How to render a pillow in Rhinoceros

Hello!

First of all, thanks to Cam Newnham for his corrections in my poor English. Thanks to him, this article is readable for all of you :)

It’s me again, Matus. Several people have asked me how to model a pillow in Rhinoceros similar to that which I have been using in some of my scenes. Instead of just sharing this model I am going to show you how to do it! For modelling part click here (Part1). In this part you can see how to texture map the pillow, set up the scene, render it and how to tweak up final image in Photoshop postproduction.

Okay, let’s start! This is the pillow I have from the last step. I have switched from Rhinoceros 5 (now in WIP version) to Rhinoceros 4, where I have my V-ray engine installed. There was no problem in saving it in R4 format and I haven’t seen any mesh or geometry problems, so switching between these two Rhinoceros versions (R4 and R5) appears flawless.

In this picture you can see my settings for fabric material – it has got Diffuse and Bump maps, and of course – reflection layer with very low values. Set Reflection Glossiness to 0.4 and Highlight Glossiness to 0.2. Top up subdivs from 8 to 22. Rendertime is going to be longer by topping up last value, but you will get much better effect than with value of 8. Bump Map multiplier is set to 3, to get “higher” and more realistic effect.

Now pick your favorite fabric texture and apply it to your model. I chose this one not because it is my favorite, but because this will show me very well how the model is texture mapped. It looks creepy, probably, but do not hesitate!

Click Texture Mapping option in Rhino, select Custom Mapping and check values under UVW repeat. All of them are set to 1. Check also UVW rotation, where all values are set to 0 by default.

Adjust W rotation for every single surface until you are satisfied with the result. Usually values like 90 and -90 degrees are the best values for this. I am satisfied with values of 1 in UVW Repeat, so I am not going to change them in this step.

In here I’ve made special material for “pipes” – for parts where I used Pipe command. Check it out here: It has only a diffuse color and strong bump map (multiplier 4).

And that’s all for mapping textures. After next few steps I will get back to mapping options, but now I am going to set up the scene. The scene is very very simple. Have a look:

Let’s make some ground. Add V-ray Infinite Plane and make the square floor, like you can see in the image.

Here I have changed the materials of the pillows to make them look less uniform. Change the textures and check the surfaces and their mapping – in this step I have changed Repeat values to fix textures deforming on their surfaces. These values really depend on what size and ratio of your texture is, so please try to tweak it on your own.

In the scene is only one light – V-ray sun. Set the multiplier to 0.5 and adjust its position in the scene.

In this screenshot  you can see my complete V-ray Render Options: As you can see, my Irradiance Map is very low, Min and Max rate: both at -3 (only 1 prepass!) and only 20 samples. This will make my render very quick. I always use Physical camera, no matter what. In Environment section set your Sun light (usually Light 01) into GI and Background. Switch from Adaptive Subdivision to Adaptive DMC and turn your Antialiasing ON. Don’t forget to check Sub-pixel box under Color Mapping.

Render the scene. Rendering took maybe only 1 and a half minute at 800×954 pixels thanks to low Irradiance map. Safe the frame as HDR for better postproduction!

Open up Photoshop. Click IMAGE>MODE>16bit. Now turn your Gamma Value to 2.2 and move Exposure slider as you want. Now you are in 16 bit mode and you can use all the Photoshop adjusting effects. (You can use only some of them in 32-bit mode). As you can see, I’ve used Vibrance, Curves, Levels and Color balance effects. How the scene looks like depends on your monitor settings, so use the sliders until your image is really nice :)

I’ve also created some Vignetting effect. If you are using this step as I do, use dark blue color (sth like #041b36) for vignette layer.

You can also see Z-depth layer in my picture. This layer I have drawn myself. You can choose to generate it straight in V-ray channels option, but I decided to make my own. By generating a V-ray Z-depth channel you get physically correct blur in Photoshop, but what I wanted to do was to have an absolutely sharp first pillow, a slightly blurred second pillow and a heavily blurred last pillow, so I drew it using black, grey and white. Then I’ve used a very strong Gaussian blur value for this layer. After this, duplicate the layer with the pillows, go to CHANNELS, create new layer and paste previously drawn B&W layer. Now go to FILTER>BLUR>LENS BLUR. Now you can easily adjust Lens length and amount of blur using the B&W layer you have drawn! When you are satisfied, click OK an save your image :)

Now if you want to save your image, you can’t save it as JPG file. It’s because you are still in 16-bit mode. Go to IMAGE>MODE>8bit. Now you can save your image as JPG file.

And here is the final render with Adjustments in Photoshop. What do you think? Do you like it?

If you like my effort and this tutorial, or models helped you at least a little bit, please consider donation via PayPal :) If you want to support me, just click the PayPal banner in the right sidebar. Thanks a lot!

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