Sun & Corona shaders
This plugin contains a pair of shaders intended to be used together to simulate a close-up image of the sun (or any star, really). One shader is for the sun surface; the other is for its corona.
These are some example renders showing what the shaders do. Click the small image to see a larger version. (The star field background is generated using the StarScape shader available on this site.)
- Default sun and corona
Sun and corona with default settings.
- Default sun in Redshift
The default sun and corona rendered with Redshift.
- Hot blue-white star
A very hot, active, blue-white star.
- Corona in eclipse
The sun's corona during a total eclipse.
- Default sun with added light
The default sun (no corona for clarity) using a light object for lighting and shadows.
- Default sun with light in Redshift
The same as the previous example, but rendered with Redshift and using a Redshift area light. Note that a point light will not work in this example.
The shader interfaces look like this:
Sun shader:
Corona shader:
Availability
These shaders are free to download and use, and you can download a copy from the links below.
Important: the shaders are available for Mac on both C4D R2024 and R2025. However, the Mac version for R2025 requires C4D R2025.2 or later. This is due to changes in the build system for macOS - see the articles here and here for more details.
Compatibility
The two shaders are compatible with the following versions of Cinema 4D:
| Cinema 4D version | Compatible? |
|---|---|
| R2024 | Yes |
| R2025 | Yes (but see the note above for use on a Mac) |
There are no versions for C4D R2023 or earlier.
Download
Download Sun shaders for R2024
Download Sun shaders for R2025
Page last updated May 27th 2025