval in its Asset Browser, e.g., for metals, glass or wood. Information on the use of Asset Browsers can be found on these pages.
• Material tags: The connection between the materials and the objects is handled by Material tags in the Object Manager. Here you will learn all about their properties.
• Legacy materials and shaders: If you are still working with older projects that still use standard or physical materials, you will find explanations of the classic standard material here. Separate shaders are often used there, which are described in this section.

The Material Manager - In detail

In fact, different types of materials can be created in the Material Manager, as the functionality and properties of materials are also closely linked to the renderer used. Since Redshift is selected as the active renderer in the Render Presets by default, Redshift materials adapted to it are usually also created in the Material Manager and appear there in preview tiles as an image representation (see following image).

The names of new materials are set by default with the abbreviation Mat, but can be edited individually by double-clicking on the text area below the preview images in the Material Manager. If you have selected a list view of the materials in the Material Manager using the icons in the lower part of the manager, the material names appear to the right of the preview images and can be edited there accordingly by double-clicking.

Create, configure and sort new materials

To create a new material, simply double-click on an empty area in the Material Manager. Alternatively, you can also click on the + button above the preview area in the Material Manager. The type of material created and the 3D shape to be used for the preview display of this material can be defined via the Material section in the Preferences settings (see following illustration). The illustration above already shows some of these 3D shapes that can be used.

Within the Material settings of the Preferences menu (see above) you will find the default for the 3D Preview Scene. There you can choose between typical shapes, such as a sphere, cube or plane, as well as some more exotic shapes, such as clothing or a candle. These shapes are then used to calculate the material previews in the Material Manager. However, these shapes have nothing to do with the function or calculation type of the material. Simply choose what appeals to you visually. Bear in mind that rounded shapes, such as a sphere or a ring, can better represent some material properties, such as gloss or reflection, than a sharp-edged cube or a plane, for example.
The selected form is used for all newly created materials and whenever the preview of a material needs to be recalculated. The preview shape for existing materials is therefore retained even after switching the 3D Preview Scene until, for example, a parameter change to these materials triggers a recalculation of the material preview. Alternatively, this updating of the preview images can also be triggered via the Calculate all materials entry in the Material menu of the Material Manager.

In the Material Manager, you can rearrange the materials using drag & drop, for example, if you want to display thematically similar materials one after the other. The material arrangement can also be influenced using the three icons at the bottom left of the Material Manager. The materials can be displayed one below the other, i.e., as a list, or next to each other in rows. A third mode combines a list display with additional information on the textures used within the materials. These modes, supplemented by some subcategories, can also be found again in the View menu of the Material Manager.
The three main display modes for materials are shown in the following illustration. Regardless of the selected mode, the size of the preview images can be affected using the slider at the bottom-right of the Material Manager.

We have already talked about how double-clicking in an empty area of the Material Manager or simply clicking on the + button in the header of the Manager creates a new material. Which material type this should be can also be defined in the material section of the Preferences menu in the Preset Material menu item.
The default setting Auto ensures that a Redshift standard material is always created for the Redshift renderer.
If the old Standard renderer were active in the Render Settings, a Cinema 4D standard material would be created instead.
If the old Physical renderer were active, a physically based material (PBR material) would also be created, whose diffuse color properties are simulated via the reflectivity of a Cinema 4D standard material.
Node materials can also be used when using the old Standard or Physical renderers, the creation of which can be selected by selecting Node or About, for example (see following image). Please note, however, that Redshift Node materials are not compatible with the Node materials of other renderers.

Influencing the material preview in other managers

In addition to the Material Manager, the preview images of the materials can also be influenced in other managers. For example, after clicking on a material in the Material Manager, its basic settings are automatically displayed in the Attribute Manager. This also includes a preview image of the material, which may differ from the settings in the Material Manager in terms of size and the type of object used for it (see following illustration).

After right-clicking on the preview image of the material in the Attribute Manager, a context menu opens, which can be used to choose between different standard sizes for the preview and also between different objects for rendering the material preview. This setting is independent of the selected display in the Material Manager.

Group materials

A large number of different materials are often required for more complex projects. In such situations, it makes sense to be able to group materials thematically, e.g., all plastic, all metal and all wood materials in groups, which can then be viewed separately in the Material Manager if required. To do this, you can use the Layer property of the materials, which you can find in the Basic tab of the Attribute Manager if a material (or several materials at the same time) has been selected in the Material Manager.
To select a material, simply click on its preview image in the Material Manager. If several materials should be selected at the same time, you can, for example, draw a frame around these materials in the Material Manager by holding down the left mouse button, or use the usual Ctrl clicks to select or deselect materials one after the other.
Selected materials can always be recognized in the Material Manager by the bluish background of the material name.

As you can see in the illustration above, you will find the Layer property of the materials directly in the Basic settings of the Attribute Manager. The name of the material can also be edited there.
Initially, the Layer field is still empty, but by clicking on the small arrow to the right of the Layer field, you can either have the material added to a new layer or - if layers already exist - use the Add to layer entry and select one of the layers already available.

If a layer has been created or selected for the material, the triangle to the left of the Layer field can also be expanded in order to view the settings for this layer (see also the illustration above). You will find the name of the layer there, which you should choose sensibly, as this name will then also be used in the Material Manager for the Group tab. For example, you could use the term plastic here if the material has corresponding properties. You will also find a Color field here, which you can also set as you wish. This color is then also used in the Material Manager to mark the materials. Water or glass materials could then catch the eye even more quickly in a bluish layer, for example. This can also be seen in the following illustration.

Corresponding tabs appear in the Material Manager for all levels assigned to the materials. Clicking on these tabs then only shows the materials to which this level has been assigned. In addition, the tabs and also the preview images of the materials are given correspondingly colored corners in the color of the layer. The illustration above, for example, shows three materials that lie in a blue-colored plane with the names Metals.
If there are a large number of material levels, you can use the View menu of the Material Manager to set whether the corresponding tabs should be displayed in one continuous line or in several rows.

In addition to the tabs for the layers, an All and a No layer group also appear in the Material Manager. This allows you to view all materials at the same time, regardless of their group affiliation, and you can also display the materials that have not been assigned to a level separately.

Edit materials

We have already seen that many properties of a selected material - regardless of whether it is based on Nodes or is a Cinema 4D standard material - can be edited directly in the Attribute Manager. To select a material, simply click on the material preview in the Material Manager or double-click on a Material tag in the Object Manager, provided the material has already been assigned to an object.
However, working with Node materials can be done even more conveniently and clearly in the separate Node Editor. To do this, double-click on the preview image of the material in the Material Manager. This interaction between the Material Manager and the Node Editor is made possible by the Always open Node Editor option, which you can find in the Material section of the Preferences. Otherwise, if the option is switched off there, double-clicking on the Node material will only open the Material Editor, which can only display the material properties that you can already access via the Attribute Manager.

Alternatively, you can also select the material at any time and then click on the Node Editor... button in the Basic tab of the Attribute Manager to open the Node Editor. Otherwise, the Node Editor can also be called up via the Cinema 4D Window menu.

The actual Node structure of the Redshift material is only visible in the Node Editor and can be individually supplemented and conimaged using shader Nodes from the Asset Browser. In this section of the documentation you will find all the necessary information on how to use the Node Editor, how Nodes work and which Nodes are available to you for working with materials. If you have never worked with Node materials before, these explanations in the Materials section will help you get started.

Nodes also have preview areas, as can be seen on the right-hand side of the above illustration, for example. The shapes used for this are also influenced by the program default settings for the 3D Preview Scene.
The size of these Node preview areas can be defined via the Node preview size setting from the Material category of the program preferences, or you can right-click on this preview area and then select a new size from the context menu.

Use of classic materials

If you have already worked with older versions of Cinema 4D and the standard or physical renderer, you can still render these projects and also edit their materials. If your project only consists of such classic components (e.g., with classic Cinema 4D cameras, as well as Cinema 4D light sources and classic materials), you can also select the appropriate classic renderer in the Render Settings.
Redshift is also able to interpret the most important material properties of these classic Cinema 4D materials for rendering, but in order to utilize all the possibilities of Redshift, you should generally use your own Redshift materials.
If you still need classic Cinema 4D materials for a Redshift rendering, you can call them up via the Create menu of the Material Manager using the Classic materials menu item, even if the Redshift renderer is active.

The display of classic materials in the Material Manager hardly differs from the display of Redshift materials. For classic materials, however, a custom shape can be selected in the Material settings of the program default settings with the Material: Preset project setting. You can see this in the following illustration, where classic materials are calculated on spherical objects and redshift materials on a double torus.
In addition, classic materials offer a Reflectance property that can simulate a complex material structure and physically correct material properties by using different levels. The Material Manager therefore offers an additional marker for these classic materials in the top right-hand corner of the preview area of a selected material (see following illustration).

The orange marking on the selected material Mat 1 indicates that its reflectivity is identical to that of other materials. These other materials are indicated by white markings in the top right-hand corner (see Mat 2 and Mat 3 in the illustration above). This information lets select these three materials together, e.g., by Ctrl-clicking, and to change their reflectivity simultaneously and synchronously in the Attribute Manager. If one of the classic renderers is selected, you can also use the Select menu in the Material Manager to select classic materials with an identical Refelectance channel. There you will then find the command Select materials with the same reflectance. This command is not available when Redshift is the active renderer.

Although the material Mat 4 in the example above is also a classic material, it does not display this white marking because other Refelectance settings are used there compared to the selected material Mat 1.

If you hold the Alt key during a drag & drop process of a classic material and drop the material onto an existing classic material, the latter will be replaced by the dragged material. If you hold the Ctrl/Cmd key in addition to the Alt key, the classic material is replaced by a copy of the classic material you have dragged.

Further functions

At the top of the Material Manager you will find some buttons, which we will briefly describe here. We will go through them from left to right:

1. The + symbol: A single click on this button creates a new material. You can define the type of this material via the Material category in the Preferences settings. By default, Auto mode is activated for Default Material, whereby the appropriate standard material is generated for the renderer currently activated in the Render Settings. For Redshift, for example, the Redshift standard material is created.
   If you hold the mouse button on the + symbol, a context menu appears which you can use to select other material types that are compatible with the active renderer.
2. The material icon opens the Asset Browser to give you direct access to the materials supplied. Double-clicking on a material there automatically loads it into the Material Manager.
3. The arrow button: We have already discussed the various methods for assigning materials to an object directly from the Material Manager using drag & drop. Alternatively, you can also click on this arrow button. The corresponding objects and the material to be assigned should be selected for this.
4. The pipette: If an object to which a material has already been assigned is selected in the Object Manager, you can also select this material in the Material Manager by clicking on the pipette. Accordingly, its settings will also appear directly in the Attribute Manager, for example. Double-clicking on the Material tag behind the object in the Object Manager has the same effect.
5. Click on the trash can icon to delete the selected materials from the Material Manager. Please note that if these materials have already been assigned to objects, the corresponding Material tags are retained on the objects. However, the links to the materials are then empty, and therefore these tags then display a question mark in the icon. These tags can either be deleted or you can assign a different material to them. The projection settings on the Material tag are retained even after a material link has been removed.
6. The magnifying glass icon shows or hides a search bar, which is also available in other managers, such as the Object Manager, to filter the displayed elements. Only those materials whose names contain parts of the term entered in the search mask will then be displayed.