Import Real-World Refractive Index Curves With This C4D Plugin

Getting that look of the material you are going for can take a lot of tweaks. That is why the process is largely described as look development, with “development” being the operative word. Understanding how surfaces behave under light is an important step to creating physically accurate materials. You can also get down and dirty with the numbers. Adding a real-world refractive index to a material can add realism quickly.

Working this way in Cinema 4D would be much harder without the RefractiveIndex-Importer Plugin. This handy tool lets you pull in refractive index values and use them anywhere you want in Cinema 4D. That’s cool —Where do you find refractive indices for materials though? Why, at the refractive index database, of course. Choose a material, and it will give you the refractive index for that material. The plugin offers some stock material values, and lets you add your own using the database values as a guide.

RefractiveIndex-Importer is free to download for Cinema 4D windows and macOS systems running R16 and up.