Render Development

December

Once I had completed the lighting of the scene, modelling and texturing was completed. It was time to compile these elements together into the single scene. Siobhan had lead the pre-production stage, now I was leading the post-production including rendering and compositing. As mentioned in a previous post, this required a technical understanding to ensure the scene could be rendered in good time.

I faced many problems regarding the rendering. I had to change a number of elements within the scene such as the number of trees, the size of the whole scene and the number of lights. All of these elements increased the time of the render for each scene. Initially I intended to use Renderman for this project; because Renderman is one of the better renderers with the best results which I believed would enhance out group’s work. However I found this needed complete dedication and a deep understanding of the software; which I did not have time for within this project.

My second choice of renderer was Mental Ray, because the results can still be good quality. I used mental ray for a while throughout the project; however towards the end of the project the render times became very long. Even after reducing the file size in a number of ways, Mental Ray continued to have problems with rendering. On multiple occasions the render would stop for no reason with no warning leaving me to believe it had rendered.

As time grew shorter I had to make the decision of using a different renderer, to ensure the scene was completed before the deadline. I began to explore other renderers:

As shown different renderers provide different results. For our project I chose the Maya Software renderer because it had one of the shortest times, and the results weren’t as dark as the others. The results weren’t exactly what the group initially intended; however we understand the choices we needed to make both creative and practical to ensure the project is completed on time.