This video course introduces you to the powerful Cycles Render engine and more advanced materials for objects. Topics covered will range from organic modeling to node materials to particle systems.

We start with a basic understanding of the Cycles Render engine including the differences between the standard and ray-traced engines. After this we delve into organic modeling techniques using curves to create more natural and smooth shapes typically seen in the real world. Next we understand the concept of UV unwrapping to map textures and other 2D media to a 3D object using seams, while also learning how to tweak and modify UV maps as well as multi-channel U layers. The next part will cover a basic setup for a simple Cycles material shader, which includes simple materials, alpha cut-outs, as well as multi-channel and PBR material shaders to create an extensive range of realistic material shaders for the Cycles Render engine ; you will also acquire a good understanding of how the material node editor works. Moving on we will look at object-based lighting and 360 HDRI environment maps to control an entire scene's lighting; you will learn how lighting can affect a scene and which lighting sources you should use. After that we will learn about simple particle systems, hair/fur generation, and how to instantiate objects. You will utilize particle systems to greatly speed up your workflow, making it easier to generate large scenes with hundreds or thousands of objects. Finally, you will learn about fundamental composting workflows through the node editor and use Color management to give a more authentic and photographic image; this will include more advanced composting techniques such as light flares, depth of field, and adding additional external images to the final render.

By the end of the video course you should have a good understanding of how to add advanced post processing to an image before saving it and how to effectively create a realistic scene using the Cycles Render engine.

About the author

Tim Crellin is a distinguished 3D generalist with over 5 years' experience working with 3D software for game development, animation, and 3D modeling. Tim runs the thatimst3r .com website and the Thatimst3r YouTube channel, which provide more than 200 published video tutorials to the public. Additionally, he has created multiple add-ons, assets, and other resources for the online community, including seven completed games. He is very passionate about teaching others new skills and the concept of open source to make creativity available to everyone!