9.5.2

THE SHADERS • 855
The Shaders
Shaders (also known as procedural textures) are more sophisticated than conventional textures.
Shaders are computed using mathematical formulae, whereas conventional textures are pixel-based.
One advantage of shaders is that they do not become pixelated when viewed close-up.
Shaders allow you to create textures that simply are not possible with texture maps or other methods.
Things like anisotropic surfaces, multiple specular highlights, volumetric woods and more are just not
achievable any other way. Although they can be complex, with a little practice and study, you should
be creating new materials on your own using the shading engines very soon.
Shaders are procedural, meaning that the color you see is calculated by a program based on the
location in space and other factors in the scene. This allows them to do things not possible with
texture maps because the shader knows things like light intensity, direction of the surface, where
the camera is and so on, so it can use these things to change the surface. Shaders can also do things
to change the way CINEMA 4D would normally render a surface by changing illumination, surface
normals and more.
CINEMA 4D distinguishes between two-dimensional and three-dimensional shaders. 3D shaders take
an object’s volume into account, whereas 2D shaders and standard textures are simply applied to the
object’s surface. 3D shaders are independent of the object’s geometry and the texture projection type
(an exception is that UVW projection can be applied to volume shaders).
All parameters of 2D and 3D shaders can be animated in the usual way (using
XPresso, the timeline, by right-clicking on the parameter, by Ctrl-clicking on
the circle next to the parameter’s name and so on).