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Enscape Notes (Week_05)

SETUP AND INTERFACE

 

Downloading Enscape Software

Enscape is a rendering solution for Rhino that runs in the Unity game engine, due to this it is only compatible with computers containing a discrete graphics card (GPU). Students with computers not containing a discrete GPU (integrated graphics) are urged to follow the Vray tutorial on the Lab Notes page.

This program is available free to UO students with a .edu email, but licenses can occasionally take a couple business days to receive:

https://enscape3d.com/educational-license/

  1. You will receive an email with a download link/button and a license key (below).
  2. Download software installer to your computer and follow the installation instructions.
  3. Finish the installation and open Rhino (current Enscape version supported on both Rhino 6 & 7)

Adding Enscape Toolbar to Rhino

  1. Open Rhino and type ‘Toolbar’ in the command line, press enter. Check the box for Enscape under the Enscape.RhinoX.Plugin file.
    Alternatively, in the Rhino dropdowns at the top: Tools > Toolbar Layout > Check box to enable Enscape (if neither option works, please contact your TA or GE for assistance).

  2. A floating Enscape toolbar will appear in Rhino. Click and drag it to place it into the Rhino interface menus wherever you would like it.

Enscape Toolbar in Rhino

Note: Hovering over the toolbar icons will also show what they do. You will only use icons A-E for this tutorial and most use cases.

  1. Starts Enscape
  2. Enables live updating in Enscape based on changes made in Rhino.
  3. Synchronizes Enscape camera movement with the camera navigation in Rhino.
    • Can be helpful if you lose sight of your model in Enscape and need to bring it back.
  4. Opens the Enscape Asset Library (object library of trees, people, props, street elements, furniture, etc.)
  5. Enscape Material Tuning
  6. Creates a Catalog of the Panoramas or Web Standalones you create.

To continue, please open the “Box Template” that is required for your assignment.

Enscape App Interface

Click the Start Enscape button in the Rhino toolbar.

Tip: Pressing the “H” key in Enscape will open the help window, which shows tips for Enscape navigation (shown below). Again, hovering over each icon will show you what it does.

Enscape toolbar:

 

 

VISUAL SETTINGS

**DO NOT TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS WITH A SCENIC BACKGROUND. THIS WILL RESULT IN POINTS OFF. WHITE BACKGROUND ONLY.

 

Sun, Location & Time

  1. Contextual and lighting settings are done in Rhino, but fine-tuned in Enscape.
  2. To daylight your scene, enter the “Sun” command in Rhino. 
  3. Check the box at the top of the toolbar to turn the sun options ON.
  4. Scroll down to find the menus for Date, Time & Location.
    1. Choose Salem, Oregon. Date & time will vary based on the daylighting conditions you are testing in your assignment.
    2. Common test dates: Vernal Equinox (3/21), Summer Solstice (6/21), Autumnal Equinox (9/23), Winter Solstice (12/21)

Environment Customization

**DO NOT TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS WITH A SCENIC BACKGROUND. THIS WILL RESULT IN POINTS OFF. WHITE BACKGROUND ONLY.

  1. Navigate to a front view of the opening in the box.
    1. Save the view: View Management on the top-left side of the Enscape app toolbar.
  2. Visual Settings on the top-right of the Enscape app toolbar. Customize the sun position, environment and scene settings.
  3. The Atmosphere tab allows you to customize fog and wind conditions as well as the illumination.
    1. Sun Brightness – Controls the brightness of the sun.
    2. Night Sky Brightness – Illuminates the night sky and stars when the date and time are set to nocturnal conditions.
    3. Shadow Sharpness – Defines how crisp or smooth the edges of shadows are.
    4. Artificial Light Brightness – Boosts artificial lighting intensity if artificial lighting exists in the scene (discussed in Part 2.0)
    5. Ambient Brightness – The brightness of the environment – evenly lightens or dims the scene, changing the contrast between light and dark.
    6. You can experiment with these settings and different lighting conditions. To change the time of day, you can either use the “U” and “I” keys or hold “shift+right click” while dragging your mouse to go back and forth. To be more precise or change the date, return to the Sun settings in Rhino and input them manually. The changes you make in Rhino will change automatically in Enscape, unless you have turned off Live-Update in the Enscape toolbar in Rhino.

 

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING

Rhino Lights

  1. Type in the “Lights” command into the Rhino command bar. OR Render Tools tab below the command bar.
  2. Click the plus icon on the Lights toolbar.
    1.  Choose the Rectangular Light to create it and follow the instructions.
  3. Test artificial lighting
    1. turn off the “Sun” light or set the scene to nighttime in Sun Settings toolbar.
  4. Cant see the light? the default intensity is too low. Change the settings:
    1. Manually enter values in Lights toolbar
    2. OR, select light in Rhino -> in Properties tab adjust light properties settings and sliders. 
  5. EXTRAS
    1. Atmosphere tab in the visual settings of the Enscape app also has an Artificial Light Brightness setting, which is useful for fine-tuning lighting intensity.
    2. The Sun Brightness slider in the same Enscape settings tab also overrides Rhino’s Sun intensity settings.
    3. Corrections and Effects are located under the Image tab in Enscape’s visual settings window.
      • Corrections include:
        • Adjustments similar to Photoshop: Contrast control, saturation and color temperature.
        • A daylight color temperature sits around 4,500K, while warmer colors start around 3,000K and colder at around 6,000K.
      • Effects include:
        • Motion Blur
        • Lens Flare (similar to glare)
        • Bloom – The outshining/surrounding glow of bright objects and lights.
        • Vignette – Darkens the image around the corners.
        • Chromatic Aberration – A camera-like effect, where the lens cannot focus on multiple colors in a single area, causing blurring and color distortion.
    4. You can also control the Exposure of the entire scene in the Main tab of the Enscape visual settings.
      1. Note: Having Auto Exposure turned ON will compensate for incorrect lighting settings. This is good for quick process renders, but gets in the way of accurately representing the lighting conditions of a scene otherwise.

Some helpful tips:

  • Bigger lights will diffuse more softly than small lights, since they originate from a larger surface than a point. This also applies for light types such as a rectangular light vs. a point light.
  • When lighting an object or simulating studio lighting, placing lights farther away from your subject will also make the light softer and more diffused rather than sharp and intense.
  • The quality of your render and the reflectivity of the materials will also affect how lights appear, so make sure to test the conditions before exporting (covered in later steps).

Other lighting resources:

McNeel Rhino Support: https://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/6/help/en-us/commands/lights.htm

140 Tips for Architectural Rendering (PDF Booklet): https://gumroad.com/l/DDHrr

Blender Guru Lighting Course – Good for learning about the theory/setting up lights and renders, but not actually about using Rhino.

OBJECT MATERIALS

Selecting Materials

Note: Materials are selected in Rhino, not Enscape, and are saved as part of the Properties information in the model. Therefore, materials can be applied to individual objects or entire layers depending on how you choose to select them.

  1. Have Enscape and Rhino open at the same time.
    1. Set the scene to Daytime + white background + turn off the rectangular light.
  2. Material option #1:
    1. Select the Box. In the Properties tab,  find the Material tab. It looks like a paint tube with a red stripe around it.
      1. Open Materials Tab
      2. Click the dropdown at the top of the toolbar (automatically set to “Use Layer Material”)
      3. Select Use a New Material
      4. Choose Import from Material Library
      5. Architectural > Wall > Concrete > “Concrete Light”
  3. Material Option #2:
    1. Change the materials in the Layers tab.
      1. Edit Material Properties of the Layer by clicking the white circle in the materials column.
      2. Follow the same steps as in Option #1. Make sure that the Box is in the layer you are editing.
      3. Note: All new objects you create in that layer will automatically render in that material. You can override this by changing the material of the individual object, changing its material from “Use Layer Material” to a material of your choice as shown in steps #3 and #4. Also – some versions of Rhino and Enscape have a bug where they are able to live-update materials as you apply them to objects, but require you to close and restart Enscape to view material changes to layers.

Material Mapping

You may notice that the concrete looks blurry or low resolution. This is because of the tiling of the material and the U/V mapping of the surfaces of the Rhino object.

U/V Material Mapping allows you to change the scale of your material so it looks more realistic and less blurry. DO THIS SO YOUR MATERIAL LOOKS PROPORTIONATE. 

Customize the Material Mapping for the concrete texture on our box. Currently the texture is too big and out of scale. We want something like this:

 

Material Mapping via Enscape

  1. Select the box -> Material Properties.
    1. Right-click Material preview dropdown
    2. Duplicate to have an unedited version of the material saved in your model.
  2. Click the Type dropdown and change the type from Custom to Enscape
  3. Select Tune Materials in the Project icon in Rhino’s Enscape toolbar. The concrete material we edited will appear on the left-hand side.
  4. Select the material, a series of options will appear to the right.
    1. At the top of this window, you will see tabs called Albedo and Height. Both these tabs reference the image textures that go into making these materials.
      1. Albedo: Essentially controls the surface appearance of the texture and its colors. Albedo itself is the measure of the reflectivity of a surface – how much light is reflected vs. absorbed.
      2. Height: Controls texture/roughness of the material, adding depth by simulating bumps, dents, wrinkles and other imperfections on the surface.
  5. Navigate to the Albedo tab first. It contains a texture transformation portion, where you can change the Width and Height of the texture to properly scale it.
  6. the Rotation feature changes the texture orientation. Input the same values into the texture transformation of the Height image tab, so the texturing matches up with the Albedo image.
  7. Note: The Enscape method of material mapping is simple and easy, but directly edits the material preview in Enscape instead of the object. This can be helpful if you are using the same material multiple times and want it to look the same in each instance. However, editing the material after applying it to an object will affect all the objects it is applied to, so you must duplicate it again and treat it as a new material if you want it to be scaled, textured or colored differently.

 

Material Mapping via Rhino

The Rhino Texture Mapping alters the U/V count of the surface or object rather than the size of the material like Enscape. Both methods are set to fill the surface, but this method edits how many times the texture should repeat on the object’s surface. This method is therefore more dependent and customizable to an object’s shape and size, but has to be repeated on each object individually.

  1. Start by changing the Box material back to the original “Concrete Light” we used before duplicating it in the Enscape method.
  2. Go to the Texture Mapping tab in the Properties toolbar to the right of the Material Properties tab.
  3. At the top of the Material Mapping toolbar, you will see multiple small icons with checkered surfaces and objects.
    1. Select the Apply Box Mapping (Cube) icon
    2. Outline the volume of the Box by following the directions
    3. Hit “Enter”/select “Yes,” when choosing if the mapping is Capped or not.
  4. Your Box is now mapped and editable using the “XYZ Size” or “UVW Repeat” parameters.
    1. To avoid distorting the texture, check the “Lock” box by these inputs. For this case, use the XYZ Size input and ignore the UVW repeat.

Note: While this method is applied only to specific objects, the mapping is easy to duplicate to objects of similar shapes and sizes by using the “Match Mapping” function at the top of the toolbar. The icon looks like a large paintbrush and is among the other mapping icons.

Display Modes

Similar to Rhino previews, you can change the Display Modes in Enscape. This can be beneficial in comparing lighting, spatial relationships or making diagrams.

  1. To change the Enscape display mode, open the Enscape Visual Settings in the Enscape App. Follow these steps:
    1. Make sure you are in the Main tab.
    2. In the Style section, you can use the dropdown to change the Mode. The modes include:
      • White – Renders all materials in white, except for transparent materials and water.
      • Polystyrol – Renders all surfaces like a real polystyrol (styrofoam-like) material, whereby the sunlight is scattered through the thinned geometry.
      • Light View – This mode informs you as to how much light is hitting a surface and this is displayed as a heatmap. It also displays a customizable scale with Lux (Illuminance) values.

More information: https://enscape3d.com/community/blog/knowledgebase/rendering_styles/

  • In the same Style section, you can also customize the Outline strength of your rendering for more definition or a sketch-like look.
  • The Projection Mode is also customizable directly below, which can be useful to create different types of deliverables. The settings enable transitioning between:
    • Perspective
    • Two-Point Perspective
    • Orthographic (Axon-like) Projection

BEST PRACTICES

  • It is easier to use materials like steel, plywood and concrete since they essentially do not have a scale.
    • Renders do not have to look photorealistic, just abstractly correct. Mapping materials like roof shingles, cobblestones, bricks or high-resolution wooden planks requires matching the scale, proportions, grain and also where they end/match up with the ends and intersections of each object. This can take lots of time, fine-tuning and advanced techniques that are at this point not worth your time. Even getting the shade and color of the material right can be enough – it’s just about getting your general point across about the spaces you are trying to create.
    • White/Clay renders can be beneficial when looking purely at spatial relationships or lighting and shadow conditions, so removing materials can also have some benefits in abstraction.
  • You can abstract your own style to communicate your ideas without using the basic colors of readily-available materials.
    • In the Rhino Material Library, you can use materials outside the Architectural materials folder. Some good, abstract, material folders to choose are Paint, Plasters, Plastic, or Ceramics.
  • Save a second (render) version of your 3D model with the intention of organizing the layers differently and likely only make design decisions on the original model instead of the second one.
    • Enscape applies materials to layers instead of individual objects. Most students will make several different render models for midterm/finals/etc and not update them instead opting to just make a new one when they’ve progressed with their design.
  • Always consider texture/material scaling.
    • When setting up a file, it is incredibly important to have the correct units and a reasonable display precision or the textures for things like planks and brick sizes won’t be correct. If just rendering things in the default white then this isn’t usually an issue but will matter when adding materials.
  • Learn the hotkeys, especially using the numberpad to jump between front/top/bottom/side views.
    • For the directions: 5-top, 2-model looking north, 8-model looking south, 4-east, 6-west.
    • Then moving around in the model: WASD to move directionally, q and e for ascend/descend.
    • Hold shift and right mouse button, then move the mouse left or right to change time.

 

EXPORTING

**DO NOT TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS WITH A SCENIC BACKGROUND. THIS WILL RESULT IN POINTS OFF. WHITE BACKGROUND ONLY.

Pre-Export

Fine-tune the character and appearance of your image by using the Main and Image tabs of the Enscape Visual Settings.

  1. Main Tab:
    1. Field of View – The radius/cone of vision visible. In Enscape, the realistic FOV is about 67 degrees.
    2. Depth of Field & Auto Focus – Defined as the distance between the closest and farthest objects in your scene. Allows you to focus in on a specific point of your scene, while blurring out the foreground/background around them (like the aperture of a camera). Turning on Auto Focus (enabled by default) will basically make everything equally focused, but will start blurring farther away from the camera because of atmospheric dispersion.
    3. Rendering Quality – Basically means what it is called. Increasing the quality will simulate more accurate shadow, lighting and material conditions including reflectivity, texture and transparency or translucency. Therefore, your rendering may look different when you change the quality. Going all the way to Ultra is rarely necessary, but most computers should be able to handle basic files in even High Rendering Quality.
  1. The Image tab includes:
    1. Contrast settings similar to Photoshop
    2. Saturation – The purity, vibrancy or intensity of a color. Lower saturation makes the colors appear more gray and muted.
    3. Color Temperature – Makes the image seem “warmer” (lower number = orange hue) or “colder” (higher number = blue hue) – daylight is around 4,500K.
    4. The Effects mentioned in Part 2.0 – Artificial Lighting

Output Settings

Before beginning, make sure you have selected the render quality you desire in the Main tab of the Enscape Visual Settings.

The Output Settings determine final parameters of your deliverable including:

  • Image size & resloution
  • Aspect ratio & orientation
  • File type and save location

Verify these settings prior to exporting, so Enscape can process, compress and produce the kind of deliverable you would like to use in your presentation. Most of these settings are found in the Output tab of the Enscape Visual Settings within the Enscape App. Navigate to this tab to begin.

  1. Make sure the camera is oriented in the view you would like to export. Click the Safe Frame icon on the upper-right of the Enscape App toolbar. The Safe Frame shows you the bounds of your image and what will be included in your exported image.
  2. In the Output tab of the visual settings, the General section will allow you to customize Resolution of your image in the dropdown.
    Each setting differs in its amount of pixels, meaning the actual size of the image is different, even though it may appear the same on your screen. Higher resolution images are sharper when printed in large formats, or when zooming in to details on your screen.  You can choose from several options including:

    • Window – Renders the everything visible in the Enscape App preview window based on the basic resolution of your display screen (will change if you use Enscape on a monitor/external screen).
    • 1024 – A setting with a 1.33 aspect ratio, which is nearly square – can be good for vignettes/small, diagrammatic snapshots.
    • Various HD options – A landscape-oriented render with a 1.78 aspect ratio, good for exterior renders. (HD, Full HD, Ultra HD)
    • Custom – A customizable pixel count and aspect ratio, which enables you to customize the resolution and orientation of your image more freely.The use of each resolution depends on how you intend to use your image. However, the Full HD option renders at 1080p, a basic resolution common for current laptop screens and devices.
  3. The Image portion of the Output tab controls the file type, save folder location and naming conventions of your output image. The Export/Material ID will also export a series of accompanying images with your render, which can help with post-processing in other programs such as Photoshop.
    1. More on this feature here: https://blog.enscape3d.com/export-options-in-enscape
  4. You can also save the preset to re-use it later or export it as a file to use in a different project (process shown below). Enscape will automatically start a “Custom Preset” when you open it, but you must create a new one if you want to experiment with and save different styles.

Exporting

The exporting buttons are on the left side of the Enscape App Toolbar, and include the following options:

  • Screenshot (USE THIS) – Creates a still image with the rendering settings you have selected.
  • Mono Panorama – Creates a 3D rendering similar to a virtual reality camera, which allows you to look around in 360 degrees. It also generates a QR code, which makes your rendering shareable through the cloud and viewable on your smartphone. You do not need a VR headset or Google cardboard to use this feature.
  • Stereo Panorama – Creates a similar 360 panorama, but modifies it for VR accessories. Since it is called “Stereo,” it has two channels, one for each eye, for each side of the VR experience.
  • Exe/Web Standalone – The Exe and Web Standalone features both create a separate file which opens the model in a different window without needing Rhino. The difference between the two is the Exe Standalone creates a file saved to your PC, while the Web Standalone creates a cloud-based file viewable online. It can be shared using just a link without the file itself and embedded on websites for an interactive appearance.

 

**DO NOT TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS WITH A SCENIC BACKGROUND. THIS WILL RESULT IN POINTS OFF. WHITE BACKGROUND ONLY.

After I tuned my preferences and saved my preset, I used the Screenshot feature to create this Full HD resolution rendering, render in High quality:

 

SCENIC ATMOSPHERE

**FOR STUDIO USE ONLY. DO NOT TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS WITH A SCENIC BACKGROUND. THIS WILL RESULT IN POINTS OFF. WHITE BACKGROUND ONLY.

Organic Materials/Groundcover

  • Organic materials can be found in the Rhino Material Library and applied like any construction material. Good places to start are:
    • Material Library > Organic > Folder of your choice
    • Material Library > Architectural > Exterior > Folder of your choice
  • You can apply organic materials to your toposurfaces and ground planes. To make the scale correct, you must either use the Enscape Material tuner as demonstrated in Part 3.1 or use Surface Mapping.
    • Rhino Texture Mapping > Surface Mapping > Lock and use the UVW Repeat (not XYZ Size) and increase the number to scale.

Enscape Asset Library

More landscape features are found in the Enscape Asset Library. The asset library is a collection of pre-made objects that you can drop directly into your scene. When used correctly, they can boost the realism of both interior and exterior scenes. Upon opening, the left side of the Asset Editor window will show a series of categories you can choose from to narrow down your search. The most useful ones for landscape design are:

  • Vegetation, subcategories:
    • Trees
    • Topiary/Hedge
    • Shrubs
    • Stones
    • Groundcover – Randomly-spaced flowers, fallen leaves, lillypads, etc.
  • Street Props – Sample buildings, street lamps & signs, bicycle parking, flowerbeds, outdoor furniture, drainage features, pergolas, etc.
  • People & Animals
  • Vehicles
  • Other accessories/props

Once you select your desired object:

  1. Select the Rhino surface on which you would like to place it
  2. Select the specific location on that surface itself
  3. It will be visible as its own object in Rhino, and render in Enscape based on the preview it shows in the asset editor.

Rhino treats these assets as Rhino blocks, meaning they can be scaled, transformed and rotated using Rhino commands, but they cannot be customized by color, arrangement or material – they treat the entire asset as one object even though it may be a group of individual objects such as scattered leaves.

Make sure to use the assets sparingly and to transform them each time. Overusing them will make the render look too perfect and repetitive and thus unrealistic/uncanny, stylized graphics are usually preferred by instructors and reviewers until your technical skills increase.

 

 

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