Integrations
Cinema 4D
Install the Eclipse Cinema 4D plug-in and submit Redshift or Octane jobs to Local or Distributed queues.
Cinema 4D uses the Eclipse Render Manager plug-in. After install and a full Cinema restart, submit from the Eclipse menus. Supported engines: Redshift and Octane.
Install
- In Eclipse, open Manage integrations → Cinema 4D.
- Select each Cinema 4D version you use and Install.
- Eclipse copies the plug-in into ~/Documents/EclipseData/cinema4d_integration/ and the writable Cinema plug-in folders.
- Quit Cinema 4D completely and reopen it.
- Confirm Local capabilities lists Cinema 4D and the renderers you need (Redshift / Octane, plus standalone CLIs for Standalone mode).
Menus
After restart the plug-in registers:
- Top-level Eclipse menu on the main menubar.
- Extensions → Eclipse Render Manager (Plugins on older Cinema builds).
- Submit (Local Queue).
- Submit (Distributed).
Supported modes
| Queue | Mode | Renderer | Workers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local | Standard (Commandline) | Redshift | Windows, macOS | Cinema renders the .c4d with the saved scene output settings. |
| Local | Standard (Commandline) | Octane | Windows | Rejected on macOS before submit. Use Standalone (ORBX) instead. |
| Local | Standalone Renderer | Redshift | Windows, macOS | Cinema exports .rs per frame; redshiftCmdLine renders them. |
| Local | Standalone Renderer | Octane | Windows, macOS | Cinema exports one animated ORBX; Octane CLI renders each frame. |
| Farm | Shared Path | Redshift | Windows, macOS | Cross-platform scene/output remap supported. |
| Farm | Shared Path | Octane native | Windows | All assets must be reachable by Windows nodes. |
| Farm | Collect & Package | Redshift | Windows, macOS | Asset Inspector packaging plus proxy dependency extraction. |
| Farm | Collect & Package | Octane native | Windows | Octane ImageTexture paths are repathed in the collected scene. |
| Farm | Standalone Renderer | Redshift | Windows, macOS | Node needs Redshift standalone, not Cinema 4D. |
| Farm | Standalone Renderer | Octane | Windows, macOS | Node needs Octane CLI, not Cinema 4D. |
Local Queue panel
Open Submit (Local Queue). The dialog reads render settings, camera, Take, and inclusive frame range from the scene.
- Submission Mode: Standard (Commandline) or Standalone Renderer.
- Frame range: inclusive Start / End (including frame 0 when used).
- Take and camera from the scene selection.
- Job metadata: Project, label, Artist, Department, Priority.
- Submit writes to the local Eclipse spool.
Local modes
- Standard (Commandline): Cinema headless / commandline renders the .c4d on this machine (engineRef cinema4d). Beauty, Regular/Multi-Pass, and Redshift or Octane AOVs follow the scene output contract.
- Standalone Renderer: Eclipse packages assets as needed, then exports .rs (Redshift, per frame) or one animated ORBX (Octane) under the project exports folder. Local workers run redshiftCmdLine or the Octane CLI. Cinema 4D is not required on the render step.
Distributed Queue panel
Open Submit (Distributed). Same scene fields as Local, plus farm controls.
- Submission Mode: Shared Path, Collect & Package, or Standalone Renderer.
- Shared root from Eclipse Distributed settings (read-only in the dialog).
- Project picker under projects/cinema4d/<mode>/<Project>/.
- Optional render-node filter. Nodes must publish the matching native or standalone capability.
- Preview Collect / Scene Collect before packaging when using Collect or Standalone.
Farm modes
- Shared Path: keep the artist scene layout on the share; every node must resolve the same paths. Best when the show is already share-native. Octane native Shared Path is Windows only.
- Collect & Package: Cinema Project Asset Inspector inventories textures, caches (Alembic, VDB, USD, …), Redshift proxies (including proxy-internal textures), IES, LUTs, and related assets. Eclipse packages a portable clone and repaths it (including Octane ImageTexture nodes). Source scene is not modified. Octane native Collect is Windows only.
- Standalone Renderer: Collect, then export .rs or ORBX onto the share. Farm nodes render with Redshift or Octane CLIs only (no Cinema install required on the node). Works on Windows and macOS for both engines.
Outputs and preview
Each submission builds a Cinema output contract for Beauty, native Regular Image / Multi-Pass, and Redshift or Octane AOVs (including multilayer and split Octane passes). Physical saves update job.outputs.json. Preview prefers real saved files and frame numbers from the manifest so scene version tokens (for example v001) are not mistaken for frame suffixes.
Submit checklist
- Save the .c4d scene.
- Set the active renderer (Redshift or Octane) and output paths in Cinema.
- Pick Local or Distributed from the Eclipse menu.
- Choose the Submission Mode that matches your OS and farm (see matrix above).
- For Standalone, select exactly one Take.
- Fill required metadata and submit.
- Monitor the job in Eclipse (Local queue or Distributed Jobs). Check Logs and Preview.