Special Thanks to David Ariew for Super mega Octane Tutorial List
Inlifethrill
Inlifethrill is where most people start with Octane. He covers things more in depth than anybody.
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He also has a paid series on Helloluxx (somewhat out of date at this point, but still helpful): http://helloluxx.com/product-category/octane-training/
Immortal Arts
Good intro (though old at this point) from Immortal Arts, an amazing CG artist: https://vimeo.com/62241847
David Ariew
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:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-N1Z_ZiEM&t=236s
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=068g41cTrYY&t=1503s
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
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
Raphael Rau (aka silverwing)
Check out Raphael Rau’s three presentations, some of the best info out there for sure:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCafqRQ8XP8
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv9j3kiLUNw
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evfZaX-mULc&t=2s
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)
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:
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)
Curse Studio
Another big one is Curse Studio, tons of content here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Pulley1337/videos
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.
- Gargantua: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QT_Bvq5nE8
- Saturn: https://vimeo.com/204784361
- Fire planet and atmosphere: https://vimeo.com/217083161
Learn SquareD Twitch Streams
- Raphael Rau: (Octane scatter and vertex maps, as well as tons of info on ray epsilon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k95JL3GH9lQ
- Michael Rigley and Joey Camacho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJEeyY9acY4
- Joey Camacho (some great talk about creating accurate glass materials and avoiding weird doubling effects): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnNCeh4b8_g
- Yambo (awesome look into 3D coat + Octane): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY3wYAeBZAw
- Beeple (must-see, insane modeling and Octane scatter awesomeness): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngJ4YOEgglA
- Beeple 10 Year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPbLtxF7_2A
- Cornelius Dämmrich (on 52Hz): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4gNmhxM-g
- Cornelius Dämmrich (on his new art piece): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emaz9EgW9kg
- Maciej Kuciara on creating realistic skin in Octane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74uEI2gRL1g (added 5/20/18)
Learn Squared Courses
- Ash Thorp’s UI and Data Design class has a lot of Octane usage in Maciej’s apprentice journey ($200 class version): https://www.learnsquared.com/courses/ui-and-data-design-film
- Ash Thorp’s Main Title Design class also has good Octane info: https://www.learnsquared.com/courses/main-title-design
- Michael Rigley (excellent on multipass and lighting and has a lot of Octane): https://www.learnsquared.com/courses/design-production-workflow
- Michael Rigley (followup animation course): https://www.learnsquared.com/courses/design-production-animation
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/d/303861f7b151b174db442e4d0418ebef (added 9/7/17)
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)
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)
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)
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:
- http://motionographer.com/2016/11/30/step-by-step-locked-and-loading/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/how-to-create-the-inflatable-object-series-part-3-c4d-octane/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-the-micro-jelly-frame-using-sss-gsg-hdri-studio-and-octane/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-melting-objects-in-cinema-4d/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-an-abstract-tentacle-creature-with-x-particles-and-octane/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-floating-crystals-in-cinema-4d-and-octane/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-wet-roads-using-octane-in-cinema-4d/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/octane-render-quick-tips-in-cinema-4d/
- https://greyscalegorilla.com/tutorials/create-nike-flyweave-using-x-particles-in-cinema-4d/ (added 11/3/17)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkEkftbxC8E – great talk on creating photorealistic ground and rocks (added 9/23/18)
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
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)
Thanos 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: https://www.patreon.com/yetipictures/posts (added 12/8/19)
Tony and Thanos recently 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
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)
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)
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:
- https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/volume_3_siggraph_2016_rewind/siggraph_2016_rewind_-_brett_morris_procedural_methods_for_motion_response
- https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/nab_2015_rewind_brett_morris_2
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.
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQZI8x6BiGomx5XvclA9aA
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JohannesL/posts?tag=tutorials
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)
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
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csFR2YTJji4&feature=youtu.be
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XGWqkl7ns&feature=youtu.be
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R73GIBy7yVw&feature=youtu.be
Additional resources:
- Octane Facebook Group — amazing work constantly posted and tons of info shared: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OctaneRender/
- Beeple — download project files and tear apart: http://www.beeple-crap.com/resources.php
- The French Monkey — Genesis Skin Controller, fantastic displacement maps and textures, and tons of other resources: https://www.tfmstyle.com/products/
- Brograph podcast — tons of Octane geekery and news every week: http://brograph.com/podcast/
- Brograph Luminous — a spotlight plugin with gobos and other custom controls for Octane: http://brograph.com/luminous/
- PXL Dirt Rig for Octane — The Pixel Lab’s awesome plugin for creating complex dirt and grunge shaders: www.thepixellab.net/pxl-dirt-rig-for-octane-grunge-it-up
- VDB Cloud, Smoke, Nebula, and Abstract packs, as well as Planet packs by the awesome Mitch Myers: https://www.mitchmyers.tv/store/
- JSPlacement, a free displacement map generator: https://windmillart.net/?p=jsplacement
- Poliigon — an amazing site for PBR textures: https://www.poliigon.com/
- Real Displacement Textures are the best photoscanned textures I’ve found, and are already set up for Octane when you download — https://www.rd-textures.com/
- Zomax — Cornelius Dämmrich’s site. Check out his awesome free textures: https://zomax.net/free-stuff/
- Silverwing — Raphael Rau’s site. He’s got an amazing free Octane material library, as well as several scenes you can download: http://www.silverwing-vfx.de/free_stuff.html
- Reaction Diffusion Generator — Great little tool for creating complex reaction diffusion patterns for displacement without using Houdini: https://pmneila.github.io/jsexp/grayscott/
- Amazing site for terrains. These are all 3D scanned large scale displacement maps from mars: https://www.uahirise.org/
- How to render faster in Octane – a great written breakdown on increasing render speed: https://brain-3.net/how-to-render-faster-in-octane/