• Introduction
• Interface
• Bodypaint 3
• Animation Controls
• Timeline
• Enhanced OpenGL
• Interactive Render Region (IRR)
• Character Animation / Mocca 3
• Layers / Layer Manager
• Object Manager
• Documentation
• Tutorials & Goodies
• Miscellaneous
• Conclusion

Interactive Render Region (IRR)

The new Interactive Render Region (IRR) is a powerful new tool to help you hone your render to perfection. Prior versions of Cinema 4D allowed you to draw a box around a small region of your image and render just that piece. However, you have to redraw the region and render each time. The IRR tool is similar but it allows the region to be resized and moved as needed. It automatically re-renders the area as you make changes. That's important because you can watch the IRR region redraw while moving the lights, change the bump settings on your materials, see how the sub-poly displacement looks, and even see how your GI tweaking is looking. Once you've got the region perfect, render the whole image knowing that you're got your settings just how you want them. This is a real time saving tool.

You can toggle the IRR on and off easily by hitting the Alt + R keys. The region size and position are recalled. There is an interactive quality setting that you can slide up and down and this affects the speed and quality of the rendered region. This is helpful when you need a fast refresh and can do without the crisp detail while working on your settings. For example, you're working on glass and you would like to see how the latest index of refraction tweak might look. When there is no need to wait for the perfect render simply lower the quality until you get your settings close and then turn it up when you're ready to see a high-quality view.

We've put together a Flash format video on using IRR. Click here or on the image to view it. (6min 38sec 4.9mb)

So another really useful enhancement for Release 10 but a few other 3D applications have had this for quite some time.