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Hi, I have been producing computer generated 2D graphics for over 25 years (yes i'm getting old).
Over the past year I have transitioned into animation and 3D graphics as my market is demanding it. I am very comfortable with After Effects and have work that is now being broadcast. Recently I have been using C4D which has been perfect for producing stills of studio type work etc. I am now looking to use C4D for animated graphics but, the rendering times are just unacceptable.

So here we have 'Octane'....it sounds just perfect! Fast GPU rendering for C4D....or is it?
I have downloaded the demo standalone and plug in for C4D and it all seems to be installed correctly. however when i open my C4D files and view with octane preview or try to render using Octane, my materials are greyed out. If i use the Octane material converter option it makes a slight improvement. Some colour appears but reflections are non existent and contrast is very weak.

I then changed the Materials using Octane shader materials through the C4D plug in, these render in the correct colour but still lack shadow, lighting and detail.

Am I right in assuming that C4D materials are not able to render in Octane?

Am I missing something very simple? I have searched high and low for info but unfortunately my knowledge of ray tracing is virtually zero and the technical stuff is way over my head.

I just want to be able to produce in C4D and render using a GPU with the same quality I get with my CPU. I understand that the two are very different in the way they work.

Is there any info out there about the differences, limitations in workflow and preparation of an existing C4D project for rendering using the Octane plug in?

I hope someone can help without using too many technical terms

hi giboman and welcome
octane for c4d can partially work with standard c4d shader, but for best results it's needed to use the octane shaders, you have much more power and you can obtain the best from this render engine.
what the mat converter basically does is to transform a c4d shader into a diffuse octane one, so you don't need to reassigne the textures in some of the slots. In the basic tab in the attribute editor of the octane material you can switch from diffuse to glossy (plastics, metals and all the materials with reflections and specularity) or to specular ( glass, water and all the trasparent materials and sss). there is also a special material mixer where you can mix two different material into one. You can download some octane materials from livedb in order to understand how the materials works inside octane. take in count that the plugin is still in beta phase, so the workflow and the compatibility should become better and better
ciao beppe