Cineversity

Hi - brand new to C4D and using Redshift.  Coming from Modo and VRay.

I’m wondering why there doesn’t seem to be a simple and native way to render out a Material ID pass and an Object ID pass out of C4D?  Am I missing something here?  Curious to know why an app as sophisticated and long-standing as C4D doesn’t appear to have this basic feature included?

In my research I’ve come across several plugins and hacks and workarounds but nothing quick and native to C4D.  Puzzlematte is pretty terrible.  Object buffers are a pain to set up and cumbersome to use.  Cryptomatte is not great for stills work in Photoshop.
Including a simple C4D Material ID pass AOV and Object ID pass AOV seems like an essential bit of kit for our compositing needs.  Why isn’t this already included in C4D?  Am I missing something?

If anyone has any recommendations for effective plugins please post here.  It would be of great help.

Thanks

Hi Carsonjonas,

The problem with those Material ID single image passes is based on the difficulties that you don’t get a clean map, as in full pixels for the RGB part where the map turns partially transparent. Since those have to share the same border. Given that limitation, those passes requires a Straight Alpha, to get, for example, a clean color correction in post, without leaving the Anti Alias parts partly neglected. In my book the Material passes are not the one I would suggest for hi-end work. For a fast slap comp, perhaps, or if the map-results are limited to one channel (R,G,B) per file, with a total of three. (As suggested by Steve right [forth edition, Page 189) Six would be possible but there it starts to be limited. You mentioned Photoshop work, and that is certainly not limited to the small 4K (or even UHD) size, and especially not to the super small REC709 or in still works sRGB. I assume it is way above that, at least AdobeRGB, and there one certainly doesn’t want any color shifts in the “seams”. Of course, there is always the idea of oversampling… (No mentioning in the VES handbook nor in “Ron Brinkmann’s” book.) ID passes could be stored in an EXR file on layers, but this is not a given with standard render options in Cinema 4D, yet, I’m not convinced of their usability along the whole production pipeline.

Admittedly the Object Buffers have the same limitation, edge wise, but they are split from the start in single passes. However, there is a Cineversity script called “MatteMatic” to support that kind of work.
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/mattematic_overview

Having said that, the ProRender has that option to render out Material Id or Object ID, but the ProRender is not developed to its fullest – referencing the manual. So, Node based materials are not useable here, and other limitations might apply.

However, there is always the option to voice your needs and ideas here:
https://www.maxon.net/en-us/support/suggestions/

The more people are requesting a feature, the more attention is given.

All the best

Understood that Material ID passes are not perfect but that doesn’t mean they’re not useful and I certainly would strongly recommend that the option be included in a program as robust as C4D (also Alpha outputs and Object ID passes).  In my opinion it’s a huge oversight that they’re not part of the native C4D workflow.

Since I’m using Redshift I’ll be studying their AOV options more closely in the next week or so. Also any additional plugins I can find.  That said, being able to easily create render passes like alphas, material ID’s, and object ID’s seems like an essential part of any solid workflow.  I just assumed that C4D would have these options in play when I purchased Studio because they’re so important to compositing.  Currently it seems like users have to jump through hoops to get these.

Hi Carsonjones,

To voice your needs, you have to use the suggestion options given by MAXON, with the link already provided.

What I tried to explain was, why this field is not the top priority compared to other things in the development, given the spare requests so far and its limitations discussed above. A certain amount of artists putting their “vote” into the mix could change that of course!

If it is useful to your workflow, please take the few minutes to make your needs heard. Wishes from artists are very important to MAXON. The Q&A Forum doesn’t work as effective as the Suggestion options in this regard. Thanks for considering.

Enjoy your exploration.

Will do re. the suggestion options.  Thanks!

That’s very much appreciated, Carsonjones, your input is valuable, and please never hesitate to express them.

Thanks for your time!

Have a great weekend.