Realistic Glass Renders in Minutes with Greyscalegorilla Plus

Create Beautiful Glass Renders in Minutes with Redshift and Studio

Creating realistic glass renders can be a technical headache. Between lighting, materials, and modeling, it’s easy to lose hours tweaking settings and still not get the look you want.

Let's recreate internal artist Dan Zucco’s gorgeous “Glass on Glass” render using nothing but Greyscalegorilla Studio and Redshift in Cinema 4D. The whole setup? Less than 10 minutes.

Let’s walk through the process so you can create your own polished glass render.

The Goal: Recreate This Glass Scene in 10 Minutes

Originally designed to highlight the new Glass Materials and Glassware Models, this scene demonstrates just how fast and flexible the Studio app can be in a production environment.

All models, materials, and lighting setups used in this render are available in Greyscalegorilla Plus.

If you're a Plus member, you also have access to the exact scene file under your Dashboard’s Resources tab. You can also find the Redshift Starter Scene I use for every project.

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Step 1: Add Models and Materials with Studio

First, launch Studio and search “glass.” You’ll find both our fluted glass model and a bunch of beautiful pre-built glass materials, including clear, frosted, and colored options.

Click Send to drop your model directly into Cinema 4D. These glasses even come with pre-filled liquid options which you can add materials like beer, whiskey, or water.

Next, grab your glass material, download it if needed, and hit Send again. No shader-building required.

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Step 2: Dial In Your Composition and Camera Settings

To recreate the original look, the project resolution is set to 1920x1080 with a 200mm zoom lens from the Lens Tools script for that tight, photographic feel. Then arrange the glasses using the Place Tool and held Command to create quick duplicates.

Important tip here: if your new material doesn’t apply to the duplicates, remember that instances behave differently. Apply the material to a null above the instances, not the instance itself. If no null exists, just create one and drop the texture on that.

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Step 3: Lighting and Denoising Glass Renders

Lighting is everything with glass. To switch to more of a studio look, grab the Three Softbox Studio HDRI. With the new Smart Send feature in Studio, this will automatically be added to your scene applied to a domelight.

Glass can get noisy in Redshift, so switch on OIDN denoising. It starts a little blotchy but quickly clears up for clean, smooth reflections.

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Finish and Compare

Once your timer hits 10 minutes, open up Dan Zucco’s original file and see how your version stacks up. There’s always something to learn from reverse-engineering great work.

This hands-on exploration provides an opportunity to deepen understanding of light behavior and asset setup.

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Get the Same Look—Fast

Every component of this render comes directly from Greyscalegorilla Plus. The Studio App provides fast, one-click access to thousands of handcrafted assets. No tweaking, no wasted time. Just drop them into the scene and render.

Artists looking to speed up their workflow without sacrificing quality can recreate this entire render in minutes using Studio. For those already using Plus, everything needed is just a few clicks away.

Stay creative!