RENDER PROCESS OF A 3D MODEL: 3RD DEC 2016.

By Architect P.R.S. Sivakumar , Madurai.

Rendering is a process of generating an image from 2d or 3d model by means of

computer programs. The results of such a model can be called as 3D rendering.

The scene contains geometry, view point, texture, lighting and shading information
which are all created by the designer in a 3D model scene.

The data contained in the scene file is then passed to a rendering program to be
processed and output to a digital imager (or) raster graphics- in various formats like
jpg., TIFF (8 or 16 bit) PNG, BMP etc. Some programs offer a wide range of image
formats. Some offer only a few formats. Some may not offer a 16 bit tiff, but only
offer 8 bit TIFF (16 bit TIFF contains more raster data than 8 bit and so more
manipulation could be done in the image editing programs like Photoshop etc.

When a program offers a 16 bit TIFF file saving, then always saves as 16 bit TIFF.
File size will be much larger than 8 bit or Jpeg. Smallest file size is got by saving to
jpg. But always select max. Quality.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 3D MODELLING AND RENDERING :

MODELLING:

This is how, say, you make a box. It is building the figure - the box. There are different
ways to model, but in the end, the work you do in modelling is like the work a sculptor or
a carpenter does it is making the object.

RENDERING:

Rendering is all about taking the actual picture of the box once the box has been built.
Think of this as having more to do with the camera than anything else. You have already
positioned everything, set up the lights, applied materials to the box etc. Now you need to
get all that stuff out to something people can really see. Much like a photographer has to
click the button on the camera even after staging all the elements around the subject to get
a picture, we have to render to translate all of the virtual bits in our 3D virtual world into
some form of output that people will see ( video, still images, something printed etc.)

So, rendering is how we get there. There are lot of stuff that happens between modelling
and rendering something happen after rendering as well i.e., post production or post
processing of the image in Photoshop etc.

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In general think of modelling as making the things and rendering as taking pictures of the
things.

METHODS OF RENDERING:

1. SCAN LINE RENDERING:

The oldest method of rendering and the fastest method of rendering. The process
is a simple process requiring little computer power. This type of render just
projects the lighting provided by you (Omni light/ spot light/ sun light) and
illuminates the scene with light and shadows. If you provide a single light , it will
illuminate the objects and surfaces depending on the intensity/power of lights that
you have provided and all shadows are pitch black. There will be no light in the
shadow area and will be completely black. This does not happen in reality. In real
world, the light falling on all surfaces bounce and the bounced light falls on other
objects and also on the shadow area, thus giving some illumination on the shadow
area also. This will not happen in scan line render. But this can be faked. By
placing more lights intelligently to illuminate the shadows and ------? bounced
lights, you can fake a real world lighting render using scan line method. If you
learned this method well enough, this would be the fastest render you could
produce. Reflections, shininess and bump etc. Can be done by the scan line
process. It is only the real world lighting that will be missing. But there is
something that the scan line render cannot do. It cannot do CAUSTICS which is
light passing through a cup of glass with water and falling on the table. The
distortions caused by the refraction through glass and liquid are called Caustics.
Scan line render will treat the whole object as an opaque object and cast a shadow
of the glass which would be totally unnatural. To be positive about this, you may
not have such objects which require caustics as major objects are very near to the
camera. If these objects are small and far away, absence of caustics may not be
noticed unless you look for them with eagle eyes.

But closely placed objects caustics could be again faked in Photoshop by post
processing the rendered image.

At least some part of post processing in a rendered image is part and parcel of the
final process. Of course it is important to note that these post processing etc.
Could be done only for still image renders. Not for animations / walkthroughs
because it is literally impractical. This much for scan line rendering.

2. GLOBAL ILLUMINATION RENDERING / RADIOSITY RENDERING:

Simply saying this type of renderer gives you images with real world lighting. But
this process takes a quite long time to render in fact based on the settings,

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 material complexity and the complexity of various lights, it can take a very long
time for the rendering to complete. And you have to have a deep knowledge also.
This is an exhaustive subject and i am giving you a brief introduction only here. In
this process photons simulated by the computer and software strikes the objects
like in real world. Different Render Engines have different methods to produce
this kind of rendering. Each one tries to accomplish a faster render job by
manipulating or faking (in a subtle way) global illumination. These are called
biased renderings. Unbiased render engines do not fake anything. They trace
the path of true light and the photons and yield the truest realistic render
provided your modelling is perfect, your materials are correctly applied with
correct properties and you have also placed lights correctly with correct
intensities. Do not expect a good render from a poor scene.

GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT. REMEMBER THIS ALWAYS.

3. REAL TIME RENDERING:

IF YOU HAD PLAYED 3D GAMES WITH A HIGH END COMPUTER WITH

HIGH END GRAPHICS CARD YOU WILL EASILY UNDERSTAND THIS:

When you play such a game your visual experience on the monitor would be like
seeing a good resolution movie. Today with powerful computers and powerful
graphic cards such games can be played at FULL HD resolution also. You may
even see shadows included in the visuals, even reflection etc. And it is also sort of
global illumination rendering, though not in the strictest sense. This is Real time
rendering. Today, specialized real time rendering soft wares have been developed
for the design profession also like Lumion 3D, LUMEN RT etc.

These real time renderers fake most of the effects of lighting etc. The main aim of
these software is to produce animations at blazing speeds. It is said that light
bouncing is partially done and partially faked, like what is done with scan line
rendering.

The rendered images whether still images or animations, are raster images.
Raster images generate as an image on the monitor with the computers graphic
engine. It is what is called the graphics processing unit or GPU. NOT CPU. CPU
utilises the power of the computer chip like core i-5, i7 etc. Where as GPU is a
separate graphics processing engine. All computer processors have built in low
power GPUs in their chips normally known as Integrated Graphics. This is in no
way sufficient to play moderately fast games too. For normal computing work like
office work, internet browsing etc. These are more than sufficient.

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\But when it comes to a 3D modelling program, even to work on the 3D model, to
rotate, move, pan, orbit, zoom etc. You need an add on GPU like Nvidia and ATI,
AMD (Today these are the only GPUs available).

When you consider non real time 3D modelling and rendering software, the GPU
is utilized only for the modelling graphics. The more powerful the GPU, the faster
you will be able to work on the modelling work.

But when you start rendering the scene, the GPU goes idle and the CPU takes
over. So it would be the sheer power of the CPU and number of cores that governs
the speed / time taken for rendering.

As on today, the CPU renderings give the true photorealistic renders with the real
world global illumination. Lighting software like Autocad, 3ds max, Maya etc.
Are all CPU renderers. Even their plugin render engines like Mental Ray, VRay
etc. are all CPU renderers only.

Now, coming back to real time renderers, these RT engines Real time is now
known as RT they use the GPU Graphics Processor as the main computing
engine and they do so by utilizing all the power of the GPU. At the same time, it
also utilises the power of CPU also so CPU Power is also important. Today, the
i-7 Quad core desktop processor would be considered the ideal to match with a
high power graphics card. So, ideally, if you wanted high resolution still renders
also, you would need a very high performance computer. Without high
performance computer, you will only get a low grade render and when it comes to
animations / walk through, not only low grade low resolution quality even the
texture / materials defining properties have to be set at the lowest quality in the
settings resulting in a walk through which would be acceptable only to pedestrian
quality people who have little exposure to good architects / designers and also
have little exposure to high quality visualizations. So this kind of animation
presentation to a pedestrian quality client would be no other than a cheap stunt to
win the project. With your consumer grade laptops do not expect anything than
this low grade pedestrian quality animations, may be with still image output you
may get through somewhat with an acceptable quality. Exteriors are easier than
interiors. But even on the same computer, the RT engines speed even for the low
resolution render would be amazing compared to CPU renderers.

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Now, you must also know about graphic cards. There are 2 types of cards / GPU
available. One is focussed towards gaming and the other is focussed towards
power users for 3D modelling and rendering. The main differences the way they
work is, the first one uses Direct 3D graphics - which is a fast graphics code but
not a very high quality code. The other one uses OpenGL graphics which is a very
high quality algorithm code. For the same GPU power, the cost difference
between the two are phenomenal. With Nvidia Cards, the gaming one is called
GeForce and for the power user, it is Quadro. Witn AMD, for the game users, it is
Radeon and for the power user it is FirePro. Most of the time, a superior gaming
card which is much less expensive serves the purpose.

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