How to Make Renders

Rendered Image

When you look at computer-generated animated movies, television shows or stills, what you are really looking at is a single rendered image. A rendered image is one that the computer has run through a series of algorithms related to the visual properties of light, such as brightness, shadow and reflectivity. The computer creates a visual simulation of what the various "objects" in the scene would look like under the applied lighting conditions. This is a render. A CGI movie is made up of thousands of these shown sequentially. To make renders, you need a program that has a render engine, such as Vue Infinite.

Things You'll Need

• Vue Infinite or other CGI program

Instructions

Rendering Images

1. Open Vue Infinite. Go to File, and click "New." Select which of the atmospheres you would like to use. The ones marked "GR" (Global Radiosity) or "GI" (Global Illumination) will take much longer to render, but can produce much more realistic results.

2. Create a simple scene by going to the Toolbar on the left and clicking on the "Standard Terrain" icon. Then go to the wireframe terrain in your scene, grab the handle at the top of its bounding box (the lines around it). Drag the handle down to reduce the height.

3. Click "Object," then "Change Object Material." Go to "Landscapes" and select something you like. This will apply a material to the terrain. Now right-click the "Plant" icon, and select a tree for your scene (the spring cherry tree is nice).

4. Go to the top and right-click on the little "Camera" icon. In the render dialog box that pops up, select the settings you want. These setting are very complex and require time to master. For now, just select "Final" from the "Preset Render Quality," and click "Render." Your image will render in the view.

5. Click on the little "Save Displayed Image" icon just above the image, and save your file.

References

• More Advanced Vue Renders

Resources

• Vue Infinite