Tutorial: Setting up a Render Scene (Part 1)

[zortech]

Setting up a Render Scene

Part 1 : Theoretical Guide
Part 2 : Practical Guide Here

The presentation of a model makes it significant. The creation of an attractive object requires a lot of work and time, thus it makes sense investing in an according presentation scene. This tutorial is about to demonstrate the potentials of a final render. The goal is to place your work in an environment which fits the models timeline and genre. Try to choose an ambiance that emphasizes the style and allows realistic illumination.

Environment

The environment should not be highly detailed, otherwise it deflects the viewers focus from the model. There is a countless amount of options to promote a model, so try to accent from all the rest of them.

Those are some example photographs taken from the Internet, which perfectly show how a model should be presented. The ambit consists of primitive structures and fits the weapon. The first figure implies an expensive gun, by contrast to the second picture which looks more like military, special units weapon.



There are plenty of weapon models created for various mod projects or in personal interests. What unites the most of them is the way they are promoted. The easiest way to create a render setup is to create a plane, add illumination and hit the render button. To make people believe your weapon is real, you should take a step forward. The ambiance and composition reflects the concept behind it.



To visualize a model in an accordant way, texture sizes and polygon counts should be equal all over the scene.

The ambit constitutes a charming contrast to the weapon. Example scene by OriK. A well light setup avails to create a credible render. Which leads to the next point, illumination.



Example scene by zortech.



Illumination

Lighting is the key to make the viewer believe it to be about a realistic scene. The most important concern is to keep your final image as bright as one can see all the details in it, without having overexposures. To achieve a nice result, combine indirect illumination with other types of light sources.

Sample render - lighting



Global illumination generates realistic lighting from all sides. Place additional light sources, like point lights which affect specularity only. The example scene uses a soft blue and orange/brown color tone.

Sample render - shadows



Activate advanced lighting options for global illumination to receive soft shadows like in fig. one. Use additional lights for angled shadows. According to the environment, projection maps can be used to cast shadows of a jalousie, leaves of a tree, whatever fits the scene.

Workflow improvements

Rendering global illumination takes a lot of time. Playing around with different light types, colors and render settings can easily cost a few hours. Instead of rendering global illumination every time, simply bake it into the texture and drastically reduce the rendering time for further shots.
Camera

Before starting the renderer, the scene needs a smooth camera angle which shows the model from its best side and keeps it in focus. Do not fall back to plain angles! The image size should not affect the camera angle, do not persist on 1:1,333 resolutions. Depth of field can be useful to emphasize the focused object.

Sample render – camera angles



Rendering

Rendering the image is the last process. First of all, the output size is important, the average monitor resolution is about 1024 * 768. Internet bandwidth raised, so do not be shy and go for low resolutions. “Next gen” technology has a lot of room for details, the viewer, maybe a company looking for talented people wants to see all these details.

There are a plenty different filtering types, the selected, default rendering filter might not be the best. Take a look at the help file or “try and error” find out their differences.

Sample render – filtering




Feel free to contact me at zortech@web.de

content by Max Rötzler,
www.zortech.de