When I open a Vue scene within Cinema 4D everything seems to be looking pretty good with one exception. When I render a still from the scene using C4D, the image is blown out heavily (see attachment).

I've gone over all of the option settings, raised and lowered the sunlight intensity and many other things but to no avail. I know I can utilize post processing techniques but I would rather not have to rely on those. There must be something I am missing. Any ideas?

Thanks for the assistance.

Best,

-Marshal

What is your gamma output setting for your render camera?  In both apps.

Hi Shawn,

Good question. I know about camera exposure but I'm not sure where to find the gamma output setting for my render camera. Where should I be looking in both apps?

Thanks so much for the assist. I'm just learning the XStream version now.

Best,

-Marshal

Ok... if you mean the Gamma options under the general options menu then it is set to the default of 1.800 on the display Gamma slider.

Same with texture maps input and output.

Is this what you mean?

Thanks!

Yes.  In the old days (1990s), 1.8 was for PC monitors and 2.2 was for Mac monitors.  Now it's whatever feels good.  Vue 8 and before used 1.0 for gamma.  So you had to brighten a render in Photoshop to use with other sources.  The Sun is very bright at noon time.  And gamma 1.0 never showed this fact very well.  While 1.8 did.

So now it's the reverse in Photoshop.  We're darkening our renders some to get those shadows in our scenes for that extra dramatic effect.  Vue 9 and later let you play with the gammas on texture maps also.  I just leave everything the same.  My texture maps that I make myself are flat (brightness-wise) so they aren't overly bright when rendered at 1.8.  Some folks want to render at 1.0 and have all their textures at 1.8.  That's an artistic thing.  Some accidently render at 1.8 and have all their textures at 1.0.  That is more of an eye-sore thing.  Everyone looks like they are under a shade tree in the middle of the desert at noon when there are no trees to be seen.  Stuff like that.

Your goal in life as a desktop publisher (remember that job title?  An '80s career thing people did on their Apple][) is to pick a gamma value and use that same number in all your graphical projects.  So when you cut/paste images, no one can say, "Oh, they just pasted that spaceship over that canyon wall there using two different rendering programs."  As an example.  I'm not saying you did that (yet), but it will save you rendering time when you render your future objects in passes and then Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro them together.

Great info, Shawn. Thanks for the explanation. Good stuff.

I'll tweak with the sliders a bit and see how it goes. As mentioned, I can always through an adjustment layer with a curves effect in post process to get that final touch.

Thanks for the details!

-Marshal

If you render within C4D, you need to disable "Linear workflow" in the Project settings(Ctl+ D), no need to change anything in Vue, C4D controls the render options (if you have your Vue render options set to Automatic in the xStream options)

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for the assist as well. Disabling linear workflow did the trick. What I don't understand is why that works but I'm grateful it does.

Also, if you know C4D, do you know how to set the camera to follow the subject 'loosely"? If I have a fast vehicle flying I would like to give the illusion that the camera has trouble keeping up. I can do this in Vue but it doesn't automatically translate into C4D. Any ideas?

Thanks again to everyone for their time in helping. I appreciate it.

Best,

-Marshal

I dunno if this is possible in C4D, I'm afraid. I guess it is, but there must be a lot of Expresso work to do, and I don't have much Expresso knowledge.

As for "Linear worlflow", it's exactly the same as Vue's gamma options, except that  you either render with a gamma of 1 (linear workflow off), or 2.2 ( linear on). You can of course use other gamma values, but they are not found in the Project settings, but in the Render settings.

Got it. Thank you Bruno.

It's really great to see some helpful people on this board. Once I learn a little more I'll be able to hopefully lend a hand to others as well.

Best,

-Marshal