A quality that Shade possesses post rendering is its ability to merge a background into the scene much like how post composition worked using Photoshop in the previous artefacts. The benefit of this is that it cuts out the post production stage when amending the rendered image. However after the conclusions in previous it is always worth having the post production stage. The final image can be seen in Figure 6.
Figure 6The model was tested with 3D Studio Max lighting. From previous artefact conclusion the best rendering solution should be Mental Ray with it’s in built capacity to access indirect illumination – like Shade does and therefore giving a result that would be similar to the render from Shade. After countless tweaking of specifications the render below in Figure 7 is the best production of lighting for the model. Notice the shadows are sharper and also are not as soft and present at the back of the model. As discussed above how Shade lighting works is by creating an imaginary sphere around the object allowing light to hit and reflect back allocating softer more realistic shadows.
Figure 7. Rendering time 4 seconds.When asking peers which they thought had the most realistic looking shadows all answers were positive for the Shade render. Away that 3D Studio max can create this sort of imagery is by using an advanced plug-in called VRay. It works in a similar way to how lighting in Shade works by calculating algorithms such as ‘path tracing’. This is advancement from raytracing where it calculates extended rays from around the scene instead of specific object thus lighting from a larger area, such as the “sphere” surrounding the object in Shade. An example of Vray can be seen in Figure 8 Titled Stitch Guy. The results are positive as the lighting system can make a model have a positive realistic result.
Figure 8. ‘Stitch Guy’ by Andrei CirduEvaluation
Lighting in 3D Studio Max has its limits until a user does pay for advanced plug-ins such as V ray. Shade however creates renders using lighting systems similar to how V ray works, using algorithms and calculating paths of light that not only hit a specific object but manage other objects in a scene to create realistic softer shadows. Thus enrolling certain realism to an object. As the Shade application creates an imaginary sphere around a model for lighting, a user can set up a scene ready for rendering quickly and easily. However using such an application to create realistic renders is time costly as well. Image based lighting in shade can also be beneficial to produce a mood to a scene and also project unusual coloured lighting with dramatic effects that may have not been thought of before he lighting process.
Conclusion
The rendered output created from the Shade application does give very good results in terms of realistic lighting and shading. It would however be partially unpractical to use when a lot of frames are needed to be rendered such as an animation unless a rendering farm were available. Due to the length of each render the quality does stand out from the mental ray renderer in 3D Studio Max and this advanced realistic approach would be beneficial. A user must then approach a project in a manner that will decide what format, how a scene will be viewed, what speed a scene may be walked through and also think about the time costs before choosing which method would be best to create output. As realism can be more beneficial and a viewer can perceive this in a positive way, photorealism however is not always needed.
References
Figure 8 - ‘Stitch Guy’ – Andrei Cirdu - http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114720 Accessed 24/4/08
