Classic Material Nodes

In Cinema 4D, materials can also consist of Node networks. This enables unprecedented flexibility when creating materials.

A Node material fits almost seamlessly into the old material system. Although many material channels no longer exist, as Nodes are based on a physically correct concept (e.g., there is no longer an environment channel, which was actually just a cheap trick to simulate real reflections), other material tabs such as Base, Illumination, Editor, Assign are still available.

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

Please note the Node space. If you have built a Node material with a third-party renderer, it will not work with the Physical renderer, for example. The Node Editor remains empty if the Node space does not match. In the Material Manager, Node materials that do not match the current Node space are marked with a warning sign.

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

General information on the Node-based material system

As of Cinema 4D Release 20, the Node-based material system is available as a universal material system alongside the Standard material and the Physical material. It is particularly suitable for defining complex material properties that might not be possible to realize with other material systems.

This is possible because Nodes can also be used to evaluate information on the current calculation beam and integrate it into the calculation of the material.

The Node system also uses physically-based BSDF shading, which calculates diffuse shading through scattered reflections, similar to a Physical material.

The abbreviation BSDF stands for Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function, a calculation method in which the physically correct transmission and reflection behavior of surfaces is simulated. To put it in a nutshell, reflections and transparencies are calculated realistically.

To make it easier to get started with this new material system, a parent material is available in the Material Manager via the Create/Materials menu. Although it is based on Nodes, it provides most of the channels and options familiar from the other material systems in the familiar dialog of the Material Editor.

When texturing a scene with Node-based materials, the following points must also be observed:

• The shaders of the Standard material system cannot be combined directly with Node materials. For the most important shaders, such as Fresnel, Gradient, Noise or Ambient Occlusion, however, corresponding material Nodes are available, some of whose functions go far beyond those of the corresponding shaders.
• When assigning materials to scene objects, such as a sky object, the floor object or a foreground or background object, luminous properties must be used. If only a diffuse material property is used instead, these objects remain black.
• Adding an Ambient Color, i.e., additional ambient lighting using the Environment object, has no effect on Node-based materials.
• (Physically incorrectly calculated) highlights can be deactivated in light sources in the General tab.
• There are currently no functions available for the simulation of physically-based subsurface scattering effects.
• The use of Global Illumination as a render effect has no effect on Node-based materials, as there is no Color channel on these by default. The shading of the surface is instead achieved by calculating a diffuse scattered reflection, as can be used with a Lambert (Diffuse) or Oren Nayar (Diffuse) reflectivity plane in the Standard material system or the Physical material. However, there is also an optional mode for this if, for example, you want to use Standard materials or Physical materials side by side with Node-based materials in a scene and want Global Illumination to be active. To do this, activate the option in the Project settings.