FLAMINGO. raytracing and radiosity for Rhinoceros

Transcription

1 FLAMINGO raytracing and radiosity for Rhinoceros

2 FLAMINGO USER S GUIDE Version Robert McNeel & Associates. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Cover image by Frank Woll, Brian Gillespie, and Scott Davidson. Contributors: Gordon Dass Adams, Andrew le Bihan, Jeff Curtis, Scott Davidson, Cafer J., Pascal Golay, Brian Gillespie, Luciano Magno, Giuseppe Massoni, Roland Montijo, Facundo Miri, Jari Saarinen, Kent West, Gijs de Zwart, Yoshikazu Itami, Margaret Becker. Flamingo is a trademark and Rhinoceros is a registered trademark of Robert McNeel & Associates. All brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. ii

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Introduction...5 Flamingo Features... 5 System Requirements... 7 Install Flamingo... 8 Start Rendering with Flamingo... 8 Render Modes... 9 Printing... 9 Moving Files between Computers... 9 A Brief Tour...11 Assign Materials Set a Ground Plane Add Lights Final Render Materials...19 Material Libraries Assign Materials to Layers or Objects Material previewer Create and Edit Materials...22 Tour Materials Parts of the Material Editor Base Color Reflective Finish Self-Luminance Transparency Image and Bump Maps Image Bump Mapping Procedural Bumps Material Highlight Procedural Materials Object Properties...64 Transparency and Mapping Decals Place decals on objects Waves iii

4 INTRODUCTION Lighting...69 Three-Point Lighting Light Qualities Lighting Effects Light Types Ambient Light Daylighting Daylight for Interiors Environment...80 Background Color Background Image Clouds Haze Ground Plane Alpha Channel Plants...84 Plant Libraries Plant Properties Create New Plants Rendering Modes...86 Raytrace Render Photometric Render Radiosity Lighting Model Rendering Examples...96 Cell Phone Prototype Glass and Liquid Etched Glass Exotic Plastics Depth of Field Jewelry Automobile Finishes Cell Phone Presentation Realistic Backgrounds Index iv

5 INTRODUCTION Introduction Flamingo creates stunning, life-like images from Rhinoceros (Rhino) models. Flamingo uses raytracing and photometric rendering technologies inside Rhino to create high quality, photo-realistic images from 3-D models. With Flamingo, creating presentation images of Rhino models becomes easy. Simply add materials, lights, and environment and render. With Flamingo s powerful Material Editor, you can assign any combination of color, reflectivity, transparency, highlight, multiple bitmaps, and multiple procedural patterns to one material. See Materials. Render by Brian Gillespie. Flamingo adds linear, rectangular, goniometric, and sun lighting to Rhino s spot, point, and directional lights to give you realistic lighting options. Flamingo can account for sky and reflected ground light as well. This can produce accurate and realistic interiors with daylight. See Lighting. Flamingo includes sky, clouds, gradient backgrounds, alpha channel, infinite ground plane, haze, and plants. See Environment. Radiosity, in combination with photometric rendering, can deliver high quality images by accounting for indirect light. See Part V, Rendering Modes. Rendering examples are included so you can learn from experts how it is done. See Rendering Examples. Flamingo Features General features Easy to use, works seamlessly inside Rhino, and provides a host of features that speed and simplify image rendering. Uses both raytracing and radiosity to create single-frame images and animations. Automatically calculates indirect light, hard and soft shadows, color bleeding, reflections, translucency, transparency, refraction, highlight, depth of field, and depth attenuation. Supports multiprocessors and background processing. Includes realistic, mathematically generated 3-D plants with seasonal variation, giving realistic branches, leaves, and flowers, shadows, and reflections. Works inside Rhino. Render changes to the model immediately. You never need to export or start over. Viewpoint animation using scripting for walking through and flying around model. Quick raytrace rendering option with reflections, transparency, and shadows. Progressive-refinement rendering algorithms with on-screen preview. Interactive radiosity solution. Render a partial window. 5

6 INTRODUCTION Save and restore sun and sky, raytrace, and environment settings. Sunlight studies using scripts. Save radiosity solution. Batch rendering through scripts. Multiprocessor support in Windows NT/2000/XP. Graphical library browsers for materials and plants. Comprehensive full-color manual and online, context-sensitive help. Materials Extensive material library. Thousands of materials. Multiple library support. Assign materials to layers or objects. Interactive material editor with live raytraced preview of several materials at the same time. Physically-based material properties. Properties include reflectivity, transparency, highlight and index of refraction. Depth attenuation control for transparent materials. Customizable 2- and 3-D procedural textures, including marble, granite, wood, tile, mask, angular blend, clear finish, and blend. Complex materials with multiple procedural textures. 3-D procedural bumps, including fine and coarse textures and waves. RGB and HSB color systems. Extensive bitmap support. Support for TGA, BMP, PCX, PNG, JPEG, and uncompressed TIF file formats. Color, transparency, and bump mapping. Tiled, decal, and background bitmaps. Planar, cylindrical, spherical, and UV projections for decals. Multiple bitmaps per object. Color exclusion with sensitivity setting. Environment Background options include solid color, gradient colors, and image map. Ground plane with material. Procedural clouds. Haze. Alpha channel. Lighting Directional, point, spot, linear, rectangular, goniometric, and sun light. Unlimited number of lights. 6

7 INTRODUCTION Physically-based lights and illumination algorithms. Sun angle specified by latitude, month, time of day. Maps and city lists to select geographical location. Exact solar time calculator. Graphical adjustment of spot focus for spotlights. Accurate daylighting simulation (sun, sky, ground, and cloud cover components). Shadow casting on/off by object. Adjustable light color. Intensity specified in watts in Photometric render mode. Image quality True specular reflection and transparency. Shadow casting from all lights. Soft shadow edges, blurry reflection, and translucency. Refraction and caustics. Depth of field. Depth attenuation for transparent materials. Antialiasing with user control. 32-bit color output (16.7 million colors plus alpha channel). WYSIWYG color display up to 16.7 million colors. Landscaping Extensive library of fractal-generated 3-D plants including wet and dry climate plants, cold and warm climate plants, and groundcover. Library browser with multiple previews. Specify size by height or trunk diameter. Pruning tools for lower branches. Foliage density control. Seasonal controls. Plant editor for creating new plants. System Requirements Rhino version 3+. Pentium, Celeron, or higher processor. Flamingo takes advantage of multiple processors. 256-color video or more. 65,000 or more recommended. 64 MB RAM. 128 MB or more recommended. 50 MB free disk space or more. 100 MB or more recommended. Internet access recommended for updates and support. 7

8 INTRODUCTION Install Flamingo When you install Flamingo, you install the program files, the material and plant libraries, and example files. To install Flamingo 1 Insert the Flamingo installation CD in your CD drive. 2 Follow the instructions on the screen. Start Rendering with Flamingo Flamingo works inside Rhino. There is no need to export the model. To set Flamingo as the current renderer From the Rhino Render menu, click Current Renderer, and then click Flamingo Raytrace. To assign Flamingo materials to layers 1 Open the Edit Layers dialog box. (Right-click the Layer pane in the Rhino status bar.) 2 In the Edit Layers dialog box, select one or more layer names, and click in the Material column. 3 In the Material Properties dialog box, under Assign By, click Plug-in to use Flamingo. 4 Click Browse to access the Flamingo material libraries. 5 From the Material Library dialog box, select a material, and click OK. 6 In the Material Properties dialog box, click OK. 7 In the Edit Layers dialog box, click OK. To assign Flamingo materials to objects 1 From the Edit menu, click Properties. 2 On the Material tab, click Plug-in, and then click Browse. 3 From the Material Library dialog box, select a material, and click OK. 4 In the Properties dialog box, click OK. The object assignment overrides the layer assignment for that object. To set up the rendering properties The rendering properties include environment settings, sunlight, plant season, render, and ambient light settings. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Properties. 2 In the Document Properties dialog box, on the Flamingo tab set the properties. Click Environment to change how the background appears or to add special effects such as an infinite ground plane or haze. Click Sun to the sun s location. Use the controls to set the render image size and other properties. 8

9 INTRODUCTION 3 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. 4 In the Flamingo window, from the File menu, click Save As. 5 Give your image a name and file type. Render Modes Flamingo has two rendering modes: raytrace and photometric. Each mode has a specialized purpose. Raytrace render Raytrace render mode tends to work well for studio lighting scenes like product shots, automobiles, booth structures, and other freestanding objects. These scenes normally have a smaller range of lighting. Unrealistic lighting effects are often desired to accentuate parts of the objects. This rendering method also may work best when rendering a simple scene that does not need to look realistic. When using the Raytrace renderer, light values are specified and calculated using arbitrary numbers, and exposure adjustment after creating the image is not available. Some Flamingo dialog boxes, especially those affecting lighting, will look different in this mode. For more information about the Raytrace renderer, see the chapter Raytrace Render. Photometric render In addition to the Raytrace renderer, Flamingo can also use Photometric rendering. Photometric render mode works well for interior and exterior architectural scenes since there tends to be a broad range of lighting effects in an image. It captures subtle differences in light and can render realistic scenes over a broad range of lighting conditions. With the Photometric renderer, light intensity is measured in watts, and exposure adjustment after the image is created is possible. Photometric rendering is also required for radiosity calculation. For further information about the Photometric renderer, see the chapter Photometric Render. Printing To print Flamingo images, use a paint program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. You can also copy Flamingo images and paste them into desktop publishing or word processing documents. Moving Files between Computers Flaming includes a utility to transfer models from one computer to another. The FlamingoTransport command creates a copy of the model in a separate folder, creates a separate material library for the model, and copies all the images needed for the materials, decals, and environment backgrounds to the folder. Since Flamingo looks first in the current model folder for its materials and images, opening the new model will automatically use these libraries and images for rendering. If you are sending the model to someone else, you can send the entire contents of the folder and everything needed for rendering will be included. The FlamingoTransport utility is also useful for creating a custom library for a specific model. If you have assigned materials from many different libraries, use the FlamingoTransport utility to create a unique library for the model. 9

10 INTRODUCTION To prepare a model for moving to another computer 1 Set up the model for final rendering. 2 From the Raytrace menu, click Transport Model and Materials. 3 In the Transport Model Name and Folder dialog box, enter a folder and file name. A copy of the model and a unique material library are created in the folder specified. All bitmaps for material definitions, environment, and decals are copied to the folder. Note Custom plants libraries and plant bitmaps are NOT copied. 10

11 A BRIEF TOUR A Brief Tour This chapter introduces the process needed to render scenes in Flamingo. There are four basic steps to setting up a rendering. The steps to rendering are: Assign materials. Add lighting. Set up the environment. Render. Flamingo raytrace render. Although the steps do not have to be done in this order, it seems to make setting up a scene more efficient. To improve quality, repeat these steps until the image looks right to you. This example demonstrates these four steps. To start the tour 1 In the Mug folder, open the model BasicMug.3dm. A completed model (BasicMugComplete.3dm) is also included with materials and lighting assigned. Mug in shaded working mode. 2 Shade the model. Mug in shaded mode using OpenGL shade. To set Flamingo Raytrace as your current renderer 1 From the Render menu, click Current Renderer, and then click Flamingo Raytrace. 11

12 A BRIEF TOUR 2 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. Flamingo render with no materials, lights, or background. Assign Materials First, we are going to assign a material to the mug using the layer material assignment. See the chapter, Materials, for more detailed information. To assign a material to the mug 1 From the Edit menu, click Layers, and then click Edit Layers. Or, right-click the Layer pane in the status bar. 2 In the Edit Layers dialog box, click in the Material column for the Mug layer. Edit Layers dialog box. 12

13 A BRIEF TOUR 3 In the Material Properties dialog box, click Plug-in, and then click Browse. Material Properties dialog box. 4 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Example library, select Green ceramic. Material Library dialog box. 5 Click OK in all the dialog boxes. 6 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. Mug rendered with material. 13

14 A BRIEF TOUR Set a Ground Plane The next step will be to create a base for the mug to sit on. For this we will use Flamingo s ground plane feature. This makes an infinitely large plane that is faster to render than using a large surface. You can assign any material to the ground plane. We will do this before adding lights so that we can see the effects of the shadows on the ground plane in our image when we insert lights. We are going to use a shiny white material for the ground plane. See the chapter Environment, for more information. To set up a ground plane 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Properties. 2 In the Document Properties dialog box, on the Flamingo tab, click Environment. Document Properties dialog box. 3 In the Environment dialog box, click Ground Plane. Environment dialog box. 14

15 A BRIEF TOUR 4 On the Ground Plane tab, click Material. Environment dialog box, Ground Plane tab. 5 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Example library, select Plastic, white, smooth. Material Library dialog box. 6 Click OK in all the dialog boxes. 15

16 A BRIEF TOUR 7 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. Add Lights Mug rendered with ground plane and default light. So far, we have used the default lighting in Flamingo. This invisible light comes from over your left shoulder. It is enough to illuminate the model and to give you a starting point. It is on if no other lights are in the scene. Since the default light cannot be edited, we are going to add our own lights so we can control the lighting. To add lights 1 From the Render menu, click Create Spotlight. 2 At the prompts, draw a large spotlight that shines on the mug from the front and slightly above as shown below. Use elevator mode or turn on the spotlight s control points and drag them to move the light into position. Spotlight, perspective view. Spotlight, front view. 16

17 A BRIEF TOUR Spotlight, right view. 3 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. Mug rendered with one spotlight. This makes a nicer image, but two or three lights in a scene improve the rendering. We are going to add one more light to create highlights on the mug. To add a second light 1 From the Render menu, click Create Spotlight. 2 At the prompts, draw a large spotlight that shines on the mug from the right side and slightly above as shown below. Use elevator mode, or turn on the spotlight s control points and drag them to move the light into position. Spotlight, top view. 17

18 A BRIEF TOUR Final Render Spotlight, front view. Now you can render the final image and save the image file. To render and save 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Render. Mug rendered with two spotlights. 2 In the Flamingo window, from the File menu, click Save As. 3 Give your image a name and file type. The image is now complete. With just the four basic steps: assign materials, set background, add lights, and render, we have created a nice image from the mug model. 18

19 MATERIALS Materials A material is a collection of properties that determine how a surface appears in the rendered image. Materials provide color, texture, reflection, transparency, and pattern to the rendered surface. You can assign materials to a layers or objects. Model and rendering by Kent West. Material Libraries Materials are organized in libraries. The Material Library dialog box displays all of the current material libraries. Always store custom materials either in the User library or in project-specific or model-specific libraries. You can drag materials from one library to another to copy the materials to custom libraries and then make changes to the copied materials. This keeps the standard libraries intact. In addition to the default material libraries, Flamingo comes with these additional libraries: The User library is an empty library where you can store your own materials. You can create any number of custom libraries. Individual libraries for each example file included on the CD. See Part VI, Rendering Examples. Project-specific and shared material libraries When you create a new material library, it is saved in the Flamingo\Libraries folder. You can copy material libraries into a project folder or a shared folder on a network drive. This way many people can share the library. Flamingo material library files use the file extension.mlib. Flamingo can use material libraries stored in the following locations on your system: The Libraries folder under the Flamingo installation directory. The current model s folder. Any folder listed in the Options dialog box, on the Flamingo tab under Additional Support Folders. To add a support folder 1 From the Tools menu, click Options. 2 In the Options dialog box, on the Flamingo tab, under Additional Support Folders, click Add. 3 In the Browse for Folder dialog box, select the folder you want to use. 19

20 MATERIALS To open the Material Library dialog box From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. Material Library dialog box. To create a new material library 1 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Library menu, click New. 2 In the Name dialog box, type a library name. The new library appears in the list. To create a new material library folder 1 In the Material Library tree list, highlight a library or parent folder. 2 From the Folder menu, click New. 3 In the Name dialog box, type a folder name. Assign Materials to Layers or Objects You can assign materials to layers or to objects. Assigning materials to a layer lets you assign a material to all objects on a layer at once. If you assign materials to a layer, global changes are easier than if you assign materials to objects. Assigning materials to objects lets you select an individual object in the model and assign a material to it. An object assignment overrides a layer assignment. The Material tab in the Properties dialog box displays the current assignment method. Material previewer The preview window in the Material Editor dialog box provides a live update of the material as you select it. You can display additional materials in the smaller panes. The size of the cube displays in the upper left of the preview pane. This cube size is a property of the material. The cube helps you determine the scale of the material features. If you would like to keep the preview of the material displayed while you look at other materials, click any one of the smaller panes. The material will display there. This way, you can create a temporary palette of materials for the model. 20

21 MATERIALS To use the material previewer 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, select a material from the list. The active material displays in the preview pane. Material Library preview panes. 3 Click a blank small pane to activate it and display the active material in it. 4 Select another material from the list. It displays in the main preview pane. 5 To replace the material in the preview pane with a material in one of the smaller panes, click the small pane. To replace the material in a small pane with the material in the preview pane, right-click the small pane, and then click Replace. 21

22 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Create and Edit Materials The Material Editor dialog box lets you change a material s visual properties. The previewer updates immediately to show the changes at any point in the process. Using the Material Editor you can: Change the color or reflectivity. Add surface roughness or texture. Apply patterns that mimic the appearance of complex materials like marble, granite, and wood. Incorporate photographic images, computer-generated art, or scan real objects (wood, wallpaper, carpet) into the material. Material Editor dialog box. Tour Materials To learn about materials and their properties, we will look at some example materials. These are stored in a separate Example library so you can experiment with the material without accidentally redefining the original material. The examples in this chapter list the material s properties and guide you through making changes. To edit a material 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, select a material. 3 From the Material menu, click Edit. Or, right-click the material name or the preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Edit. To create a new material 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Use Current Material as Template or Default Gray. Using the current material as a template makes a copy of the selected material s properties, which you can use as a starting point. 22

23 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS To save a material 1 In the Material Editor dialog box, click OK. 2 In the Overwrite Warning dialog box, click Save As. 3 In the Save Material As dialog box, save the material. Note Save custom materials in the User library or other library you have created. Parts of the Material Editor Flamingo materials consist of combinations of one or more material components. For each material component you can set attributes such as color, reflectivity, transparency, index of refraction, bump maps, image maps, and highlight. The Procedures list displays the components that combine to form a final material definition. For simple materials, there will be only one component in the list: Base. For complex materials, a tree indicates how the components combine. For example, the Marble procedure consists of a Base component and a Vein component. The Material Editor dialog box lets you edit the component currently selected in the Procedures list. If the highlighted component is a Base component, the property sheet will have four tabs, Main, Transparency, Maps, and Highlight. If the highlighted component is a procedural rule for combining materials, such as Marble, the property tabs will have appropriate settings for the procedure. Material properties are like a formula or a recipe for the material. There are literally thousands of combinations of the basic material properties. Each section of the Material Editor dialog box controls an aspect of the material s properties. Material Editor dialog box. 23

24 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Procedures pane The Procedures pane displays the components used to create this material and lets you add procedures. Procedural materials will be discussed in the chapter Procedural Materials. Procedures pane. Material properties tabs The material property tabs let you set the material s color and reflective finish, transparency, image and bump maps, and highlight size and color. Property tabs. Preview panes The preview panes let you view up to four versions of the material at once. Preview panes. 24

25 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Cube size The Cube Size control sets the size of the objects in the preview window. This will not change the material definition, but may make some materials easier to see. Cube Size control. Base Color The Base Color setting on the Main tab sets the local color for the material. The material s Base Color is used for the material s matte reflection and transparency. In all Flamingo dialog boxes where you can choose a color, pick the color swatch to select colors from the Select Color dialog box. Base Color control. Select Color dialog box. Default white matte material. Matte red material. Flamingo gives you a choice of two color systems: red, green, and blue (RGB) and hue, saturation, and brightness (HSB). 25

26 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS RGB color Computers use RGB to project color onto the monitor. Each pixel is a combination of the three colors in varying intensities. Pure red is entirely red with no green or blue. Flamingo provides two RGB scales for selecting color. You can select based on 255 colors or an RGB scale from 0 to 1. RGB255 is the default. RGB255 Base Color control. RGB Base Color control. HSB color Flamingo provides the HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) color system as an alternative system to RGB. A color can also be defined by the three components of hue, saturation, and brightness. The hue ranges from red through yellow, green, and blue, as determined by the dominant wavelength of the light it reflects or projects. Saturation describes how intense the hue is. Brightness describes the color s value or luminance. Color brightness values range from zero for black to 100 for white. Brightness is also sometimes referred to as luminance or value. HSB Base Color control. Solid color material example Solid colors are the simplest materials. All properties except color use default settings. Solid color materials. 1 Open a Rhino model. 2 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 3 In the Example library, click Blue, navy. The material loads into the preview window. 26

27 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 4 Right-click the material name, and on the shortcut menu, click Edit. Material Editor dialog box. The Material Editor dialog box displays the Procedures tree, the property tabs (Main, Transparency, Maps, and Highlight), and four preview panes. The material displays in one preview pane, and its properties display on the tabs. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=40, G=40, B=142 5 Click in one of the other preview panes. The material is also displayed in this pane. This lets you compare materials. Change the color of this material. 6 On the Main tab, use the color controls to change the material s color. Matte color. The highlighted pane displays the changes. 7 Click Cancel to close the Material Editor dialog box without saving. Or, click OK while that pane is active to save the new material. At this point, you can assign a new name to the material. If you have saved the material, you can assign it to the model and raytrace. 27

28 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Reflective Finish The Reflective Finish controls let you vary the way a material reflects light from completely matte to completely mirror-like. The reflection slider in Flamingo controls reflection effects and an effect called highlight. The reflection slider controls both the reflective and the highlight portion of the material definition. At the Matte end of the slider, a material mainly has a highlight, making it appear glossy. As the setting moves toward Mirror, the material will start to reflect objects around it. The highlight is overwhelmed by the reflectivity. The highlight effect is normally associated with light areas on glossy materials where the light hits the object. You can also directly specify the material highlight and remove its connection to the Reflective Finish control. See the section Material Highlight on page 41. Reflective finish color Reflective Finish controls. By default, the color of the reflective finish is white. You can change the color to achieve special effects. Pick the color swatch to select colors from the Select Color dialog box. The Base Color of this material is set the same way as the solid color. A small amount of reflective finish is then added to give the material its glossy appearance. Reflective materials. 1 In the Example library, click Reflective, cyan. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=202, B=202 Reflective Finish Click in another preview pane. Make this material glossier. 28

29 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 3 On the Main tab, move the Reflective Finish slider to the right. As you move the Reflective Finish value to the right, the surface becomes more mirror-like. Metallic Reflective finish. If the material s Reflective Finish Color is the same as the object s Base Color, the material looks metallic. The Metallic checkbox is a shortcut for setting the Reflective Finish Color to match the Base Color. Metallic polished gold material. Metallic polished silver material. Metallic material example Polished metals tend to have high values for Reflective Finish. Metallic materials. 1 In the Example library, click Gold, polished. The material loads into the preview window. The next three examples are gold materials. You can use the multiple previews to see all the materials at the same time. 2 Click one of the small panes. The material loads into the small pane. 3 Click Gold, brushed. 4 Click one of the small panes. You now have two gold materials displayed in the Material Library previewer. 29

30 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 5 To display a material in the large preview pane, click either the material name in the library list or the small preview pane containing the material. The name will also highlight in the library list. 6 To edit the material, right-click either the name in the list or the large preview pane, and from the shortcut menu, click Edit. 7 Edit Gold, polished. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=224, B=113 Reflective Finish.975 Metallic On 8 Click in another preview pane. Make this material less glossy. 9 On the Main tab, move the Reflective Finish slider to a lower value, for example, This gives a blurry reflection like a satin or brushed finish metal. Chrome Less reflective finish. Chrome and other reflective materials do not make an interesting image unless they have something to reflect. Just applying a reflective metal material to an object is not enough. In the images below the teapot has a slightly darkened chrome material. In the first image, the teapot is floating alone in space. It reflects only the white background. In the second image, a tile tray, ground plane, and environment were added to give the object something to reflect. Chrome with no objects to reflect. Chrome with objects and environment to reflect. 30

31 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS No object reflections Use the No Object Reflections control to turn off reflections and make an object glossy without showing reflections of other objects in the scene. With object reflections. No object reflections. If you want a glossy material, but find that the material is becoming washed out because it reflects too much of the environment and surrounding objects, use the Highlight control instead. See Material Highlight on page 41. No blurry reflections When a material is partially reflective, Flamingo introduces a little noise into the reflection, to make the reflections look more natural. However, this may also make a surface look a little rough. In some cases when you want a weak but sharp reflection, use the No Blurry Reflections control to remove the noise. This helps create smooth plastic finishes. Self-Luminance The Self-Luminance setting makes the material to appear to glow. The material will not actually cast light on other objects, however. Light blue material. Light blue material with self-luminance. 31

32 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Transparency The Transparency setting lets you change the material from Opaque to Transparent. You can also control the Index of Refraction, Attenuation, and Transparent Finish. Using Transparency increases rendering time. The Transparency control edit box and slider change the material from Opaque to Transparent. Material Editor dialog box, Transparency tab. Index of refraction The Index of Refraction setting determines how much refraction occurs when looking through the material at objects beyond. Index of refraction 1.3. Some examples of index of refraction (IOR) are: Material IOR Vacuum 1.0 Air Diamond Emerald 1.57 Glass 1.52 to 1.8 Ice Ruby 1.77 Sapphire 1.77 Water 1.33 Attenuation The Attenuation setting determines how much light is absorbed as it passes through the object greater values produce a more cloudy appearance. Use Attenuation to model liquids. Clear liquids have low Attenuation; murky liquids have higher Attenuation values. 32

33 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Transparent finish The Transparent Finish can vary the material from Clear to Frosted (matte). Objects are not visible through a matte transparent material; however, light will be transmitted through the material. Light must be shining through this material toward you for this effect to be visible. If the light is shining from your viewpoint toward the object, the light will simply be absorbed, turning the material black. No blurry transparency When a material is partially transparent, Flamingo introduces a little noise into the transparency, to make the material look more natural. However, this may also make a surface look a little rough. In some cases when you want a somewhat transparent, but sharp material, use the No Blurry Transparency control to remove the noise. Transparent materials examples To create transparent materials, add Reflective Finish, Transparency, and Index of Refraction. Transparent and translucent materials. Glass Glass is both highly transparent and highly reflective. The clear glass materials in the Flamingo libraries have a small amount of neutral color. 1 In the Example library, edit Glass, clear. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish 1 Transparency Transparency.7 Transparency Index of Refraction Click in another preview pane. Make the glass frosted. 33

34 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 3 On the Transparency tab, move the Transparent Finish slider to the right toward Frosted. Plastic Transparent finish. Plastic is somewhat less transparent and reflective than glass. The Index of Refraction setting is also slightly less. 1 In the Example library, edit Plastic, cyan, transparent. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=202, B=202 Reflective Finish.316 Transparency Transparency.7 Transparency Index of Refraction Click in another preview pane. Make the plastic translucent. Unlike clear transparent objects, translucent objects do not reveal other objects hidden behind them. However, they do respond to light coming from behind. 3 On the Transparency tab, move the Transparent Finish slider to the right. Transparent finish. 34

35 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Image and Bump Maps Instead of simply using color for your material, you can use an image of a material. You can scan photographs and real materials like wallpaper and carpet, create patterns in a paint program, or use images from libraries of materials from other renderers or other sources of bitmap images. The image will be applied to the material and tiled (repeated in four directions) at a scale you set. Small images that can be seamlessly tiled tend to work best. If the bitmap does not tile well, use the option to mirror the tiles. This guarantees matched edges. Note If you want a bitmap image to appear covering only part on the object (like a label on a wine bottle or a logo on a product, use Flamingo s decal feature instead. See Decals. Two types of maps can be added to a material: image maps and procedural bumps. Image mapping uses bitmap images to add detail to the material. You can use images to alter many attributes of the material s surface including its color and apparent three-dimensional surface quality (bump). Procedural bumps add a random roughness or knurled quality to the surface. Bitmap resolution and scale The resolution of the bitmap controls the possible detail of the material. The higher the resolution, the closer you can look at the material without a loss of detail. A low-resolution bitmap might be 100 x 100 pixels. A higher quality bitmap may be 800 x 600 pixels. The higher the resolution, the more memory the rendering will take. The scale of the material in the rendering is independent of the resolution of the bitmap. To get the correct scale, calculate how much material in real units the bitmap represents. For example, if you have made a bitmap of squares that represent one inch, and your bitmap has ten squares on each side, you would scale this bitmap to ten inches in each direction. It does not matter how many pixels make up each square. Image mapping Image maps are two-dimensional patterns created using raster-based paint programs or by scanning photographs or other materials. 35

36 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS To attach an image to the material 1 In the Material Editor dialog box, on the Maps tab, under Image Mapping, click Add. Material Editor dialog box, Maps tab. 2 In the Select Bitmap dialog box, select a filename. 3 In the Image Mapping dialog box, on the Main tab, set the tiling and strength options. Image map material example You can use image maps many ways. A common method is to use a picture of a real-world material as the material s color. Scanned bitmap materials. 1 In the Example library, edit Stone, jaggy. Preview Tab Property Setting Maps Image= stonewl1b.jpg Scale: X=4, Y=3 Bump=-1 In addition to the application of the bitmap, the image bump makes the stones look three-dimensional. 36

37 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Bitmap image for the stone material. 2 Click in another preview pane. We will remove the bump so you can see what it does. 3 On the Maps tab, under Image Mapping, select STONWL1B.JPG, and click Edit. 4 In the Image Mapping dialog box, under Strength, change the Bump setting to 0. Bump=0. The stones lose their three-dimensional quality. In the next section, we will look more at this effect. You can combine bump and color mapping, add transparency to the image so the Base Color shows through, and use multiple images layered on a single material. Image Bump Mapping A subtle, yet effective way to enhance the 3-D appearance of the material is to use and image to create bumps. The image can be used only to create bumps or it can be used in combination with a colored image. Bumps can be set between -1 and 1. Positive numbers cause dark colors in the image to recede and light colors to appear to have height. Negative numbers cause light colors in the image to recede and dark colors to come forward. Bump maps create simulated shadows and highlights on the surface. When creating materials with bump mapping, it is common to use two different images, one colored and another matching image that is a grayscale only. The grayscale image creates only the textured appearance. Since the height of bump is determined by the relative lightness and darkness of the color of the image, it is often a good idea to use a grayscale version of your colored image so you can control which areas are dark and which are light. 37

38 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Bump mapping example Bump mapping can be used in combination with colors or image maps to create textured materials. Since the bump is only a 2-D pattern that is affected by light, the bump will not show on the silhouette of the object. Keep this in mind when showing bump mapped objects in close-up. Materials with image mapped bumps. 1 In the Example library, edit Rubber flooring. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=150, G=150, B=150 Main Reflective Finish.218 Maps Image= CIRCLES.JPG Bump=0.5 Color=0 Bump map image for rubber flooring. 2 Click in another preview pane. Make the bumps taller. 3 On the Maps tab, under Image Mapping, select CIRCLES.JPG, and click Edit. 4 In the Image Mapping dialog box, under Bumps, change the value to -1. This effect is subtle in the preview box, but makes a difference in a final rendering depending on the scale of the model and the viewpoint. Bump map. 38

39 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Procedural Bumps Materials like stucco, concrete, and clay have a fine texture. It is probably not worth scanning a piece of the material to make a bitmap for it unless you are going to view it at close range. Using a Sandpaper procedural bump on a Base Color emulates this kind of fine pattern. Create a Base Color that is the color of the material. Then add a procedural bump to the material. Use Sandpaper for a fine texture and Rubble for a coarser texture. Adjust the scale of the Sandpaper until it looks right to you. Fine textured materials. Procedural bumps use mathematical rules to provide the illusion of surface bumpiness in the material. You can add one or more procedural bumps to a material. Three types of procedural bumps are available: Sandpaper, Rubble, and Pyramid. To add a bump map to the material 1 In the Material Editor dialog box, on the Maps tab, under Procedural Bumps, click Add. Material Editor dialog box, Maps tab. 2 From the Add list, click the appropriate bump type. Procedural bump list. Bump map examples For bumpy or pitted materials, add procedural bumps to create the textured finish. Sandpaper and Rubble add random roughness. Pyramid creates a knurled surface. 39

40 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Water 1 In the Example library, edit Water. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish 1 Transparency Transparency 1 Transparency Index of Refraction 1.30 Maps Rubble Scale=.3, Height=.6 2 Click in another preview pane. Add color to the water. 3 On the Main tab, change (R)ed to a lower value to make the water blue-green. Color change. Knurled metal 1 In the Example library, edit Gold, pyramid. Right-click the name in the list and click Edit. Or, click the preview pane to place the material in the large preview pane, right-click the large preview pane, and click Edit. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=224, B=113 Reflective Finish.5485 Metallic On Maps Procedural Bumps Pyramid: Scale=.020, Height=.75 2 Click in another preview pane. Make the Pyramid bump larger but decrease its height. 3 On the Maps tab, under Procedural Bumps, select Pyramid, and click Edit. 4 In the Edit Pyramid Bumpmap dialog box, change the Scale to 0.5 and the Height to 0.5. The Lock option ties the three scale directions together. If you change the x-value, the y- and z-values will change to equal the x-value. 40

41 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS If you want to scale the bump unequally, click Lock enter different values for the three directions. to unlock the values, and Pyramid bump map. Try increasing the Reflective Finish and adding Sandpaper. Material Highlight The Highlight setting controls the glossiness of a material. Use Highlight for plastics and glossy materials that you do not want to be reflective, but want to have a glossy finish. The images below show a red material with Highlight. You can see that with Highlight turned on, the material looks glossy. This is due to the white reflections of the lights in the scene. The Highlight settings control only the reflection of lights. This should not be confused with the Reflective Finish control. The Reflective Finish control creates a material that reflects lights, but in addition, the material reflects other objects in the scene and the background. The highlight does not. It reflects lights only. Once Highlight has been turned on, you can control its Sharpness, Intensity, and Color. Highlight sharpness: left=3, middle=.25, right= 300. Highlight intensity: left=0, middle=1, right=2. 41

42 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Highlight color: left=blue, middle=yellow, right=green. Procedural Materials Procedural materials combine two or more material components to form a new material using a specific method. Each of these component materials can in turn consist of a procedure, combining two components of its own. In this way, extremely elaborate materials can be built from simpler components. The Marble, Granite, Wood, and Tile procedures create materials using a set of rules for mixing and blending various components. Blend, ClearFinish, and Angular Blend define rules for stacking components on top of each other. The Mask procedure defines rules for using bitmaps to block out parts of a material with another. Using the complex materials gives you control over the color and scale of the material. Create a complex material 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, click New, and choose an appropriate procedure. The Procedure tree expands, and the active preview image displays the new material. When you select a procedure for editing, the Material Editor dialog box displays a property tabs with settings appropriate to the procedure. Many procedures include an Orientation tab that lets you orient the pattern with respect to the current material. To edit the procedural parameters, select the procedure from the tree, and change the values on the property tab. To edit each component material, select the component material from the list, and change the values on the property tab. To remove a procedure, select the procedure, and click Delete. The tree collapses as appropriate. To add a procedure, select the appropriate component, and click New. The new procedure becomes a parent of the highlighted component. 42

43 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Marble The Marble procedure creates alternating slabs of Base and Vein components. The Marble procedure defines how the Base and Vein components combine. This 3-D material is defined for all points in space. Correct mapping of this material to the objects may be important. See the section Material Mapping and Tiling. on page 65. Marble procedural materials. 1 In the Example library, edit Marble, dark green. 2 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedure, select Marble. The Marble tab displays the Marble procedure settings. Tab Setting Marble Scale = 1.5 Vein Width =.4 Turbulence =.7 Blending = 1 43

44 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 3 Under Procedures, select Base. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=57, G=78, B=67 Main Reflective Finish Under Procedures, select Vein. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=157, G=172, B=157 Main Reflective Finish Click in another preview pane. Change some of the marble properties. 6 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Vein. 7 On the Main tab, make the color lighter. 8 Under Procedures, select Marble. 9 On the Main tab, change the Vein Width and the Turbulence. Granite Marble. The Granite procedure creates a spotted material. This is a 3-D material the spots are solid pockets of material embedded in the Base component. The Granite procedure combines a randomly distributed Spot component in a Base component. The Granite procedure defines how the Base and Spot components combine. Granite procedures can be used for a variety of different materials including rust, sparkly plastic, and other randomly spotted materials. Granite procedural materials. 44

45 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 1 In the Example library, edit Granite, black. 2 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedure, select Granite. The Granite tab displays the Granite procedure settings. Tab Setting Granite Scale =.25 Spot Size =.4 Blending =.37 3 Under Procedures, select Base. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=0, B=0 Main Reflective.485 Finish 4 Under Procedures, click Spot. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=179, G=186, B=183 Main Reflective Finish.485 Granite dalmatian spot example You can use the spot effect of the Granite procedure to create a spotted upholstery material like cowhide or Dalmatian. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Granite. 4 On the Granite tab, set the Scale and the Spot Size. 5 On the Granite tab, move the Blending slider to 0. 45

46 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 6 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Base. 7 Make the Base Color black or dark brown and turn the Reflective Finish setting down. 8 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Spot. 9 Make the spot color white, and turn Reflective Finish down. Try using granite to model any material that has spots that are a different color from the background such as rusty metal. Granite distant planet example You can use several layers of Granite procedure to add more colors and spot sizes. This works well for randomly colored surfaces. The example of the planet or moon shown below has two levels of Granite procedure with colors selected from a photograph of the surface of Mars. This allows three different colors: the Base and Spot color for the first level and the Spot color for the second level. You can add more granite layers to place additional overlays of color and random spots. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Granite. 4 On the Granite tab, set the Scale and the Spot Size. 5 On the Granite tab, move the Blending slider to about.5. 6 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Base. 7 Make the Base color light brown and turn the Reflective Finish setting down. 8 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Spot. 9 Make the Spot color darker brown, and turn Reflective Finish down. 10 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Granite again to add another level. 11 Make the Spot color for this level a dark gray, and turn Reflective Finish down. 46

47 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Wood Wood consists of concentric cylinders of alternating Base and Ring components. The Wood procedure defines how the Base and Ring components combine. Correctly mapping this 3-D material to the object is critical. See the section Material Mapping and Tiling on page 65. The method you use to create wood materials depends on how close you are going to be to it in the rendering. If your view is not close to the wood, a solid color can take the place of wood without sacrificing image quality. This allows faster rendering. If you are going to be looking at the wood at close range, you can use a scanned image of the wood instead. A third method is the Wood procedure. This is a mathematical definition of the wood. Wood procedural materials. 1 In the Example library, open Wood. 2 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedure, select Wood. The Wood tab displays the Wood procedure settings. Tab Setting Wood Scale =.06 Ring Width =.43 Turbulence =.174 Blending =.058 Cube Size = 3 Veneer = Off 3 Under Procedures, select Base. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=228, G=190, B=119 47

48 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 4 Under Procedures, select Ring. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=205, G=139, B=81 5 Click in another preview pane. We are going to change some of the wood properties. Although using a solid Wood procedure can be realistic, since it shows the end and parallel grain, sometimes the wood should look like a veneer, showing only the quarter-sawn appearance of the wood. Turning on the Veneer setting maps a thin sheet of wood to all sides of the object. 6 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Wood. 7 On the Wood tab, click Veneer. Wood veneer. The wood materials that are included with Flamingo have a second level of wood in the Base component to add an additional, smaller grain component and a Blend procedure to act as a stain or finish. See the section Blend on page 58. Wood Patterned Cloth Example You can use wood to create swirling patterns for effects other than actual wood. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Wood. 4 On the Wood tab, set the Scale to 6, the Ring Width to.5, Turbulence to.85, and Blending to 1. 5 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Base. 6 Make the Base Color a light tan and turn the Reflective Finish setting down. 48

49 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 7 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Ring. 8 Make the ring color a lighter tan, and turn Reflective Finish down. Tile Tile is a 2-D procedure. It may require mapping to the objects. The Tile procedure combines a Base component and a Joint component. Each of these materials can also include procedures; for example, the Base component may consist of a Marble procedure. Tile procedural materials. 1 In the Example library, edit Ceramic tile, blue. 2 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Tile. Tab Setting Tile Nominal Size = 4 Joint Size = 3/8 Cube Size = 18 3 Under Procedures, click Base. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=34, G=20, B=161 Main Reflective Finish Under Procedures, click Joint. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=153, G=153, B=153 Main Reflective Finish 0 In this material, the joint size is somewhat exaggerated so you can see it in the preview. 49

50 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 5 Click in another preview pane. Change the tile s size and orientation. Make the tiles three times as long as they are tall, offset the rows by one-third the length of the tile, and rotate the tiles 45 degrees. 6 Under Procedures, select Tile. 7 On the Tile tab, under Nominal Size, change the X value to 8. 8 Set the Course Offset to On the Orientation tab, set the Rotation to 45. Angled tile material. Siding example You can use the Tile procedure to create many materials that have a rectangular joint pattern. Flamingo siding is a procedural material like ceramic tile, but instead of being square, the siding tile is extremely long in the x-direction. 1 In the Example library, edit Siding, white. 2 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, click Tile. Tab Tile Setting Nominal Size X = (a large number) Nominal Size Y = 4 Joint Size = 1/2 Cube Size = 18 Offset X= use the negative of the Nominal Size X. 3 Under Procedures, select Base. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Main Reflective Finish

51 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 4 Under Procedures, select Joint. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=150, G=150, B=150 Main Reflective Finish 0 5 Click in another preview pane. Add a Wood procedure to the Base component to create wood siding. 6 Under Procedures, select Base, click New, and then click Wood. 7 Use the rules below as guidelines for creating the wood. Wood siding material. Experiment with the settings to see the effect on the material. Wood Procedure Settings Tab Setting Wood Scale = 1 Ring Width =.4 Turbulence =.1 Blending =.0 Orientation Rotation = 90 Base Properties Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=228, G=190, B=119 Ring Properties Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=205, G=139, B=81 51

52 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Marble tile example You can make tile from the marble material. 1 In the Example library, edit Marble, dark green. 2 Click in another preview pane. Add a Tile procedure to the marble. 3 Under Procedures, select Marble, click New, and then click Tile. 4 Set the tile size to 12 x 12 and change the joint color to a light gray. One more step completes the marble tile. The tiles currently look like they were all cut from the same slab and the joint pattern looks like it is laid over a block. 5 To give the material a more random quality, turn on the Marble procedure s Veneer setting. Under Procedures, select (Base) Marble. 6 To make the tile pattern shift and appear more random, turn on the Tile procedure s Vary Leaf, setting. Under Procedures, select Tile. Mask Marble tile material. Mask is a 2-D procedure. It can create many varied materials. The Mask procedure uses bitmap images, usually consisting of black and white patterns that define where two component materials called Base and Masked will show. The Base component will be placed where there is white in the bitmap pattern, and the Masked component will be placed where there is black in the bitmap pattern. You can use a grayscale image map to mediate between the Base and Masked components. The resolution of the mask bitmap affects the quality of the material. Higher resolution bitmaps lets you view the material closer without seeing problems with quality, but they also use more memory. A bitmap used for a mask could be as small as 100 by 50 pixels. A large bitmap that you can get much closer to could be 600 by 800 pixels. 52

53 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS The scale of the material is independent of the resolution of the bitmap used to define it. In order to scale the material correctly, decide how large an area in real units one copy of the bitmap represents. If the bitmap represents the height of six 4-unit tiles and the length represents twelve 4-unit tiles, the scale would be 48 units in the x-direction and 24 units in the y-direction. This stretches the bitmap to the proper size for the pattern. One advantage of using a Mask procedure is that you can use the same pattern and substitute different colors for the pattern elements. You do not have to create a new bitmap each time. This mask is used for the following examples. Mask image. From this mask, you can create a variety of different colored materials. Mask materials. Mask material examples Mask procedural materials. 53

54 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Complex tile and grout patterns You can create complex tile patterns and still keep control of the colors of the tile. Overlaying two basic tile patterns on top of each other then adding a grout material mask creates complex tile patterns. Look at the Tile, white and blue material in the Example library. The following example should help you visualize how mask materials are used. It shows how to create a complex tile material with a raised pattern. Before you start on a complex material using the Mask procedure, you should mentally break the material down into its components. In this example, each square consists of 36 tiles. This material uses two bitmap images to form the tile pattern, the grout, and the raised texture of the tiles. One repeat of tile pattern. Close view of tile showing raised pattern. There are several ways to approach this material, but in this example, you want to create the following effects: Blue and white 5-cm x 5-cm square tiles. A repeating pattern of 6 x 6 tiles. A raised effect for each tile. A darker grout line between the tiles. A subtle raised line in the tile. To create the effect of blue and white squares, you will use a Mask procedure. Mask procedures use black and white bitmaps to block out one color with another. In this case, the black areas represent the blue material and the white represent the white material. Before you start, look at the procedure tree for the final material below. Procedure tree. Finished tile. 54

55 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Create the Base component To start, create the Base tile component. This consists of a light gray material with a reflective finish and an image used for bump mapping. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. Or, right-click a material name or preview image, and from the shortcut menu, click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, set the Color and Reflective Finish of the material as shown in the chart below. A light gray instead of pure white was used to create this tile. Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=230, G=230, B=230 Reflective Finish Set up the bump map for the Base component 1 On the Maps tab, click Add. 2 Select the image file Tile Map-bump.jpg. 3 On the Maps tab, select the image file name, and click Edit. 4 In the Image Mapping dialog box, set the Tile Size, Color, and Bump as shown in the chart. The image is used only to create a raised texture for the individual tiles. We want each small tile to be a 5-cm square, so we set the scale for the image to be 30 (5 x 6). The image is used only for bump mapping, so the color strength is set to 0, and the bump strength is set to 0.9. Base Component Image Mapping Properties Tab Property Setting Main Tile size X=30, Y=30 Color 0 Bump

56 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Add the blue and white pattern material The first mask material uses a mask bitmap that creates the pattern of the blue and white tiles. To create the pattern, you will use the black and white bitmap of the tile pattern. The Base component (white) will show where the mask image is white. The Masked component (blue) will show where the image is black. Where the image is gray, the two components will blend. Pattern mask image. There is a subtle effect created with this mask image. Some of the areas are gray instead of black or white. Where the image is gray, a blend between the Base and Mask components occurs. This is why the sides of the tile appear to rise gradually from the edge and why there is the appearance of a slight raised line just inside the edge of the tile. It also gives a slight blue cast to the grout areas that complement the color scheme. Subtle gray color creates blend effects. Apply the first mask 1 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, click New, and select Mask. 2 Select the file Tile Map-Tile.jpg. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, on the Mask tab, set the Scale as shown in the chart. Mask Properties Tab Property Setting Mask File Tile Map-tile.jpg Scale X=30, Y=30 4 In the Procedures list, select Masked and set the color of the masked material as shown in the chart. The Masked component is a blue material with the same reflective finish, and image map as the Base component. Masked Properties Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=107, G=109, B=181 Reflective Finish Set up the bump mapping for the masked material the same as the base material. 56

57 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Set up the bump map for the masked material 1 On the Maps tab, click Add. 2 Select the image file Tile Map-bump.jpg. 3 In the Image Mapping dialog box, set the Tile Size, Color, and Bump as shown in the chart. Masked Material Image Mapping Properties Tab Property Setting Main Tile size X=30, Y=30 Color 0 Bump 0.9 Tile pattern mask applied. Add the Grout Mask We have set up the Base and first Mask components. Now we are going to add another level of mask to create the darker grout. The grout mask is a grid of darker, narrower lines that will make the deepest areas of the tile dark and add a nice effect to the material. Grout mask. Mask Properties Tab Property Setting Mask File Tile Map-grout.jpg Scale X=30, Y=30 57

58 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Masked Material Properties Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=0, B=0 Finished tile material. Blend The Blend procedure lets you simply combine two base components and control the proportions of each. All of the standard library wood materials use a Blend procedure to change the finish of the wood from clear matte to dark shiny. Blends work well changing an entire material definition by adding an overall color to a base patterned material. Blend First material. Blend with red Second material. Blend with green Second material. Blend procedure for wood finishes A reflective Blend material combines with wood to create various dull or shiny wood finishes. In the Example library, edit Wood, polished. Blend procedural material. The material is a Blend between a wood procedural material and a glossy gray finish. A small amount of neutral color material with a highly reflective finish adds a polished appearance to the wood. 58

59 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS ClearFinish The ClearFinish procedure is a layered procedure that simulates car paint, porcelain, ceramics, varnished woods, or any material with a plastic or clear-coat layer. ClearFinish manages two different materials based on the material s angle to the view. These materials tend to be a deep color when you look directly at the surface, but as the surface curves away from the view, they become highly reflective. Car paints with a clear-coat or clear lacquer finishes are good examples. Without ClearFinish. With ClearFinish. The ClearFinish procedure consists of two layers: a Base component and a Top Coat component. If the Top Coat is a transparent or translucent material, it can act like a clear varnish layer. When you are looking straight at the material, you can see through the Top Coat to the base layer. As the object tilts away from your view, the Top Coat refracts the light more. This causes the Top Coat to obscure the base coat. You can see this behavior in the real world by looking at most car finishes. When you are looking directly at the side of the car, you can see the Base component, but on the top or hood, the sky is reflected in the clear paint layer and the Base component is obscured. ClearFinish procedures are defined by the tree structure shown in the Material Editor dialog box. ClearFinish car paint example The amount that the Base component is replaced by reflection is controlled by the index of refraction in the Top Coat. The higher the index of refraction, the quicker the influence of the reflective Top Coat takes over as the surface tilts in your view. 1 In the Example library, edit ClearFinish, red. The base coat is a dark red. ClearFinish procedural material. The preview shows the Base component only on the sphere where it is facing directly toward you. The sides of the preview cube and the parts of the sphere that are not facing directly toward you reflect the surrounding white. 2 Experiment with the index of refraction setting. As you move the index of refraction up, less and less of the Base component shows through as the Top Coat component takes over at a steeper angle of view. 59

60 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS ClearFinish sparkly plastic Combine ClearFinish with Granite to create exotic plastic materials. The Granite creates a sparkle fleck in the plastic finish. In this example, there are two levels of silver fleck with different scales, spot size, and reflective finish. This gives a random appearance to the flecks. In addition, the ClearFinish material changes color from the red tone to the blue tone as the piece angles away from your viewpoint. 1 From the Raytrace menu, click Materials. 2 In the Material Library dialog box, from the Material menu, click New, and then click Default Gray. 3 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select ClearFinish. 4 Set the ClearFinish properties as shown in the dialog box example. ClearFinish control. 5 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Granite. 6 On the Granite tab, set the Scale and the Spot Size. 7 On the Granite tab, move the Blending slider to about.5. 8 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Spot. 9 Make the spot color light gray, and turn Reflective Finish up. 10 In the Material Editor dialog box, under Procedures, select Granite again to add another level. 60

61 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS 11 Make the spot color for this level also a light gray, and turn Reflective Finish up. Use two different spot sizes and set Reflective Finish to different values for each of the spot settings. Angular Blend The Angular Blend procedure blends between two different materials to create special effects. Use Angular Blend to create materials that change characteristics based on the angle of view to the surface of the object. In the following Angular Blend example, the material changes color from a light blue to purple. The surface areas that face the viewer are light blue. As the surface starts to curve away from the view, the color blends into purple. Angular Blend material example In the Example library, edit Angular Blend, blue metallic. The material blends between two blues, one slightly darker and more reflective than the other. Blue metallic material has two main components: the Angular Blend procedure and Highlight. The Angular Blend procedure creates effects that change due to the angle of viewpoint on the object. The Highlight changes with the lighting on the object. The color transitions from the First component (dark blue) to the Second component, which is the kind of highly reflective effect that you see when looking at automotive paint. The ClearFinish procedure creates a similar effect, but limits the effectiveness of the Highlight setting. 61

62 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS For the First component in this Angular Blend procedure, a dark blue color with some reflectivity was used. The Metallic setting was used to make the reflections match the Base Color of the material. For the Second component, a highly reflective blue color was used. The Metallic setting is not used, so reflections in this material act mirror-like rather than metallic. A light blue color is used for the reflection color, although using white provides a similar effect. The angles of the Angular Blend are adjusted so the blend from the First component starts to change to the Second component at 30 degrees from the view angle. At 60 degrees, the you can see only the Second component, a higher reflective material. To make the metallic highlight that is used in modern car paints to set off the edges of the forms, Highlight is turned on. The Highlight in both components is set to a light blue color. The edge highlights will be this color. Notice that the Highlight color for the First component is slightly lighter than the Highlight color for the Second component. These settings can vary from model to model and with different lighting situations. Choosing these colors is a subjective process. Use the same Sharpness value for both Angular Blend materials to ensure a smooth Highlight transition across both components. Highlight setting for First component. Highlight setting for Second component. 62

63 CREATE AND EDIT MATERIALS Experiment with the colors, reflectivity, and blend angles for your particular model. Examine how objects reflect light in real life. Glossy materials are often completely reflective at the silhouette edges. You can duplicate this effect by making the Angular Blend procedure range from 0 to 90 degrees and have the Second component be reflective. 63

64 OBJECT PROPERTIES Object Properties Transparency and Mapping Transparency settings, shadow casting, material mapping, decals, and waves are object properties. These properties affect how an object renders. To change an object s rendering properties 1 Select a surface, polysurface, or mesh. 2 From the Edit menu, click Object Properties. 3 On the Flamingo tab, use the controls to set the properties. Model and rendering by Facundo Miri. Transparency and shadow casting The transparency options provide information about whether the object is part of a space-enclosing object. If the surfaces are part of a solid object whose surface normals consistently point outward, select Thick. This means that each surface will be treated as single sided. In the example, the orange bagels are inside the boxes, the purple ones are behind, the left box is set to Thick, and the right box is set to Thin. The box on the left refracts as if it were a solid piece of glass. Thick and thin transparent object setting. Turn on Cast shadows to cause object to cast shadows during a raytracing. Cast shadows on. Cast shadows off. 64

65 OBJECT PROPERTIES Material mapping and tiling Certain materials, like those with a Marble or Wood procedure, or bitmap pattern, are directional. These patterns have origins in space and axes that orient them. You may want to control the way these patterns map to objects in the model. For example, if you want the wood grain to run in a certain direction, you need to orient the wood with respect to the object. This process is called mapping. Mapping information is saved with the object. Whether materials are assigned to a layer or object, mapping controls how that material is located (mapped) on a particular object. For materials that have no noticeable pattern, it is normally not necessary to control the mapping. Use mapping where the material is directional or has an obvious pattern. Even in these cases, the default mapping may be adequate. Mapping remains with the object and follows it if it is moved, rotated, or scaled. One common example is a Wood material on objects arranged in a circular pattern like spokes. The Wood may not be oriented correctly on some of the spokes. In this case, you must manually position and orient the material on the object. Changing the mapping does not alter the definition of a material, only the direction it is applied. Default mapping. Mapping orientation set per object. Four mapping types let you position a material on an object: Planar, Cube, Cylindrical, and Spherical. The Default setting maps materials the same as cube, but the origin and orientation are not adjustable. Decals Decals are bitmap images that are placed directly on an area of an object, unlike a material that covers the whole object. Decals can also modify the object s color, reflectivity, or its surface roughness (bumps) on a limited part of an object. The number of decals you add to an object is not limited. Decals consist of a single instance of the image, rather than being tiled as they are when used in a material definition. Some uses for decals include: Hanging artwork on interior walls. Placing labels or logos on products. Adding signs to the model. Creating stained glass windows. Model by Pascal Golay, render by Margaret Becker. 65

66 OBJECT PROPERTIES Place decals on objects The mapping type tells Flamingo how to project the decal onto your object. The four mapping types, planar, cylindrical, spherical, and UV, are described below. Planar mapping The planar mapping type is the most common mapping type. It is appropriate when mapping to flat or gently curved objects. Cylindrical mapping The cylindrical mapping type is useful for placing decals onto objects that curve in one direction, such as labels on wine bottles. The cylindrical projection maps the bitmap onto the cylinder with the bitmap s vertical axis along the cylinder s axis, and the horizontal axis around the cylinder. Spherical mapping The spherical mapping type is useful for placing decals onto objects that curve in two directions. The spherical projection maps the bitmap onto the mapping sphere with the bitmap s vertical axis (height), curving from pole to pole, and the horizontal axis curving around the equator. The mapping sphere s equator is assumed to be parallel to the current construction plane, and the sphere s axis is parallel to the construction plane z-axis. 66

67 OBJECT PROPERTIES UV mapping UV mapping stretches the image to fit the whole surface. The U- and V-directions of the surface determine which direction the map is applied. There are no controls. In this image, the sharkskin image has areas of white representing the underside of the shark. UV mapping works well for organic shapes, hair, skin, and plant structures. Warning UV-mapped decals are not shown in a radiosity solution or a rendering of the radiosity solution. On some surfaces and polysurfaces, only parts of the image may appear in the rendering. The UV mapping stretches the bitmap over the whole UV range of the surface. If some of that range has been trimmed away, the corresponding parts of the bitmap will not be visible. Decal properties You can set the mapping, color and bump strength, and finish. Flamingo can use the information from the bitmap to replace or blend the object s color with the decal s color. This is the most common use of decals. With color-masked decals, you can make a range of color on the bitmap transparent. This lets you make irregularly shaped images from rectangular bitmaps. There are two types of masking available color and alpha channel. Alpha channel masks pixels specified in the alpha channel information saved in certain file types created in paint programs. Mug with no decal. Decal bitmap. 67

68 OBJECT PROPERTIES Decal applied without a mask. Decal applied with mask. Waves You can add waves or ripples to any object. Waves are modeled using bump mapping. This technique changes the way the material reflects and refracts light, without altering the model geometry. The result is a ripple illusion on an object s surface. Pool without waves. Pool with a wave. You can add as many waves as you like to the object. The origin of the wave does not have to be located on the object; it can be located at a distance so the waves cross the object rather than radiating from a visible central point. 68

69 LIGHTING Lighting Lighting is the most important and most neglected consideration when creating images. It is not just a way to illuminate the model. Lighting sets the mood and is a key ingredient in determining the composition. The placement of lights and the composition of the image are more important to the presentation than calculating shadows or radiosity. To improve lighting techniques, we must be more aware of the light and how it affects various surfaces. Try to see light objectively, like a camera. Model and rendering by Gijs de Zwart. When lighting a studio setup, dramatic, high contrast lighting is important. This means that dark areas are just as important as light areas. Dramatic lighting requires a number of lights placed in a way to create light and dark areas. Lighting techniques for photography are generally the same as lighting for rendering, so a good place to start learning is one of the many books on the subject of photographic lighting. A good starting place for rendering is [digital] Lighting & Rendering, by Jeremy Birn. A list of recommended reading is on the Flamingo Web site Lighting works differently in Raytrace and Photometric render. See Part V, Rendering Modes. Three-Point Lighting The most basic studio lighting arrangement uses a key, a fill, and a backlight. This is the most common lighting arrangement for standalone characters and objects in the studio. If you are new to setting up scenes for rendering, you will find the three-point setup will give you good results right away and is an excellent starting point for creating your own effects. Generally, you will use spotlights because you can control their direction and hotspot to give the scene drama. The examples in this section assume that you are rendering a Perspective viewport. Camera angle Lighting setups always depend on the angle of the camera to the subject. It is a good idea to start your lighting by deciding on the camera angle. Use the ShowCamera command to show the position and angle of the camera in the Perspective viewport. This will help you determine the position of the lights. If you later decide to change the camera angle, the lighting will probably also have to change. 69

70 LIGHTING Key light The key light is the dominant light in the scene. It sets the mood, provides direction, shows dimension and texture, and creates the darkest shadows. A key light is usually set 30 to 45 degrees to the side of and above the object depending on the subject matter you are lighting. Key light position. The closer the key light is to the camera, the less modeling and texture it produces. A key light is usually higher than the lens, and throws shadows down. As we move the key light to the side, we increase the three-dimensional quality of the object. In a classic portraiture setup, the key light is set at about a 45-degree angle between the subject and the camera and high enough to throw shadows down, but not so high that the subject s eyes are in shadow. If the key light is a soft light, little or no fill may be required. It is a basic solution for lighting small studio setups as well. The shadow cast by the key light will be visible on the subject. In images of faces, this often shows up as a strong shadow cast by the nose. Fill light Key light only. The fill light is placed just above the lens on the opposite side from the key light. Its purpose is to reduce contrast and bring out detail in the shadows by simulating light reflected off nearby objects. The key light and fill light may be of equal intensity for a low-contrast result, but the key light is usually brighter and harder than the fill light. The fill light is the secondary light in the scene. It should not introduce any more dark shadows into the scene. Fill light position. 70

71 LIGHTING In the image, notice that the shadow to the left of the nose and along the left cheek is lighter and softer than the image with the key light alone. Key and fill lights. Backlight The backlight defines the edges of objects in the scene and adds depth by preventing objects from blending into the background. Backlights are usually placed behind and above the object and are pointed toward the camera. They are generally more intense than key and fill lights. Backlight position. The effectiveness of backlights depends in part on the reflectivity of the surfaces they are lighting. Light Qualities Key, fill, and backlights. Flamingo can create images with accurate shadows, highlights, and reflections, but without proper lighting, you will miss the goal of the shot. When setting up the lighting you should consider what you are trying to achieve. Images work well if they are bold, graphic, and simple. Too many highlights in glassware or shadows from objects may add unnecessary complexity to a scene and detract from the essence we are trying to feature. Some of the qualities you may want to consider are the contrast range of the scene, the depth of the scene or its three-dimensional quality, separation of objects from the background, whether the lighting should be hard of soft, and whether the lighting should be warm or cool in color. 71

72 LIGHTING Contrast range Contrast range is the difference between the brightest and the darkest areas with detail in a given scene. The human eye is capable of dealing with a far greater contrast range than film and can locally compensate to see detail in the extreme areas. You can see this in snapshots taken on a sunny day. Typically, the highlight side is too bright or the shadow side is too dark, yet you had not trouble seeing detail in both the dark and light areas. The contrast range is just too great for the film to record. This is also true of rendered images, as there is a limit to the colors the computer can represent and display. High contrast. Three-dimensional quality Representing three dimensions in a two-dimensional space requires that we create an illusion of depth. An opaque object lit from the side implies depth because there is a bright highlight side and a darker shadow side. A box showing three sides will have more definition if each side is a different value. Often the top plane will be the brightest because light usually comes from above in real life situations. Three-dimensional effect. Separation from the background For a product to pop off the page, in addition to a three-dimensional quality and using the full contrast range, you must have good separation. That is, the edges of our subject must be decidedly lighter or darker than the background. If we do not achieve separation, our subject blends into the background. Little separation of top edge. Highlight on edge separates object from background. The subject s shadow can sometimes aid separation and sometimes cause objects to merge with the background. A backlight can facilitate separation by creating a bright edge around the subject. 72

73 LIGHTING Hard or soft light One way to categorize light is hard (direct) or soft (diffused). A hard light casts a clearly defined hard-edged shadow. Diffused light casts a soft, sometimes indistinguishable shadow. Hard light. Soft light. Diffused light often produces a more attractive image than hard light because of its soft shadows. The larger the light and the closer it is to the subject, the softer it is. A large soft light can simulate light from a window. This kind of lighting may be ideal for a dark plastic object, because it will produce a broad highlight that helps define the shape of black shiny objects. Soft light on shiny black objects. Light color When a wall on a white house is illuminated by diffused skylight, it can be blue at noon and orange at sunset. We read the wall as white because our eyes adjust to the color of the surroundings, and because we tend to see what we know to be true. We know the wall did not change color during the course of the day; but our knowledge is wrong. The color of the light changed, so the color of the wall changed. Our minds simply compensate for it automatically. Cool colored morning light. Warm colored evening light. 73

74 LIGHTING Lighting Effects There are many ways to position the lights in a scene. Some situations require unusual lighting to achieve special effects. Front lighting The main object is lit from directly in front of or slightly to the side of the camera. You can use one light or the default lighting in Flamingo as a starting point for your lighting composition. The images below use the default light in Flamingo. This light is on automatically if there are no other lights in the scene. This light shines toward the camera target from a point above and to the left of the camera. Lighting coming directly from the front tends to flatten an image. Low-angle lighting Low angle lighting simulates simulate footlights, firelight, or something eerie and unnatural. Front lighting using the default light. Side and profile lighting Low angle lighting. Placing the key light at about 90 degrees to the camera s axis puts emphasis on the shape of the object. If the subject is in profile, lighting from a position directly toward the front of the subject is also an effective method. Side lighting. Profile lighting. 74

75 LIGHTING Backlighting Backlighting can create a creepy, mysterious quality. It is not normally used to illuminate the main subject. Backlighting. Light Types Flamingo uses lights inserted with Rhino s Spotlight, DirectionalLight, and PointLight, commands and special Flamingo lights inserted with the FlamingoLinearLight, and FlamingoRectangularLight commands. The lights appear in the wireframe display but do not shade or render. In addition to the artificial lights, you can turn on the sun. Light Object Properties When Flamingo is the current rendering application in Rhino, additional light object properties can be set for Rhino lights. Spotlight Flamingo uses spotlights placed in with Rhino s Spotlight command. Spotlights let you control the light s placement, direction, and hardness. Point light Flamingo uses point lights placed with Rhino s PointLight command. The point light is an omni-directional light like a light bulb: it shines equally in all directions. Rendering using spotlights. Point light rendered. 75

76 LIGHTING Directional light Flamingo uses directional lights placed with Rhino s DirectionalLight command. A directional light s rays are parallel to each other, as if the light were infinitely far away. A parallel light shines in only one direction. Objects placed behind the directional light icon are lighted from the same angle. The light icon only gives a direction for the light to shine, not a location for the light source. Directional light rendered. Directional light creates an even lighting scheme. This type of uniform lighting can make objects appear flat. This is not usually desired in a studio lighting situation. Directional lighting is mainly used for large objects like buildings. Rectangular light Rectangular lights are only available when Flamingo is the current renderer. Rectangular lights are like traditional office fluorescent fixtures or photographer s light boxes. Rectangular lights, like the linear lights, cast softer shadows than point lights or spotlights. Rectangular lights only shine one direction: the down direction (negative z-direction) of the construction plane where they are initially inserted. If you later rotate the light, the direction the light shines rotates with the light. When Flamingo is the current renderer, you can place rectangular lights with the FlamingoRectangularLight command. Rectangular light rendered. Linear light Linear lights are only available when Flamingo is the current renderer. Linear lights are like fluorescent tubes. Use linear lights in situations calling for long, even light distribution. Do not use this for traditional rectangular ceiling mounted fixtures. Use rectangular sources for this instead. It is better to use several shorter linear lights end to end than one long linear light. This produces more even lighting. Linear lights cast softer shadows than point lights or spotlights. When Flamingo is the current renderer, you can place rectangular lights with the FlamingoLinearLight command. Linear light rendered. 76

77 LIGHTING Goniometric light Goniometric lights are only available when Flamingo is the current renderer. You can add IES illumination data (normally provided by a manufacturer) as a property to any light. IES data can specify both the intensity of the light and the distribution of the light. This information is provided in the form of a photometry file (.ies). These sources can have spherical, circular, rectangular, or linear shapes. The light type will then have no relationship to the distribution of light for these sources. The definition of the light distribution comes from the photometry file alone. Ambient Light Ambient light is a constant light that is added to the rendering. You can adjust the amount of ambient light that is added for Raytrace and Photometric rendering separately. Less ambient light generally produces images with more contrast. Too much ambient light can make a rendering look washed out. Without ambient light. With white ambient light. When calculating a radiosity solution, the ambient light value has less and less effect as the calculation proceeds, since more of the indirect light is accounted for by the radiosity solution. Daylighting Daylighting is the process of using light from the sun to illuminate the model. Daylighting consists of two components: direct sunlight transmitted from the sun and indirect sunlight transmitted via the sky, the ground, and other exterior objects. The direct sunlight component of daylighting involves a straightforward calculation normally you need only specify the time, date, and location to ensure accuracy. To create realistic lighting for architectural interiors in Photometric render, you must insert Flamingo Daylights into the model. These Daylights indicate where sun and skylight can enter the model and provide illumination. Because the indirect component is such a complex calculation, Photometric render uses two different types of daylight calculations: interior and exterior. Once you turn on the sun, you must chose between interior or exterior daylighting when you render or calculate a radiosity solution. Sunlight for exteriors The sun is a powerful parallel light. It has no icon visible in the model. The sun s direction and brightness are controlled by factors simulating real-world conditions such as latitude and longitude, time of day, and season. 77

78 LIGHTING Sun direction There are two ways to specify the sun direction: by date, time, and place, or by direct angle. Use date, time, and place positioning if you are trying to simulate the real sun in a study of the model s site. To position the sun, Flamingo provides a city list, map, and latitude and longitude controls. Use the direct angle sun placement if you want to control the light angle without reference to a real sun. Sydney, Australia, June 21, 9: 30 am. Stockholm, Sweden, June 21, 9: 30 am. Sun angle Azimuth and altitude solar angles are required to perform sunlight calculations. Normally solar angles are specified by date, time, and place. You can also set the angle using azimuth and altitude. North in the model is assumed to be the positive y-direction of the world coordinate system. If north in your model is a different direction, you must change the North setting to match the model. See the section Sun and Sky Settings on page 78. Place You can specify your location by picking a city from the Cities list, by picking a location on one of the provided Maps, or by directly entering your Longitude and Latitude and Time Zone. You can edit the city list to add or delete cities. Sun and Sky Settings Use these settings to set the cloudiness level and intensity of light coming from the sun and sky, and to set the North direction. Sun and Sky Colors Use these settings to select the colors of light coming from the sun and sky. You can use color temperature or select colors directly. 78

79 LIGHTING Daylight for Interiors When sunlight comes from outdoors, Flamingo Photometric render with radiosity can take into account light from the sky and ground. Flamingo uses special lighting objects called Daylights to accurately focus the sun and skylight into interior spaces. Daylights are rectangular windows that bring outside skylight through openings in the model just as windows let light inside in the real world. In the image, you can see the effect of the Daylights on the ceiling, floor, and walls. Indirect skylight entering the windows washes these areas with light. Daylights are required for interior daylighting simulations when using radiosity calculations. Indirect sunlight brought into room through a Daylight. Daylights do not emit light by themselves. The Sun must be turned on for the effects to be visible. In addition, the Photometric property Skylight must be set to Interior. See the section Photometric Document Properties. The intensity of the light entering through the Daylight is based on the sun and sky conditions and on the orientation of the Daylight with respect to the sun and sky. During interior radiosity calculations, all daylight enters the interior model through Daylights. The shape of the direct sunlight patches may not look particularly accurate during the radiosity preprocess. The shape of the daylight patches is recalculated during the raytracing phase. During interior raytrace renderings, only indirect daylight enters the model through Daylights. Direct sunlight is calculated independently. In the image, direct sun shines on the wall and floor, but you can still see the effect of the Daylight on the ceiling. Although you can render interiors without Daylights, the results will not be as interesting. The sun will come into the interior through openings, but because the skylight is not taken into account, the light will seem flat and even. Direct and indirect sunlight with Daylights. Direct sunlight without Daylights. 79

80 ENVIRONMENT Environment Your model s life-like environment can include background elements that are visible in the rendered image but are not part of the actual model geometry and will not be visible in the viewport. Environment backgrounds only appear when rendering. These elements include the background color and image, clouds, ground plane, and haze. Colonnade by Roland Montijo and Margaret Becker. Background Color Think of the background as an infinite sphere surrounding the model. Background colors, and images are projected onto this sphere to create sky or backdrop effects. Background sphere and ground plane. The Automatic Sky feature changes the background color depending on the sun and sky conditions. If the sun is turned off or if it is below the horizon, the background will be black. If sun is on and the time is midday, an appropriate blue color gradient will be chosen for the sky. You can select a single solid color, a 2-color, or a 3-color gradient. Gradient color and bitmap backgrounds work in either perspective or parallel views, but offer less flexibility in parallel views. You can combine colored backgrounds, images, and clouds to add additional complexity. 80

81 ENVIRONMENT Automatic sky Automatic sky adjusts the sky color based on the position of the sun in the sky. There are no controls for Automatic Sky. The Automatic Sky setting uses the time of day and season to determine the color of the sky. See the section Sun and Sky Settings on page 78. When you set the Cloudiness in the Sun and Sky Settings dialog box, the appearance of the automatic sky changes to reflect this. Automatic clear sky. Automatic cloudy sky. Gradient color background The gradient color background lets you vary the background color between two or three selected colors. Flamingo interpolates between the colors you select. If your current viewport is a perspective projection, you can control the top and bottom colors and the extents of the gradient relative to your view. Gradient color background. Background Image You can project an image onto the background sphere. This can be a photograph, art work, or an image created with a paint program. This feature lets you: Place the model into an existing context. Add panoramic city or mountain skylines. Add surrealistic effects. You can map the image to a planar, cylindrical, or spherical shape, tile or mirror the image, or offset the image using coordinates or the visual graphic. For best results, use high-resolution images for background images. It is also a good idea to blur and lighten sharp images to simulate natural focus and aerial perspective. Skyline photo used as background. 81

82 ENVIRONMENT Clouds Flamingo can project mathematically generated clouds onto the background sphere. The procedural cloud background works only if you are viewing the model in perspective mode. The sun must be on. Procedural clouds do not cast shadows on the ground. To create cloud shadows, place opaque or translucent surfaces out of sight above the ground. Two types of clouds are available: 3-D clouds and sheet clouds. 3-D clouds. Sheet clouds. Clouds look more natural if you simulate the natural movement of the winds. It is possible to model different cloud types using sheet clouds alone. X scale=4, y scale=1, density=.6, transparency=.005, rotation=60. Density=.7, scale=.85, rotation=0. Haze The haze setting can produce effects ranging from slight depth cues to dense fog. The color of the solid color background determines the color of the haze. The farther the object is from your viewpoint, the more its own color tends towards the background color, making the effect more pronounced. The haze setting is only active in perspective view. The haze setting depends on the scale of the model. If you are modeling a coffee cup and viewing it from several feet away, you need to use large haze values for the effect to become apparent. If you are modeling a large building, small haze values will be readily apparent. Scene without haze. Scene with haze. 82

83 ENVIRONMENT Ground Plane A ground plane makes a platform for the image that stretches to the horizon in all directions positioned at an elevation you define. A ground plane renders much faster than using a surface as a background. You can assign any Flamingo material to the ground plane. The ground plane only appears in a raytraced image; it does not appear in the model or in a radiosity solution. Ground plane with stone material. To help you visualize where the ground plane will appear in the rendering, set the Rhino Grid extents to a large value. Alpha Channel The alpha channel setting lets you save alpha channel to the background in the image. When you save to a format such as Targa (.tga) or TIFF (.tif) that supports alpha channel, you can manipulate the background in image processing programs. 83

84 PLANTS Plants Flamingo s landscaping feature provides a library of plants you can use to add detail to your images. Flamingo plants. To render a plant, insert a plant definition from the library. The plant is represented in the model by a polyline framework that approximates the size and general structure of the plant. From this framework, Flamingo s plant algorithms generate complex, natural looking plants as the rendering proceeds. Plant representation. In the rendered image, Flamingo plants behave like true 3-D objects: they cast shadows and appear in reflections. Because Flamingo generates plants from fractal-like algorithms, each plant insertion is unique, even if you use the same settings to create them all. You can set the season for all the plants in the model. You can also override this global season setting for individual plants or groups of plants. Plant Libraries Flamingo stores plant definitions in libraries. The libraries include seasonal variations of the plants that may have flowers, colored leaves, or bare branches. The Plant Library dialog box provides a live update of the plant as you select it. A simple preview rendering of the plant appears directly on top of the wireframe representation within a few seconds for most plants. Since the preview trees are live raytraced images, some of the more complex trees may be slow to generate. You do not have to wait for the rendered preview before you make a selection. You can display previews of additional plants in the other panes. 84

85 PLANTS Plant Properties You can change the settings that affect a particular instance of a plant in the model. This does not change the library definition of the plant, but only the particular plant s settings. Create New Plants Flamingo s interactive plant editor is included for advanced users who need to create special plants not included in the Flamingo landscape library. While it is possible to create your own plants or modify the plants provided with Flamingo using the plant editor, creating and editing plants is a complex task that requires extensive knowledge of the science of plant structure. Documentation on the plant editor is included in the Flamingo Help. 85

86 RENDERING MODES Rendering Modes This chapter contains information that you need to know any time you render a model. The issues that affect how the model renders include meshing and choosing a resolution for trial display or final printing. Raytrace Render Raytracing calculates the brightness, transparency, and reflectivity of each object in a model. These properties are calculated by tracing light rays backward from the eye to see how the rays were affected as they traveled from a light to the viewer s eye. The properties are then used to calculate the color and intensity of the pixels that create the image. Raytracing calculates the properties of each pixel in relation to the viewpoint, the other objects in the scene, and the lights. The quality of an image is independent of what you see displayed on your screen. The saved image can include more colors and be of a higher resolution. A display color depth of 65,000, 16 million, or True Color is recommended. Using a progressive refinement technique, the image is first presented in a crude but quick representation and then gradually enhances it until it is complete. Press Esc or close the render window to interrupt the rendering process any time, make changes to the model, lighting, materials, or settings, then restart the rendering process. Even on a large, complex image that takes several hours to fully process, the first pass completes in a short time and gives a good indication of the final image s appearance. You can render the full viewport or render just a portion of the viewport defined by a window selection. Rendering a window is faster, proportional to the area defined. You can also render using Quick Render, to produce a faster, lower quality preview. Unlike other rendering modes, Quick Render is viewport-resolution dependent. Smaller viewports render faster than larger viewports. Flamingo document properties The Flamingo document properties affect the quality of the rendering. There is a trade-off between the time required to complete a raytracing and the quality. Rendering performance You can control the speed of the rendering process. Some of the common issues are soft shadows, depth of field, render mesh settings, material properties, lighting, plants, and the extents of the model. Soft shadows and depth of field Using Soft shadows and Depth of field settings will slow the rendering. You can turn the Soft shadows off for individual objects that do not require soft shadows in your image. Render mesh settings At rendering time, the render mesh information is optimized for raytracing. Flamingo automatically translates the model when you render for the first time and must retranslate when you make changes to the model. Translating is a three-pass process. During the first pass, Flamingo converts the Rhino render meshes. During the second pass, Flamingo partitions the space the meshes occupy into a 3-D grid known as a voxel grid. 86

87 RENDERING MODES During the third translation phase, Flamingo partitions the space into a screen grid. This will translate any time you change the view. It should improve overall performance for many renderings, but it takes a little more time at the beginning. For rendering all objects are approximated by a polygon render mesh. You have some control over the quality of the mesh. Because higher quality meshing produces more polygons, there is a trade-off between quality on the one hand and rendering time and memory usage on the other. If the quality is too low, curved objects may be represented by too few polygons and may exhibit obvious artifacts. If the quality is too high, the rendering may take too much time or memory. Material properties Some material properties affect performance. Transparent and reflective materials affect performance the most. Even a small amount of reflectivity added to a material requires more calculation. Do not use reflectivity or transparency unless you want to see reflections or refraction. Materials that have patterns or bump maps also take longer to render. Lighting The number and type of lights you use may drastically affect Flamingo s performance. Lights that cast soft edge shadows use more memory. To avoid unnecessary performance problems, make sure that all the lights contribute to the image. Try to produce the necessary effects using fewer lights. If you have an area that has many small lights, it may be possible to use one spotlight with a broad beam to wash the area with light to simulate the pattern you are looking for. Spot and point lights are more efficient than linear and rectangular lighting, so use them whenever possible. Plants Plants use a lot of memory. Use the Detail setting to adjust the amount of detail in the trees and shrubs. Use the High setting only when you are close to a tree or bush; otherwise, use the Medium or Low setting. If you have many trees in the background, there are strategies you can use to reduce the memory needed to render the image. One popular way is to render a tree or a row of trees and apply the rendered image to a rectangular surface like a billboard. You can then place a few trees in front of the billboard to help blend it into the background. Model extents To keep rendering time as short as possible, keep the model extents to a minimum. For example, do not place a small model on a large object as a ground plane or move an object a mile away from the area of interest. This makes the model extents large relative to the area of interest. This may result in a significant performance loss. Instead, use the infinite ground plane feature provided with Flamingo in the Environment dialog box. Before you render zoom the model with the ZoomExtents command to make sure that the model does not contain stray objects. Radiosity memory use The radiosity mesh can become demanding on memory. If you are experiencing hard drive paging, an investment in more RAM will likely increase the speed of your radiosity calculations. 87

88 RENDERING MODES Photometric Render When using Flamingo Raytrace render, Flamingo lighting and material values are stored in arbitrary units. When using Flamingo Photometric render, the lighting is stored in real-world values. Flamingo Photometric render can create a more accurate image and high-quality subtle lighting effects. Using photometric lighting demands that you think about lighting in a different way. Many of the tricks relied on in raytrace mode or using other conventional renderers will not work for Photometric rendering. In the images below, the sun is much brighter in the photometric render just as it would be in real life. With raytracing, the sun is simply a directional light with an arbitrary value assigned. In photometric mode, the sun overwhelms other lights with its power. Raytrace render. Photometric render. Light in the real world can vary greatly in intensity. When you use Photometric rendering, think of your model as a real-world simulation, and think of Flamingo as a camera with an automatic exposure adjustment. The automatic exposure setting determines how a real-world lighting level should translate to screen colors. In general, this automatic exposure setting should produce convincing images under a variety of lighting conditions. However, for some situations you may have to manually adjust the exposure, just as it is sometimes necessary to override the automatic settings of a camera to produce good results. Photometric rendering provides controls for this purpose. See the section Exposure Adjustment on page 88. With Photometric rendering, you can use the exposure adjustments to change the overall image brightness, contrast, and color balance. With Raytrace rendering, to brighten the image, you would add more lights or set the lights to a brighter intensity. In Photometric rendering, turning up the light level may not change the overall brightness of the image, because the exposure adjuster will adjust the image back into an average brightness. To render an image with the Photometric renderer 1 From the Render menu, click Current Renderer, and then click Flamingo Photometric. 2 From the Photometric menu click, click Render. Exposure adjustment You can adjust the way the real-world lighting values in the Photometric render are displayed to the screen just as you would adjust the automatic metering on a camera. To adjust the image exposure 1 From the Render menu, click Current Renderer, and then click Flamingo Photometric. 2 From the Photometric menu, click Render. 3 In the Render window, from the View menu, click Exposure Control. 88

89 RENDERING MODES Radiosity Lighting Model Radiosity is a pre-process that builds a lighting model from a Rhino model. Radiosity creates a model of the indirect (diffusely reflected) light in a scene. Radiosity does not produce a rendered image; it is only a lighting calculation. This lighting model is then raytraced to add effects such as sharp shadows, reflection, and materials. When used properly in conjunction with raytracing, radiosity can produce images with more subtle illumination and more accurate lighting than raytracing alone can. Raytrace only. Photometric render. Photometric render of the radiosity calculation. For more technical information on radiosity, see Radiosity and Realistic Image Synthesis by Michael F. Cohen and John R. Wallace and Radiosity and Global Illumination by Francois X. Sillion and Claude Puech. 89

90 RENDERING MODES Many rendering programs use a fixed amount of ambient light to approximate what the radiosity process calculates. In a real-world environment, light is continually bouncing around, lighting all surfaces with a certain amount of reflected light. In a room lighted by just one window, the wall with the window in it is not black because the light bounces back from all of the surfaces in the room to light the window wall. Ambient light in a raytracer attempts to compensate for this by assigning a certain amount of extra light to all surfaces. This can make interior views look flat and lifeless. In the real world, some areas get more ambient light than others, corners of rooms are generally darker. While radiosity can improve the reality level of some kinds of renderings, there are advantages and disadvantages to using radiosity. Therefore, it is important to understand the basics of how the radiosity process works and what it does. Once you enable radiosity, you must calculate a radiosity solution before raytracing. The radiosity calculation distributes light around the model, and creates a new finely-meshed model with lighting values attached to the mesh vertices. This intermediate model consists of simple shaded materials with accurate lighting. For subsequent view manipulation and raytracing, this radiosity mesh is the new model. Certain material properties, such as texture mapping and mirror reflectivity, do not show until the model is raytraced. You can move around this model interactively using the normal view controls. Storing this new model in memory is part of what makes the radiosity process so memory-intensive. For the purposes of the radiosity calculation, each of these new mesh faces is assumed to have a matte finish that reflects light evenly in all directions. You can save the radiosity solution so you do not have to repeat the calculation. If you do not make changes to the model, you can raytrace later. When to use radiosity Radiosity is most appropriate for architectural interiors with matte surfaces. When combined with raytracing, radiosity can give you the most realistic interior image possible. Use radiosity when you want to consider indirect lighting. Radiosity will tend to give more variety and a softer quality to the lighting. Using radiosity can have some advantages over using raytracing alone. Some advantages are: Radiosity and raytracing together can produce high quality images in appropriate situations. Radiosity can give real and accurate lighting values for interior scenes with matte surfaces. The radiosity calculation produces a lighted model that can be viewed interactively. Unlike raytracing, radiosity performance is not sensitive to the number of lights in a scene. This lets you use as many lights as you would like. After calculating a radiosity solution, subsequent raytracing on that model can be faster since the light and shadows have been pre-calculated. When to avoid radiosity Radiosity is not recommended for studio setups of products or for building exteriors. Remember, since the idea of radiosity is to calculate the effect of indirect lighting, the lights must have something to reflect from. Building exteriors do not generally provide enough reflecting surfaces. Most of the light bounces into space. Using radiosity also has disadvantages and is not recommended for all cases. Some disadvantages are: Shadows in radiosity are not as accurate as raytraced shadows. For products or small objects that are defined by their shadows, radiosity is not recommended. 90

91 RENDERING MODES Large or detailed models are not recommended. Radiosity is sensitive to the complexity and scale of the model being rendered. Radiosity can take a long time and use lots of memory in the process five or six times more than raytracing. Radiosity can force you to change your modeling methods. It can produce artifacts in your images. When working with radiosity, finding methods to reduce artifacts is important. See section Radiosity Artifacts on page 92. Radiosity does not calculate materials, transparency, or reflections. Flamingo uses raytracing in conjunction with radiosity to produce a realistic image. If you change the model, you will have to recalculate the radiosity solution. Radiosity can make renderings more realistic, but until you understand the basic concepts and establish a good working practice, long calculation times and ugly artifacts may cause more problems than they solve. Radiosity calculation Direct light shines from light objects. Indirect light reflects from other surfaces. Radiosity calculates the direct light and a portion of the indirect light in a scene. It does not take into account specular (mirror) reflection; it calculates only diffuse (matte) reflection. Radiosity first creates a special radiosity mesh of your model in memory. To make the model visible, Flamingo first evenly lights it with uniform light called the ambient term. See the section Ambient Light on page 77. Then using a progressive refinement technique, one by one, each light in the model is turned on and its light is distributed on the radiosity mesh faces. The light that the radiosity solution calculates replaces the initial ambient term. Once the primary lights have been computed, the light from the brightest surface projects into the model. This in turn illuminates other surfaces. The light from these surfaces then projects into the scene. Steps Each step in the process is the calculation of one light or reflecting face. Step 1 is the calculation for the brightest light in the model. During the step, the amount of light received by each face in the model from the light is calculated. The distance from the light, whether the light is obscured by an opaque object, and the characteristics of the light itself (beam angle and so on) are all taken into account. The process continues with the next brightest light until all of the lights are calculated. This means that you must have at least the same number of steps in the radiosity solution as lights in the model to see the effect of all the lights. If you have 150 lights and you choose 100 steps (the default), you will have to refine the calculation to include all the lights. If the radiosity calculation stopped after the calculating the direct light from light sources and went no further, you would see no difference in lighting from raytracing because raytracing uses only the direct lighting. Only radiosity will calculate the secondary reflections. After the radiosity calculation has finished the primary lights, it moves on to the brightest faces and treats them as diffuse light sources. After enough secondary reflections have been calculated, each face will have a value assigned to it that approximates to the total amount of light reaching it. Most radiosity calculations will never reach the point where there is no light left to radiate. Instead, you decide when it is accurate enough. In general, the longer the model processes, the smaller the effect of each new step on the radiosity solution. When you run the radiosity calculation, you will notice that each mesh face is not evenly lit but is shaded with a gradient. Flamingo interpolates the lighting of each mesh face from its vertices to provide a smooth lighting model. 91

92 RENDERING MODES Residual At the start of the process, Flamingo calculates how much light is in the model, and assigns an initial value for the ambient term. Throughout the radiosity process, it keeps track of the amount of ambient light it has not accounted for and shows this value as the Residual. If the Residual shows 20%, it means that the radiosity calculation has not yet accounted for 20% of the ambient term. As the solution progresses, the amount of ambient light decreases. Some simple solutions will reach a residual of 0%. If that occurs before the number of steps in the Solution Goal is reached, the calculation stops. Some experts recommend getting the residual below 10%. Sometimes this goal is reached with the first 100 steps; occasionally it does not even get close. Use as many steps as you can in a reasonable amount of time. However, some models look better with higher residuals, because the remaining ambient light may mitigate radiosity artifacts. Impact of radiosity on raytracing performance When the radiosity calculation has reached an acceptable conclusion, a good proportion of the raytracer s work is already done. Raytracing will add the reflections, materials, plants, sharp shadows, background, and sky, but it will not again have to calculate the surface lighting. The raytracing may therefore be faster; making radiosity especially suitable for situations where more than on rendered image with the same lighting conditions is required. Radiosity artifacts Artifacts are undesirable effects in the radiosity solution caused by the relationship (or lack of relationship) between objects. These artifacts are often difficult to eliminate. The trick to creating a good radiosity model is to reduce the impact of artifacts on the image. You may have to change the way the model is constructed to reduce radiosity artifacts. This is a fundamental problem with the radiosity process, and is not unique to Flamingo. Floating objects If a small object falls between mesh vertices, the radiosity calculation may not calculate its shadow. This can cause objects to seem as if they are floating. Small objects such as a chair leg or a vase set on a table frequently show this artifact. Moving the small object, manually meshing the object receiving the shadow at a high polygon count with the Rhino Mesh command, or trimming a hole under the small object in the surface receiving the shadows may solve the problem. 92

93 RENDERING MODES Jagged shadows If an object lies directly on the mesh vertices of another object, the radiosity calculation can become confused about where the shadow should fall. You can try manually meshing the object receiving the shadow with a high polygon count. Another solution is to trim a small hole under the object to force more mesh polygons to be generated in that area. Radiosity shadows Even if the radiosity solution casts a shadow correctly, it is affected by the mesh and may not look good. A solution to this is to simply allow the shadows to be raytraced. Radiosity shadows. Raytrace shadows. Raytracing the shadows replaces the shadows calculated from the brightness of the radiosity mesh vertices with raytraced shadows. Shadow leaks Shadow leaks can occur when an object covers or shadows a vertex in the radiosity mesh. Because radiosity interpolates vertex values across a mesh face, the shadow can appear to leak out of its correct boundaries. This problem occurs frequently when one object is located on top of another, such as molding or trim placed on a wall. This artifact also occurs at junctions between two walls, or between a wall and a ceiling or floor plane when the surfaces are not cut right at the intersection. 93

94 RENDERING MODES The problem occurs because Flamingo averages the lighting on surfaces between the grid lines of the radiosity mesh. To solve these problems, you can modify the geometry, or work around the symptoms. In the image below, the radiosity mesh is displayed to show where the problems occur. The vertical solid is touching the horizontal solid perfectly. A bright spotlight is focused on the point where the two surfaces touch. In this example, the vertical object is on top of a mesh line on the horizontal object, which places the mesh line in shadow. Flamingo interpolates the light between the covered mesh vertices and the mesh vertices to the right. The mesh grid line to the right is in full light. This leads a shadow leak on the light side of the bottom surface. Shadow leak in radiosity display. Shadow leak after raytracing. Light leaks Light leaks are similar to shadow leaks, but instead of a dark shadow, light leaks out around an object. This is often is caused by a much brighter area on the other side of the object. For example, if you have a room made of single surfaces and have the sun turned on outside the room, the light on the floor outside the room may appear to leak into the darker floor of the room interior. In the example below, the vertical object lies between two mesh lines on the horizontal object. The same process of interpolation between the mesh vertices leads to a lighter section on the horizontal object where there should be shadow. Light leak in radiosity display. Light leak after raytracing. Reducing light and shadow leaks To try to reduce the effect of light and shadow leaks, try these methods: Join the surfaces. This will solve the problem in many cases, but it means that you cannot assign different materials to each part. Split the object that the leak is occurring on at the edges of the object causing the shadow. For instance, if two walls intersect each other, breaking the walls at the intersection of the two walls will solve the problem. 94

95 RENDERING MODES Do not use radiosity. Recalculate direct shadows with raytracing. See the section Photometric Document Properties on page 88. Raytraced shadows eliminate shadow and light leaks. Set the property of the object that is causing the shadow so it does not cast a radiosity shadow. See the section Radiosity Object Properties on page 95. This prevents an object from casting a shadow during the radiosity calculation. This works well for small moldings and trims that do not cast a large shadow. The fact that there is no shadow at all may not be noticeable. This does not work for fixing light leaks. Increase the render mesh settings or manually mesh the object receiving the shadow. Model for radiosity Experienced computer rendering artists are usually concerned about limiting the number of polygons in their models. The higher the polygon count, the longer the model is going to take to render, and in Flamingo, this applies to the radiosity calculation. There are ways to take control of the situation. Some ways to improve your results include: Do not overlap objects or allow objects to pass through another object without cutting the objects at their intersection. Reduce the detail in the model to reduce the number of mesh faces generated by the radiosity calculation. You can safely exclude many objects by tagging them with the various radiosity object properties. After these objects are excluded, they will no longer appear in the radiosity window, but they will render during the raytracing phase. Delete unnecessary detail from the model to achieve reasonable radiosity times. In many cases, removing the elements that are outside the current view will improve rendering times. Turn off layers or hide or delete unnecessary objects to speed up the radiosity calculation. Radiosity object properties Flamingo includes special object properties that affect the radiosity solution. Some are overrides to the global values set in the Document Properties dialog box, Photometric tab. See the section Photometric Document Properties on page

96 RENDERING EXAMPLES Rendering Examples One way to learn how to get good results from your rendering setups is to study what others have done and to try the same effects on your own models. The examples included with this guide show you the settings used by expert users to create the scene. The models and material libraries are included on the Flamingo CD in the Examples folder. Model by Cafer J., rendering by Scott Davidson. The process of creating any rendered image consists of these steps: Create the model. Assign materials and decals to the model. Set up the lighting and environment. Set the current renderer to Flamingo Raytrace. Render. Each step requires any number of experiments and revisions until you are satisfied with the result. Open the example models to examine the lighting, environment, materials, and object properties. Commands to use might include: The SelLight and ZoomSelected commands to locate all the lights. The DocumentProperties command to examine the Environment and Sun dialog boxes. The Layer command to see the material assignments to the layers. The Properties command to examine decal placement on individual objects. The following chapters provide information on what you should look for in the model that makes the rendered image work. Always ask yourself what you are going to use the image for and what you want to show. This will help you decide on the view, level of detail, render resolution, antialiasing level, image output format, color scheme, and so on. 96

97 RENDERING EXAMPLES Cell Phone Prototype The cell phone model is rendered two ways: a simple but interesting method for the prototype model and in the section Cell Phone Presentation, a method with more complex materials and lighting. This example is a prototype cell phone. The model is set up in a studio setting with two lights and no special effects other than the transparent backdrop surface. The lighting setup for this example was inspired by a lesson in the book Product Shots, A Guide to Professional Lighting Techniques by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz. This rendering demonstrates a quick and easy setup that is suitable for a prototype product shot. The lighting and background setup can be re-used to display other similar objects by substituting a different product model. The colors of the backdrop and table top were selected to complement the red-orange of the phone body. Model by Cafer J, design by Yoshikazu Itami, render by Margaret Becker. This example demonstrates: Assigning materials to layers. Material self-luminance. Lighting. Use of transparent objects to create lighting effects. To look at the example model Open the model Phone Prototype.3dm. In this model, the layer colors are set so the shaded view resembles the final rendering. This shaded view uses OpenGL to display the layer colors. This is an easy way to get a quick color view of the model. Materials The materials were copied from Flamingo s standard library of plastics. Instructions for the three custom materials: the backdrop, table top, and green display screen are given below. All materials are assigned to layers. The materials are in the Phone Prototype library. 97

98 RENDERING EXAMPLES To view a material assigned to a layer 1 Open the Edit Layers dialog box. You can do this one of three ways: Right-click the Layer pane in the status bar. From the Edit menu, click Layers, and then click Edit Layers. Click the Edit Layers toolbar button. 2 Click in the Material column for the layer. 3 In the Material Properties dialog box, click Edit. 4 Under Plug-in, click the Browse button. 5 Select the material indicated from the library. Red orange plastic This is a straight-forward, red-orange, smooth plastic. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=202, G=54, B=0 Reflective Finish.316 White plastic The button material is a smooth white plastic. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=250, G=250, B=250 Reflective Finish.316 Black plastic The antenna is a smooth black plastic. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=0, B=0 98

99 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=0, G=0, B=0 Reflective Finish.316 Backdrop The backdrop material is a custom dark green/blue mostly transparent, frosted plastic material. The main purpose of the backdrop is to provide a halo of light around the object caused by the spotlight shining from behind the backdrop. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=81, G=130, B=132 Transparency Transparency.7 Index of Refraction Transparent finish Table Top The table top material is a dark green, reflective plastic material with sharp reflections. The transparency lets some light through from the underside, but it is frosted so it will be soft. The color is slightly darker than the backdrop. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=20, G=82, B=85 Reflective Finish.8 Transparency Transparency.55 Index of Refraction Transparent finish Display Face The display face has a small amount of self-luminance to make the green glow. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=136, G=188, B=103 99

100 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=136, G=188, B=103 Self-Luminance.180 Lights Two lights are used for this scene: a directional light placed above and in front of the phone, shining directly at it, lights the front face of the phone with an even light. A spotlight shining through the backdrop surface, aimed slightly up, makes a halo of light on the frosted backdrop surface. Background This model uses no special environment settings. The background is neutral gray. It does not show in the scene. 100

101 RENDERING EXAMPLES Glass and Liquid Dramatic lighting from below and an infinite background object sets off these glasses. Reflective surfaces and transparency cause higher rendering times on this model. Setting the antialiasing to a high level makes a better image, but increases rendering time. Model and rendering by Brian Gillespie. This example demonstrates: Transparent material. Refractive material. Self-luminant material. Dramatic lighting. Reflective surfaces. To look at the example model Open the model Three Glasses.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Three Glasses library. The model has all materials assigned and lighting set up. For all materials, only the settings that vary from the defaults are listed. Crystal The reflectivity of the glass material is reduced and its transparency is increased to eliminate reflections from other objects. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections.474 On Transparency Transparency

102 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections.474 On Transparency Transparency.98 Index of Refraction No blurry transparency 1.50 On Wine The wine material has a different setting for reflective finish and transparency from the glass material. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=160, G=0, B=0 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections.605 On Transparency Transparency 1 Index of Refraction No blurry transparency 1.50 On White Glow Panels set outside the view use the white glowing material to create reflections that define the edges of the glasses. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Reflective Finish.412 Self-Luminance.5 Transparency Index of Refraction 1.05 Frosted Plastic A frosted surface bends up behind is set under the glasses to eliminate the horizon line. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=255, B=

103 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Reflective Finish.86 Transparency Transparency.628 Index of Refraction Transparent finish Lights The model is lit entirely with a single spotlight from below a frosted plastic pane that provides the glow under the glasses. Single light from below. Reflective surfaces The glasses sit on a reflective, frosted plastic surface that provides an infinite background effect. To capture the highlights on the rims of the glasses, white, glowing planes are placed on either side and above the scene just out of the view. Background surface and glowing panels. 103

104 RENDERING EXAMPLES Etched Glass The main features of this image are the modeling of the liquid in the glass and the dolphin shape that appears to be etched on the surface. The dolphin shape is applied to the surface as a cylindrically mapped decal. A second bitmap creates the etched effect. Reflective surfaces and transparency cause higher rendering times on this model. Setting the antialiasing to a high level makes a better image, but increases rendering time. Model and rendering by Pascal Golay. This example demonstrates: Glass material. Liquid material. Metal material. ClearFinish material. Reflection and refraction. Decal with transparency and alpha channel masking. Lighting effects. Ground plane. To look at the example model Open the model Dolphin Glass.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Dolphin Glass library. The model has all materials assigned and lighting set up. For all materials, only the settings that vary from the defaults are listed. The liquid is formed with two surfaces, one to represent the liquid and another to represent the surface of the liquid. The surface is modeled so it rises slightly up the inside surface of the glass and swizzle stick to represent the surface tension of the liquid. 104

105 RENDERING EXAMPLES Glass The glass material is a ClearFinish material. The glass becomes slightly darker as the refraction affects the surface. ClearFinish Procedure Component Property Setting Top Coat Index of Refraction 1.50 Transparency.744 Reflective Finish Base R=247, G=247, B=247 1 Base Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections.772 On Transparency Transparency.990 Index of Refraction 1.35 Top Coat Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections 1.0 On Transparency Transparency.774 Index of Refraction

106 RENDERING EXAMPLES Whiskey The Whiskey material is a dark orange transparent material. This material has the color and estimated IOR of plain whiskey. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=220, G=136, B=37 Reflective Finish 1.0 Transparency Transparency.796 Index of Refraction 1.35 Whiskey Glass Surface The Whiskey Glass Surface material is also a dark orange transparent material. Whiskey Glass Surface material is used for the part of the drink that is actually the inner surface of the glass and the outer surface of the whiskey at the same time. The index of refraction (IOR) of the whiskey divided by the IOR of the glass. This avoids the problem of having two coincident meshes generated and interfering with one another and is a better way to model objects like this. Notice that the surface has the meniscus (small curved edge cause by surface tension) that makes the liquid look much more realistic. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=220, G=135, B=47 Reflective Finish 1.0 Transparency Transparency.81 Index of Refraction 1.11 Magenta Anodized Aluminum The material for the swizzle stick is a magenta anodized aluminum. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=213, G=88, B=112 Reflective Finish.737 Metallic On Highlight Sharpness 25 Intensity.5 Color R=255, G=255, B=

107 RENDERING EXAMPLES Decals To make an etched or sandblasted figure on a glass requires two bitmaps in order to indicate relief and not just a pattern. One image provides the frosted color and transparency; the other image provides the bump effect that makes the dolphin image appear to be etched into the glass. The images are mapped onto the glass one on top of the other using cylindrical mapping. Review the information in the chapter Decals, about how to place decals and how to set the color and bump settings. Select the glass and examine its object properties to see what settings were used. Color The DolphinColor.tif image uses alpha channel masking so only the white area will show on the glass. The decal is set so it is partly transparent and has a little self-luminance to create that kind of glowing effect that sandblasted or etched glass has. The alpha channel of the image file matches the black and white areas in the image. DolphinColor.tif. Bump To add a visual effect of three-dimensional relief to the dolphin figure, another decal is needed. The bump image, DolphinBump.tif, has a gradient fill so the edges will appear shallower than the center area of the image. The darker the image, the more it will appear etched into the glass. The lighter areas appear to be etched less deeply. DolphinBump.tif. Since these decals must be accurately placed exactly on top of each other, curves and a center point are placed to mark locations you will need for placing the decal. It is a good idea to place curve geometry to ensure accurate placement if this is a requirement for your decals. This lets you use object snaps to assist in placement. When using cylindrical mapping, the decal must be placed slightly inside the surface. Lights The object is lit generally with directional lights. Directional lights. 107

108 RENDERING EXAMPLES A ring of linear lights above the glass provides highlights to the rim. Look at the light properties to see the intensity of the lights. Linear lights. A spotlight with a narrow beam highlights the decal area. Spotlight for detail. Environment This model uses only a ground plane and a gray background. Ground Plane The base for the model is a ground plane, which uses a multi-layered ClearFinish material. Even though the ground plane does not take advantage of the ClearFinish properties of changing color as the surface moves through the view, the material provides a rich reflective surface with subtle color. Look at the material components by editing the material. Pink Pearl ClearFinish. 108

109 RENDERING EXAMPLES Exotic Plastics This model makes extensive use of complex Angular Blend and ClearFinish materials. The lenses and frames of the glasses take advantage of these materials to create subtle changes in highlight and color. The sunglasses model looks best rendered with high antialiasing. Since there are many reflections, the antialiasing step takes a long time. Model and rendering by Cafer J. This example demonstrates: Angular Blend material. ClearFinish material. Reflections. Gradient background. Ground plane. Reflective surface. To look at the example model Open the model Sunglasses.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Sunglasses library. The model has all materials assigned and lighting set up. For all materials, only the settings that vary from the defaults are listed. Silver Glasses Frame The glasses frames use a slightly blue metallic Angular Blend material. The First component is metallic and the Second component is more reflective than the first. Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 20 Stop Angle

110 RENDERING EXAMPLES First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=208, G=219, B=237 Reflective Finish.5 Metallic No blurry reflections On On Highlight Sharpness 13 Intensity.65 Color R=224, G=232, B=245 Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=208, G=219, B=237 Reflective Finish.851 Highlight Sharpness 13 Intensity.65 Color R=224, G=232, B=245 Rubber Pad The rubber pad material is a black ClearFinish material. ClearFinish Procedure Component Property Setting Top Coat Index of Refraction 1.5 Transparency.8 Reflective Finish Base R=5, G=5, B=5 1 Base Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=5, G=5, B=5 Reflective Finish Reflective Finish Color No blurry reflections. 5 R=156, G=156, B=156 On 110

111 RENDERING EXAMPLES Top Coat Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=198, G=189, B=189 Reflective Finish No blurry reflections 1 On Transparency Transparency.8 Index of Refraction 1.5 Highlight Sharpness 25 Intensity 1 Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Blue Lens The blue lens uses an Angular Blend material that makes extensive use of colored highlights and subtle color differences between the First and Second components. Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 35 Stop Angle 65 First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=55, G=72, B=273 Reflective Finish Reflective finish color 1 R=55, G=72, B=237 Transparency Transparency.9 Index of refraction 1.02 Highlight Sharpness 18 Intensity 2 Color R=130, G=175, B=

112 RENDERING EXAMPLES Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=39, G=43, B=247 Reflective Finish Reflective Finish Color 1 R=233, G=255, B=251 Transparency Index of refraction Highlight Sharpness 18 1 Intensity 2 Color R=86, G=147, B=247 Orange Lens Like the blue lens, the orange lens uses an Angular Blend material that makes extensive use of colored highlights and subtle color differences between the First and Second components. Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 35 Stop Angle 65 First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=152, B=76 Reflective Finish Reflective finish color 1 R=255, G=186, B=110 Transparency Transparency.9 Index of refraction 1.02 Highlight Sharpness 18 Intensity 2 Color R=255, G=250, B=

113 RENDERING EXAMPLES Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=178, B=68 Reflective Finish Reflective Finish Color 1 R=233, G=255, B=251 Transparency Index of refraction Highlight Sharpness 18 1 Intensity 2 Color R=86, G=147, B=247 Lights Three lights are used in this model: one overall large spotlight and two small lights that create extra light on each of the blue lenses. In addition, a large plain white surface outside the view reflects onto the scene. Environment This model uses a ground plane and a gradient background. Ground Plane The base for the glasses is a ground plane with an Angular Blend material that provides a neutral color background with nice reflections. The First component has a Sandpaper procedural map to give it some texture. 113

114 RENDERING EXAMPLES Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 20 Stop Angle 45 First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=208, G=219, B=237 Reflective Finish.35 Metallic No blurry reflections On On Maps Sandpaper Scale=.005, Height=.010 Highlight Sharpness 13 Intensity.65 Color R=224, G=232, B=245 Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=208, G=219, B=237 Reflective Finish.55 Highlight Sharpness 13 Intensity.65 Color R=224, G=232, B=

115 RENDERING EXAMPLES Background The environment is a two-color gradient that creates a gradient that fades from black to white. Depth of Field Sometimes it is not possible in a reasonable amount of time to achieve the effects you want with rendering alone. Most professional modelers use paint programs like Adobe Photoshop to manipulate the images after they are rendered. These programs let you add effects, change colors, fill in gaps, add backgrounds, and many other effects that can be both difficult and time consuming. Model and rendering by Gijs de Zwart. In this case, more blur was added to the image after processing to enhance the impression of depth of field. This example demonstrates: Colored lights. Soft shadows. Depth of field. Post-rendering image processing. To look at the example model Open the model Three Plugs.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Three Plugs library. The model has all materials assigned and lighting set up. The red and yellow plastic materials are Angular Blend materials. The colors are the same for both components of the Angular Blend. The only difference is the reflectivity. 115

116 RENDERING EXAMPLES The Stop Angle for the blend at 90 degrees lets the more reflective material come into play at the silhouette of the object. Red plastic The white highlight makes the material look like plastic. Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 0 Stop Angle 90 First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=0, B=0 Reflective Finish.193 Highlight Sharpness 150 Intensity 1 Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=0, B=0 Reflective Finish.509 Highlight Sharpness 150 Intensity 1 Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Yellow plastic The yellow plastic s Second component is slightly darker and has a higher reflectivity setting. Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 0 116

117 RENDERING EXAMPLES Angular Blend Procedure Component Setting Start Angle 0 Stop Angle 90 First Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=191, B=77 Reflective Finish.088 Highlight Sharpness 150 Intensity 1 Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Second Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=187, B=32 Reflective Finish.57 Highlight Sharpness 150 Intensity 1 Color R=255, G=255, B=255 Yellow plastic matte The yellow matte plastic material has no Angular Blend and is less reflective than its yellow plastic counterpart. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=255, G=191, B=77 Self-Luminance.088 Highlight Sharpness 150 Intensity 1 117

118 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Color R=255, G=255, B=

119 RENDERING EXAMPLES Chrome The chrome material is a chrome from the Flamingo library. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish Metallic.975 On Lights Three spotlights light the scene. This image makes use of colored spotlights with soft shadows. We will examine the light characteristics. Spotlights 1 and 2 Spotlight 1 and 2 are soft yellow lights. They use high sample and jitter values to create soft shadow effects. Spotlight 1. Spotlight 1 and 2 Properties Color Shadow intensity 100 Spotlight hardness 50 Light intensity 30 Use soft shadows Color R=251, G=241, B=207 On Source radius

120 RENDERING EXAMPLES Spotlight 1 and 2 Properties Samples 64 Jitter 50 Properties dialog box, Light tab for spotlights 1 and 2. Spotlight 3 Spotlight 3 is a dark blue light. The use of a complementary light color creates a nice shadow effect on the right sides of the plugs. Spotlight 3. Spotlight 3 Properties Color Color R=59, G=66, B=85 Shadow intensity 100 Spotlight hardness 50 Light intensity 20 Use soft shadows On Source radius 200 Samples 4 Jitter

121 RENDERING EXAMPLES Properties dialog box, Light tab for spotlight 3. Environment This model uses a three-color gradient background and a default gray ground plane. Background The background is a three-color gradient fading from white to a dark blue and back to white. Environment dialog box. 121

122 RENDERING EXAMPLES Depth of field The settings in the Document Properties dialog box, on the Flamingo tab let the yellow plug in the front of the view blur out of focus. Depth of field settings. Post-process image manipulation After rendering, the image displays some banding and the bright areas of the plugs show the jagged edges of the pixels where the color changes. These problems cannot be overcome by using different rendering settings. To correct these problems, the image is adjusted in Photoshop. First, the brightest colors are selected and copied to a new layer. This layered is blurred with a large Gaussian blur radius. The new layer is set to Screen. This process blurs the bright areas as if they were being burned in during developing. The layer is then merged into the image. 122

123 RENDERING EXAMPLES Jewelry Jewelry images are defined by the reflections in the metals. Strong contrasts make a more powerful image. Keeping the visible background free of unnecessary detail ensures that the shapes will be well defined. Model and rendering by Giuseppe Massoni. This example demonstrates: Metal materials. Decal for diamond facets. Simple background for clear reflections. Lighting to bring out the highlights. To look at the example model Open the model Diamond Ring.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Diamond Ring library. The model has all materials assigned and lighting set up. Gold, Yellow The yellow gold is slightly less green and more reflective than the standard library gold. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=224, B=113 Reflective Finish Metallic.965 On Gold, White The white gold is a custom material. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish

124 RENDERING EXAMPLES Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Reflective Finish Metallic.974 On Diamond The diamond uses a high index of refraction. Preview Tab Property Setting Main Base Color R=247, G=247, B=247 Transparency Transparency 1 Index of Refraction Decal The trick for showing the faceting effect of the diamond is to use a bitmap decal on the lower cone only. Lower diamond surface with decal. Facet decal. Lights There is a spotlight (1) casting shadows and a linear light (2) a bit less than half the size of the stone placed between the ring and the camera. Spot and linear light. 124

125 RENDERING EXAMPLES Environment This model uses the default gray ground plane and a three-color gradient background. Background The background is a simple three-color gradient starting with white, fading to a small black band and then sharply moving to white again. This creates defined reflections on the metals. Gradient background settings. 125

126 RENDERING EXAMPLES Automobile Finishes This car model is rendered for final presentation. Notice the reflections on the car body and windshield. These are created by placing large reflector panels outside the view. Model by Cafer J., render by Scott Davidson. This example demonstrates: Setting up reflector panels. Car finish materials. To look at the example model Open the model Mythos Finish.3dm. Materials All materials are contained in the Mythos library. The materials in this model are quite straight-forward. By now, you are experienced in examining the material properties in the Material Editor dialog box. All materials are assigned to the layers. Turn off all layers but one and examine the objects on the layer. Edit the material to get an understanding of how the material acts with the objects. Lights and reflectors The lighting effects on the car are enhanced by the giant reflector surfaces that have a glowing white material. This makes a reflective effect on the car body similar to the fluorescent tubes in a showroom. This is a common effect for studying the lines and shape of the automobile. The location of the reflector panels depends on where you want to see reflections in the model. Lights and reflector panels. Environment This model uses a colored ground plane and a two-color gradient background. Ground Plane The ground plane is a slightly reflective green color. 126

127 RENDERING EXAMPLES Background The background is a simple two-color gradient fading from white to brown. Gradient background settings. 127

128 RENDERING EXAMPLES Cell Phone Presentation The final version of the cell phone is a sophisticated setup with many complex materials, lights, and reflective surfaces to create highlights. Model and rendering by Cafer J., design by Yoshikazu Itami. This is an advanced example. The rendering created is suitable for use in slick printed material or other high-end applications. This example demonstrates: ClearFinish material. Metallic material. Decal with alpha channel masking. Self-luminant material. Reflective surfaces to provide lighting effects. Transparent material. Textured material using bitmaps. You have seen in the other examples how to look at a model and discover how it is put together. Try this one on your own. Take some time to look at the elements that make up this complex rendered image. To look at the example model Open the model Cell Phone Final.3dm. 128

129 RENDERING EXAMPLES Lights Start with the lighting. Notice the ceiling panels that provide reflections on the phone. Two spotlights light the object directly and a point light set off to the side provides a general lighting throughout the scene. Lighting and reflector panels. Materials and Decals All materials are assigned to layers. Turn off all layers but one and examine the objects on the layer. Edit the material to get an understanding of how the material acts with the objects. Many ClearFinish and Angular Blend transparent materials are used for the buttons and screen. Look at the object properties for the screen objects. Decals are applied to create the text for the phone display. Environment The background for this model is a simple solid gray. The ground plane uses a material with a bump texture that gives it a leather-like look. Edit the material and look at all the tabs to see the material s components. 129

130 RENDERING EXAMPLES Realistic Backgrounds Rendered environments can only go so far in making your scene come to life. In many situations, using real photographs is the only way to realistic effects. In the image below, the water does not look realistic and the lack of a wake makes the boat look like it is standing still. Modeled water as ground plane. Contrast this to the second image. In this image, to show off the sailboat design, the rendered image of the boat replaces a similar boat in a photograph of a boat under way. The real water and wake add action, drama, and realism, which sets off the boat design in a way no computer-generated background could do. Photograph as surroundings. This example demonstrates: Rhino wallpaper to set up a background. Image background for realistic water. Post-rendering image manipulation. Match the model to a photograph To make a realistic background, choose photograph that contains the kind of view you would like to use. In this case, a photograph of a similarly shaped boat under way was chosen. Original photograph. To set up the rendering 1 Determine the size of the graphic you are going to use. In this case, the image is 900 x 630 pixels. 130

131 RENDERING EXAMPLES 2 Use the SetViewportWindowSize command to set the render viewport to be the same size as the image or a multiple of that size. 3 Use the Wallpaper command to set the image as a background for the viewport. 4 Manipulate the view and the objects so they match the picture as closely as necessary. Set up model with Wallpaper background. 5 Use the same image as an Planar environment background image in Flamingo. 6 Render the image. Rendered image. 7 In Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or other paint software, touch up the image to remove unwanted elements and clone some of the wake water in front of the bow. Touched up image. 131