CineRender Surface Channels

Surface Settings for the CineRender engine consist of a set of channels, listed on the left side of the dialog box. Each channel represents one surface property (e.g. Luminance, Fog, Environment, Normal, Alpha, Glow, Transparency, Specular, Displacement).

SurfaceSettingsCinema00135.png 

Many surfaces can be simulated using just a few channels. So don’t be intimidated by the numerous channels and their wide range of parameters. Generally speaking, all everyday surfaces can be created using just a handful of these channels.

Color

Surface color

Diffusion

Irregularities in surface color (works by brightening and darkening the color channel)

Luminance

Luminescent color (light-independent color)

Transparency

Transparency (including refraction index)

Reflection

Ability to reflect other objects

Environment

Environment reflection (simulates reflection)

Fog

Fog effect

Bump

Virtual bumps on a surface

Normal

Virtual surface irregularity that is lit realistically

Alpha

Localized texture invisibility

Specular

Defines a highlight to make a surface appear reflective

Glow

Glow Halo around an object

Displacement

Realistic bumps on a surface

Grass (CineRender Surface Channel)

Create realistic-looking grass as a surface

Illumination

Use the Illumination channel in Surface Settings to enable or disable the generation and reception of Global Illumination (GI) to and from this surface, and to control the strength of the these effects:

caustics

diffuse falloff level

roughness