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Fueled by the rapid development taking place in the hardware market and computer graphics field, real-time rendering is making its way on the architectural visualization business.
Real-time rendering is a process in which GPU produces images while calculating huge amounts of data, so you can have a preview of the results while adjusting in the interface. It enables you to see the changes as soon as they are made, and your operations are usually conducted with a minimum frame rate of 30.
For C4D users, for a long time they could only turn to offline renderer because there wasn't much choice. While now equipped with RTX technology for acceleration, rendering engines like Octane and Redshift still have a hard time offering a smooth rendering experience because of the low FPS that hinders the process.
Now with D5 Render's integration with Cinema 4D, it's obviously a great oppurtunity for C4D users to enter the real-time rendering world.
Earlier this year, D5 Render released its plugin built for Cinema 4D: D5 Converter - C4D, announcing its integration into C4D workflow.
D5 Render as a standalone renderer offers multiple plugins(D5 Converters) to work with most of the mainstream modeling software without any additional cost for each integration.
That is to say, a real-time workflow for C4D users that is free of charge is now available.
It is time to SWITCH!
Learn more: Workflow | D5 Converter-Cinema 4D
Why D5?
Enter the World of Real-Time Rendering
Compared with traditional renderer used to work C4D, D5 Render is such an "intuitive" tool.
Material
Forget about the complex material nodes, nerve-wrecking lighting settings, and the frustrating trial and error you have to go through in those renderer. In D5, with fewer parameters, fewer adjustments, you get to achieve results of similar or even better quality within a shorter time.
Material panel in C4D
Material panel in D5 Render
D5 Render adopts the mainstream PBR material system. It simplifies the process of editing materials as much as possible through preset parameters for various material templates.
You can find over 1,500 preset materials in D5's built-in Asset Library and directly apply them to the models in your scene with just one click.
Synchronization of materials from C4D, Octane, Corona and Redshift is supported in D5, yet you'll still find it easy and fun to edit materials in D5 yourself. Even for normals and reflections that are usually resource-consuming on computations, results can be shown immediately on the model's surface as you adjust parameters.
Judging from the works posted by D5 users, you can tell that D5 Render's equipped with a production-class material system with amazing performance in output.
Speed
In offline rendering software, all those effects, reflection, transparencies and complex lighting often come with a price, which is multiplied rendering time.
That is not the case in D5:
Ray tracing technology is a fundamental part of D5 Render that enables GPU to render complex models and scenes with physically accurate shadows and reflections. Normally the most basic one can also handle D5 well and surprise you with its amazing rendering speed.
Even for scenes heavy on reflection(image above), it takes only 36.8 seconds to render an image in 2K resolution, and 15 minutes for an 8-second video.
The ongoing evolution in technologies is going to continue, and it would definitely speed up your workflow if you're better equipped.
For anyone that owns a graphics card supporting ray tracing, such as Nvidia RTX series, AMD RX 6400 and above, or the coming Intel ray tracing GPU, D5 Render is bound to be your best choice.
Free
D5 Render releases a new version every three months to meet the needs of its users from all walks of life.
With previous updates, D5 Render has become a fully functional, stable and reliable real-time rendering software. On top of that, D5 is also free to download with 90% of all its features accessible to everyone. In today's design and art market, it's not always easy to find a tool that offers a free version for commercial projects like Blender. Luckily enough, D5 is here to help. If you are using C4D, and would like to switch to another rendering software, don't hesitate to give D5 a try.
Free Download: https://www.d5render.com/download
Guide on How D5 Render works with C4D
Download and installation
Go to D5 Render official website > Download and find the converter for Cinema 4D.
Or you can also go to Welcome Page > Workflow to download.
UI and Features
After installing, open your C4D and you'll find D5 Render Converter.
Click on it, and a panel for D5 will pop up with 7 icons:
1. Start/Stop D5
Click on it to start/stop D5 Render in your C4D.
Select "OK" to open a new project in D5 and the C4D model will be imported into D5.
If you've applied materials to your model in C4D, then you'll find the model comes with materials because D5 can map those materials.
Apart from C4D Standard materials, D5 also supports most of the materials from other renderer including Octane(Blend material, toon material and procedural textures are not supported yet), Corona, and Redshift materials.
2. Sync
Click on this button, and the scenes in D5 will be updated. You can use it to sync models, materials and scenes from C4D to D5.
3. View sync
Turn on real-time viewport sync to keep the viewport of C4D and D5 in consistence so you can view or edit in D5 with ease.
4. Camera sync
Turn it on to synchronize the cameras you set in C4D to D5's scene list.
5. Light sync
Support the sync of spotlight, point light and area light.
6. 7. Export .d5a file
You can either export the whole project or export certain objects to D5.
.d5a files can be directly read by D5
C4D - D5 Workflow Made Easy
Supported versions
The current D5 converter for Cinema 4D supports C4D versions from R20 to R25.
C4D+D5 rendering
Multi-sync with various modeling solutions
With multi-sync support of D5 converters, you can simultaneously synchronize files from multiple CAD/BIM software into one D5 scene using different plugins. That is to say, your workflow can be streamlined beause you get to focus on modeling an architecture in Archicad, design a particular furniture with C4D, and render in D5 at the same time. Multiple software work simultaneously as one in D5 Render, saving your valuable time for further improvement of the project.
Product design and rendering
An important part in product rendering has to be setting up a background with appropriate lighting that goes well with the product itself. Rendering with D5, you can save the scene you carefully crafted as your go-to scene for future projects. In this way, next time you need to render a new product, you just drag and drop the model into that perfect scene.
What a time-saver!
Cinema 4D is known for having this amazing fur function to simulate realistic fur materials /textures which can be used on interior furniture. Most rendering software is unable to produce satisfactory fur, so with C4D-D5 workflow, you might see your interior renderings at another level using the fur materials mapped from C4D.
Image courtesy: Furkan Ahlat, atmosvisualization, Jimmy3D, KJJ, Wonkz Wong, Flamingo
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