First Exterior Rendering
This First Exterior Rendering Video explains how to use IRender nXt to create a high-quality, photo-realistic rendering from your SketchUp model.
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First Exterior Rendering Video
Watch Video IEBoFKvZ-ng This Video Tutorial explains how to use IRender nXt to create a high-quality, photo-realistic rendering from your SketchUp model, with out making any changes to the model, or adjusting any rendering settings. |
Tutorial
Step 1 - Download and Install IRender nXt
- Download IRender nXt from our Downloads Page
- Install it
Step 2 - Download model from the 3D Warehouse
Download Ranch House
You can download it directly from the 3D Warehouse, before starting SketchUp, or download it directly into SketchUp from the File/3D Warehouse menu.
Ranch House in 3D Warehouse
This is just a model from the Warehouse which we found. It has no special settings in for rendering.
We chose it because it has a porch which will show some of the subtle shadow effects of IRender nXt.
Step 3 - Start SketchUp and load the model
Rotate and Zoom to a view similar to this, so we can see the shading in the porch.
Porch View
Click the Green Rendering Button to start the rendering.
For your first rendering, a dialog will come up with some rendering parameters.
Rendering Parameters
Select Studio - High Dynamic Lighting.
This produces a subtle shadow effect of sunlight filtering through a forest
which is good for a lot of exterior scenes.
Select a rendering size - small or medium is good when first working with a model.
And, click the Start Rendering button.
Step 4 - Examine your first rendering
It will take a short time to extract your geometry from the SketchUp model.
Rendering Passes
Your first model will render for the default number of 20 passes. The more passes you use, the better the rendering will get.
During those passes, random light is brought in from the Sun and Sky.
After just 5 passes, the rendering is rough - because you can see individual shadows from random points in the sky.
Rendering after 5 passes
After 20 passes you get a pretty good image as the lighting converges.
Rendering after 20 passes
After 100 or 200 passes the lighting will smooth out and you will get an even better rendering.
Rendering after 200 passes
This 200 pass took only about 6 minutes, with a fairly simple model.
You should just use about 5 passes for exterior models until you are happy with your model and your rendering settings. Then you may want to let them render longer - even overnight - for really great results.