10 D5 Render Tips every Architect must know!

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
Let's talk about D5 Render tips and tricks. I've compiled the 10 most useful ones I know will change the way you create images in D5. Whether you're just learning this program or you're an advanced user, I'm certain there are valuable insights in this video for you. Now this video is sponsored by D5 and I'm super happy to be partnering up with them once again for a new video with a tool that I use on a daily basis. Now this is a custom project I designed myself specifically for this video and if you want to get your hands on the 3d model and see the images in detail. There will be links in the video description. Okay, if you have any questions, just drop them below as always and let's dive into the list. One, how to handle heavy models. Real time rendering has many advantages and it can achieve high quality results really fast. But that also comes at a price. It's much more demanding on your computer and it's a constant requirement while you're setting up the render and modifying the elements and not just when the final render is being generated. So learning how to work with heavy models and optimize your scene is one of the most important moves I would say. We all kind of wished we had a more powerful setup to do archviz work. So here are a few things I do to ensure I'm working as smoothly as possible. You gotta learn these shortcuts, F1 to the high quality real time visualization and F2 for a lower quality. In D5's words, that is F1 for precise and F2 for smooth, and I'm constantly, constantly switching back and forth between these modes, it mostly stays on F2 to be honest while I'm adding assets such as vegetation and F1 to get a really high quality preview when I'm setting up materials and testing environment lighting. Also, you gotta understand this object's filter here. I often like to group all of the vegetation or even switch them to a new layer so that I can turn them off when not in use. This helps to make D5 runs much quicker when I don't need the vegetation. For example, to set up some interior materials, I don't need the trees out there. Now, these scatter assets are not found here. If you want to turn them off, you need to select the imported model. I like to disable them as well and only switch them back on, on the final render. And lastly, make sure you're in static mode. Unless you're setting up video scenes, there's no need to have leaves or water moving while you're editing basic things. So, these things allows me to handle heavy scenes like this one, with tons of vegetation, scattered grass, displacement materials, and many more things, much faster. 2. Custom Materials Now the material asset library from D5 is fantastic, but it only gets you so far. If you want to truly get a unique result with the maximum quality possible, you have to learn how to take advantage of the custom PBR material workflow. There are plenty of libraries out there, free and paid. All you need are these texture maps. And D5 gives you full control while setting up materials, so take advantage of it. Same goes for the material template. Each one of them gives you a new set of sliders that allow you to take the material creation even further. These settings, and material creation as a whole, are essential for you to learn. Now if you don't know what all of these sliders do and how to work with them to get the result you want, here's the third tip. 3. Museum of Materials This file that DE5 offers allows you to fully immerse yourself in material creation and understand the sliders and learn everything there is to know about materials in DE5. I mean, if you had previous knowledge of what normals, roughness, displacement, and these sort of maps do in other render engines, you'll probably figure it out here in DE5. Just by playing with the sliders while you're creating a scene. But if you're starting from zero or haven't fully understood how PBR material works, this is going to help you a lot in your archivist journey, so you understand subtle but important things that DE5 has, especially when compared to other render engines. You can learn about some advanced moves in material creation here. For example, using the subsurface scattering can help to increase the level of realism in your renderings. Also, look at how many types of glass you can achieve just by using different normal maps. All of that can be seen in real time with correct reflections while you are setting up the render. Now you can find this file in the explore area before starting a new file. It is quite heavy, but I highly recommend checking it out. 4. Mastering scene creation I've talked about this briefly in my last video on D5, but cameras have improved since I last covered it. Now there's no need to place custom cameras as a separate object to take full control over the scene creation step. It is a bit easier now, but just as powerful or even more. And there are a few key things to note. So let me show you. When you create a scene, this camera button will appear next to the scene name. Click on it. And now you're in control of the camera. You can pin this preview to continue editing the framing of your scene while you're moving objects around. Quite handy to perfect that scene framing. And while editing the camera, you also have the aspect ratio controls here that allow you to really craft your scene. Over the image export area, you can do different proportions, but it's only a crop of your standard view. Meaning, fewer pixels and a less accurate display of your custom aspect ratio. Not really ideal to set up through here. So click on this camera, and set up your aspect ratio, update the scene so that you get that saved, and now you can go into the image export and render the image with the accuracy of a custom aspect ratio. A total game changer for me. And as a bonus tip inside scenes, don't forget to use all of the weather effects the real time visualization of DE5 has. Each scene holds these environment settings. So you can play with wind to increase the realism when doing video. And if you're using geo and sky, you then have the full control of the clouds, and you can even animate them in a video. And then my favorite of them all, precipitation. You can choose between rain and snow, and this is fantastic to create that moody image, as if it had just rained. It helps to make the exterior flooring feel way more real and complex. Not to mention that if you increase the puddle slider, You also get rain streaks on the glass. 5. Render Elements, 3D People, and Photoshop Now, you all know how I'm not a big fan of 3D people. I mean, they can work when used far from the camera, but in a space like this, I personally feel that it would be too distracting to have a 3D like person. Not all scenes need people, but they help you give a sense of scale that is often much needed. Now, render channels or elements, as they are often called, are vital in a visualization workflow. It enables you to do some serious post production in Photoshop. So whenever exporting an image with D5, make sure to enable them here. It's always handy to have them ready when doing post production work. And then we can render two images, one with the 3D person and one without it. And then use the Material ID channel to duplicate this person. So we have it in a separate layer. We can convert it to a smart object, so we can do this non destructively, and apply a subtle motion blur effect. The exact value here usually depends on how the photo was taken and how much time the lens was kept open. I mean, obviously this is virtual and there's no actual lens, but if we looked at this as a virtual architectural photograph. That's how it would work. So I encourage you to take a look at real photographers to learn how people are portrayed in architectural images. By the way, if you're enjoying this content, that's what this channel is all about. Architectural visualization and representation. So be sure to subscribe to not miss any more tips and tricks in the future. Let's take a look at tip number six. AI tools. Out of all of the render engines out there, we could say that D5 has the lead on implementing AI tools into the Archviz workflow. Not with the idea of just converting a basic model into a realism with one click, that sort of stuff, but rather help us achieve certain tasks faster. It is still with more basic things for now, but with the rhythm that they are pushing out updates. This category will get more and more present in future versions, I'm sure. I encourage you to get a look at all of the AI implementations they already did, but the AI generated texture maps are, in my opinion, such a valuable addition. Sure, they have the ready to use materials from the D5 library, or you can do the custom PBR materials you downloaded from a website, but sometimes you need that specific texture. Let's say from a specific supplier or from a photo you took from a site visit. So you can simply import the texture on the BaseColorMaps slot and let D5's AI generate the maps for you. They might not be 100 percent correct, but it's certainly better than no maps. And then you use the sliders and options to fine tune the results even more. The AI Atmosphere match can also be quite handy to quickly test different results. You grab an image as a reference, one you like the mood. And then you can use that image and ask D5's AI to analyze it and translate it into environment panel settings. From here you can always tweak the settings even further if you feel the need. 7. Imperfections To achieve realism, you need to make your renders look worn out, imperfect. Too perfect 3Ds have the tendency to look video game like. Surfaces that are too even, edges that are too sharp, reflections that are too straight, they make your renders look flat and fake. So to take the realism up a notch on my images, I like to use D calls. They help to make the surfaces feel dirty and stained. It all needs to be very subtle here, so don't forget to play with the opacity. You can find D calls in D five's asset library. Under models, you'll find many different categories of D calls and they are super useful. Round edges is essential to almost cyber material. It's not the same as having actual round geometry on the edges back in your 3D model. But this sure gets the result without weighing down your model even more with extra vertices and faces. And then, as I mentioned with the last DFI video I did, add some normals to the glass to make it slightly uneven. I'm hoping in a future update we even get the option to add imperfections directly to materials. Or even get some sliders to really take control over weathering, smudges, scratches and more. 8. Interior Parallax One of those things I wish I had this back when I started. Sometimes you need to fill in commercial spaces, high rises, or anything really, with life. No time to model a random interior that's just only gonna simulate life, that's not really that important. So you use interior parallaxes. On this specific model, it doesn't really justify that much. I would say it works mostly for bigger models and especially commercials, but in a typical workflow inside an architectural firm, where time is a major factor in creating visualizations, this can be a lifesaver. Interior parallaxes are lightweight and allows you even a little bit of control over the lighting and positioning of some elements. And then when combined with glass reflections or even some curtains, this is enough to populate interiors that are not the focus of the image. I used to try to do this type of stuff in Photoshop, but it was always a big headache because the images never lined up or match the perspective and interior parallaxes solve all of that. 9. Local exposure A new addition to D5 that has been my favorite slider before exporting images. Now instead of going directly to the whole exposure slider and sometimes even changing the entire scene view, you can maintain the overall lighting and just gain back some vital information from blown out areas. Photoshop is fantastic for post production and fine tuning some exposure settings, but if it's blown out, there's nothing you can do. So before this feature existed, you had to rely And this is the main thing that I like about Photoshop. These are not that powerful. But these two new sliders, if used correctly, can be a real superpower. You dial down the highlights to have even more control over post production in Photoshop. 10. Most useful shortcuts Let's finalize this list with a quick shortcut list of what I often use in D5. Now, D5 is not a program that relies heavily on shortcuts, but still, there are some important ones that can definitely speed up your work. We saw the F1 and F2 to change the real time quality. I mean, that's one of the most important ones. Then we got F8 to enable two point perspective. and P to go back to normal perspective. The P shortcut is quite handy when you're in a side view mode and just want to go back to the normal perspective view. Now while in fly mode, which is my preferred way of navigating around D5, hold shift to accelerate. And space to slow it down. Then one of the most common ones, instead of coming here to pick a material, you can click I to do the material pick and edit it. And then O to paste that material onto another surface. Just keep in mind that they will stay as different instances of the material. They are not linked. If you want to apply the exact same material but linked, then it needs to be done back in the 3D. V to switch the gizmos from move to scale. Control D to duplicate a selected object. And then lastly, when applying a scattered and want to quickly erase it, just hold alt. While on the tool and what I often do is I apply with the settings see if it works and then alt click To delete everything and go again until I achieve the result. I'm looking for I mean, this is minor But it saves me a few seconds every time I want to redo the scattered because control Z doesn't work for this specific tool I don't know why it does for everything else only not Alright, after all of these tips, hopefully you came out of this video with more knowledge on rendering with D5. Don't forget that it's really easy to start using D5 with the free community version. Get in now with the first link in the video description. And if you stayed until the end of the video, I want to let you know that I'm currently working on a D5 premium course. And if you want to be the first one to hear about it when it comes out, there's also a link in the video description to sign up for the waiting list. This link will be updated to the actual course link once the lessons are finished and published. The finished this. Now let me know what other tips would you add to this list, just comment them down below to help other students and if you haven't seen my review on D5 which also includes some other tips, just click here to watch it.
Info
Channel: Upstairs
Views: 31,728
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Upstairs, Learn, Architecture, Visualization, Representation, D5 Render, Render Tips and Tricks, Architectural Visualization, Real-time Rendering, 3D Rendering Techniques, D5 Render Tutorial, Architectural Rendering Tips, D5 AI Tools, Rendering Workflow, 3D People
Id: 853xJao59S8
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)
Published: Thu Mar 07 2024
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.