Rendering Scenes

Rendering Scenes

While the OpenGL rendering in the main navigation window is adequate for interactive walkthrough and previewing renders, you will no doubt want to render your scenes and animations with full photorealistic rendering at some point. You can render directly into the main window by simply clicking on the Render button at the bottom of the Presenter control bar at any time. The following procedures is an overview of how to do this:

Setting Up And Rendering A Scene

Setting Up And Rendering A Scene

  1. Drag and drop materials onto items in the model. You can use the pre-defined materials, or create your own from the templates in the Materials tab (see for more details on how to do this).

    Or

  2. Use the Rules tab to set up rules which define project-wide material application (see for more details on this).

  3. Use the Texture Space tab to more accurately map materials onto items in the scene (see for more details on this).

  4. Set up additional lighting using the Lighting tab (see for more details on how to do this).

  5. Background and foreground effects can be added to the scene with the Effects tab (see for more details on these).

  6. Use the Rendering tab to select a rendering style for the render (see for more details on these).

  7. At any point, you can click on the Render button to start JetStream Presenter rendering the scene in the main navigation window. The rendering process can be stopped at any point by clicking on the Stop button.

  8. Click on the Clear button to clear the render in the main navigation window and return to an OpenGL interactive view.

Exporting Rendered Output

Exporting Rendered Output

If you want to save the rendered scene to a file or printer, you have to render directly to it. The following procedure describes how to do this:

    Exporting a rendered image

  1. With the scene set up as you wish (see ), go to File, Export, Rendered Image

    The Export Rendered Image dialog will appear:

  2. To print directly to a printer, choose Printer from the Type drop down list.

    The Browse button and box will be grayed out and you will get the standard Windows print dialog to set up the printer and options on clicking OK

  3. To save to one of the file types supported by JetStream Presenter, choose the file type from the Type drop down list.

    JetStream Presenter supports the following file types:

    • Targa

    • Tiff

    • JPEG

    • Windows Bitmap

    • EPix

    • PostScript

    • LWI

    • HDR (High Dynamic Range Image)

    • OpenEXR (High Dynamic Range Image)

    • QuickTime VR Panoramic Movie

      Note

      The QTVR Panoramic Movie will effectively export 32 images, rotating about the current camera position to form a 360 degree panorama. Best results are achieved when the camera has zero tilt and is located in a position that has a 360 degree panoramic view, for example, in the center of a room.

    • QuickTime VR Object Movie

      Note

      The QTVR Object Movie will effectively export an extensive number of images, (based on number of pan frames x number of tilt frames, see QTVR Object Movie Settings dialog below) pivoting the model about it's center point. Best results are achieved when the model is relatively small or compact.

      When choosing this file type, you will be required to enter a number of settings. See the QTVR Object Movie Settings dialog below:

      The Pan Min and Pan Max settings define how far the model can be revolved (as though on a turntable). The Pan Initial setting defines where you view the model from at the start (again, as though on a turntable, 0 or 360 would be the same point at the opposite side and 180 would be where the camera is now). The Pan Frame No. is the number of frames to be used to revolve the model from Pan Min to Pan Max

      The Tilt Min and Tilt Max settings define how far the model can be tilted (backwards and forwards from its current position). The Tilt Initial setting defines where you view the model from at the start (assuming you are looking at the model straight, -90 would be from the bottom and 90 from the top). The Tilt Frame No. is the number of frames to be used to tilt the model from Tilt Min to Tilt Max

  4. Browse to a location and enter the name of the file you want to render to.

  5. See the section called "Controlling the size of an image" in the chapter called "File Management" in the Roamer book for details on how to set the size of the rendered file. The only difference between those options and the size options on this dialog is that you have a Use Printer Page option here, which will size the image to the page setup size of the default printer.

    If you choose Use View as the Size of the image file, then JetStream will save any existing render from the main window, without having to render again from scratch.

  6. Click OK to export the rendered output, or click Cancel to return to JetStream without exporting it.

    Exporting rendered animations

  1. Once you have set up and rendered a scene as you wish, you can additionally create an animation within that scene, (see the section called "Creating Animations" in the chapter called "Animating" in the Roamer book). The rendering that you have set up will be applied to each frame of the animation.

  2. You can save a rendered animation by choosing Export, Animation from the File menu. This will open the Animation Export dialog, as explained in the section called "Exporting an animation" in the chapter called "File Management" in the Roamer book.