One Click Clay Rendering

Al Hart

I've noticed that a lot of people are interested in Clay Rendering. (While we were developing the SuWiki, the Clay Rendering for 3DS tutorial was the most popular tutorial.) Basically Clay Rendering renders everything as if it was white.

We have added a check box to IRender nXt to produce clay renderings without having to play with materials, etc. (And if you render from a hidden line face style, then Clay is the default)

See: Color Render Mode for this and other special coloring examples.

[Edit: I downloaded this model from the 3D Warehouse. It makes a better Clay Rendering example]

Al Hart

The SuWiki and Chris's Clay Render for 3DS tutorial have been moved to here:

The new Google Sites

(sites.google.com)

Image by Steve Poteracki, AIA, SketchUp Forum

Gaieus

I like this second one big time. Cool model of course (which is very needed with clay renders as you cannot "fake" details with textures)

Ecuadorian

Google Earth models must looks awful in clay rendering, then, as they are mostly boxes with textures...
But you can often get away with bump maps if you need to fake some detail in clay renderings.

Al Hart

@ecuadorian said:

Google Earth models must looks awful in clay rendering, then, as they are mostly boxes with textures...
But you can often get away with bump maps if you need to fake some detail in clay renderings.

I'll have to try the "bump map trick". Perhaps we can let the user define a single texture to use for the entire model, rather than just "white".

Here is a typical "high detail" google earth model:

Here is the clay rendering.

Obviously the detail from the textures is lost, but the detail from the model itself is highlighted by the subtle, HDRi forest lighting scheme. I guess the purpose of clay rendering is to emphasize the detail already in the model.

Al Hart

@gaieus said:

I like this second one big time. Cool model of course (which is very needed with clay renders as you cannot "fake" details with textures)

The second image was from Chris's tutorial. I presume it was made using 3DS, but there was no specific mention of the rendering.

The first image is one of my "typical" examples of how to use the technology. It is a 3D warehouse model. It is supposed to "inspire" you to think of how the technology could be used. I think we'll have to work harder to find good models to demonstrate technology.

[Edit: since writing this post, the image in the first post has been replaced by a better clay rendering example]