03 June 2012

Blender 3D Architecture, Buildings and Scenery - Chapter 12 Review

This chapter covers the topics of Global Illumination when used with YafRay an external render which is used often with Blender as a different external render, because it has some features and support for certain additional lighting effects.

The Blender Internal Render is getting better but still it is not able to do certain things, so while that is the case for certain effects used with Global Illumination, YafRay can be used.

At the start of the chapter some of the feature that YafRay has are described such a Photonic light and the ability of YafRay to support Caustics.

It then shows an example of a dinning room which was rendered using YafRay but unfortunately you never get to be shown how to build that model scene.

Instructions on where to get and how to install YafRay are mentioned as well as how to configure Blender to use YafRay as the external render are also explained.

Once everything is setup, the book goes through some of the Button and settings that yafRay has and what they do. Though again the layout and names of some of the interface items when using YafRay in Blender 2.46 has changed so they don't match up with the pictures shown.

After the basic options are described things move onto explaining how to setup YafRay with Global Illumination settings. Going through the different GI settings such as Full, SkyDome, None etc.

An example of a high rise building is show rendered with the different types of Global Illumination. Also some of the steps to do Internal Room, full render global illuminations are covered. It's such a shame that we don't get to Model the room.

The YafRay preset materials are covered along with the Lighting options that are specific to YafRay, specifically Photon lights and some of the extra settings that become visible when used with Blender lightings panel.

An example render is shown, demonstrating a glass of water with caustics being used and the various glow affects that can be applied to lights are also briefly described.