Give Your C4D Scenes More Ambiance With Arnold Atmosphere

Daniel Danielsson Shows How to Use Arnold’s Atmosphere Volume Shader to Add More Drama in a Render

Arnold 5 has pushed subsurface scattering to new heights in recent point releases. Rendering atmospheric effects with Arnold also sees a benefit. The old volume scatter method is no longer relevant. Arnold has an Atmosphere Volume shader that is super-simple to use in Cinema 4D. In fact, as Daniel Danielsson shows, it is only a three-step process. Literally, in seconds, you can transform your scene into one that has much more mood where the lights in the scene will take on a whole new feel, shining through the fog.

Danielsson covers all the settings for working with Arnold’s Atmosphere Volume shader and shares some tips for balancing results with render times.

The Shader works by simulating light scattered by a thin and uniform atmosphere. It is a great way to have lights in your scene interact with the environment, giving you visible shafts of light and volumetric shadows cast from objects in the scene. The shader will work with point, spot and area lights. It doesn’t affect distant or sky lights. “It’s great for some moody and rainy night scenes, where you want some of that beautiful realistic glow… And of course, it’s mandatory for cyber-punk.” Danielsson says.