CineThea Quick Start Manual

Version: 0.7 Beta Developer: France s c o Guazzi !ranz"

#ntro$uction
CineThea is a plugin using Thea Render as a standard renderer inside Cinema4d. CineThea supports (at the moment) Cinema4D R 11 and R11.5 on Windows platform and R11.5 on OS (!oth "# and $4 !it ar%hite%tures).

#nstallation
CineThea installation is eas& and similar to most other Cinema4D 'lugins. Simpl& (n)ip 'a%*age in +,Cinema4D,'lugins, without an& su!folder. The final stru%ture of CineThea plugin folder should !eCineThea (folder) CineThea.%dl (Win onl&) CineThea.%dl$4 (Win onl&) CineThea.d&li! (OS onl&) res (folder) TheaTemp (folder) The TheaTemp folder is used for data e.%hange and temporar& file storage during render and e.porting phases. /a*e sure that &ou ha0e full read and write pri0ileges on this (a standard Cienema4d installation should ensure that). 1t the moment2 s%ene generated with OS 0ersion will not !e %ompati!le with Windows one 3 we will address this in the ne.t release with a *ind of Custom Sa0e 'ro4e%t %ommand.

Thea %en$er Supporte$ Features

CineThea supports now most important Thea Render 5eatures to produ%e still images (animation support will !e added in forth%oming 0ersions). %en$erer: Complete support for all engines- (n!iased TR12 (n!iased TR# and 6iased (6SD). 7.ported s%ene %an !e rendered automati%all& in Thea Dar*room or opened and edited in Thea Studio. 7n0ironment settings support. 'h&si%al s*& support. /ulti8pass support. &i'htin': Sunlight form ph&si%al s*&. 1rea lights (using emitter material on geometri% meshes). Materials: 5ull Thea material support 0ia Thea /aterial 9a! interfa%e. 5ull Thea Te.ture2 Colors and 'ro%edurals. Ca(era: 5ull %amera parameter support 0ia Cinema4D parameter and Thea %amera tag.

CineThea Structure 1fter :nstallation CineThea is 0isi!le inside Cinema4D in three pla%es8 1s e.ternal renderer in %ommon render settings. 8 1s a %ustom /aterial in material manager. 8 1s a %ustom tag :n o!4e%t manager menu (Thea %amera tag).

General )vervie*
CineThea %en$er Vi$eopos t With CineThea installed2 Thea Render will !e%ome a0aila!le as a standard e.ternal renderer in general render settings ta!. 6& %hoosing CineThea2 a new ;ideo'ost will !e a0aila!le on left list< !& editing it2 &ou %an find and set all Thea Render options. There are some options whi%h will !e %ontrolled !& Cinema4D2 li*e output image resolution and sa0ing. CineThea options are distri!uted in se0eral ta!s< in s&stem ta! &ou %an define !asi% parameters for plug8in and %al%ulation. 1nother important parameter is 7ngine< with this2 &ou %an define whi%h render engine &ou will use for ne.t render 8 time parameter has effe%t onl& on the un!iased engines and not the !iased one. =ou %an also define2 if &ou li*e2 to render in Thea Dar*Room or open s%ene in Thea Studio (using the >Open With? parameter). On (nits side &ou ha0e to set the %orre%t units &ou li*e to use to e.port@render s%ene in Thea Render< this is a %ompletel& independent parameter from Cinema 4D units settings. Thus2 the modeling and rendering ma& ta*e pla%e using different s%ales. 5or all render and en0ironment settings please refer to Thea do%umentation. Aote- a 0er& important thing is to set Thea Render dire%tor& parameter to Thea e.e%uta!le path< without this setting2 CineThea will !e dea%ti0ated. This parameter will !e sa0ed automati%all& in CineThea preferen%es2 so &ou donBt ha0e to set it e0er& time (e.%ept if &ou reinstall Thea Render in different pla%e). A ote: on MacOSX, in some cases, Thea Material Lab or Thea Darkroom will not be executed in the foreground, look in the Dock. Thea Material =ou %an find in Cinema4D /aterial 9ist a new entr& %alled Thea /aterial< this will !e %reated onl& if CineThea is the %urrent renderer for the s%ene. When a new Thea /aterial will !e %reated2 no pre0iew is a0aila!le !e%ause material is >empt&?. :f &ou edit material (dou!le %li%* on material i%on) Thea /aterial 9a! will !e opened and Cinema4D will wait for the user to %lose it. 70er& Thea /aterial element is a0aila!le and when %losing /aterial 9a!2 the pre0iew will !e updated and material is now read& to appl& and render. Thea /aterial %an !e used as a standard Cinema4D material with te.ture tag 8 supported te.ture pro4e%tions are (;W2 Cu!i%2 C&lindri%al and Spheri%al. Aote- if &ou %reate a new material and edit it in Thea /aterial 9a! without an& >%lear? or >new element? /aterial 9a! %annot !e %losed. To sol0e this2 simpl& press %lear or add a new !asi% material and %lose. Cinema4D materials are not %urrentl& translated< the& are all %on0erted in a gre& default material. Thea Ca(era Ta' 1ll %amera parameters are translated %orre%tl& including hori ontal and !ertical offset, b" adding Thea camera tag on each camera. #ou can s$ecif" some custom $arameters like f%number and shutter s$eed.