Cinema 4D Color Management and EXR Output Settings

Why does Cinema 4D's color management ignore color space when rendering Open EXR?

When rendering with Redshift in Cinema 4D and selecting an OCIO color space render target, some users may find that the resulting EXR files are encoded as linear Rec. 709 instead of the intended color space.

This occurs when the "16 Bit/Channel" option is selected in the Save settings, which may lead to unexpected or incorrect output. The issue stems from the way Cinema 4D interprets lower bit-depth settings, assuming they are meant for integer-based formats like PNG or TIFF, and applies certain view transforms accordingly.

To ensure proper 16-bit float EXR output:

1. Set the bit depth to "32 Bit/Channel" in the Save settings.
2. Expand the EXR "Format" settings and enable the option labelled "Use 16 Bit Floats."

This configuration ensures Cinema 4D and Redshift render internally to a 32-bit float buffer in the correct project color space (e.g., ACEScg) and save the file as a 16-bit float EXR with your chosen compression settings.