NPR Render

[JeZ]

Hey Guys,
Ive been trying to come up with an easy recipe to do quick non-photo renders to replace the normal 2d export from SU.

What do you think?

Cheers.

Jerome

[Fletch]

I think I like your PR renders better.

[JeZ]

I would love to always do PR renders, but I cant spend that much time on every projects...

I took me something like 70min to design that thing, model it in sketchup, quick mat setup and render with twilight, do some sketch line export, play with everything in PS and then email it to my client...

I dont think I can do a photo render in that time frame.


I would be very interested to know kind of workflow you guys have!

Cheers.

Jerome

[Fletch]

well, with the right studio setup, Easy Medium+ gives pretty nice results fast - have you tried it?
we can always try to work on a setting that works for you...
what are your machine specs?
what is your speed test results on this scene?

[Chris]

With this specific model, because it's wood veneer, it comes across old and scuffed. I think for a larger scene it would look more NPR.

[Fletch]

I did a render time comparison chart once with some render settings that may interest you... for furniture studio shots.
I was using the "Alternative AA" render settings folder to get better blurry metals

[JeZ]

Hey guys,
Ive been thinking a lot about all this since I first posted the topic.

I think I started somewhat wrong thinking I could output prelim sketches as concept art.

Before I got twilight, my workflow was:

1- design and quick sketches with sketchup. Output: white faces, black lines, gray background, maybe a couple dimensions(very basic) sometime with textures.
2- client: yay! this is what I want.
3- quote
4- construction drawing with layout

Then, I thought I could be better than my competitors Here I am trying to pimp these sketches. What it needs to do is: 1- communicate whatever I wanna sell 2- be as aesthetic as possible without affecting #1 3- be very quick


Now what do I do with all this?

I think I am willing to setup mats and render with lower settings, but I cannot spend more time than that (studio setup, precise modeling, etc...)

I have done some twilight render + sketchy lines overlay. It is interesting, but not sure yet if it worth it. For sure, I will come up later with a concept art recipe using twilight.


Another thing to keep in mind: While I am still in design process, I need my images to not look too much real because people need to understand that is still only a concept and can be modified to whatever they want if it is not what they want.


Anyway, it feels kinda weird to have wrote all this, I guess I needed to spit it out and have someone look at it

If anyone have tips for speed rendering, it would be great. Ill post whatever I come up with using Twilight.

Cheers..


Jerome

[Fletch]

In this case,
I would:

1. do the quick model.
2. Apply the plastic shiny and other material templates where you need them.
3. Set the object on a flat ground plane or on a screen background as shown above.
4. Insert an HDR sky in the spherical sky slot that I know I like and works every time for me.
5. render on Easy 02 Low, Easy 03 Low+, or Easy 09 just a few minutes... 5-15mins.
6. Lay the rendered image in Photoshop over the top of my SketchUp Image exported withOUT edge lines, or export a very hi-res from SU with edgelines, but shrink it down to match my rendering size... so that my SU edge lines are thin/faint/not annoying.
7. Then I would play with blending modes for that rendered layer, and opacity of the layer until I got what I like.

Here are two great examples of NPR images done with this style... perhaps you can replicate them?
NPR Kitchen by Xrok1

NPR Design by Thomas


I have a script of actions I put together in Photoshop to automatically turn my image into a watercolor-ish image for me,it's something I developed years ago.
It looks like this:

SketchUp-TwilightRender-Combination.jpg (114.98 KiB) Viewed 9965 times

You could do the same, after you get a workflow you like, record the steps as an action you can perform on any image you want at any time to do the same work but in a few seconds.

Regarding low quality settings - if you are overlaying them in Photoshop of SU images anyway, check this comparison of images for settings vs. render times.

[JeZ]

Thanks Fletch! I will try it soon.

[JeZ]

hum... my 2 threads are call the same now

Heres a couple of quick test:

1- is straight SU export without "floor" (grayish white BG), then image resized. (I think this is the same lines as #3)
2- low+_AA3 with floor. lighting --> very basic pale gray sky color With hidden line export, multiply blend
3- Same as 2, but with more sketchy lines


I dont know if I prefer #2 or #3. This is definately better than #1, but still, I am not sure if it is worth it. Though it is fun to do

I might stick with the SU output for all my napkin grade sketches and invest more time in concept art for more interesting project/my designs.

Any C&C about anything would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Jerome