JANUARY 5, 2016 RHINO VRAY TOON + NEON RENDERING

PART I - RHINO VRAY TOON 1. Introduction to VRay Toon

VRay Toon is a simple atmospheric plugin that produces outlines on 3D geometry. It is most useful for diagrammatic renderings where program, height, and bulk needs to be distinguishable. VRay Toon is useful because it cuts out the need for producing 2D lines from 3D models, mapping them directly to the geometry as a material property. SOM has developed a set of best-practices to make setting up a scene with VRay Toon materials easy and customizable.

2. Getting Started: VRay Toon SOM Templates a. Locating the SOM Templates T:\SOMWI\VRAY TOON\ SOMWI_VRAYTOON_TEMPLATE.3dm b. Get acquainted with template features: Layers are sorted into SOM standards for program colors. Alternative color options are listed as sublayers.



There is a directional light in the scene as well as a sun. The directional light should be used to control direction and intensity of shadows. It is located in the ENVIRONMENT layer. Simple entourage geometry is native to the scene.

3. Setting up a scene in VRay Toon

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a. Import geometry It will be easiest to assign materials if your geometry is clean and sorted into distinguishable program or material layers.

T:\SOMWI\VRAY TOON\SAMPLEMODELTOON.3dm



The simplest way to import the geometry while maintaining your original coordinates is to copy/ paste directly into the template (as long as the units are correct).



Materials will come in as they were on the original model. From here, assign materials to the template layers.

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b. Assign materials

4. Customizing Settings in VRay Toon a. Switching layer materials. Double click on the material details in the layers panel to bring up the Layer Material window. Click “Browse” to switch to another existing material.

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b. Navigating the scene materials: base materials vs. Toon Click “edit” to navigate to the VRay Material Editor.

Each material in the template scene is composed of two layers: a diffuse layer (under the collapse) and a Toon layer.

DIFFUSE TOON LAYER

c. Changing colors of a base material Select the diffuse layer. Adjust color and transparency properties on the right.

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For materials with texture maps:

d. Changing lineweight in Toon

e. Creating a new material Start with an existing material that is close to the properties you would like to create.

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Right click to duplicate the material. Rename the new material D_GREEN



Assign the proper color to the new material.



Repeat the material dupliation process with a Toon layer. Rename D_Green_Toon In the material properties, set the Base Material as D_GREEN

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Create a new layer in the layer panel named GRASS.

Assign the material properties to the D_Green_Toon material you created.

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PART 2 - NEON RENDERING FOR RHINO 1. Introduction to Neon

Neon is a free ray-tracing viewport pugin for Rhino. It renders dynamically in the viewport to create atmospheric renderings without a complicated lighting and rendering setup. Neon is best used for quickly testing views of geometry. It’s texture mapping capabilities make it a step above screenshots for pinups and reviews.

2. Getting Started: Neon SOM Templates T:\SOMWI\NEON\ NEON_SOMWI.3dm

a. Layers The material layer colors will show render as curves and surface outlines for the geometry. The material properties will determine the color of the surfaces.

CURVE PROPERTIES

SURFACE PROPERTIES

b. Settings Neon is a viewport renderer that works off of Rhino render. Make sure your renderer is set to RhinoRender instead of VRay

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To import a Neon settings file:

View > Display Options > Display Modes > Import > T:\SOMWI\NEON\ Neon-SOMWI.ini

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To import a rendering environment for the scene:



Render > Render Properties > Rhino Render > Background > Environment > +New T:\SOMWI\NEON\Basic Environment 004.renv With settings in place, we can now adjust the lighting in the scene. Neon renders best with a Skylight. It can be beneficial to add a sun to be able to control shadows. If your geometry does not have a base, be sure to turn on the Ground Plane feature Command: Ground Plane

CHANGE MATERIAL HERE TO ADD TEXTURE MAP

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Make sure that the Lights and Sun panels are open and accessible. If not, type them into the command line to bring them up.

Adjust the properties for the Sun to suit desired shadow conditions. For initial renders, try keeping the shadows tight (high noon) until you are happy with the material mapping.

c. Customizing settings Despite the convenience of preset settings, it’s good to know how to There are several places to customize the settings for your Neon scene. For rendering settings, the controls live in Render > Render Properties Gamma: Higher brightens the scene, lower darkens the scene. Typically hovers somewhere between 2-4

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Neon Settings: Controls the amount of passes that render in the display. This affects the grain/noise in the scene, as well as render time. The default is 256 passes, but for working drawings printed at 11x17 the quality curve drops off somewhere around just 20.



Adjusting the number of passes can also be done within the viewport itself. Double click to edit.

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Similar to Toon or the Pen viewport, Neon will render surface edges for a more diagrammatic look. Enabling this is controlled in two places:

Render > Render Properties > Rhino Render > Miscellaneous As well as in the native material properties:

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