Event Renderings with a Bigger Impact

How can you make your client happy?

This is probably a question you’ve asked yourself countless times. And while putting on an excellent show or production is always your number one priority, providing your client with effective renderings can also be a great way to win a project, keep a client happy, or build your own brand.

Read on to learn how to create a bigger impact with your renderings.

First Thing’s First — Find Your Style and Make It Repeatable

Now we know what you’re thinking: “I don’t have time to spend on renderings.”

We hear you. The often razor-thin timeframes in the entertainment industry set it apart from other design disciplines. So before we get into specific ways to improve the effectiveness and realism of your renderings, we wanted to share an over-arching piece of advice.

A great way to efficiently create realistic renderings is to set up a template file and a favorites folder with consistently used resources so your signature rendering look is easily repeatable.

Additionally, you can set your favorite Renderworks Styles as part of your template file. Taking the time on the front end to create your own templates, resources, and styles will ultimately speed up your process of creating stylish renderings that stand out.

Resolution of Sheet Layers and Camera Viewports

Ok — now on to the fun stuff.

The first thing you can do to create more stunning renderings is to adjust the resolution of your renderings. A higher resolution can help you show more detail in your renderings and paperwork.

Design layers, sheet layers, and any camera used to create viewports in Vectorworks are natively set to 72 DPI. This is completely fine when modeling and setting up your file; but when the time comes to render, you may want to increase your DPI.

Sheet layer DPI can be adjusted in the Organization window, while camera viewports (like for the Renderworks Camera) can have their resolution adjusted in the Object Info Palette (OIP).

300 DPI is a good number to set if you want to produce stunning images, but it can increase your rendering times. So, we recommend waiting to up your DPI until the end of your project when you’re creating final presentations.

There may also come a time where you want to pass off the heavy lifting to Vectorworks Cloud Services. With Cloud Computing, for example, you can shift your resource-heavy hardware processing of rendering viewports so you can keep your creativity flowing.

Click here to learn more about getting started with Vectorworks Cloud Services.

Creating Custom Renderworks Textures

You can use custom Renderworks textures, available directly in Vectorworks, to create client-ready renderings.

Renderworks textures are composed of four shaders:

1. Color
2. Reflectivity
3. Transparency
4. Bump

Adjusting these shaders will give you a ton of control over the textures you’re creating in your renderings. If you increase transparency, for example, you’ll start to be able to see through the model, which could be useful for adding realism when designing with materials like plexiglass.

Lighting of Renderings

Custom Renderworks Options

If you have more time to spare, you can go even deeper into your Renderworks customization by adjusting the lighting of your renderings.

You can enable/disable several different options with Render> Options> Custom Renderworks Options. Options within the menu, like Anti-Aliasing, which will help smooth jagged edges on objects, shadows, textures, or camera effects.

You could also use the Indirect Lighting option in the Custom Renderworks Options menu to edit the number of reflective surfaces to which your lighting devices can adjust.

Heliodon Object 

Using a Heliodon object with custom Renderworks styles can create strong sunlight effects and soft-edged shadows. The sun-like realism a Heliodon object provides is perfect if you’re working on an outdoor production, whether it be a music festival or corporate event.

To use a Heliodon with Renderworks styles:

1. Open an existing model, and set the desired 3D view.
2. Select View > Rendering > Shaded Options, and select Use Shadows. (Making this selection will let you see the shadows and set the time of day or year for a preview of what you'll get with your final Renderworks style.)
3. Select View > Rendering > Shaded.
4. From the Visualizationtool set, click the Heliodon tool, and place a heliodon object in the drawing.
5. Select your desired Renderworks style.

Light Tools

And lastly, there are the lighting design tools you have at your disposal in Vectorworks Spotlight. The Spotlight tool, specifically, is a great way to fill in parts of your rendering that may need some additional light.

Within the OIP, you can change the brightness, color, beam and field angles, and even fall-off to help mimic other lighting instruments used in your design. 

With more impactful renderings, you’ll better communicate your artistic vision, win more projects, and fill your clients with overwhelming confidence in your ideas.

For more tips on improving the efficiency of your rendering process, click here.