Cinema 4D Basic Features Object Manager Tags Menu Various Tags
Function available in CINEMA 4D Prime, Visualize, Broadcast, Studio & BodyPaint 3D

Normal Tag

Basic Tag Fields

Normal Tag

A Normal tag defines the Vertex Normals (in the following simply referred to as Normals) which help calculate shading. Cinema 4D normally calculates these using the Phong tag. As soon as a Phong tag is created, the Vertex Normals will be read from the Normal tag.

The following applies, depending on which tags exist:

Tip:
Normal tags do not work in conjunction with Generators such as Subdivision Surfaces or Deformers. Shading errors will occur.

A Normal tag primarily serves the following functionalities:

Imported CAD models

Many NURBS modelers export relatively poor-quality meshes which can be recognized by the errors in shading. Several modelers let you optionally embed "Vertex Normals" (these are Normals that exist for each point; depending on the surface, this can amount to several Normals per point). This serves exclusively to display and render the object correctly.

Normal tags can react very sensitively to being edited at point level or when Deformers are used. This shading can then produce artefacts.

Normals can be displayed numerically (Mode|Normal) in the Structure Manager or via the Vertex Normals option in the Viewport (at times meaned, however).