Set up a render scene

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Set up a render scene.

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After completing this video,

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you'll be able to

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select a scene environment,

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control scene settings,

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and change scene camera settings.

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In fusion,

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we want to begin with the supplied data set,

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quadcopter render.

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F3D.

00:20

We're gonna use this as an example for creating a rendered image.

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We're gonna start by navigating to the render workspace and talk

00:27

about some of the basics of setting up a render.

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There are many tools in here and we're not gonna be covering them all,

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but some of the basics are setting up your scene and your appearances,

00:36

working on either an in canvas render or a local or cloud rendered image,

00:40

and talking about rendering things like turntable animations.

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The first thing that we want to do when we're

00:45

setting up a render is talk about our scene settings.

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There are a couple key areas to the scene settings.

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First is going to be whether or not we're using the environment just for lighting,

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or if we're actually going to show the environment in our rendered image.

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By default,

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we'll be using a solid color

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and the color will be gray.

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We can change the color by left clicking here

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and changing the color settings.

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We can also determine whether or not we want to use the environment itself.

01:12

In many cases,

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the environment,

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such as sharp highlights will have a dark gray or a black scene.

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As we rotate the model,

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you're going to start to see some of the background come through.

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And that's because the environments are using HDR images.

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The HDR images will provide not only a background image,

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but they'll also provide the lighting for our scene.

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As we take a look at some of the other ones,

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for example,

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dry lake bed,

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if we drag this into the canvas area,

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you can see that we're now using the dry lake bed environment.

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As we rotate it around,

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you can see some of the ground and some of the information that's provided here.

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And one of the big things to consider

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is that the objects size and scale proportional to

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the environment is going to make a big difference as to whether it looks real or not.

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Oftentimes,

01:58

it's difficult for us to interface our 3D models

02:01

with an HDR environment.

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So things like vehicles or in this case,

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our quadcopters sitting on the ground.

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The larger the intersection between our objects and the environment,

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the harder it's going to be to make it look realistic.

02:14

There are some things that we can do.

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For this,

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we're gonna take a look at the plaza.

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I'm gonna drag this in.

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And notice that the plaza has a large sort of parking lot area.

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We've got some cobblestones and there's some wet areas.

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The size and scale of our object is going to have

02:31

a big impact on whether or not this looks real.

02:34

If we have an extremely large quadcopter,

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it obviously looks way out of place here.

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And if we scale it way down,

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well then it's going to be really hard for us to see.

02:43

But there are a couple of things that we can do.

02:46

Back on our scene settings,

02:47

we have an option to flatten ground.

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When you're using a realistic environment like this,

02:53

flattening the ground can oftentimes help with the realism,

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because it turns the ground plane into a material or an image that

03:01

we can use and have some bump map and have some texture too.

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It also helps with the scale of our objects.

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In many cases,

03:08

you may want reflections,

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but you have to make sure that it makes

03:11

sense for the environment that you're working in.

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In this case,

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we're not gonna see any reflections on the ground here,

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but if we happen to put our object near one of the puddles,

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you may see a reflection depending on that image.

03:24

Some other things that we should consider when we're setting up a render

03:27

is we should talk about whether or not we even want a ground plane.

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In some instances,

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like with the case of our quadcopter,

03:34

you may want it up in the air.

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So having a ground plane and flattening the

03:38

ground plane doesn't really make much sense.

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We also do have a bit of control over the

03:44

position of our images by using the position option.

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We can rotate things around if we're trying to get to a certain perspective.

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So this can really help with the realism of our object.

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Depending on which scene you're using,

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you may find more or less control here.

03:60

Uh,

03:60

so in this case,

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we've just got a rotation option.

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Another thing that we want to consider is going to be the camera itself.

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Now,

04:07

in general,

04:08

we want to have perspective,

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but the focal length is gonna dictate

04:12

the object itself.

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So for example,

04:14

if we had a quadcopter flying at us,

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we would want to have a smaller focal length number and

04:20

this would give the object some depth and potentially some speed.

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We also have some exposure values and we can modify the depth of field.

04:29

When we're talking about depth of field,

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this works well with larger objects where you may not be

04:35

able to focus your entire attention on the whole object.

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So for example,

04:40

if we had a vehicle,

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we may want to focus our attention on the front wheel.

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Or a certain portion of the vehicle.

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And what depth of field will allow us to do is blur

04:50

objects that are before and after that sort of area.

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It gives us a sense of clipping planes.

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So this is a very nice technique to give a little bit more realism to our objects,

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especially if they are sitting on the ground.

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There are also other options that we can explore,

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but for the most part,

05:07

it's important to pay attention to

05:09

whether or not you're using the environment or a solid color,

05:13

keeping in mind that the environment is going to dictate the lighting in the scene,

05:16

and the background is going to determine the environment that it's sitting in.

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We also want to make sure we understand the ground plane options.

05:24

Whether or not we're using a ground plane could potentially

05:27

clip off some of our objects.

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So if you have objects that are going to be below the ground plane

05:33

and you turn that option on,

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well then the object itself may be hidden.

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We also want to keep in mind camera settings,

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the focal length,

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exposure values,

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and depth of field.

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These are all going to play a big part in the realism of our object.

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And if you use the same settings often,

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you can save these as default,

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so you don't have to configure them each time you come in.

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For now,

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let's go ahead and close this and make sure that we save this before we move on.