How to use the Layered Material in C4D?

[tennet]

Hi! I'm a Little confused about how to use the "Corona Layered Material" in C4D. If there are some good tutorials already covering this topic, please let me know. But lets say I want to create a Base material and then add two coating materials with different reflection settings on top of it, using a partial mask for one of the coatings... I also want to use a bump map on the final material.

1. Should the base material include some reflections at all or should I only use the Diffuse channel here? Bump map here also?
2. When I add a coating on top of the base material... should the coating material also include the same Diffuse Map as the base material, or should the coating ONLY have the Reflections channel Active? Bump map here also?
3. For a partial coating effect, should I use the "Mask channel" for the coating materials (in the Layered Material) or should I add the texture maps used for masking in the "Opacity channel" of the material instead?
4. I don't understand how the "Amount" value shall be used for blending my reflections. It seems like the coating material covers my base material or makes it darker. I would just like my coating to add reflections, like a glass Surface on top of my base material. How is this done correctly?
5. When I want to use a Bump map, do I need to add the same bump map in all coating materials as well or only in the Base Material (used in the "Base material" slot of the Layered Material)?

Hope someone can give me some help or tips. Thanks!

[Eddoron]

To make it short: Yes, to most of the things you wrote.
In the current version of Corona, you can't disable the diffuse channel and just have the reflection. It will be black. This goes for most channels and things like displacement in another slot than "base" don't work yet.
You have to mix the reflections with masks but you'll also need the same diffuse map if you don't want a color mix or shift. Fresnel works well.
When you add a map or shader for the blending, the mix amount is disabled, it just doesn't show.

I just realized that the text may not cover all of your questions.
Try my car paint "shader". I'm using the above-mentioned method of blending.

[neosushi68]

Hello Tennet,
I have created a "Layered Material" today myself because i wanted to know if i could create a full procedural Camouflage material with bruised edges.
You can download the Material here: https://strangerobjects68.tumblr.com/post/170000446358/a-material-for-your-rendering-pleasure-its-a

Enjoy,

David

[BigAl3D]

Wow, thanks for sharing all those files David. That's very generous and extremely helpful for me to keep learning Corona.

[tennet]

Hi everyone! Thanks for your replies. I just downloaded your materials David, thanks for sharing! So as I understand it @Eddoron, then most of the layered features aren't yet working as they are supposed to in the final release?

[Eddoron]

It is working but it might not be what you'd expect from other renderers.
You have only one mix mode in the layer shader which serves as an opacity value. So if you want to create something complex with multiple layers and some of them having only certain channels active. You have to be creative with the mask to not override previous layers.
You can't have one layer with just the diffuse active, the next just reflection and expect the same diffuse color of the final material. I think it's best when you look at some examples from corona-materials.de .