HOW DO I QUICKLY ITERATE LIGHTING FOR LOOKDEV USING REDSHIFT AND CINEMA 4D?
3D rendering can be a massively time-consuming process for artists, which can tie their primary machine into render cycles. That means having to wait until a render is done before moving on to the compositing process. This is why it’s important for 3D artists to always prioritise making the most efficient use of a render system possible, especially when they’re in the early stages of the look development process.
Look development is best served when an artist can quickly develop numerous alternatives, which they can then refine to a few key options. Cinema 4D and Redshift from Maxon offer systems that can make iterating looks using only a couple of renders straightforward.
The first of these is using Light Groups in the Redshift AOV system. A Light Group is a system that can create individual render passes of a collection of lights (or a single light). For example, when using a conventional three-light setup – with a key, fill and rim light – with an HDR dome light, if the artist assigns each of these lights to their own individual Light Group, then come render time Redshift will create up to five different render passes at the artist’s discretion. Four of these will be just each individual light, with the fifth being the complete pass that has all the lights integrated at once.
When imported into a compositing application, such as Adobe After Effects, these four individual Light passes could be used to create the existing main light pass. Still, they also offer a wide range of creative opportunities for artists to build individual looks, especially if they’re used with a matte system such as Cryptomattes or Puzzle Mattes, both of which can be added to the Redshift AOV stack in Cinema 4D before starting on the rendering process.
The second way Cinema 4D offers flexibility is with the potent Take system. Think of a ‘take’ as a scenario within a Cinema 4D scene; by creating a new take, an artist can change (override) practically any element over the original version. This can be as simple as changing the light position, colour, or both. Using an additional take with a light colour change that accommodates the previously created light setup, by rendering only the original and take version of the Cinema 4D file, the artist can get 10 different lighting images from just two render cycles, giving a vast range of creativity in the lookdev stage.