Corona for Cinema 4D uses the native Cinema 4D Team Render to handle distributed or networked rendering. It can be used in two ways, either where multiple machines contribute to rendering the same single image, or where different images are handed out to individual machines for rendering (this second option is used when rendering animations, for example, where each machine will work on a different frame).
Setting up Team Render
Setting up Team Render follows the standard processes for Cinema 4D. A summary of the steps is provided below, but full information is available from Maxon through the Cinema 4D help, and many tutorials can be found online (like one of the official Cineversity tutorials: Cinema 4D Team Render, Basic Introduction.)
1. In Cinema 4D, enable Team Render by going to Edit -> Preferences -> Renderer -> Team Render, and check "Enable Team Render"
2. For machines that will act as clients, run the Cinema 4D Client
3. Once enabled, check that the Machine List is as expected (under Render -> Team Render Machines).
Machines can be added to this list automatically or manually (see Cinema 4D help for full details). You may need to verify the machines on the list and enter the security token for that machine (and sometimes you may need to Unverify then Verify the machine)
Note: Master and Rendering node PCs must all use the same version of Cinema 4D, for example, S26. All instances of Corona must be the same. Mix-matching versions will result in an error. If any plugins are being used in the render, they must also be installed on all computers (Master and Rendering nodes).
Setting up Team Render
Source: YouTube/Maxon
Activating Corona using the Licensing Server
Once all your machines are set up, you will need to ensure that Corona has been activated on all machines that will be used for Team Render. To activate Corona follow the instructions provided in any of the following guides:
- Activating Corona for Cinema 4D
- Activating Corona Renderer 7 (and older) for Cinema 4D
- Activating Corona 8 or newer on farms and computers without host software GUI
You can check on the client machines to see if Corona has been successfully activated. To do this, Open the Team Render Client interface on your Rendering nodes and click on the console tab to check the status.
Corona is successfully installed.
Using Team Render to render a single image
Once Team Render is set up as above, use the "Team Render to Picture Viewer" option from the Render menu. The main Cinema 4D machine plus all the machines running the Team Render Client will now work on rendering the single image. The resulting image will build up in the Picture Viewer.
You can open the Corona Post-process dialog from the Corona menu in the Picture Viewer, and use this to adjust Tone Mapping, Bloom and Glare, etc. You can also open the Corona VFB and adjust the post-processing options there.
Using Team Render to render an animation
The same method as above can also be used for rendering animations with Team Render. Once the render has commenced, the Picture Viewer will open, a status dialog will be displayed at the bottom of the Picture Viewer, and your job will be listed in the History panel.
Note: The rendered image will be shown once it has completed its desired passes. It is also recommended to render out a single image to adjust any tone mapping or post-processing prior to rendering your animation. These settings can be saved via the VFB in the .conf format.
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