Skybox Generator – C4D to Unity

This is tutorial is a quick overview of how to create your own Skybox Environments for use in Unity5 using Cinema4D. I’m also providing the Cinema4D project file with all the proper camera, sky, key framing, and render settings ready to go. You can download the Cinema4D project file here —> Cinema4D Skybox Generator Project File

The Cinema4D file contains two objects in the project panel and the following settings:

1. Project should contain only 6 Frames one for each side of your skybox. This mean the timeline should go from 0-5

2.Camera Setup (with the following settings)

Object Menu> Field of view (horizontal + vertical) set to 90 Degrees (image below)

Position of camera in the world (o,0,0)

3.Keyframe the rotation (H,P,B) of the camera in the Coordinate Menu as follows for each frame:

Frame 0 (90,0,0)

Frame 1 (270,0,0)

Frame 2 (0,0,0)

Frame 3 (180,0,0)

Frame 4 (0,90,90)

Frame 5 (0,-90,-90)

4.Render Settings should be set as follows (image below)

Film Aspect should be square

Frame Range should be All Frames

Under Save> Set your file type I’m using JPEG

5.Physical Sky Object

The physical sky has many options to choose from. You can pick location, date, time, intensity, etc.

You can also find additional options under the Basic Menu in the physical sky object like clouds, fog, moon, etc.

Finally you are set to render. Make sure your looking through your camera (little white box next to the camera should be turned on) Once you have your sky looking the way you want go ahead and hit Render to Picture Viewer. If you set up the Save menu in render settings you should also have output your images to the folder you specified.

Now for Unity – Creating your Skybox

Add the rendered images to you assets

IMPORTANT: Click on each image asset and in the inspector under Wrap Mode choose CLAMP

Create a new Material (image below)

In the inspector under shader choose Skybox>Skybox/6 sided

For each of the following +Z,-Z,+X,-X,+Y,-Y add the images you just rendered out of Cinema4D in the same order

Finally under the Window Menu choose lighting > Scene> Environment Lighting > Skybox (image below)

Click the little circle next to the skybox field and choose your new 6 sided material

Your Done! Now the six images you rendered out of Cinema have created a full sky environment and lighting for your scene. You can now quickly create as many different skybox environments as you want just by changing the Physical Sky object in Cinema4D and rendering out new image sets. Just remember to change where your saving these images so you don’t over write them.

Happy Skyboxing 😉

Camera Set-up

Screen Shot 2015-10-03 at 7.57.11 PM

 

Render Settings

Screen Shot 2015-10-03 at 8.08.04 PM

 

Skybox Material Set-up

Screen Shot 2015-10-03 at 7.46.52 PM

 

Skybox Implementation

Screen Shot 2015-10-03 at 8.22.43 PM

Download Project File Here