Getting Started

First Steps in Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D

Here is a tutorial that walks you through downloading and installing Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D and creating your very first renders:

Text Version

1. Download and install: Visit corona-renderer.com/download to download the MacOS or Windows version. After installing, open Cinema 4D.
2. Optional, add icons to your toolbar: Follow the usual Cinema 4D customization steps: open Windows > Customize Commands and search for “Corona”, and click and drag the commands to your toolbar.
3. Set Corona Renderer as your render engine: Click on Edit Render Settings, and in the Renderer dropdown, select Corona.
4. Add some realistic lighting: This is as simple as adding a Corona Sky, using Corona > Corona Sky in the main menu (or shortcut icon if you created one).
5. Render: Corona Renderer is well integrated into Cinema 4D, so you can use the native Cinema 4D commands Render View and Render to Picture Viewer, or you can open the Corona VFB using Corona > Corona VFB on the main toolbar (or use a shortcut icon if you create one) and click Render there.
6. Add extra lighting: Add a Corona Sun (Corona > Corona Sun on the main menu, or shortcut icon) to create some directional lighting in the scene. The Corona Sun and Corona Sky work together to give realistic lighting, e.g. adjusting the Corona Sun's Angle parameter will change the height of the sun in the sky, and both sun and sky will change color and intensity accordingly to represent different times of day.
7. Use an HDRI: Create a Corona Light Material (using the Corona dropdown menu in the materials window), and load an HDRI into the Self Illumination Texture slot. This uses the HDRI both as background image and for lighting. Adjust the Intensity parameter to control brightness.
8. Post processing: These controls are available in both the Corona VFB and the native Picture Viewer (click on Corona > Post Process in the Picture Viewer to open the controls). Adjusting parameters in either will adjust the parameters and the rendered image in both.
9. Close integration with Cinema 4D: This lets you use native Cinema 4D spotlights, for example.
10. Define when a render is complete: Click Edit Render Settings and under Corona's General Settings tab set a Noise Level Limit (10% is good for test renders, 4 or 5% is good for finals). You can also render to a specified number of passes or for a specified time.
11. Enable Denoising: This can be enabled from Corona’s General Settings tab, simply choose Full Denoising from the dropdown. When the render is complete, you can blend between the raw and denoised version by using the Denoise amount parameter in the post-processing options.

Links

• Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D official tutorials
• Corona Renderer official YouTube Channel