Altair recently released Inspire 2023, and within that release was the brand new implicit modeling ribbon. For more information on that new feature, check out the following blog, however in addition to the implicit ribbon, there there were some other big feature releases in Inspire 2023. One of those new features was an enhanced rendering engine. The new rendering engine in Inspire 2023, is a GPU-enabled ray tracing tool which allows users to model photorealistic renders on any geometry in Inspire. Geometry can be rendered on a traditional BREP (boundary representation CAD model) or a new implicit body (Figure 1). In today’s blog I am going to step through how to create a photo-realistic render with the new Rendering ribbon.
Figure 1: Example of an Implicit Modeled Lattice with the new Inspire Rendering Engine
Step 1: Create CAD Body
Altair Inspire has geometrical and implicit modeling capabilities built into the tool, which enable users to create their own unique geometries. Additionally, users can import CAD bodies from various native and neutral file formats. For today’s blog, I am going to model a rendering of the TrueInsight logo. Therefore, I need to create the CAD body of our TrueInsight logo. The logo was modeled using Inspires geometry modeling ribbon with sketching and extrude commands.
Figure 2: On Left Sketching Tools to Create Logo, and Right Final Logo
Step 2: Specify Surface Finish and Background Settings for TrueInsight Logo
With the Logo now created, I can begin to go through the process of creating my photorealistic render, and I can do that by clicking on the Rendering ribbon (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Altair Inspire Rendering Ribbon
The rendering menu ribbon is set up to be user intuitive, where the setup options prescribe the camera conditions (Editors) and the material finish conditions (Libraries). Users can select either the camera conditions or the material conditions, the order does not matter to begin specifying render settings. In my case I want to prescribe the material finish settings to our Logo first, and then I will adjust the camera settings. I will click on the Libraries icon and the library material palette pops up on the right-hand side of the graphical window (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Altair Inspire Rendering Material Libraries Palette Editor
We can see on the material palette there are two tabs: Materials and Environments. The Materials tab specifies the surface finishes to parts. Whereas the Environments tab represents the background in the graphical window. I first want to select the background of our logo, in my case, I want an industrial outside look, so I pick the preset background called Urban and I use the preset: Parking Ramp. Once I have selected this preset, I can drag and drop the image in the main graphical window, and it will automatically update the background for me (Figure 5). It is important to note, you can add your own custom background and import into Inspire, if you do not want to use the preset backgrounds.
Figure 5: Specifying Background for TrueInsight Logo
Now that our background has been set, I need to apply the material surface finish to our logo, so I click on the Materials tab. Within the Inspire Rendering library there are numerous types of finishes ranging from Metals, Plastics, Fabrics, among numerous other finish options. I am going for an industrial look, so for the eye logo I am going to specify a metallic black, and for the letters, I am going to specify a metallic white. Note, like how I defined the background, I just need to grab the finish I want then drag and drop on the body in the graphical window and it will update the finish (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Specifying Surface Finish Options for TrueInsight Logo
Note, the Materials tab will show all used colors that have been applied in a model. So, if I want to try a different color, or revert settings, I can easily see what I have tried or applied, much like the model browser functions in the CAD modeling portion of Inspire. This makes trying different rendering settings very easy! Now that our background and finish settings have been applied, we can adjust our camera settings.
Step 3: Specify Camera Settings for TrueInsight Logo
There are a number of different settings we can prescribe for the camera settings, the big thing that I want to set is the camera location as it will influence the shadows on the logo. To access the camera settings, I click on the Editors icon. I then click on the lightbulb icon and I can add different lights which affect the logo’s shadow. In my case I will use one light, and I adjust the location which will influence the shadow on the logo. Adjusting the light settings is all done by the mouse, and I can have real time feedback to see what happens to the shadow (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Specifying Camera Positions for the Shadow of the Logo
It is important to note, there are numerous camera settings we can prescribe like focal length, aspect ratio, glare, sharpness, and other settings you may want to get a realistic rendering. Like the camera shadow settings, if I change any of the other camera settings the graphical window will give me real-time feedback to see the effect of each camera setting. In my case, I work through a number of settings until I obtain the camera settings I want for my model (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Specifying Additional Camera Settings
Step 4: Render Settings for Final Render of TrueInsight Logo
Now that our surface finish and camera settings have been set, we can begin our final render. Inspire is a ray tracing rendering solution, as a result it has advanced render settings like Denoiser, Tracing Depth, and Maximum Sampling Sizes. These settings ensure that grain/noise and diffuse reflections are modeled accurately. In short, this gives the photo-realistic renderings that we all want! Unlike other rendering tools on the market which are CPU enabled, the rendering engine in Inspire is GPU enabled, which means renders take a fraction of the time vs CPU rendering tools on the market. Thus, I can try out a number of renders until I reach the desired final render (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Applying Render Settings
With Inspires GPU enabled render, even with high Denoiser settings and tracing depth settings, I was able to achieve photorealistic renders in minutes, as opposed to other tools which can take hours. I now have a final professional rendering which I can use (Figure 10)!
Figure 10: Final Render of TrueInsight Logo
I hope this blog has illustrated the power and ease of use of Altair Inspires new rendering engine, and how easy it is to create your own unique photo-realistic renders. If you have any more questions about Altair Inspire or any Altair solution, please reach out to us!
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