David Ariew's supermega octane tutorial list

 

David Ariew

My course, Lights, Camera, Render! Is 30+ hours on composition, lighting, and camera movement, and by far the biggest teaching endeavor for me. Check it out at www.schoolofmotion.com/lights-camera-render (added 12/17/20)

Here’s ten short tip videos on “how to make your renders better” that I put together for School of Motion (added 1/1/21):

  1. Storyboards, Moodboards, and Composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8P4syp3mbw

  2. Choosing Focal Length Wisely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL5RE_UYc5U

  3. Stop Lighting With HDRIs Only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEq0XtmOLHw

  4. Design Shadows Into Your Shots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbL4IqSAaX4

  5. Add Surface Imperfections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPFhHufqtv8

  6. Use References to Nail the Look of Materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs6hn960Bkc

  7. Use High Quality Assets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2kb5B402Q

  8. Use Volumetrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaWgexgyM-Y

  9. Mimic Photographic Effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QBdBLcA0b4

  10. Use Color Theory and Grading Principles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FenUA47aXY

I created two 50 minute Octane lessons on lighting and texturing in EJ Hassenfratz’s amazing new BEEFY course called Cinema 4D Ascent: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/cinema-4d-ascent (added 10/02/20)

My five hour GSG Plus Octane training, designed for beginners, but also with a ton of tips for the pros too: https://training.greyscalegorilla.com/courses/get-started-with-octane?fbclid=IwAR1S719MhmW8X3zEAxRW_WCNkqhQx4W40HqWKHNVUiS4AZUH31bOHHOTdqo (added 8/28/20)

My tutorial on Mograph.com on creating abstract distortion animations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENoyceHFESI

My tutorial for School of Motion on creating infinity mirror rooms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3PSdHKJfM (added 8/28/20)

Part 1 of my Bumblemouse tutorial on hair in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoJrsayerrU (added 10/15/19)

Part 2 of my Bumblemouse tutorial on hair in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mix2ZMAm5M (added 10/24/19)

My deep dive into experimentation in Vectron for Octane 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoURMYmfUH8 (added 3/13/19)

Part 1 of my tutorial on creating a detailed Mars environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTLaeJf6CQ (added 8/22/18)

Part 2 of my Mars tutorial, this time using Kitbash3D buildings, and emphasis on lighting, texturing and composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=391GLrmLRjM (added 8/29/18)

A breakdown of my "Walk With You" music video, covering a bunch of Octane texturing and lighting techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIEK9sWAzDQ (added 8/5/18)

Part 1 of my tutorial on creating digital nature renders in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHFA-nFFm4 (added 3/28/18)

Part 2 of my tutorial on creating digital nature renders in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1055&v=aBKtkNjzpqM (added 4/4/18)

My DFWC4D talk is more of a general lighting overview, but it's all from within the context of Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBOXKfldDjg (added 3/28/18)

A live stream I did with the Kitbash 3D folks -- I break down my lighting process in Octane, as well as clouds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFhmgqykEes (added 3/28/18)

My first of two tutorials on creating advanced shaders in Octane, anisotropic metals, glass, and wet pavement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO0DRxRTLwo (added 1/9/17)

My part 2 on creating advanced shaders in Octane, this time with dust and grungy gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiDhStKvQgg (added 1/17/18)

My look at creating abstract topographic renders in scatter, as well as adaptive sampling and anamorphic bokeh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_PYh9Py8Zs (added 10/4/17)

My SIGGRAPH presentation covering digital cinematography in C4D and Octane: http://c4d3d.com/2wyp2OP

My intro to converting scenes from physical to Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ETxxjkJX3w&t=387s

My overview on Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQQvBmAPNyI&t=1209s

My two-part breakdown on creating displacement textures in AI and then using them in Octane:  

My tutorial on creating a futuristic city with scatter and volumetrics: https://youtu.be/X9Z2xhIKh-M

My quick tip on using motion blur in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eNMd8pWBHI

I show a bunch of my workflow in Octane here in my NAB

presentation: http://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2016_rewind_david_ariew_one_man_vfx_workflow_holistic_harry_star_potter

My Brograph spacespacespace breakdown talk from DFWC4D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaZWAM4MXqQ

Scott benson

This page is an extremely extensive and technical look into the Universal Material in Octane — I guarantee even pros will learn a bunch of tips here:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/102948251/Octane-Universal-Material-Guide-Starter-File?fbclid=IwAR3qjac_NFwlwC--WnS4_gC70qpPvFANmL0SZbQRF22EvjC4lbeBDh-7rRY (added 12/20/21)

Inlifethrill

Inlifethrill is where all the OGs used to start with Octane. He covers things more in depth than anybody other than Raphael Rau.

Dig around on his Vimeo page for a ton of videos: https://vimeo.com/inlifethrill

And check out his site for some additional goodies: https://inlifethrill.com/category/tutorials/octane-render/

He also has a paid series on Helloluxx (somewhat out of date at this point, but still helpful): http://helloluxx.com/product-category/octane-training/

Raphael Rau (aka silverwing)

Check out Raphael Rau's three presentations, some of the best info out there for sure:

And a quick tip from Raphael as well on Octane priority settings: https://vimeo.com/193283898

As well as a fantastic breakdown on subsurface scattering in Octane: https://vimeo.com/234034058 (added 9/15/17)

And a detailed runthrough of triplanar mapping: https://vimeo.com/239255015 (added 10/21/17)

Amazing breakdown on the new metal materials inside Octane: https://vimeo.com/260024495 (added 3/18/18)

Breakdown of Raphael’s incredible still life scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unETsI0U2vw&t=0s&index=16&list=PLIqMw1vG1TWY-5PA30SWTPppL0V80gVgN&fbclid=IwAR2giUbhliOq7r92-eYPB7naxHlmjrAj5vh1DKqdDtmsqmw0QM9_72JM0y8 (added 11/15/18)

A detailed look at procedural materials in Octane: https://vimeo.com/364645126 (added 10/15/19)

An awesome quick tip on using the fresnel OSL shader: https://vimeo.com/336127142 (added 10/15/19)

A deep dive into creating a procedural dust and worn edges shader: https://vimeo.com/332734180 (added 10/15/19)

A look at vertex maps and the power of procedural materials in Octane: https://vimeo.com/364645126 (added 11/24/19)

Using Raphael’s OSL splat script: https://vimeo.com/474660111 (added 12/20/21)

32 bit workflow rundown: https://vimeo.com/404541700 (added 12/20/21)

ACES workflow: https://vimeo.com/627525184 (added 12/20/21)

Octane 2021 AOVs: https://vimeo.com/614742705 (added 12/20/21)

Gryun kim

Gryun is one of the best 3D motion designers I know, and he works for Elastic as well as doing amazing NFT work. This course he created on realistic texturing in C4D and Octane is a godsend and has been translated into English: https://coloso.us/mediadesign/3ddesign_kimgryun_us?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=3ddesign_kimgryun_us_classopen_211215&fbclid=IwAR1Qlo1WuxrNDD5nDhi3Jag9-tVqCUSqGKxkIePgEHT6fISLx9FhFjQBiW8 (added 12/20/21)

woosung kang

Yet another incredible art director and motion designer, Woosung has worked for top studios around the world and his work is amazing. This top notch course covers a ton of C4D and Octane workflows, and is in Korean but has English subtitles: https://coloso.us/mediadesign/motiongraphic_kangwoosung_us (added 12/20/21)

motion punk

Thanos Kagkalos has a Patreon page going that’s packed with insanely high quality info, including knitting, fire, smoke, and voronoi fracture setups, always with Octane as his render engine of choice. It’s one of the best places ever to learn Octane, as well as insane dynamics and particle setups: https://www.patreon.com/motionpunk (added 12/8/19)

Fabio ciliberti

Though I haven’t taken this course, I’ve heard it’s literally THE best and most extensive course out there for archviz work in Octane. Fabio is Italian but there’s an English version of the course available: https://www.corsicinema4d.com/elearning/corso-visualization-octane-16.htm (added 12/20/21)

New Plastic

A great channel for learning more about creating tons of different textures in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOrpz46oBs2HJpLx7L1x6Q (added 12/20/21)

Immortal Arts

Good intro (though old at this point) from Immortal Arts, an amazing CG artist: https://vimeo.com/62241847 

Brograph

Brograph of course has some great ones, on fire and smoke and interior renderings for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-tIAm2OVa8

Dave Koss' NAB presentation has a great overview on Octane optimization with instances and matching World Machine displacement in both the live viewer and

viewport: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2017_rewind_-_dave_koss_time-saving_project_management_in_cinema_4d

 

Brandon Clements

Brandon Clements of Glass Hand Studios has a ton of tutorials on Octane, including SSS, skin shaders, the random color node, network rendering, and

volumetrics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpNkMKYAbwbOkxuFV3poZPw

Brandon also has a new series on Cineversity on interior rendering with Octane, and the bridge from Substance Painter and Designer:

https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/architectural_visualization_with_c4d_and_octane/architectural_visualization_with_c4d_and_octane_series_introduction (added 11/3/17)

Clinton jones (pwnisher)

Clint from Corridor Digital has been doing some amazing Octane streams every Saturday, with a focus on photorealism. He’s seriously a badass so tune in: https://www.youtube.com/c/pwnisher/videos  (added 7/23/20)

This talk by Clint at Siggraph is an amazing look into using Octane for VFX work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s-wAoefLtU (added 12/20/21)

Paul birman

Paul makes some incredible renders of futuristic hovercars, and he’s starting to make tutorials that show his process. Definitely keep an eye out: https://www.youtube.com/user/paulbirmanlatvia (added 7/23/20)

Dustin valkema

Dustin has a great course here on Pro Edu that is designed to take photographers and bring them up to speed on 3D with Octane: https://proedu.com/products/cgi-for-photographers-6-week-course-software-certification-spring-2021 (added 12/20/21)

Eric Keller

Eric is the resident expert on Maya + Octane at Otoy, and he has a ton of tutorials out on the subject, but recently he's also starting creating some great C4D + Octane tuts, including

one on building the most detailed leaf and flower shaders that I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tzwQI-MlU (added 3/18/18)

Also, make sure to check out Otoy's official "Octane Universe" YouTube channel that they've been building. Eric is the teacher on most of these

videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqPmc3i0TE0oyetAKlv1Z2A (added 3/18/18)

This is a great breakdown on using ORC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eztKWvgSVh4 (added 5/16/18)

He's also been on the popular YouTube channel "3D Artist" several times, and has a couple great tutorials out on Maya + Octane there.

Here's one on simulating macro photography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkAfnbBVnhg (added 3/18/18)

and another on creating stunning nature renders with detailed insects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAZYVaxG_Ck (added 3/18/18)

Finally, he's got an entire Gnomon Workshop on Maya + Octane, so Maya users, this should be the first place you go to learn

Octane: https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/octane-render-for-maya (added 3/18/18)

 

Beeple

As if I need to tell you why you should watch these — here’s the link to his live streams, and I wish he’d do more: https://www.twitch.tv/beeple_crap/videos/all

Another amazing live stream, and much more recent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmQikpxFTjg (added 7/10/19)

Beeple’s NAB 2019 talks — hilariousness ensues (added 7/10/19):

Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLAAR_DbhRI

Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vslu05c9Nwg

Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbMeCpCXf_M

Ahmet Oktar

Ahmet Oktar, the genius C4D plugin developer we all know and love, has his own vimeo page where he demos new features and specific workflows: https://vimeo.com/user5491763

Nick Denboer

Nick, aka Smearballs, has a unique and genius voice in our industry. Here’s a look into his process from his first Maxon talk at NAB 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwkw2bGJsR0 (added 7/10/19)

Mitch Myers

Mitch's SIGGRAPH presentation covered awesome lighting and composition techniques in Octane: http://c4d3d.com/2hO7o3I

Mitch also has a few amazing step-by-step videos on creating Gargantua from Interstellar in Octane, as well as some other planetary madness.

 

Learn SquareD Twitch Streams

 

Learn Squared Courses

 

jama jurabaev

Jama just started a Patreon page that includes a ton of Octane usage. His first offering is cinematic cityscapes, using Blender and Octane Standalone, but don't let that dissuade you because this training is top notch and the techniques will apply to any CG software. Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/jama/overview (added 6/1/18)

 

Cornelius Dämmrich

Cornelius has released a heap of timelapses and tutorials, as well as scene files, for his latest amazing art piece, 6088AD: https://gumroad.com/l/HRJED (added 9/7/17)

Matteo Scappin

This guy is a fractal artist and has his head around Vectron better than anyone I’ve seen. Check out this page for a download to a bunch of crazy Vectron formulas as well as a tutorial on how to use them: https://www.machina-infinitum.com/vectron-formulas?fbclid=IwAR2PNz2TQ9cN-phz97Blsm5Z42tZo_RKu7rStc08wBoET5Mt0umRTChUL7w (added 7/23/20)


Also, make sure to check out the second pack of Vectron formulas he released: https://www.machina-infinitum.com/octane-vectron-pack02?fbclid=IwAR2So6LleYGJ52tG1hy2uWWJos0VMtMFS9YNgMtTibgA1A0wylajLnohQEA (added 12/17/20)

And finally, check out Matteo’s YouTube channel which has a bunch of amazing Vectron tuts! https://www.youtube.com/c/MachinaInfinitum/videos (added 12/26/21)

Render to death

This channel has a nice tut on creating volume fog and water in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwAIyVoIPz92hCXpdAcurWA (added 7/23/20)

ANDY NEEDHAM

Andy recently created an excellent intro to Octane, packed with four hours of content to get you up and running, for both Lynda and LinkedIn Premium. Check it out! https://www.lynda.com/CINEMA-4D-tutorials/OctaneRender-Cinema-4D-Essential-Training/667387-2.html

 

Chad Ashley

I love this Octane dirt node breakdown by Chad Ashley: https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/using-the-octane-dirt-node/

And another quick tip by Chad on using the random color node: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0nf5TohcUo

 

SEKANI SOLOMON

Amazing look at using animated textures inside Octane: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/volume_2_siggraph_2016_rewind/siggraph_2016_rewind_-_sekani_solomon_creating_dynamic_animated_crystals

 

phil roberts (aka RAID ZER0)

An awesome Step By Step of a destroyed planet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeW8xXbiTsM&feature=youtu.be

LASERS!! (also a Brograph tut): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTD4ICAUcw4 (added 11/16/17)

Two excellent presentations by raidZer0 during NAB 2018, covering his initial jump into C4D and Octane, as well as using Octane to go from initial pitch to final in high end client work: 

https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2018_rewind_phil_roberts_my_first_year_in_cinema_4d_a_creative_journey (added 5/16/18)

https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2018_rewind_phil_roberts_pitch_to_final_product_using_cinema_4d (added 5/16/18)

 

ZACHARY CORZINE

Zach gave two mind-blowing presentations at NAB 2018, the first of which covers his crazy instagram experiments, using techniques that combine mograph tools with Octane I had no idea were possible: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2018_rewind_zachary_corzine_learning_through_experimentation (added 5/16/18)

And the second uses his commercial client workflow with Octane: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2018_rewind_zachary_corzine_freelance_commercial_production_workflow (added 5/16/18)

JOSH PIERCE

Josh creates some incredible artwork, usually nature + surrealism, but has really refined his style. Recently he started releasing tutorials on his process that have some invaluable insights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6_x3t9xt8w_BRssDV4pi6A (added 7/10/19) 

Josh also has a bunch of excellent paid tuts (though super cheap) on his site for more of that digital nature goodness: https://www.joshpierce.net/resources-1 (added 12/20/21)

Lino grandi

Lino has an awesome tutorial here on toon shading in octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUHF2KWAyQQ (added 7/23/20)

as well as a new way to create procedural clouds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816EfdTvcBQ (added 7/23/20)

filip hodas (hoodass)

Hopefully all of you know Filip Hodas, because he’s one of the most badass 3D designers I’ve ever met. He’s now got a YouTube channel, and while it’s mostly focused on Substance Designer and Painter, there’s a healthy dose of Octane thrown in there too. 100% worth checking out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA62SMUCqdO6rlPu3pSm_Qw (added 10/02/20)

JESUS SUAREZ

This Mograph Mentor class looks like an excellent overview of Octane for a lower price than many comprehensive intro courses: https://www.mographmentor.com/workshops/photoreal-rendering-octane-c4d-jesus-suarez/ (added 9/5/19)

Drew Nelson

An awesome talk recorded at the C4DSeattle meetup, from Drew Nelson who works at Amazon as a full-time motion designer. Packed with tons of Octane tips and tricks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsHO23Af3TE (added 5/23/18)

mrklay 

Klay Abele has a really amazing tutorial here on creating larger landscapes in Octane with some processes that I found very unique. He’s also an excellent artist who got second place in Clint’s Alternate Realities Challenge, which is no small feat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3udP3-JEaw (added 12/20/21)

Zulu8

These guys have a bunch of quality Octane tutorials, including painting projection stripes, infinite rooms, and dirt shaders: http://www.zulu8.com.au/tutorials/ (added 10/28/17)

 

Kevin Burke

Procedural rust by Kevin Burke: https://vimeo.com/100085092

 

Philip Lueck

A Patreon page with a ton of breakdowns on Philip's daily renders: https://www.patreon.com/philiplueck/posts?tag=Breakdown

 

rohan Dalvi

This is a comprehensive overview of all the new features in Octane 4. Definitely a must-watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3_Z-4AOnDc (added 8/30/18)

Training series that serves as an intro to Houdini but also dives into a bunch of Octane goodness: http://www.rohandalvi.net/rocketbus (added 5/22/19)

 

Alexander Maltsev

An excellent rundown by Alexander Maltsev on using Megascans and Ivy Grower to create beautiful nature scenes: https://youtu.be/RSh-_YA7nT8

CALDER MOORE

An amazing tut on creating directional tire treads in a nature scene, and directing the terrain with deformers and vertex maps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cejt4_093OE (added 9/26/18)

Another great tut on using Megascans assets in digital nature creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kJ-3jNIpJQ (added 12/10/18)

This series on creating environments in Octane is the best I’ve seen: https://gumroad.com/caldermoore#QiqYE (added 7/23/20)

And this river tutorial is also so worth the low price tag: https://gumroad.com/caldermoore#Wxufj (added 7/23/20)

Skeevaa

Concrete breakup displacement by Skeevaa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJSox5S3wvs

Space Scene Artwork Creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAI52ZaXHc (added 10/11/17)

 

Stuart Lippincott (aka Stuz0r)

Great little tut on baking out C4D’s default noise textures and then bringing them back in for Octane displacement by Stuart Lippincott: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163L2yHmd5M

Awesome rock surfaces with displacement and dirt shaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xElQnpfdMAs&feature=push-u&attr_tag=Vcc0zs1C-WUpXNma-6

Fantastic process breakdown for one of his dailies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4rHZqYiDZM (added 8/9/18)

Start to finish on another daily, including a mini tut on B2M, which looks so easy to use and incredibly useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDhGX-saTVQ (added 8/13/18)

 

KITBASH 3D

Kitbash 3D not only makes amazing packs of cities with unique architectural styles, but they've started doing some awesome live streams, many of which include Octane use, from artists like Stuz0r, Mitch Myers, and myself! Check them out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd3RJcJ0joXKuhUuAsUeTxA/videos (added 3/28/18)

 

David Brodeur

Check out a ton by David Brodeur. His stuff is always top notch:

 

John Burdock

And John Burdock has some awesome tutorials on creating Octane projectors and digital nature stuff: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwuqiBEBnhEBGCzYKoDDoLg

And he's got an amazing Octane Master Course out that's a whopping 30 hours long! https://store.epicjcreations.com/octane-master-course (added 8/16/18)

 

THE FRENCH MONKEY

Constantin Paschou aka The French Monkey has a massive library of assets he’s created for Octane users over the years, as well as some incredible tuts here on his channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TFMSTYLE/videos

TFM made an amazing plugin for Octane skin shaders called the Genesis Skin Controller. Here's the breakdown on how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Szbqff1GiE (added 9/5/18)

Aaron covrett

This talk is a godsend, and Aaron pushes the limits of Octane more than any artist I know, (other than maybe Cornelius Dammrich): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1LLlpTVj8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0yzHIsl7fVpibVva6uAREreJcVz4t68JkrKmKwhFVfEDY4cOiIool6SDQ (added 6/25/19)

yeti pictures

Great breakdown on creating Octane mix materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtx8i0ohZNk

Amazing stream with Thanos and Tony on Realflow + Octane, covering a bunch of different projects, including chocolate pours, crown splashes, d splines, and the granular solver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqoJViQGF6A (added 11/1/18)

Tony and Thanos created one of the best courses I’ve ever taken, with a grounding in fundamentals of composition, as well as the details of how to actually create the style frames using Octane: www.yeti-courses.com (added 12/8/19)

Steven Messing

A super inspirational NAB talk by matte painter and concept artist Steven Messing, using C4D + Octane: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2015_rewind_Steven_messing (added 2/2/19)

Travis Davids

Travis Davids has a bunch of excellent Octane tuts, including creating that raindrops-on-glass look, and using the AI denoiser: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCniZ7Qzbv17NvoCypCzB4Ow

 

Aaron Sorrensen

And Aaron Sorrensen of VFX Central posted two great videos on Octane, one on multipass compositing in Nuke, but it's on fbook so click on videos and scroll to the bottom: https://www.facebook.com/vfxcentral/

Aaron also recently released an epic VFX crash course that covers a ton of software, and he covers using Octane for VFX workflows better than anyone: https://vfxacademy.thinkific.com/courses/vfxcrashcourse (added 12/23/18)

 

THEDIZZYVIPER

Fabian Oberhammer, aka TheDizzyViper, is one of those awesome daily rendering artists who has a bunch of tips and tricks on his YouTube channel to check out, such as creating fast neon signs, planetary atmospheres, nature scenes, and realistic puddles (yes there are a lot of puddle tutorials out there, but this one provides maybe the nicest result and is easy to follow along with): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7xN0HjMH4o0luqO8NDUdw/videos (added 1/15/19)

Steve Teeple

Steve Teeple's NAB presentation covers texture emissions and VJ loops, and it’s

dope: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2016_rewind_steve_teeple_next_gen_concert_visuals_with_c4d

 

The Pixel Lab

The Pixel Lab has recently been pumping out tons of quick tip Octane tutorials that are super helpful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyf8liq8DBUBXP_L8BNk2KA

 

POLIIGON

An extremely useful demo of how to set up Poliigon textures in Octane. Quick version: invert the glossy map to make it a roughness map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl0QL7Z2oDs (added 1/28/18)

Shane hanlon

A very good breakdown on creating complex grunge materials with lots of variation — similar to my dust tutorial, but with a few extra tips that are great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuCje_YIoQM (added 11/24/19)

3DBonfire

This channel by artist Markus Gonser has some awesome tutorials on creating layers of growing vegetation using Megascans and image sequences to control the growth from AE, as well as a tutorial on creating sandstorms in XP. Definitely a channel with high quality content to keep your eye on! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCra-HdzzuBRQByUSJ4ubQOg (added 2/10/20)

Markus also has a Patreon Channel that goes in far more depth than the YouTube tuts, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/3DBONFIRE (added 12/20/21)

Digital native

This channel has a bunch of useful stuff, including a video on new features in Octane 2020, and a bunch of info on the ACES workflow in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOwi--tjM3wPaqsZKD-DeIA (added 7/23/20)

nina marie

Nina has some excellent tutorials on multipass compositing in Photoshop with Octane renders, as well as creating a beautiful forest scene: https://www.youtube.com/c/NinaMariePhoto/videos (added 7/23/20)

Andrew Mcmurry

Nice breakdown on Octane compositing using camera projection by Andrew Mcmurry, though this workflow was originally shown by Inlifethrill (make sure to turn on

CCs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eCzaZzqZZY

 

Zigor Samaniego

This Domestika series by Zigor Samaniego is actually in Spanish, but if you’re familiar with Octane, it’s obvious what’s going on.

This has a really good breakdown on using hair in Octane: https://www.domestika.org/es/courses/software/45-octane-render

 

CG SHORTCUTS

This "5 things you didn't know in Octane" video has some helpful tips, especially the first one about smooth glass shading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5pGvdz7Gk0 (added 8/21/18).

They've also got a good video out about creating spotlights, window gobos, and projectors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJi1qXdt_cI (added 8/21/18).

Dave also recently released a masterclass on creating materials in Octane, which looks great: https://www.cgshortcuts.courses/courses/octane-materials-masterclass (added 10/24/19)

And here’s a step by step guide on creating a snowy sci-fi daily render: https://www.cgshortcuts.courses/courses/DailyRender (added 10/24/19)

Amazing tut on optimizations — maybe the best out there to cover it all quickly! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw_Dy_M_hMc (added 12/20/21)

motion designers community

Many of these Octane tutorials are French, but there are several in English too, including great breakdowns on using Forester and remapping the materials to get beautiful Octane SSS magic: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBAc7qBoVh0rcDgSJ2thRog (added 9/26/17)

This tutorial deserves special recognition, because it's the best breakdown I've seen on building your own PCs for GPU rendering, with Tom Glimps, Maxime Hacquard and Yvan Feusi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrOBvz454fU (added 6/4/18) 

YVAN FEUSI

Also part of Motion Designers Community, but thought this would be worth a separate mention. Yvan is an amazing Octane artist, and he's created an in-depth tutorial on holograms in Octane. The shader tree gets pretty intense on this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0avVhLJM3Q (added 1/23/18)

Yvan is also creating a masterclass that looks amazing, coming in March: https://aiven.net/en/learn/octane/?language=en

JAN URSCHEL

Jan is an amazing concept artist, and on his Patreon he shows his process for creating art using Blender and Octane standalone: https://www.patreon.com/janurschel?fbclid=IwAR3clUFzF5Ka4FpB9OZ6_5Xq9Q4sZrxRMfiU11-988CGwokqPrlQjyVVtds (added 6/25/19)

RAM 3DDA

Really cool tip on creating procedural HUD designs with JSPlacement + Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpisORxbis&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0lieHLa4fKg9qSeSjvUy-KTclp4PzqT2uXfalAdtGfpW_QqdIcekrq-6k (added 2/21/19)

CHRIS PRIDDY

Great quick tip by Chris on creating clean wireframe renders directly inside Octane, vs exporting a separate pass from Standard or Sketch and Toon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAC2iEKIAbE (added 7/17/18)

DAMON MILSTEAD 

Damon’s tuts have a focus on quickly modeling abstract techy and organic forms, then lighting and texturing in Octane. Really cool stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtLetlywZJqdSqrm8HdCCQ (added 9/20/18)

SAM WELKER

Sam has a bunch of great Octane tutorials, ranging from creating planets to shading TFD explosions: https://vimeo.com/samwelkertv (added 9/26/17)

 

MNIB

MNIB’s Youtube channel has several interesting videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/MyNameIsIBexX/videos

 

Motion Squared

Motion Squared has several Octane tutorials, ranging from creating car paint shaders to compositing tips: https://www.youtube.com/user/IDigitalUniverse/videos (added 12/31/17)

 

VA DESIGNER

Awesome little tutorial on creating a mini ocean with SSS: https://vimeo.com/235359436 (added 9/26/17)

 

LIOArtist

This dude has a great quicktip on creating wet puddles on asphalt: https://vimeo.com/213718155 (added 11/7/17)

 

TIMO NOACK

Yet another tutorial on creating wet puddles on asphalt, this one is extremely similar to Lioartist's, though you might pick up one extra tidbit: https://vimeo.com/250881801 (added 1/17/18)

 

Brett Morris

Brett Morris created an intro to Octane series with Cineversity: https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/getting_started_with_octane

And he's got a couple great Cineversity presentations using Octane: 

 

NIK HILL

This 8-week CGSociety course is fantastic and has a good dose of Octane knowledge thrown in: http://www.cgsociety.org/training/course/motion-graphics

 

Christoph Schindelar

Awesome Octane tutorial on creating a canyon with Real Displacement textures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoTsbCHnlno&feature=youtu.be (added 12/31/17)

 

Grant Warwick

Grant Warwick’s course Mastering Lighting is 3DS Max, but C4D users will still pick up a ton. There’s plenty of Octane covered, as well as working with HDRI Studio Pro for some awesome product work: http://masteringcgi.com.au/product/mastering-lighting/

 

JOHANNES LINDQVIST

This guy is one of the best archviz artists I've ever seen. He has several tutorials on his YouTube page, and a ton on his Patreon page. Most of them are FStorm tutorials, but this renderer is extremely similar to Octane (it was made by a developer on Octane that quit to go and do his own thing). All 3DS Max as well, but if you want to do archviz work in C4D + Octane, this is where I'd start.

 

RoBot

Another FStorm + 3DS Max archviz artist, but again, this info would apply directly to Octane: https://www.patreon.com/roboto/posts?tag=tutorial

 

Dusan Vukcevic

Great interior lighting and texturing tutorials, as well as scatter and forester tutorials. This guy is awesome: https://www.patreon.com/vudu/posts (added 9/8/17)

 

Rhett Dashwood

Some helpful tutorials on creating topographic maps and big landscape scenes with Octane: https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettdashwood/videos (added 11/21/17)
 

Arthur Whitehead

Some interesting tutorials on creating a backlit razer keyboard, orange juice, and realflow sims with Octane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC57vAHlfNkcz8aIhRdZrVNQ (added 1/7/18)

Curse Studio

Another big one is Curse Studio, tons of content here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Pulley1337/videos

karlifetz

This channel has a bunch of very extensive streams, moving between lots of software like Zbrush, Daz, and Substance Painter, but finishing in C4D and Octane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYylYnKu7GQvf94NECpl4QQ/videos (added 12/20/21)

Kevin quintero

Kevin’s YouTube channel has a bunch of helpful C4D + Octane content: https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinmakesvideos/videos (added 12/20/21)

Christopher middleton

This is an excellent look at how to procedurally texture snowy mountains using the triplanar node, and a few other techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UkxA5A3Izs (added 9/5/19) 

MOMENTOR

This is an incredible set of talks from many of the best Octane artists in China, including Xiaolin Zeng, Somei Sun, Ligo Zang, and Lewis Orton: http://www.momentor.tv/record (added 5/16/18)

 

Somei sun

This talk is super inspiring, and Somei Sun's piece is stunning. Thanks to Brograph and Mark Cernosia for making it happen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QD5Jn72D-A (added 8/5/18)

 

TAEHOON PARK

An excellent breakdown of one of the coolest short films I've seen in a while, hosted by Skan Triki of Motion Cafe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LQwzzX0WKI (added 8/12/18)

 

XIAOLIN ZENG

Xiaolin Zeng, the amazing Octane artist behind the Pause 2017 titles, and more recently the Akira collab with Ash Thorp, has a few quick tips on Motion Cafe's channel:

Fog trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zWtS-QFhz4 (added 6/11/18)

Neon reflections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLPS6a7rsHU (added 6/11/18)

Bokeh edges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1kMc4XJ5sU (added 6/11/18)

 

JULIEN GAUTHIER

These are some amazing tutorials, but interestingly for standalone, with a focus on Octane for concept art. Really unique and some great techniques in here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyLLGnLwq3P-770CCJgdt5Q

 

POLY 4D

Great little tutorial on quickly creating a smoke sim in Houdini and then bringing it into Octane as a VDB sequence and playing with the volume settings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EuLBxpK0YY (added 1/15/18)

 

Sean Vickery

Good breakdown of creating a complex shader for a clay pot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuGU85f_Jn0 (added 2/28/18)

 

EthioMV Community 

A quick breakdown on creating some damage shaders for a sci-fi character: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fmIxKIot00 (added 2/28/18)

 

Andrey Lebrov

Andrey has some really charming intro level tutorials on Octane, as well as texturing, VFX workflows, and great breakdowns on multipass compositing:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZsHHoDLK0s6r44ifx0DnXQ (added 2/28/18)

 

Ryan Talbot

This is a great and detailed look at substance painter to Octane workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVgWV6A4JUA (added 4/22/18)

Ryan breaks down a new plugin that creates a live link between Substance Painter and Octane. Amazing stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0De3ATFdY (added 5/16/18)

An awesome tut on creating a beautiful nature scene and using Mixamo data + XP to make autumn leaves gather and follow the character’s animation, then fly away into the wind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0SLVH28sWo (added 9/20/18)

An excellent in-depth tutorial on creating dripping gold using XP’s new infectio modifier, inspired by Marvel’s Daredevil, and a look at the complex shader tree Ryan created for the gold swirls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPh-4cVQ-AY (added 3/4/19)

Antoine collignon

Antoine is an excellent concept artist and he has a bunch of helpful Octane tuts on his channel, including a look at 2020 and new RTX benefits, Vectron, and several other subjects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9KLXMW0u8kri1HVjaHs8OQ (added 2/10/20)

Nikolaus schatz

This guy has a ton of Octane tutorials on his channel, often with in-depth modeling and texture work. Just look for the videos with the Octane icon: https://www.youtube.com/user/Turboniko68/videos (added 2/10/20)

Albehany

An excellent look at volumetric rendering for smoke and fire sims in Octane: https://vimeo.com/156676742 (added 4/22/18)

 

JAMES KALMAN

A nice breakdown on creating a furturistic motherboard scene with displacement, blinking lights, dirt shaders, the new viewport rendering, and gradient emissions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVK5REMcra0 (added 6/7/18)

imsato

A great little tut on creating a snow shader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmXN5G3jOU (added 2/10/20) 

Sketchy

This dude has a nice tut on reducing noise on a scene, and is frequently adding more Octane content to his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCawhE5howK2EvvoE2KdqcJg (added 4/22/18)

 

AXIS FX

This guy has a mix of tutorials, some very cool like one on modeling a building face based off of an image, and then exporting as a height map to use as Octane displacement. Others are simpler tutorials, but could be helpful, but the one on SSS materials is nearly identical to David Brodeur's jelly tutorial, so that's pretty uncool. Still, included because this channel could be helpful to many: https://www.youtube.com/user/AxisDesignerGFX/videos (added 1/17/18)

 

Mary Star

Blender tutorials for Octane, by Mary Star

 

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