Cineversity

Hi everyone

I am certainly no master of Cinema4d, but i know the Basics of modeling and my render results fully meet my demands.

The only thing i am not happy with is my more or less chaotic file structure.

Does anybody know a good description on how to properly organize projects, materials, source files (in my case .stp or .obj)?

For your better understanding, here is the scenario i am facing: My main task is to produce high-resolution renderings of our products - big machines. Due to the fact that we have a lot of different models, machine sizes, and options available, i have a lot of different files. On the other Hand, the set of materials I am using is theoreticaly absolutely the same - still i use the “save Project with assets” function every time and end up having a tex Folder with every project. (btw. for some reason it still occurs now and then that i have to re-assign textures before i can start the rendering process)

Is there a way to have one master-material database linked to multiple .c4d files? Is there a way to use tags to filter and search for Projects, like in Adobe Bridge for example?

In the attachment you can see how my Projects are stored at the moment. Each project includes a .c4d file and the corresponding “tex” and “illum” Folder. I have one Project Folder for each of our machine models.

Thanks in advance for your Feedback.

Hi Zund4D,

The simplest way to do this, is to set up a folder with all textures and have it on a central place in your network.
In the Preferences you will find a way (well ten different path) to have the Texture Path defined. C4D will check those Path until it finds the texture. Main Menu>>Edit>Preferences>>Files>Texture path.

All materials can be stored in one C4D file, when saved from the Material Manager. You just load them back in again. Another way is to have these material in a new file, and save this as NEW.c4d, and place that into the Maxon-App-folder.

While loading a texture to the Material: Note that you have to decline the alert (This image is not in the project search path. Do you want to create a copy at the project location? Answer is here: NO), so the textures will not be copied into the Project Folder. You need the full path information here.

If you want to update old projects to this system, go to Main Menu>>Window>Texture Manager.

(Alternative: the Content Library known as Content Browser. Another option would be X-Ref, but I doubt that would be the most practical way.)

All the best