Topic: Vector Rendering

[SEANT]

I’ve always been a big fan of rendering.  I used to do a bit of full color rendering back in the 3ds Max R3 era – not so much anymore.  Mostly line work (or programming) these days.

In addition to the raster oriented full colors renderings, I also a fan of 2d vector rendering.  The look and performance of such renderings are compelling.  The crisp details, the scalability – I’ve always felt there was a place for them in the CAD world.

Over the past 15 years or so (not very speedy, but I am tenacious), I’ve given the process some attention.   Here is a demo of the current state of the effort.  Still a long way to go – lots of tweaks, optimization, and UI work remain.

As can be seen in the screencast, I’m concentrating on B&W.  That has the most applicability in my workflow.  I suppose, though, that color could be beneficial and may be something I devote more time to in the future.

The computational process used certainly favors the parallel nature of outdoor lighting.  As a matter of fact, diffuse and multi point lighting may be intractable. 

Even with the limited light source, these renderings do require serious processing – hence the simplicity of the scene.  I’ll post more complex renders as they become available.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/09614848-7e64-4fa8-b6fd-f3428f7a89ee

[SEANT]

Here’s a layout with a little more meat on the bones.  Another pergola, but this one uses a partial hyper/parabolic canopy to enhance viewer interest. 

[SEANT]

This is another view of the same model.  My renderer was glitching like a bastard, so the print needed some post work.  I may have gotten carried away.

[nobody]

Manga artists would love you

I’ve always been a big fan of rendering.  I used to do a bit of full color rendering back in the 3ds Max R3 era – not so much anymore.  Mostly line work (or programming) these days.

In addition to the raster oriented full colors renderings, I also a fan of 2d vector rendering.  The look and performance of such renderings are compelling.  The crisp details, the scalability – I’ve always felt there was a place for them in the CAD world.

Over the past 15 years or so (not very speedy, but I am tenacious), I’ve given the process some attention.   Here is a demo of the current state of the effort.  Still a long way to go – lots of tweaks, optimization, and UI work remain.

As can be seen in the screencast, I’m concentrating on B&W.  That has the most applicability in my workflow.  I suppose, though, that color could be beneficial and may be something I devote more time to in the future.

The computational process used certainly favors the parallel nature of outdoor lighting.  As a matter of fact, diffuse and multi point lighting may be intractable. 

Even with the limited light source, these renderings do require serious processing – hence the simplicity of the scene.  I’ll post more complex renders as they become available.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/09614848-7e64-4fa8-b6fd-f3428f7a89ee

[SEANT]

Manga artists would love you

Really! I hadn't thought about that trade as a potential market.  Sounds interesting though.

My initial notion was as an alternative to full color architectural renderings - the type that requires expensive glossy paper and high end printers to convey the best hardcopy information. 

The vector renders could be printed alongside the 2d plans.  Perhaps during the initial concept phase.  Let the pricier, full color renders accompany the final sale sets.

Quite frankly, I'm not exactly sure there is any market at all for this limited type of rendering.  Doing the programming was entertaining.  That's good enough for the time being.

Currently working on code that allows the process to handle Blocks/Xrefs.

[MickD]

Nice work Sean!

[SEANT]

Thanks Mick. 

And I hope to keep work progress nice and steady - a 'theswamp.org' hallmark. 

Or, A scant 15 more years should have this project ready for public consumption.

[SEANT]

The work I’m doing now for this rendering process reminds me of the tricks that were required in the old Scanline rendering days.  Here, I pre-make assets to speed up the process, hopefully without compromising the results.

These Xref assets require additional work beyond what would be optimum for modeling/detailing but, as assets, can be reused for other projects.  Especially something like trees.  And, regarding the trees, the Xref file contains a shadow mask (Region).  That mask needs to be transformed accordingly, but that is still way more efficient than processing the insane number of facets required for the leaves. 

I’ve included the base AutoCAD file to illustrate the intermediate step in the rendering process.  Upon examination you’ll notice that some of the shadow processing is done via the PDF Printer Z buffering.  Which is to say that ground shadows are masked by Shading, which is in turn masked by object shadowing.  One benefit to that is the ability to render the scene objects via separate passes.

There is still a bit of glitching, as can be seen in the PDF at the slide and for one of the tree shadows.  I’m still tweaking a function or two.  Plus, the whole user interface is still quite horrendous, as can be seen in the screencast.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/fb57a2d0-7a9f-4692-a05a-f8b3d3123989