Thea Objects

Once you click start rendering in the Darkroom or in PV, all Cinema 4D data will be transferred into Thea Render (objects, materials, settings, etc.). Transferring is a pre-render procedure in which Cinema 4D's hierarchy is parsed and objects are converted into Thea Models and Thea Lights. Thea Render's hierarchy supports only two types of objects: Models and Lights, everything else is a derivative of one of these two types. At the same time, all materials that are used in the hierarchy are also converted into Thea Materials. Along with the object and material conversion, Render Settings, Display Settings and Environment Settings will also be transferred into the Thea Render before rendering.

In Cinema 4D, each object can be configured via a set of parameters in Attribute Manager. The same thing happens in Thea Render, but since there is not a visual representation of these attributes inside Cinema 4D, we have created a set of Thea Tags, which allow you to parameterize the Thea Objects during the transferring procedure. Thea Render inside Cinema 4D comes with Thea Light Tag, Thea Sky Tag, Thea Camera Tag, Thea Object Tag, Thea Section Cut Tag and Thea Motion Tag. Some tags correspond to a specific type of objects, while some others can be used to extend the general properties of any object.

To easily add Cinema 4D objects with Thea Tags attached, use Thea Render main menu.