I’ve been using SketchUp for less than a year now, and now I am about to send my home designs off to a rendering specialist to make them look more photo-realistic. I am not sure, however, how “complete” the model must be before I send it out. For example, the home has a lot of “sharp” edges- in reality those edges would be round. Must I round them before I send it out to him, or is that something he should do?
I realize I can just ask him these questions, but is there any light that can be shed on this matter before I send it off to him? Anyone who is into rendering who can give me some tips?
If your model is complex and has certain ‘errors’ in it, putting round corners on parts of it could present problems for you that might take a while for you to rectify, but your renderer person, with the right knowledge, might be able to rectify in no time at all. However, it really depends on the model made and how it’s been modelled. For example it could matter if it’s all ungrouped on the base layer, or if it’s grouped together in a way - using a round corner plugin can result in a neat rounded corner that doesn’t produce unsightly results or it can not work at all…
It’s always good to post models with a question, if possible… but I know confidentiality is an issue for some.
Thanks for your response. Yes, confidentiality is an issue for my company…I suppose the only way to be sure if the model is ready is to just send it to the guy and have him tell me what he thinks.
Any other tips for preparing a model for rendering? Should I find my own textures, or is that typically something the rendering guy does?
I don’t know I’m afraid, you’ll have to wait for another person to answer. But for what it’s worth, I would say leave it as you have it and send it to your rendering specialist.
If you send it and request a reply with a list of aspects of how you can improve the model for the future, that could help you both ?
Your question partially depends on the rendering engine. In V-Ray for example, if you’ve applied textures and finalized the look, the rendering person basically goes a second round because every single texture requires material editing, to give it photo-realistic parameters. Not applying any textures, means you leave all the work to them and they not only have to add rendering parameters, but go through your model as well, applying textures.
If you’ve applied textures, you could further help the rendering person by naming them properly. My way is to always categorize textures by material first and then its place or purpose. For example when there are more than 1 wooden textures in my project, i go for ‘wood - bedroom floor’, ‘wood - table’, ‘wood - doorframe’ etc.
Also, layering and grouping is a must if you have a heavy project. That way they can turn on/off layers which have an out-of-frame geometry.
Cool, thanks. All of my layers are very much in order- components used properly, etc. I have textures applied, but I am not sure what rendering program he is using so again, I’ll just have to send what I have and go from there. Thanks for your response!