I found this Pyrocluster preset kicking about in my 3D library today and I cannot remember where I got it from. If you sent this to me, then please let me know and I’ll credit you in this post.

Pyrocluster with Thinking Particles

I’ve used pyrocluster many times and although I feel that there is much room for improvement, it is still a unique tool within the Cinema4D feature set. If you haven’t ever used this volumetric shader system then this short tutorial should get you started.

Pyrocluster Volume Tracer

In this tutorial take you through the steps to create a simple cloud fly through. Pyrocluster has got a bit of bad rap over the years for being painfully slow. This tutorial demonstrates some simple tricks to speed up workflow and ensure you are not waiting around for renders when setting up these type of complex volumetric effects.

Pyrocluster Preview

The setup is fairly basic but there is a lot of scope to take this type of technique much further and create some cool effects. I’d definitely encourage you to play around with the lighting, use falloff, add shadows. Check the lights ‘Project’ tab where you can choose to use specific lights for Pyrocluster Illumination and Shadow Casting. Of course there are so many things you can do with MoGraph and generating Thinking Particles, shading those particles with Pyrocluster opens up a whole new world of rendering.