Cinema 4D: Export build-in Textures doesnt work

Hey,

I've got a problem with Cinema4D R10:

If I use my own textures and apply them to my object or if I i create a new material and give it just one color, everything works fine. My problem is, that I want to use the "built-in" textures. By that I'm talking about textures you can choose from which are inculded in Cinema4D by default.
You can find them when you create a new material, click on it and then you click on "Texture". Then you can choose between some surfaces, effects, color, gradient, noise etc.
And there is my problem: I'm using those textures and if I export my object, the textures are gone and my object is just grey. It's not because of Unity! If I open the exported .3ds-file in Cinema4D itself again it's grey as well and all textures are lost, so it's definitly an exporting-problem. So does someone maybe know what I'm doing wrong and can help me?

Cheers Tayfe

 

You need to export to a format that can retain the texture data. It is recommended to export to fbx when working with unity. Obj format can retain material data if exported out with an mtl. I am not aware if the 3ds format has some kind of texture embed capability.

 

These are no textures. As you just said these are built-in effects, no other program might understand that. You either create textures somewhere else like in Photoshop or you bake the effects that you want to achieve. Just search the web for "cinema4d bake texture".

 

Okay, I am an avid C4D user and I use it a lot for Unity. Here is the deal. ^_^

You CANNOT have the materials you use in Cinema4D appear in Unity3D, you can't do this with any 3D modeling software(Zbrush, maya, etc), the purpose of those materials is purely for rendering within that 3D modeling software. @_@

If you want to make textures for a 3D model to use in Unity3D you have to do several things:

• first UVMap in C4D's UVeditor. Make a good, clean, solid map.
  
• Texture bake a basic ambient, then texture bake your surface materials.
  
• In order to achieve looks like depth, specularity, etc, you have to create these maps because Cinema4D cannot do these for you. You will have to use Crazy Bump or Ddo, and Photoshop to fully edit, and draw out the best textures.
• You can also use(if you have Zbrush) to help create better texture maps for your UVed model.
• Then you need to export your model in a format such as FBX or DAE depending.

These are basic steps, there are a lot of things and a lot of work involved. I recommend learning good practices for game design, like the right about of polygons for your design, mobile gaming designs need different requirements than console or PC. Really take time and learn all of these before just trying to import to Unity3D or you will have heavy weighted 3D meshes that will be useless in a game.