Reference Cinema 4D Basic Features Material Manager Material Properties / Material Editor
Function available in CINEMA 4D Prime, Visualize, Broadcast, Studio & BodyPaint 3D
Material

Basic Color Diffusion Luminance Transparency Reflectance Environment Fog Bump Normal Alpha Glow Displacement Illumination Viewport Assign

Basic Properties

Tip:
Note that not all of the material channels listed here are available for each material. For example, many channels will not be available for node-based materials. Inversely, many node-based materials have their own channels that are in turn not listed here.

Name

Here you can enter a name for the object.

Color

Surface color.

Diffusion

Irregularities in surface color (works by brightening and darkening the color channel).

Luminance

Luminescent color (light-independent color).

Transparency

Transparency (including refraction index).

Reflectance

Ability to reflect other objects.

Environment

Environment reflection (simulates reflection).

Fog

Fog effect.

Bump

Virtual bumps on a surface.

Normal

Use this setting to activate the Normal material channel for optimized virtual surface unevenness.

Alpha

Defines the localized texture invisibility.

Glow

Defines the halo around an object.

Displacement

Defines the authentic bumps on a surface.

Viewport

Here you will find several settings pertaining to the view (texture size, tessellation, etc.).

Custom

This tab displays custom material channels you create. More information can be found here.

Illumination

This is where you will find all settings relative to Global Illumination mode.

Add Custom Channel

Click on this button to create a custom channel.

Assignment

Materials assigned to an object will be listed here. Alternately, an object can also be dragged and dropped into this field.

Node Editor...

Node-based materials have this button with which you can open the Node Editor.

 Node Space

As described hier, a Node Material can contain different Node setups for different renderers. Depending on which renderer or Node Space is active, corresponding Node setups will be displayed and evaluated.

Here you will find those renderers listed that can work with Nodes: ProRender and Standard / Physical renderer (since S22). If you have 3rd-party renderers installe, these can also be listed here if they are compatible with the Node Space system.

Each renderer has a button, which is either

If you click on Add, a default Node setup (i.e., exactly what is created if New Node Material is called up) in the corresponding Node Space will be created for the respective renderer. If you want to add new Nodes to this new Node Space, make sure that the Node Space defined in Cinema 4D (menu at top right of the interface) corresponds to the button just pressed!

The Node setups for different Node Spaces are clearly separated and are not compatible.

Be careful when deleting because you can end up removing complex Node setups.