Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Learning to render in revit

WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

table- you render with revit- revit has the best rendering

engine in the world.. 3Ds Max has the same rendering

engine but it's much more clumsy to render in Max..

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tabletennisman

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Joined: Tue, Aug 12, 2008
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care to explain how i can make my rendering look far better than it currently does - that image you attached looks a million times better than my efforts.

Is it the textures i'm lacking? Where can i get good textures? The rendering stage i'm currently at, i have no idea how i can improve the actual rendering quality and realism...

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

okay table-

i'm going to put this together in a step by step way for you to

get exactly that quality rendering on anything you want to

render.. i just need to make sure i get every step in order

for you so you don't have to ask me about something i

left out.. this is the end of my day right now- but just

check back here in about 12 hours and i will have

it right here for you.. as everyone knows i'm not

the revit expert i should be after five years

with revit- but i AM a render expert- at least.. lol

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tabletennisman

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

okay table i'm back..

as you can see in this thread there are some render

masters here..

hisdirt for one clearly understands what rendering is..

and yes rendering is very exciting.. but i hope it doesn't

distract you too much from learning to create construction

documents like it has with me.. lol

i read what everyone is saying here about rendering and it's

all true- but i thought i would show you how to get a good

rendering step by step and then you can learn the theories

later..

although even to walk you step by step to a good rendering

i need to explain the bare minimum of theory..

first thing i will say is that i'm only going to be talking about

EXTERIOR rendering here.. interior rendering is a horse

of a different color..

but let's get this one theory out of the way..

you know like when you go to YouTube and you can choose

the low res version of the video or the HD version?

well that is basically what you should think about with rendering..

the low res rendering version is done in about 3 minutes- and the

the high res rendering is done in about 20 minutes- (depending

on the power of your computer)..

the one you do in 3 min is just for quick looking at

what you got- like if you are building something and you want

to see how it actually went together- or you want to see that

everything is the way you want it before you make a PRESENTATION

rendering..

there is only ONE number you want to look at to determine

if it's going to be a high res or low res- it's the MB number with

PRINTER selected and not screen.. (forget about ever selecting screen)..

the only difference between a low res render and a high res

is that a high res is just rendered at a LARGER SIZE (MB)- and then

SHRUNK down so it becomes high res when you print or view it..

(you also need to know how to resize images in paint)..

so that's the FIRST thing to get planted in your head- and

this image i attached points out what i've said here.. don't

worry yet about how to make these settings- just understand

what we have so far..

oh yeah one thing i forgot to mention is that you always

render your scene within the crop region..

some of these things you will already know but i have to

go from start to finish..

let me know here when you understand everything

about this first part so i can go on to the second part..

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tabletennisman

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tabletennisman

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

okay now remember you want to decide if you

will render the scene low or high res.. and like

i said you watch that MB number on the main

render dialog..

once you understand this second part

you will be 2/3 an exterior render expert..

look at the image of this main dialog and

try these things out and when you got

it down good we will move on to the last

part- custom render settings..

let me know if you have any questions about

this main dialog before we get into custom settings..

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tabletennisman

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Joined: Tue, Aug 12, 2008
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yep have that dialogue grasped.

Sun settings are really personal preference yea? Choosing the time of day to get the desired shadows etc? Not sure if you'll be mentioning this in the custom settings.

Cheers.

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

sun settings and clouds and all that can be

anything- it doesn't matter- EXCEPT

sometimes the building looks a little better

with shadows going in one direction instead

of another.. but you can mess with all that

later.. also though- the location and time

of day is good to learn later too.. a photographer

will always choose the best time of day to take

the photo.. i'll be back with the last of this in

a couple of hours and then you can render..

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

okay table- here you go-

get the crop region around your scene the way you want it..

hit the render teapot..

select printer as opposed to screen..

make it show 15MB..

hit "adjust exposure" and put shadows at the very minimum..

now go back up to the top of the render dialog and drop down

the "setting" field and select "edit"..

i attached three images to show exactly the way to

set all the sliders and check boxes..

once it starts rendering uncheck that timer dialog

so it doesn't close when the rendering is done so

you can make a note of how much time it took..

then export the image as a .bmp if you want to

save the sky or background color- or .tiff if you

want the highest quality printing- but you will

lose any background or sky.. probably best

to just select white color for the background

in the first place for now and export .tiff..

let me know how it goes..

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Revin

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Joined: Tue, Sep 15, 2009
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This is without a doubt the most awesome and informative thread on this site so far...

WYS1WIG and Trombe, you are legends! Thanks a mil!

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

two things i can point out about rendering

that is good to know is:

1. if there is a lot of geometry in the scene

it will take longer to render.. if you only have

one square box to render there is not much

computer work to calculate the light and shadows

for just a box.. but if it's a building with dozens of

surfaces- that will take some more time to render..

2. that "adjust exposure" dialog- you can change

those settings AFTER the render is finished..

i just go ahead and put the shadows at the bottom

because i don't run any light bounces and that

makes the shadows a little lighter- so i set it

to be slightly darker to make up for that..

but again- you can do anything you want

with those exposure controls after the render

is done..

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WYS1WYG

Joined: Sun, Jan 4, 2009
356 Posts

opps- typo- correction

not-  i don't run any light bounces and that

makes the shadows a little lighter- so i set it

to be slightly darker to make up for that..

but- i don't run any light bounces and that

makes the shadows a little DARKER- so i set it

to be slightly LIGHTER to make up for that..

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tabletennisman

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Joined: Tue, Aug 12, 2008
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Thanks mate... see attached rendering below. All settings used as you said, 15.1MB, took 10 hours 54 to render!!!

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/6199/3dview1.jpg

I'm still not happy with it. To be honest i don't notice a difference between the settings i'd used and what you'd said... It's gotta be my textures that are lacking?? Where's the best place to download (or possibly buy) materials and textures that actually look good?

Cheers!

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