Easily Render Millions Of Polygons With Redshift Proxies!

In this lesson 2x Emmy nominated designer Theo Daley explains how to easily navigate complicated geometry with Redshift Proxies. Part 1 is the quick answer on how to setup a proxy. In Part 2 Theo will walk you though how to scatter objects along a surface using Redshift Matrices, and how he built the cover page.
Scenes containing dense geometry require a lot of horsepower from your computer. Redshift Proxies are the way to work lighting fast when working with high density geo or many instances.
Theodore Daley is a two-time Emmy nominated designer, born in Toronto, Canada and currently based in New York City.
He has been recognized for his work on numerous projects ranging from TV, film, commercials, show packages, events, digital and print campaigns. Clients include AMC, NBC, ESPN, NIKE, NFL, Showtime, MTV, Ralph Lauren, Sony and Microsoft. His work has been published in numerous design publications and exhibitions worldwide.
You can check out Theo's work at:
www.theodoredaley.com/
Instagram: / theodoredaley_
0:00 Intro
0:22 What are Proxies?
1:05 How to setup a Proxy?
4:55 How to change Proxy Materials.
8:37 How instance a Proxy
10:06 Use Effectors with Matrix Object
12:26 Part 2 scattering objects on a surface.
13:30 Paint with Vertex Weights
19:17 Coverpage breakdown

[@ryanmassiah]

Excellent explanation with this workflow Theo!!! Looking forward to viewing whatever new tutorials you have in the future! :D

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thanks Ryan, more to come from Theo 🤗

[@blinn40x]

just returning to this resource now for a current project - so nice that you have this library of content. much appreciated :)

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Always! We do this outta love. Thanks for the positive vibes 🌊 ✌️

[@BlackForLife09]

Great tutorial with a really insightful breakdown at the end - thanks heaps mate

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thanks for the support! 🤜🤛

[@scampanimation]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

You’re welcome 🤜🤛

[@puppydust]

This was so clear and helpful, thanks for making

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

You’re welcome, thank you for the support! 🤜🤛

[@kiland3d]

simple, efficient... perfect explanations. thanks!

[@theodoredaley2229]

Thanks for the kind words! Happy we can help in any way!

[@alex_surmus648]

i respect people like you! Thanks for this video !

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thank you Alex, comments like this keep us going!

[@blinn40x]

SUPER SUPER HELPFUL! thanks so much

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

You’re welcome 🤜🤛

[@nuncatto]

just an extra tip, if you use the correction deformer you can select points and store the selection to feed it into the matrix without needing to make the landscape editable.

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thank you for sharing! Always looking for more knowledge 🧐

[@smyrkphace]

Some good ones in here. I always forget you can use the vertex map in the fields panel. Does this work with hair too? I’ll try it later.

[@andreagdeleon7450]

Thank you for sharing! it is mind blowing

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

You’re welcome 🤜🤛

[@FaddyVFX]

This is great, Looks nice and beautiful

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thank you 🙏

[@purplelight2947]

thank you for the tut!

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Always!

[@hafizmtariq]

Good one. Thanks

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

You’re welcome 🤜🤛

[@sambailey9674]

rly helpful video theo :) I was wondering what kind of render time per frame you'd aim for on something like this?

[@theodoredaley2229]

Hey Sam! Thanks for the question. I think it really depends on your machine build (or renderfarm) and the use. Typically I try to keep things I'm doing as an animation to 8 mins or less/frame (but depends on the GPUs of course). I built this scene on a 2x 1080 ti machine - so it isn't really a strong machine. That made me try to keep things fairly light because of that. I just checked render sequence - I was at 13 min/frame for this at 1920x1080 on my own 2x1080ti's - so on a farm or more current hardware would be wayyyy faster.

[@barisoktem731]

That's a great tutorial, very useful informations about RS Proxy, thank you very much. I just wanted to ask what is the source of your pine trees? I saw some Quixel Textures use for actual tree models? I'm curious about actual tree models. They are not from Forester or Maxtree i assume :) Thank you.

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thanks Baris! It's mostly SpeedTree and various elements collected over time.

[@danacarvey]

I've got an issue where the motion blur info ''v' is getting lost on export, (houdini) but I'm making sure the mo blur settings are turned on at export. Please help!

[@bush9686]

so good!

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

🙏🙏🙏

[@designislife3893]

Kudos !!!

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thanks! 🤜🤛

[@sylxeria]

I had a large forest scene set up using MoGraph multi-instance cloners, and was saddened to see how terribly long everything took. Replacing them with proxies and it would render sixteen times as quickly! However, two small quirks: One, the Matrixes I have to tweak from the ground up again since they don't line up 1:1 with the original cloners, they come close but not as close as I wanted. Two and the more irritating one, is that cloned proxies won't show up in the viewport, only the render - which is unfortunate since it makes tweaking the clone positions a little trickier. Still better than the alternative though so can't complain too much with the results!

[@ThePlugTurtle]

u can change the proxy viewport display to mesh I believe?

[@theodoredaley2229]

Yes in the video I show you can display proxies as mesh (Set it to 1% visible to get the gist of what it will look like) BUT when it comes to Matrices - the reason it is so much faster is because it is essentially ONLY showing you 1 particle per instance. (The particle display just so happens to be a box). A solve (but still would be slow) is to take the Matrix object and then use a Cloner set to Object mode and select the Matrix object itself (so you are cloning onto those particles). It will be a way to see in the viewport but it will be back to slow mode. Until Maxon decides on a better solve or Redshift creates new features (like Octane Scatters / Arnold Scatters for C4D) these are the only options at are our disposal. I'd still recommend to just try to go with the flow of use the Matrix because it is soooo much faster than any other result.

[@steward2570]

I have a question, from where did you get those assets, they look really cool.

[@theodoredaley2229]

Thanks Steward! I prep a lot of things so I have my own library. I bought a bunch of different SpeedTree elements and prepped, made variants then exported to c4d.

[@murphyuriaguereka4360]

do you know any good tree library for C4D/Redshift? thanks!

[@henkiepenkie3372]

Hey Great tutorial! Is it possible to link a plain effector with a time offset to a RS Matrix while using RS Proxies?

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Hey Henkie Penkie! I will look into this, off the top of my head I don't believe so because of how RS Matrix computes the instances (basically like a single particle). I know with Cloner Object (set to instance only - the other 2 wont work) you can do a hack. Need to set the Start Frame/End Frame to keyframes Ie. at frame 0 and then end keyframe of your Rs Proxy seq (so say your seq is 58 frames - you set a keyframe at 58). Then you can change the Time Offset in a Plain Effector + field. Maybe should do a video on it if that doesn't make sense?

[@henkiepenkie3372]

@@YouAndMeAcademy That would be helpful! Thanks a lot!

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

🤜🤛

[@SonGoku-dm4gr]

where did you get that Tree? I have libraries of trees and they're good but they look unnatural because the leaves are very uniform.

[@theodoredaley2229]

Hey SonGoku, most of my tree elements are set up using SpeedTree, so I exported (I think I have 12 different variations in this scene) and then set up in C4D + RS to create my own library of forest proxies I can now use.

[@eyalyoungi]

Hello, thank you for the tut! So far I have been trying to use the cloner , but from some reason it doesn't let me arrange different objects under the cloner to be organised in object parameter. I mean I created some surface (football stadium stand) and I want to scatter fans to be positioned on the object's polygon center. When I added 4 different kind of objects (4 different kind of football fans) when I set it on random to shuffle them, it doesn't set the cloned objects on the right place. I just saw now that you use the RS matrix, can I add their 4 different objects (or more?), and will I be able to set it specificly on some other object - and be positioned in the right order on it's center of its polygons? thank you so much!

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Thanks for the message and question! You can use a Matrix Object set up but may make more sense as a scene file to play with. I put this together quickly to show you what you are after. we.tl/t-CCEz5A2SAr Make sure to play around and see what new options you can get! The big thing is you set the Random on the RS Object tag itself (made a screenshot in the zip for you). I'm using an effector to change the scale but you could do it right in that tag as well. Also tossed in a shader to show you how to control colors (but maybe if each object has own textures you dont need that - could multiply or mix to make your 4 feel like 1000 different shades!) Hopefully this WeTransfer link works for you. Let us know!

[@eyalyoungi]

@@YouAndMeAcademy thank you so much for your detailed help, appreciate it alot! In the end, i created the proxy in different c4d file, whike the axis of the object was located on 0,0,0, and then i imported it to a new and blank proxy in my project, and it worked! Thank you!

[@sekharfalnama2374]

is it possible in octane ? is it different from regular render instance in c4d like it is better than that solutuin (im a new to 3d )

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

I am not an octane user but I assume they have Proxies!

[@marcus_ohreallyus]

When to use a proxy instead of a c4d instance?

[@theodoredaley2229]

I wouldn't say I have a magic number but at some point c4d instances will just start to freeze up and your scene will not be useable. Depends of course on the objects complexity and how many of them there are, etc. But I'd say if the object you are trying to duplicate is a fairly heavy object and you need to make 10+ copies...proxies will be your safer move. Or if you have 10k or 100k or 1million+ of something simple (or complex) again safer to use proxies + matrix object.

[@cihankenar1]

How about a Houdini tutorial ?

[@YouAndMeAcademy]

Good thoughts. I don’t use it, but Theo does, anything that you are wanting to know?

[@theodoredaley2229]

I hope to get good enough to do some Houdini tutorials but for now I'm still just learning myself. Are there any particular gaps you are wondering about with it? Ie Jumping into it? Copy to points, scattering? Something totally different or just Houdini in general?

[@scheerlon]

I dont know why or if that is jut normal, but proxys dont help me.. I am using it for grass right now and it renders insanely long.. its fine in the viewport. I have a count of 100k and it renders 45mins , without grass around 5mins..

[@theodoredaley2229]

Hi maeerie! Hmm I think have to see or understand more the set up you are using. If you take out everything from the scene apart from the lights/surface/grass. Can diagnose the file? Or if you explain a bit more. Is the grass forester / made yourself / quixel bridge? Also are you using opacity for the grass because a sprite node will be the way to make things run way faster. One way or another can figure this out!

[@scheerlon]

@@theodoredaley2229 Hi theodore, thanks for ure fast reply. I have to admit, that like so often, the mistake was again rather in front of the computer (me) I dragged the LOD0 proxies into my Redshift tag, .. so that was a lot of polys. Went with LOD3 now and it is a lot better.. haha well..

[@theodoredaley2229]

@@scheerlon Ok glad to hear! Still shouldn't be that slow even with LOD0 proxied. They are Quixel I assume (by the fact you said LOD) - if you can give me more details I can try to recreate and see on my end. I mean it's just grass so doesn't need to be high poly but just let either of us know! Happy to help in any way we can!

[@scheerlon]

@@theodoredaley2229 correct, its quixel grass! but I also have to say I am still only on a 1080 (when will gpu prices finally drop?). I am using the "wild grass" with the ID: vlkhcbxia I use seven of those objects in a setup with 150k objects in a RS Matrix - just like in this video described.

[@theodoredaley2229]

​ @maeerle Ok just made all of them proxies (LOD0), set up a scene 150k instances with RS matrix object (also added a way to change colors of grass with one material) and rendering 1920x1080 now. I have 2x1080 ti's (agreed about gpu's sighhh, we lose out a lot on the RTX bonuses btw) it took me: 13min57s So it might be because of only one 1080. If you have an email I can send my file and you can try if you like. But if LOD3 works for you then I'd say stick with that.