This document summarizes the steps taken to create a 3D rendering of a chair and lamp scene using SketchUp and Photoshop. Key steps included importing models, creating realistic materials, setting up lighting and camera, rendering with adjustments to improve quality, and post-processing in Photoshop including adding a gradient light layer to enhance realism. The purpose was to practice replicating the look of real photos as inspiration for simple scenes within the hardware limitations of an aging computer.

1. Mini The Making Series
With my computer just about to turn 4yrs old, the renders I
can do are pretty much limited by the hardware. To keep
myself in the game and continue to learn and improve, I’ve
started doing Simple Scenes. For these Scenes I often use pics
from design websites as inspiration. Then I use PhotoMatch
inside SU to basicly try to replicate the ‘look and feel’ in my
render as it is in the original photo.
This is one of the more recent ones, and here are the steps I
took to make it happen.

2. This is my scene in SketchUP. Because I had GI turned off, I didn’t have to model anything except for the things that are going to be in
the shot. As you can see in the screenshot above, I used Advanced Camera Tools that are available in SketchUP8. This was the first time
I used those tools, but from what I’ve seen the camera is more like the one in 3DSMax then the regular camera in SU. Anyway…

3. The chair model I downloaded from the web. It was an 3ds file but it was not big so it could be easily imported into SketchUp. I did
have to edit the seat a bit because there were some artifacts when rendered. Redrew a few lines and used Artisan plugins’ Subdivide
and Smooth tool to get the chair just right. As you can see it looks pretty now :) The rest of the scene was easy to model.

4. Materials
For the Glass matiral I created a Reflection and Refraction layers, and changed all IOR values to 1.6.

5. For the Chrome I created a Reflection layer with a Fresnel map and changed the Reflecion IOR to 18.55. Many people don’t use a map
for reflection when creating Chrome, but I find that I had more control over the reflections if I do it this way.

6. For the lamp I created a Steal material (although It is probably made of aluminum :)). Again there is a Reflection layer with a Fresnel
map. The IOR was changed to 10.55. Highlight Glossiness 0.8, Reflection Glossiness 0.75. I thought that an anisotrophy material would
work best for this lamp, so I changed the Shader Type to Ward and put -0.15 for the Anisotrophy to stretch the reflections vertically.

7. For the floor I loaded a Bitmap map. Then created a Reflection layer with a default Fresnel map. I also used Bitmap maps for the
Highlight and Reflections. For the bump map I also used a Bitmap, and lowered the multiplier to 0.25.

8. Diffuse Refletion Bump

9. Lighting
For the lighting I used a Spotlight with the Intensity of 5.0 and a yellow color. (The inside of the lamp is emissive too for better effect).

10. Cone angle was increased to 1.5, and Phanumbra angle to 0.25 which softens the edges of the shadows. To make the shadows really
soft I had to encrease the Shadows Radius to 100, and the Shadows Subdivisions to 48.
P.S. I still havent found the option that allows you to ajdust the vertical distance from the light source to the actual light :(

11. Because this scene was a part of a restoraunt setting, I wanted some more light coming from the sides and creating some aditional
shadows and reflections, but in the final image you can hardly even notice them :)

12. Settings
Camera settings: Shutter Speed 100, ISO 400

13. For the Image Sampler I lowered the Color Threshold to 0.005

14. Also lowed the Noise Threshold to 0.005 in DMC Sampler

15. In the Indirect Illumination tab I increased the Subdivisions to 36 and lowered the Amount to 0.2.

16. Irradiance Map settings: Min Rate -2, Max Rate 1, HSph Subdivs 160, Samples 80.
I used these settings because I wanted to remove the splotchiness from the dark parts of the walls. I wasn’t able to remove them all :(

17. I inceased Subdivs to 1500 and Passes to 8 for the same reason I mentioned with the previous screenshot; to try and remove the
splotchiness from the walls. I think i could have kept increasing them and the final result would have been smoother, but render time
would take a long, long time… I’m working on a 4yr old computer, remember? ;)

18. Render and Postproduction
This is how the raw render looked like (except for the areas that were croped-out). Then I started layering on the adjustments.

19. The first thing I did was copy the raw render layer and apply a High Pass Filter. I believe the Radius was between 0.5 and 1.5. Then I
changed the Blend Mode to Overlay. Doing this gives a little bit of sharpness to the image because the raw render tends to be a little
burry with the edges.

20. Brighness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Curves, Levels… Hopefully you can see the settings in the screenshot. All I did was treek the
adjustment layers a bit, and this already looked better then the raw render. The only thing I was not happy with was the light. It was
too plain and lacked the realism I was after, so…

21. I created a new layer and with a Pen Tool I created a shape where the light would be. I converted it to a selection and painted it in with
white. Then I used a Guassian Blur Filter with a Radius of 10. Then I made a Mask for that layer and used a Gradient Tool to make the
light fade thorwards the floor. I changed the Blend Mode to Overlay, and lowered the Opacity to 50%. I then duplicated that layer.

22. The last adjustment layer was a Photo Filter to colorise the image a bit and get the look I was going for. Only remaining thing was to
add a singature… and post the final image to SVA group :)))