Render Window

The render window provides options for exposure adjustment and adding post-processing effects. The mainframe of the render windows is part of Rhino’s rednering frameowrk. For details on the rederwindow menus and icons see the Render Windows topic

Pulldown Menus

For details on the rederwindow menus and icons see the Render Windows topic

Toolbars

Save with background alpha channel

Saves image 32-bit PNG, TIF, and BMP including alpha channel background. The Alpha channel versions of the file formats are used for high-quality compositing. Backgrounds will appear black when the rendering is saved with Alpha channel.

Export to native Flamingo nXt file (.nXtImage)

Saves uncompressed luminance and color information. Saves all rendered channels including alpha. The nXtImage files can be opened in the Image Editor where exposure and post-processing effects can be applied and the image re-saved to another bitmap format. The .nXtImage format is the native image format of the nXt renderers. It is the recommended format for storing your renderings, since it preserves the most information about your rendering. Images stored in this format can be manipulated in the nXt Image Editor and special effects can be added. From this editor, you can save to many popular standard formats, including all of the formats supported in nXt. You can also save to Piranesi EPix file (.epx) format.

Export to HDR file

Saves uncompressed luminance and color information. The .hdr format stores luminance data directly in a High Dynamic Range format. Non-luminance backgrounds, such as normal photographs, will appear black when saved in one of these formats.

Export to EXR file

A high-dynamic-range image file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools created by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), released under a free software license. This file format supports 16-bits-per-channel floating-point values (half precision) with a sign bit, five bits of exponent, and a ten-bit mantissa. This allows a dynamic range of over thirty stops of exposure. See: Wikipedia article: OpenEXR. The .exr format stores luminance data directly in a High Dynamic Range format. Non-luminance backgrounds, such as normal photographs, will appear black when saved in one of these formats.

Exit

Closes the render window.

Flamingo Tab Render Window

Progress

Action

Pass

Scan line

Elapsed time

Rays / second

Pixels / second

Render Constraints

Sets the default time and number of passes constraints. The default recommended setting is to set these render constraints off and let the render engine continue until it is closed or manually stopped. These may be changed using the controls in the Render Window. Setting the Number of passes and Time to 0 allows the rendering to continue until you click Stop Rendering.

Time

Specifies the amount of time in Hours/Minutes/Seconds the render will continue to process. Note : The rendering stops after the last pass after the time limit has been reached. If you click Resume Rendering, the rendering will continue for one additional pass.

Number of passes

Specifies the number of rendering passes the render will process. Note : Any time you click Resume Rendering, the counter for the number of passes is reset. For example, if you set the number of passes to 10 and stop the rendering after pass 8, the rendering will continue until it reaches 18 passes. Normally renderings may take 10 - 15 passes to start to converge. Architectural interiors may need up to 30 passes to start to converge.

Adjust Image

The settings that control the screen display also control any image file made from that display. Multiple image files with different exposure settings can be saved from a single rendering. The exposure settings for one rendered image will be applied to the next. This adjustment process is called tone mapping. Tone mapping is the process of converting the luminance data used by Flamingo nXt into Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) pixels that can be displayed or printed.

Brightness

Adjusts the overall brightness of the image. For example, if a white surface in the model is rendering gray, increase the brightness until the surface appears white. Or, if the exterior scene seems overexposed, decrease the brightness until the scene appears more correct. Brightness at default (left) and increased. Note: In nXt, the overall brightness of a scene cannot be controlled by boosting the intensity of the light sources. The automatic exposure adjustment built into the tone-mapping process will defeat this. Adjust overall scene brightness by using the Brightness control.

Burn

Adjusts the image white point. This is the brightest white color in the image. Burn can add drama, life, and sharpness to a rendering by adding more areas of white to contrast with the dark areas. See Wikipedia article: White point. Burn at the default setting (left) and increased.

Saturation

Saturation controls the amount of color in the image. A saturation of 0.00 will result in a grayscale image. Values above 1.00 can make colors richer. Saturation at the default (left) and increased by about 3 (right).

Histogram

Graphically displays the distribution of the light and dark areas in the image. See: Wikipedia article: Histogram. The internet has many articles about using histograms to evaluate exposure in digital photography. The principles are the same for rendering. Histogram.

Histogram options

Right-click the histogram image for options

Fit

Median

Mean

Show Sorted Graph

Show Scale

Graph Color

Show Luminance Values

Lock exposure

When the exposure settings are locked, changing the lighting will not adjust the exposure to compensate.

Information

Resolution

Displays the render resolution.

Faces

Displays the number of mesh faces used to render the model.

Apparent faces

When there are blocks in the model, Flamingo nXt is able to use the block definition to render block instances without remeshing each instance. The Apparent faces display shows how many additional temporary faces are generated.

Pixel information

Window point Image point Image Y-Up Pixel color Luminance Distance

Lighting information

Presets

Sun

Sky

Lights

Indirect

Ambient On/Off

Channels

Displays the status of the lighting channels.

Effects

Post-processing effects are applied after the image is rendered. These can be turned on and off and re-ordered in the list. Each effect has its own settings.

Effects Options

These options are also available from a context menu.

Right-click an effect to display the context menu.

Toggle the on/off state of the selected effect. Move the selected effect up in the list. Move the selected effect down in the list. Selected effect properties. Save the current effects list order and properties as default. Save the current effects list as named list. Import named effects list.

Depth of Field

The Depth of Field effect blurs the image depending on the distance from the camera.

Depth of Field Properties

Visual Properties

Blurring strength

Determines the amount of blurring. This is an arbitrary value and different values will work better with different images.

Max blurring

Determines the maximum blurring radius used. Since extremely blurred areas can cause the effect to be slow, this limits the effect.

Area of Effect

Focal distance

The distance from the camera at which the image is in focus (not blurry).

Pick

Pick a location on the image to set the focal distance.

Blur background

Determines whether the background is blurry. The background will be blurred at the maximum effect.

Fog

The fog effect adds depth-dependent coloration in the image. This effect can be used to add a thick fog effect or a subtle depth cue. No post processing effects.

Fog as Gradient Background

Fog can be used to create a gradient background. In this case the settings to create the background are as follows: Strength = 1Noise = .1Fog Color = BlackEnd distance = approximately 110Start distance = approximately 90Fog Background = OnFeathering = 80 Fog as gradient background.

Fog Properties

Visual properties

Determines the appearance of the fog effect.

Strength

Determines the maximum amount of fogginess. Setting Strength to 0.0 turns the effect off; setting Strength to 1.0 represents total fog. Values higher than 1.0 can be used but only make sense when used with the Noise.

Noise

Adds a random variation to Fog Strength.

Color

Specifies the fog color.

Click the color swatch to select a color from the Select color dialog box. Click the Pick button to select the color from the rendered image.

Area of effect

Determines the area encompassed by the fog effect.

Start distance

Specifies the distance from the camera at which the fog begins to appear.

Click the Pick button to pick the depth from the rendered image.

End distance

Specifies the distance from the camera at which the maximum amount of fogginess is achieved.

Click the Pick button to pick the depth from the rendered image.

Bounds (Left, Right, Top, Bottom)

Specifies the area of the image affected by the fog. This can be used to create a low-lying mist effect. Click the Pick Area button to pick bounding area from the rendered image.

Fog

Fog background

Determines whether the background image is also made foggy. The background will be fogged at the maximum strength.

Feathering

Determines the number of pixels outside the bounding area to “fade in” the fogginess.

Preview

Preview the effect on the image as you change the values.

Glare

Glare and Glow are very similar. Whereas Glow uses a selected color, Glare pushes the color to white. Glare makes extremely bright parts of the image appear to glare. It does this by making the area surrounding the bright area brighter. This very subtle effect is usually used for night scenes where it will make the lights seem much more realistic. Glare off (left) and on (right).

Glare Properties

White point bound

Determines where in the tonal range the glare will begin. The value is represented on the histogram and can be adjusted graphically. Pixels lighter than the White Point Bound (in either luminance or the grey-scale value) will glare.

Glare size

The radius of the glare around the bright pixel.

Gain

Multiplier for the lightness of the glare. The default value of 1.0 should result in normal glare effects. Use higher values for extremely bright glare.

Use photometric information

When using photometric information, the amount of glare is controlled by how "whiter than white" the pixel is. Otherwise, the effect uses the whitest pixels in the image.

Histogram

Graphically displays the distribution of the light and dark.

Histogram options

Right-click the histogram image for options

Fit

Median

Mean

Show Sorted Graph

Preview

Preview the effect on the image as you change the values.

Glow

The Glow effect produces a bright area around specific colors. It can be used to make colored lights or objects like neon lights appear to glow. Select up to 10 colors to affect in the image. In the illustration, a red color from the ruby is used with the gain set so that the color becomes close to white. Glow as sparkle. Glow off (left) and on (right).

Glow Properties

On

Turns glow for the corresponding color on.

Color

Specifies the glow color.

Click the color swatch to select a color from the Select color dialog box. Click the Pick button to select the color from the rendered image.

Sensitivity

Controls how much variation on the selected color is permitted when calculating glow on pixels close to that color.

Glow Size

The radius of the glow around the bright pixel.

Gain

Multiplier for the lightness of the glow. The default value of 1.0 should result in normal glow effects. Use higher values for extremely bright glow.

Preview

Preview the effect on the image as you change the values.

Wires & Text

Overlays curves, text, dimensions, isocurves, mesh edges, and point objects over the rendered image. With (left) and without Wires & Text (right).

Wires and Text Properties

Curves

Displays curve objects.

Dimensions and text

Displays dimension and text objects.

Isocurves

Displays surface isoparametric curves.

Mesh edges

Displays mesh edges.

Points

Displays point objects.

Preview

Preview the effect on the image as you change the values.