Render Legion ships Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D Beta 2

Render Legion has released Beta 2 of Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D, its upcoming edition of the renderer for Maxon’s 3D modelling, animation and motion graphics software.

The update adds a new node-based material editor, automatic conversion of V-Ray materials and lights, new skin and hair shaders, and improved motion blur and bokeh effects.

The Corona Node Material Editor: separate to Cinema 4D R20’s own node-based materials
The biggest single addition in Beta 2 is the new Corona Node Material Editor, introduced in parallel to Cinema 4D’s own native node-based material system, which was rolled out in R20 earlier this year.

The two systems aren’t yet fully compatible: according to Render Legion, “there is no API from Maxon for R20’s Node Materials yet, so these will not render using Corona Renderer at this time”.

However, the Corona editor supports legacy C4D materials, including the Layer Shader, plus Substance shaders – and unlike the native system, it works with older versions of Cinema 4D that supports Corona.

In addition, each node in the graph can be wired up to an unlimited number of other nodes or channels. You can find a more detailed discussion of the differences between the two systems on Render Legion’s blog.

Automated conversion of Cinema 4D and V-Ray materials and lights
The update introduces new options for handling non-Corona materials and lights, including a new Scene Converter for automatically converting Cinema 4D materials and lights to Corona format.

It also supports some items from V-Ray for Cinema 4D, which Render Legion parent company Chaos Group just acquired from original developer LAUBlab.

In Beta 2, that means Standard, Advanced, Displacement and 2-Sided V-Ray materials; Physical Sun + Sky, Area, Spot, and Omni V-Ray lights; and AdvBitmap and PowerShaders V-Ray shaders.

There is also a new ‘implicit conversion’ system, intended to give “an idea” of how a scene will render in Corona without having to permanently convert lights or materials.

Other new features: new Corona Skin and Hair materials, better bokeh and motion blur
Other changes include the Corona UVW Randomizer map for randomising placement and scale of textures applied to multiple objects; and support for triplanar mapping, for texturing models without UV maps.

In addition, there are entire new Corona Skin and Hair materials, although you currently need to use the latter alongside the native Cinema 4D Hair material – automatic conversion is due in the next release.

There is also a new implementation of motion blur, which should improve stability and rendering of instanced objects, and “properly support” simulation; and new advanced bokeh controls for the Corona Camera.

Finally, when using Corona with Cinema 4D’s Team Render network rendering system, it is now possible to use denoising, and stopping by Noise and Time limits.

Pricing and availability
Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D Beta 2 is available for Cinema 4D R14+ on Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.7+. The beta is free and can be used on commercial projects, but will expire with the commercial release.

That commercial version – which will be named Corona Renderer 3 for Cinema 4D, to bring version numbering in line with the 3ds Max edition – is now due to ship on 7 January 2019.

Render Legion ships Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D Beta 2

Related Posts