Tutorial: White Background

If one wants to show off a model, it's useful to have a solid background and floor for shadowing. Now of course, you can simply put anything in there. I used to go with an outdoor-asphalt look or tiled room. There was always a hard border though. The horizon, closed in walls or just a simple line that suddenly stops. However some time ago, I found a quite easy tutorial on how to make the illusion of an infinite world. So I'll share it on here in my own words.

To start off, let's look at the finishing product.

As you can see, it's a light-gray floor with a white spot in the center. The magic here is, no matter from what angle you render, it'll be the same. I'll show it through several other renders, with a simple cube and a light with a hard shadow.

As you can see, the ground will stay the same even from the immediate side or when looking up. Making this, is incredibly easy.

1) Start by placing a Plane (Under objects) and a Background (Under Floor). This'll be all you need to place.

2) Select the Plane and go to Tags on the top right and select CINEMA 4D Tags. Here you have to select Composition. Composition is a very useful tool when making scenes where shadow is a big factor. For this tool we want to deselect Self Shadowing and Cast Shadows. In the case you're going to use a light, the Plane might cast a shadow on a lower object. This is just to be safe. It's important to select the Compositing Background box. This'll cause the object the tag is on to blend in with the background so far it's possible.

3) So now the texture. Very easy to do. All you need is one Texture material. Make the Colour texture a Gradient. This Gradient will be a 2D - Circular type. The Gradient can be coloured however you want, but for the sake of effect I suggest choosing two colours not too far from each other. Like how I use white and gray. We'll also be adding a Luminance, which will be 70%. That's all.

4) Now that the Texture is done, apply it to both the Plane and the Background. Set the Projection to Frontal, and you're done! That's all.

Now if you want, you can place a block in the middle with a Light (Hardtrace Shadow) to test it. Otherwise my work is done. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If there are any questions, feel free to comment.