Are you a proud Minecraft server owner? Do you have dozens of amazing builds in your world that deserve nice renders? There are many ways to create beautiful photorealistic Minecraft renders in a short amount of time. The following tutorial is a demonstration of the core steps I go through to make renders. If something is not clear, please let me know and I will help you. It is my first tutorial and I would appreciate feedback in order to improve it, so every server owner can make beautiful renders. In this tutorial, I use Cinema 4D as it offers in-depth lighting and rendering options, however, the software does cost money. Alternatively, you can try Chunky, which is a free Minecraft renderer, but I won’t get into that in this tutorial.
1. Préparer le modèle 3D à partir du monde Minecraft
There are many different software you can use to convert Minecraft worlds to .OBJ models, such as Mineways, jMc2Obj, mcobj. You can also click here to see the full list. Mineways is great for its intuitive layout and ease of use. Download Mineways, and place the extracted folder on your desktop. Once Mineways is opened, load your world and use the right-mouse-button to highlight the desired area to export. Note that under “File”, there is an option to set a terrain file, which is the Minecraft resource pack to use when exporting. To add your own resource pack, first locate it. It may be in the .minecraft folder, or in your downloads if you just downloaded it. Once located, open/extract the resource pack and find the “blocks” folder ([resource-pack]\assets\minecraft\textures\blocks\). Copy its content to the “blocks” folder inside your Mineways folder. Now simply run “TileMaker.exe” or “TileMaker32.exe” (32bit). It should generate a PNG terrain file called “terrainExt.png”. Rename that PNG or it will get overwritten if you generate a new resource pack. You can now load that terrain PNG in Mineways in “File > Set Terrain File”. Now we are ready to export! Go to file, Export for Rendering, and change the settings as you want, however the defaults are usually what I use. Mineways will export an .OBJ file (your world), three .PNGs (textures) and an .MTL file which links your textures to your world. Note: Mineways may crash if the selected export region is too big. If you want to export huge parts of your world, consider another software. However, you can also export your world region by region, and uncheck the “center model” when exporting with Mineways.
There are many potential steps to ensure a smooth workflow, such as preparing the terrain and texture packs before export, to avoid texture misalignment in the 3D package.
2. Importer dans Cinema 4D et préparer les textures
Once we have our .OBJ model and textures, we’ll need a 3D modelling package in order to render it. A window will open. Select the world-RGBA.png texture exported with your .OBJ world. Once again, select all the textures, and on the bottom right panel, click on the “Basic” tab. There will be a list of options to check from. An “Alpha” tab will appear. If you use another software, you may have to manually add the textures too. We can replace the water with a more realistic looking water. We can either create a new water material and apply it on the “Stationary_Water” to override the default blue water, or delete the water object completely to add our own. Then, I use Infinite Ocean by C4Depot which creates very realistic water with waves, foam, and reflections. A free and fast solution is to use the built in water presets that come with Cinema 4D.
Next we want to add nice lighting. The best way to do that is to experiment within your 3D software, but inside Cinema 4D, you can try adding a Physical Sky which usually gives you a nice starting point. You can also add an “Environment” object which adds more haze and atmospheric fog. Then, for the render settings. Ambient occlusion darkens the little cracks and corners, and Global Illumination simulates the bouncing of lights on all the surfaces to make more accurate lighting. These two features will greatly improve the quality of your final result and make it more realistic. One last important thing to change; Anti-Aliasing. This will smooth jagged edges on curved lines and diagonals, and will make your digital image much more realistic. Now find a good angle. It’s important that the limits of the world are not visible in the final render. Note: If you want to add your own sky image in post processing, go in Cinema 4D’s render settings. In the “Save” tab, check “Alpha Channel” and change the image format to “PNG”.
3. Mise en couleur et finalisation
If the “Physical Sky” was used in Cinema 4D, then the render will probably have a warm feel. I like to cool it a bit and saturate the sky/water. I try to keep the picture as realistic as possible, with subtle color correction. I find that exaggerated color grading, lens flares and tilt-shifts are too much. We want to focus on the build, not your Photoshop skills. If this tutorial helped you, please comment below and post your own renders!
