Rendering amazing shots

Still under construction ....

Even though Suicidator City generator can do a lot for you, it will never replace what's the most important in any art form: ... you, the artist. A great artist relies first on practice and inspiration, and then, secondly, on tools.

In this chapter, you'll find a few tips on rendering believable cities, and for achieving greater impact through camera positionning and settings, colors, render options, and lighting.

1. Learn to see: an introduction

So let's first train your artist's eye a bit, and then put it to work in Blender with SCG.

What do you see in this real picture of New York below? (besides tons of buildings;)

Point of view

The point of view is nice, because it is showing, in the same picture, close details, like the buildings in the foreground, and even people walking in the streets (bottom left), but at the same time we can see how vast the city is in the background.

Other good points: short buildings are in the very foreground, while tall ones are behind them. And each building has two or three (roof) sides visible.

All these conditions combined allow for greater visibility and details.

The camera has also a high focal length, reducing the perspective. That way buildings look less impressive, but their respective shape and size are preserved (not distorted by perspective).

Shapes

There are repetitive patterns: vertical lines (the buildings), each building has a kind-of grid pattern on it, many buildings are thinner at the top, the buildings are aligned, the buildings are cubic.

There are also disorderly patterns: the grid on each building is not perfect (missing windows, wider walls...), building heights seem random, great size difference among buildings.

Lighting and colors

This must be in the evening: the light is ambient, it comes from everywhere. Therefore there are no cast shadows. In the foreground, the lower and closer to the ground, the darker.

There aren't many colors: at most four dominant colors (black, blue, marron/beige, and white). The colors are dim. The sky is brighter than anything else. The air is polluted, making the scene slightly foggy, and pollution darkens the sky.

Night scenes

Let's do the same for a night scene. Concentrate on the lights only.

First, there are high contrasts. Completely dark areas lay right next to very bright ones. This is visible everywhere, and at different scales: small on the buildings (lit windows vs not lit), large next to the dock.

There is a single dominant color: orange. All the lights are shades of red, yellow and green.

The light comes from the ground this time, so the higher, the darker. Also there is a diffuse light in the air, and the scene is foggy. There are many bright points, and lots of ambient light in the streets. Larger bright spots are present here and there. The lit windows on the buildings appear randomly, but we can see a horizontal line pattern. Some building sides are lit, while others aren't.

The importance of the viewpoint

Finally, can you see why this shot is so good at showing immensity?

The horizon line is almost in the middle, clearly visible, and breaking the picture in two areas: upper and lower. The focal length is low, exaggerating the perspective, therefore increasing the feeling of immensity.

The buildings and the major lines (the streets and the river on the left) are all going in the direction in front of us, leading to the horizon.

We can't distinguish anything in particular past a certain distance, but since we can see close buildings, we can easily assume the rest is similar, and therefore that much detailed and complex.

We can see so far that, at the horizon line, the horizon and the ground are indistinguishable from one another, giving our eye/brain a clue that we can see no further.

Learn to see: conclusion

There are many more things one can describe when staring at these pictures, but you get the point.

All these are obvious: everybody can see them. But not everybody is aware that they see them. They're aware only when those things miss. "Mmmmhh ... there's something not quite right in this render, but I can't tell what it is" you might hear or think, but this is not going to help enhance the quality of your render.

It is your role, as an artist, to be aware of what you see, and to be able to reproduce it so you can fool your audience's eye.

2. Realistic renders in Blender

There is no "good" or "bad" shot. It depends on what you're trying to achieve. Maybe one may not like your top view of simple-looking, grid-aligned buildings, but if this is your way of picturing a city, then you succeeded.

In this section, I assume you want to render realistic cities. Follow the next recommendations to make your cities more believable, and to show them under their best angle. Of course, experimenting is still very important.

Lighting

Use the sun with sky and atmosphere

Easy to setup, the sun with sky and atmosphere turned on will make your city look much better instantly. Play with its orientation. Disable the sun for a city by night.

Use ambient occlusion

Easy to setup as well, ambient occlusion will make a difference in your renders.

The camera

Lens

Use a low focal length to make your city look bigger, at the expense of high perspective distortion.

Position

Depending on what you want to show, the position of the camera is very important. There is no all-in-one solution, but usually,

• prefer showing tall buildings behind short ones,
• let tall buildings overlay on top of the sky
• make sure most buildings show 2 sides
• put the horizon line in the upper half of the picture
• if you want to show a large area, include close details in the foreground
• include high contrast areas, eg dark ones in the shades vs bright ones well lit by the sun

Colors

Choose a dominant color

Don't use too many colors, and make them pale. The Blender sun helps a lot here.

Use compositing nodes

Especially with night scenes, use the RGB curves node to play with contrasts and dominant colors.

Other

Use halos for night scenes

Less easy to setup nicely, halos can truly set apart the look of your city.

Use myst

Another easily setup option that will immediately enhance the look of your city. Do not overuse it though, make it subtle.