Photoreal render settings

The rendering engine for Photoreal renders is Eyesight. It offers many options.

A. Render quality

The main parameter to determine the quality of the render and, therefore, the computation time, is the number of samples used to compute each pixel of the image.

Studio offers three predefined settings:

• Medium: will use 128 samples,
• High: will use 256 samples,
• Very High: will use 512 samples.

And you can define the number of samples if you choose Custom.

B. Background and light presets

You can save your background and light settings in named presets.

To create a preset:

1. Define your settings
2. Click the Save as action link (c).

To modify a preset:

1. Change your settings
2. Click the Save action link (b).

To choose and apply a preset to the current render:

1. Click on the dropdown list (a) to expand it
2. Click on the preset name.

C. Background

Eyesight offers two options: a solid background color or a transparent background.

To change the current color

1. Click on the current color (a).
2. The color dialog appears to edit the color:
   

Studio can memorize your favorite background colors (b).

To use a favorite color:

Click on its patch.

To add a new favorite color:

1. Click on the + button (c).
2. A new patch of color appears in the current color.

To change a favorite color:

1. Click on the patch to select it.
2. Click on the patch again to open the color dialog.

D. Light settings

a. Light type: Eyesight offers up to five preset lights:

• Building: A simple setting with four harsh lights (photo studio lights).
• Mechanic: A simple setting with three subdued lights.
• Asteroid: A subdued natural lighting.
• Dawn: A sunny morning light.
• Piazza: A natural daylighting.

b. Initial position: Defines the initial position of the main light: left or right of the picture and front or rear (back) of the model.

c. Modify position: You can adjust the position of the light by rotating the preset lights:

• around X, the horizontal left-right axis. For a front light, the direction is down. If you add 45° to the left-front Building, the light will be lowered near the ground level.
  
  
• around Y, the vertical axis. The direction is counterclockwise. For instance, if you add 90° to a left-front light, you get a right-front light.
  
  

d. Light intensity: Defines the intensity of the lights. You will want to lower it if you want to see the effect of glowing or luminous colors.

E. Device

This setting defines if you want to use your CPU (main processor) or your GPU (discrete graphics card).

GPUs are often way more efficient than CPUs for rendering.

F. Camera presets

You can save your camera settings in named presets.

To create a preset

1. Define your settings,
2. Click the Save as action link (c).

To modify a preset:

1. Change your settings,
2. Click the Save action link (b).

To choose and apply a preset:

1. Click on the dropdown list (a) to expand it
2. Click on the preset name.

G. Camera settings

a. Perspective / Orthographic: Perspective is like in real life, where objects get smaller the farther they are. With Orthographic, the objects are the same size (like in building instructions).

b. Rotation: Define and show the camera angles.

• Predefined views: Those buttons set the X and Y angles to common predefined values.
• X and Y angles: Define the angles of rotation around the X, the horizontal left-right axis, and Y, the vertical axis. You can also change these angles by holding the right mouse button and dragging the mouse in the Preview panel.
  
  The X rotation angle is 0° on the ground, -90° on top of your design.
  The Y rotation angle is counterclockwise, 0° is front of your design, 90° on its left.

c. Pan: Define the horizontal and vertical offset of the image, relative to the 0,0 center of your design. You can also change these values by holding the left mouse button and dragging the mouse in the Preview panel.
The values can be set to 0,0 by clicking the Center button in the top right corner of the Preview panel.

d. Zoom: Defines the distance of the camera to your design. Decrease the value to get closer to your design. You can also change this value by using the mouse wheel in the Preview panel.

e. Field of view: The angle of view of the camera. A greater value gives a “fisheye” effect. A lower value flattens the perspective (the unattainable value of 0° is similar to Orthographic). 15° is a good default value.

H. Material Effects

Studio can add effects to make the picture even more realistic. These effects also add to the computation time.

• Stud logo: Defines whether you want to see the LEGO logos on the parts.
• UV Degradation: Simulates the effect of UV rays and aging on the bricks’ colors (known as yellowing), like it happened with older LEGO bricks.
• Scratches: Adds random scratches and bite marks on the parts.