Blender Cycles: How to make a Clay Render (no AO / no Lights)

Hi everybody. Sometimes, when you are creating a complex scene, you need a method to get a simple render of your objects, without taking account into materials, lights, backgrounds or environments. This is known as a clay render (see the image below). In some render engines you have an option to do this. But in Cycles you don't have it.

Hola a todos. Algunas veces, cuando estás creando una escena compleja, necesitas un método para conseguir un render simple de tus objetos, sin tener en cuenta materiales, luces, fondos o ambientes. Esto se conoce como un "clay render" o render de arcilla (ver imagen de abajo). En algunos motores de renderizado existe una opción para hacer ésto. Pero en Cycles no la tenemos.

Here there is a simple technique to get a clay render. You only need to set two node setups:

Aquí hay una técnica simple para conseguir un "clay render". Sólo necesitas dos configuraciones de nodos:

1. All the objects must have the same material. It should be as follows:

1. Todos los objetos deben tener el mismo material. Debería ser el siguiente:

The color should be RGB (0.8, 0.8, 0.8) or similar, and the roughness is 1.0. This use the Oren-Nayard algorithm for the diffuse shader. The Lambertian algorithm produces brighter colors and darker shadows, and it is used with roughness equal to 0.0.

El color debería ser RGB(0.8,0.8,0.8) o similar, y el parámetro roughness es 1.0. De este modo se utiliza el algoritmo Oren-Nayard para el shader diffuse. El algoritmo Lambertian produce colores más brillantes y sombras más oscuras y se utiliza con roughness igual a 0.0.

If you want to assign one material to all the objects in your scene, you can create it for one object, select this, then press A (select all objects, but the first is the active object), and go to menu Object >> Make Links >> Materials.

Si quieres asignar un material a todos los objetos de tu escena, lo puedes crear para un objeto, lo seleccionas, presionas A (selecciona todos los objetos, pero el objeto activo es el primero), y vas al menú Object >> Make Links >> Materials.

2. The world node setup must be this:

2. La configuración de nodos para el universo (World) debe ser esta:

You don't need to set lamps, meshlights or check Ambient Occlusion in your World settings. If you prefer another background color just change the blue color in that Background node. The white background node has a color value of RGB (1.0,1.0,1.0).

No necesitas colocar lámparas, mallas con luz o marcar oclusión ambiental en la configuración del universo. Si prefieres otro color de fondo cambia el azul en el nodo background. El nodo background blanco tiene un color con un valor RGB (1.0,1.0,1.0).

3. You can make your render less complex, relaxing some options in Render properties:
* uncheck Shadows
* check No Caustics

3. Puedes hacer tu render menos complejo, relajando algunas opciones de las propiedades de renderizado:
* desmarda Shadows
* marca No Caustics

Credits: You can download the example scene in blendswap (by @babydarling).


Créditos: Puedes descargar la escena de ejemplo en blendswap (por @babydarling).

Bye

Hasta la vista

Silk Material II

Hi everybody. Today I'm going to show you another silk material:

This is the node setup. It uses two Glass nodes and several Layer Weight >> Fresnel nodes to modify their colors and roughnesses.

Don't wait for a further explanation about this material because I discovered it when I was looking for an iridiscent material. It looks so in my normal test scene.

Bye

Blender Cycles: How to make a Rainbow

Hi everybody. Today I'm going to show you how to make a rainbow with blender and cycles. I discussed this subject in this blenderartist thread.

I will take this scene from blendswap (made by @Prebeo Animation Studios) to test my stuff.

I want to include a rainbow in this scene, on the left hand side.

This is what I see when I open the file:

As you can see the background of the scene is a plane with a texture image. I will set my rainbow just before the background. (note about the background: As I want the render to be realistic, I have flipped the background image file. This is because of the rainbow must be in the opposite side of the sun. See the thread above for further details about a realistic rainbow by @CarlG)

This are the steps to create my rainbow mesh:

1. Set the cursor on the background plain (press Shift + S >> Cursor to Selected)

2. Add a circle mesh (Add >> Mesh >> Circle)

3. Rotate the circle 90 degrees along the X axis (press  R X 90)

4. Scale it to see the circle better (press S and drag your mouse)

5. Edit your circle and extrude it (press E, and Enter)

6. Scale you new vertexes inside the circle (press S and drag your mouse)

7. Grab your rainbow mesh just a bit in front of the background, along the Y axis.

8. Locate it in a realistic position, on the opposite side of the sun and in an angle around 42 degrees.

9. Add a Subsurf modifier to smooth the shape

Now it's time to setup your rainbow material. As I need to set my texture along the mesh, I will use UV unwraping. In particular I have unwraping my rainbow mesh with Follow Active Quads >> Even option. Previously you must select all your vertexes.

This is the node setup I have used:

And this the texture options. Pay attention to the texture mapping (go to Properties >> Texture Button >> Mapping ):

The rainbow is finished. If you render the scene you will get the following:

EDIT: I have modified the scene changing the position of the sun, to get a more realistic render (the sun must be in the opposite place to the rainbow).

Hope you enjoy it!

Bye