Need Rendering Help

[direland]

OK, I admit it. I am have been struggling to learn how to use the advanced rendering engine. I just don't seem to get it. I have looked through the various IC tutorials and understand the individual explanations of various parameters but when I try to put it all together to render something, it comes out looking less than ideal.

 

The problem is, I need to see examples of how adjustments of the various parameters affect the outcome of the rendering. It would be nice to have IC do a series of tutorials using this approach.

 

In the meantime, I am struggling to get a decent rendering of the attached file- but more importantly to know what parameter settings were used to get it. Can anyone help me?

 

The scene file shows a pull-out metal shelf with a silver vein powdercoat finish. The wire portion of the shelf extends out using two drawer slides (with a bright zinc finish- almost chrome). There is a clear plastic face plate at the front of the shelf. So what I am looking for are the settings I need to achieve a nice rendering with reasonably accurate representations of each of the individual surfaces. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2010_08_20_Store_Shelf_Rendering_Example.ics

[Cary OConnor]

First thing is to open the Rendering Catalog set. Go to the Common Ribbon Bar and on Catatlog Sets select Rendering. Go to the Metal Catalog. Drag and Drop the Chrome onto the Slider Assembly.

 

That is the easy one. The Silver vein is tricky. So you can do it two ways. One is with an image. This works to give the correct look, but the issue of repeating the image occurs. So you can try a shader to represent it. Voronoi Noise is probably the closest. Once you play with it to get the look, save it for later. Also, you may want to add a bump using the same shader settings to give it depth (it depends on your viewing direction whether you can see it or not).

 

Next the big thing is your environment. You need to have something in the environment to give it the look and reflection. On the DVD, there is a link to enviornments we supply from Dosch. Use one of those as the 3D Background. The mall is good for reflections. Or you can find free ones on the web as well (www.deviantart.com and search on HDRI). These backgrounds can drastically change the look of materials (same as in the real world as you move in different lighting and environments).

 

Once you have this you need to get the lighting. Spotlights are good. You can also try global illumination (take longer to render in some cases and it is not always needed).

 

After rendering, adjust the tone mapping to get a better look. Refer to one of the attached images.

 

Here are a few quick attempts. I attached the catalog with the silver vein material I attempted.

 

Cary

 

 

SilverVein.icc

[direland]

OK, I was able to acquire the 3D background image (the mall hrdi), open the metal catalog and apply the chrome onto the desired parts, I found a silvervein map that I like and applied it, and tried to render it using Global Illumination.

 

There were a number of parameters in the dialog boxes to chose from but I have no idea what to select. It appeared that my scene was rendering (it took about 4 minutes) and then....nothing. In other words, there was no corresponding "thumbnail" image representing the file.

 

Also, when I applied the 3D background it seemed to be highly pixelated in the scene- like it was way too large. In your rendering examples how did you use the mall hdri image and still get a black background? Either the standard IC blue or black background is what I would prefer.

 

When I go to render I select:

 

DPI = 300

Units: Inches

Width = 11

Height = 8.5

Enable Realistic Shading / Shadows /Antialising (leaving ray tracing unselected)

In the advanced settings Image/supersampling/Global Illumination, I have no clue what to do so I did not do anything.

Under Options (Export TIFF) I selected 24 bits (full color) & LZW compression

 

Where do I go from here. Thanks!

 

 

First thing is to open the Rendering Catalog set. Go to the Common Ribbon Bar and on Catatlog Sets select Rendering. Go to the Metal Catalog. Drag and Drop the Chrome onto the Slider Assembly.

 

That is the easy one. The Silver vein is tricky. So you can do it two ways. One is with an image. This works to give the correct look, but the issue of repeating the image occurs. So you can try a shader to represent it. Voronoi Noise is probably the closest. Once you play with it to get the look, save it for later. Also, you may want to add a bump using the same shader settings to give it depth (it depends on your viewing direction whether you can see it or not).

 

Next the big thing is your environment. You need to have something in the environment to give it the look and reflection. On the DVD, there is a link to enviornments we supply from Dosch. Use one of those as the 3D Background. he mall is good for reflections. Or you can find free ones on the web as well (www.deviantart.com and search on HDRI). These backgrounds can drastically change the look of materials (same as in the real world as you move in different lighting and environments).

 

Once you have this you need to get the lighting. Spotlights are good. You can also try global illumination (take longer to render in some cases and it is not always needed).

 

After rendering, adjust the tone mapping to get a better look. Refer to one of the attached images.

 

Here are a few quick attempts. I attached the catalog with the silver vein material I attempted.

 

Cary

 

 

SilverVein.icc

29653[/snapback]

 

[Cary OConnor]

On the Background tab, there is a check-box called smooth next to the image input. Select that and the inserted 3D Background will not e pixelated as much.

 

As for the rendering setting, keep Ray-tracing option selected as well since the realistic rendering engine is a raytracer. In most, cases you really don't need Global Illumination. You only need this if you have a good HDR image and you have areas that need indirect lighting (like rooms). So in your case, turn it off. On the Advance Rendering Properties dialog, on the front page there is an option "Mask out background". That is how I get the black background.

 

For setting up the rendering, usually set it to a size of 50%. This way you can preview it before spending time on a longer rendering at a larger size. Note: Click in the back ground before hitting Ctrl-R to render. This will verify that everything in the scene is rendering.

 

The other thing to aid in the look is the lights. Add a spot light and turn off some of the directional lights. This may give a more realistic look.

 

Attach your image of the silver vein and I can try it as well in the scene.

 

Cary

 

 

[direland]

Using the tips that you provided Cary plus additional tips picked up here, and a few trial and error attempts, here is the rendering I finally ended up with (see attachment).

[Cary OConnor]

Send us some of those chocolates

 

Cary

[Guest EricFoy]

d:

 

I couldn't resist throwing a couple renderings at you.

 

So here they are. They both took about 8 minutes to render. On one I have one light turned on, on the other I have turned off all directional lights, with global illumination as the only light source. With the right 3D environment, this usually gives me the best results, and it renders faster to boot...

 

P.S: I don't have any of your textures, since they didn't come in with your file...

Edited September 1, 2010 by EricFoy

[direland]

Hi Eric,

 

Thanks for taking the time to do these renderings. I have been spending time trying to master the art of rendering using the newest IC rendering tools. I have been relying on the legacy rendering engine in the past for most of my work but I definitely want to tap into the higher potential of the advanced stuff.

 

Of late I have been trying to do some renderings using GI but with mediocre results. In the past day or so I have gotten better, but can't seem to match the examples shown here. Can you provide more info in regards to specific settings on exactly how you achieved this look?

 

Although I am constantly going back to review all of the terms and explanations that IC has provided of how adjusting various parameters affects the look of a rendering, it doesn't mean much unless you go through the trial and error of seeing comparative differences between adjustments. That's why I think a comprehensive tutorial using this approach would be a big help.

 

FYI, I have attached the Silvervein Texture Map that I have been using for this component.