Rendering Massive Images in C4D: A Step-by-Step Guide
Cinema 4D imposes a resolution limit of 16,000 pixels in both dimensions. However, rendering a still image at this size on a single machine can be incredibly time-consuming.
The Solution: Tiled Camera Rendering
One effective method to overcome this limitation is to utilize a “Tiled Camera” setup. This technique allows you to break down a large still image into smaller tiles, which can then be rendered in parallel, significantly reducing overall render time.
The video above provides a comprehensive demonstration of this process, showing you how to divide a single frame into individual tiles. Each tile can be rendered on a separate node, enabling parallel processing across multiple render nodes to work simultaneously on all the tiles.
Preparing Your Scene for Tile Rendering
Follow these steps to prepare your C4D scene for tiled rendering:
- Load your scene file with all your standard settings, and ensure you have a camera already configured and ready to render.
- Open the Content Browser and locate the “Tiled Camera.c4d” preset. The location of this preset may vary depending on your Cinema 4D version; you can use the search tool to find it.
- Drag the Tiled Camera object into the Objects list.
- With the Tiled Camera selected, navigate to the User Data tab and adjust the “Tiles per Axis” setting. A value of 4 or higher is often suitable, but the optimal value depends on the complexity of your scene. (More on this below)
- Drag your current camera (the camera view you want to render) into the “Reference Camera” field.
- Enable “Use Tiling.”
- Modify your Render Settings frame range according to the instructions provided below.
- Finally, divide your height and width values by the number of tiles you specified in the Tiled Camera. It’s crucial to divide by this value, NOT the total number of expected tiles. For example: If you specified 4 tiles per axis, divide by 4, not 16.
Tiles Per Axis and Frame Range Explained
The “Tiles per Axis” setting directly affects the output and is crucial for determining the frame range. Here’s how it works:
- A value of 2 will result in 4 square images.
- A value of 4 will generate 16 images.
This setting operates on an X * Y grid. For instance, 4 tiles on the X-axis and 4 on the Y-axis means a total of 16 tiles (4×4=16). The frame range you select will correspond to the number of tiles. If you use a “Tiles Per Axis” value of 4 (16 tiles), set your frame range from 0 to 15. A value of 2 (4 tiles) would require a frame range of 0-3. Keep in mind that frame 0 is considered the first frame. Once rendering is complete, you’ll have to download and manually stitch the tiles together in a program like Photoshop, as Cinema 4D does not offer an automatic stitching feature.
Tips for Submitting Your Render
To ensure a successful render, follow these final steps:
- Save your scene file.
- Make sure you choose the same frame range in your rendering software as you did in the original scene file..