Class Handout
Engineer marketing with Autodesk Showcase
Engineer marketing with Autodesk Showcase Kevin Richards – Autodesk
ID9130-1 or ID9314-1 Learn how to use Autodesk Showcase for marketing material. This is a class for engineers or anyone who is responsible for creating photo realistic renderings using CAD models. You will learn how to set up images that can be used for ads, Internet sites, brochures, etc. Learn which settings print companies are looking for and which tips and tricks matter to create the best image. You will see different examples of how to take a simple image and turn it into a marketing campaign.
About the Speaker: Kevin began studying design at the College for Creative Studies. His schooling began in product design before transferring and completing the automotive design program. It was during his schooling that he found his passion for using Alias products as a design tool to tell stories, communicate design, and interface with engineering and management. Kevin Richards' career with Autodesk began with Alias|Wavefront in Toronto as an AliasStudio product specialist before returning to Detroit as one of the automotive design application engineers. Constant pursuit of diversifying his skill set with Maya, he relocated to San Francisco to support both the design and entertainment industries. Now located in New York City focused on Industrial Design Technical Marketing, he uses his design experience and sense of the business to communicate, inform, train and collect best practices from some of the top automotive and product design firms.
Bridging Marketing with Development These days, CAD users are more and more being asked to wear multiple hats and produce imagery that can be used for marketing and sales brochures. In the past, this type of content often was in series to development and relied heavily on early production models for photography. Relying on this workflow means that each variation needs to be produced and increases both cost and time to marketing. Moving the Creation of this content in parallel with production and development is undeniably beneficial to the fast pace business world that we work in. The CAD model just became that much more valuable.
Autodesk Showcase for Engineers and Designers Autodesk Showcase is a powerful Visualization and rendering tool that is easy to learn, use and implement. Creating stunning imagery can be done with a basic knowledge of physical materials and Desktop publishing skills.
Why Showcase?
Easy to learn user interface Real-time Visualization and Rendering(Ray tracing) Ambient and cast shadow Extensive environment and material libraries Manage alternative models, materials, and position Animated Cameras High quality output of images and movies
The typical work flow looks like this
Set-up workflow Import Normals Ambient Shadows (optional for raytracing) Environment Materials Alternatives Shots Real-time presentation or output images and movies
Be the Photographer This is your chance to call the shots. Showcase shots that is : ) The following section is an overview of the techniques that I use in my own work. There are some universal tricks that are used frequently and we may not even realize it. I encourage you to build on these with your own creativity. The Camera angle along with the position of the object can convey a lot of information without having to say anything. Below are some examples of specific compositions to get a response from the viewer.
Expose the inside to show function A camera looking up at the object perceives power(presidential speeches) The dynamic camera angles of extreme shots help to evoke emotions.
The Camera When using a real camera, you are able to freely position the camera and adjust the zoom to capture the moment. This is exactly how you should treat the Showcase camera. When you zoom in and out with a real camera, you are actually changing the “Focal Length”. This will change the perspective and is very different from dolly or moving the cameras position. It is important that you familiarize yourself with the following to take control of your imagery.
Adjust Perspective (aka. focal length) -This feature can be found in the “View” menu or the hotkey CTRL + R. The Slider interactively changes the cameras focal length from a Wide angle to telephoto based on millimeters.
Adjust Tilt -This feature can be found in the “View” menu or the hotkey SHIFT+CTRL + R. The Slider will tilt the camera and is perfect for adding a little dynamics to the composition. This is also known as the Dutch angle, German angle or my favorite the Batman angle.
The Rule of Thirds This is a general rule that was developed by painters in the renaissance era. What they noticed was the viewer’s eye tends to focus on the areas where either the thirds dividers intersect and move along the vertical and horizontal segments. It is a very quick and easy way to create great compositions.
Do I need Ray-Tracing? Ray-tracing will enhance the quality of the final image by calculating object reflections, transparent refractions, and accurately casted shadows. Ray-tracing is a software rendering method that relies on the CPU instead of the Graphics card GPU. In Showcase, the Ray-tracing engine is interactive and is very fast. When adjusting the quality settings I recommend NOT raising each option above 50%. Anything above this value is not immediately noticeable and therefore not necessary for most product shots. NOTE: Within this guide, a good portion of the images are screen grabs. It really is hard to which are final renders.
A Repeatable Set-up Repeatability is the key to quickly create marketing content that is of high quality and most importantly, consistent. Striving for consistency also allows users to simply drop in their product/part into a pre-defined Showcase scene with the Environment, lights and cameras all ready set-up, apply materials, and create the perfect shot in minutes. I highly recommend creating custom libraries to store your favorite materials and environments. You can take this one step further by sharing this library throughout the company intranet for other users to use and optionally add to. Many companies maintain an “approved� library for materials and environments that reflect the company’s image and standards. For example, in the automotives, the latest paints (even wheels) are chosen each year. These can then be shared so every user does not have to worry about re-creating the look of a specific paint while creating renderings.
Inside Showcase For marketing imagery, I always set a still shot for every view that I want to capture. This way I can always return to that view at a different time OR import just the Shots from another Scene to use in my current project. REMEMBER RULE OF THIRDS! Useful Hotkeys
Shots UI = t Create still image = CTRL + t
Give it your best shot… 1. Open Shots interface by pressing “ t ” on the keyboard.
2. Click on the “Create” button.
3. A new window will pop of with the shot properties. This is where you can create a still image, Start to end (two keyframes), cinematic presets. 4.
The Reset the position of the saved view with the button directly under the image.
5. The Duration settings can be used to control how fast the Camera moves from one position to another or how long a shot holds it still position.
6. The Transition section found at the top of the properties allows you determine how Showcase will switch to this view. Animate to shot, Fade from black, or cut to shot.
Create Material Libraries In addition to the extensive Material, there is the ability to create, modify, save and share with custom set-ups. As I mentioned earlier, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS! There are literally hundreds of default materials ranging from manufacturing, Consumer products, automotive and architectural. This can be over whelming if you only need a few specific ones. Useful Hotkeys
Material library = m Material properties = CTRL + m
Add or Create a New Library We are going to add our new or existing library into the Library list. These will then appear every time I use Showcase. 1. Pressing the “ m “ key will open the material library 2. Click the Material Libraries > “Manage”. Chose “Add Library...” 3. Navigate to the location that you want to save a new one. The typical location is My documents\Autodesk Showcase 20##\... 4. Create a “New Folder” and name it. 5. Showcase will now have the new library in the list. Right Click on the new library and choose “Rename” to reduce the path to just a name. Adding Materials to a custom library is easy 1. Select the object that has the material assigned to it that you would like to save. 2. Chose the display filter called “Show Materials of Selected Objects “ found in the “Manage“ materials in this scene. This will isolate materials and make it easier to find. 6. Rename the material 7. Choose the “Save to library” either with Right Click on the material swatch or chose it from the “Manage” materials in this scene menu.
8. Save to an existing category or Create a new one. There is a “New Category… ” option at the bottom of the list. Save an existing material If you would like to include any of the default materials in your custom library, Right Click on the material in an existing library, chose “Save to Library…”. Voila This is my personal library that I work from. Each category has several materials in it, but only ones that I use often. I also have included more specific categories like Artistic, soft touch, and engineering specific materials. In Case you are curious, the Engineering category contains materials for Screws, Gaskets, hose, braided line, and composites.
Share a library Instead of add new empty library, select a folder on a shared computer or server.
Creating Environment Libraries The Environment Library is very similar to the Materials. I tend to use the default library for most of my work. I find they give me great results with no hassle. Product shots that need to be included in brochures, Sales sheets, or presentations tend to be best with the simple abstract environments. I use the visible environments for In Context work to show scale and the product in its natural surroundings. Custom environments can be created with HDR images in the Longitude/latitude (panorama) format. HDRs can be found from many sources online or can be captured with specialized photography equiptment.
When Creating the Environment you will have 3 options for the mapping Geometry based environments Backplate environment with Cubic mapping Backplate environment with Planar mapping Refer to the Showcase Help files for a complete Guide to Creating Environments.
Useful Hotkeys
Environment library = e
Add or Create a New Library The Process for adding a new Environment to the list is exactly the same as Materials. Adding new ones to the library will then appear every time I use Showcase. 1. Pressing the “ e “ key will open the Environment library 2. Click the Environment Libraries > “Manage”. Chose “Add Library...” 3. Navigate to the location that you want to save a new one. The typical location is My documents\Autodesk Showcase 20##\... 4. Create a “New Folder” and name it. 5. Showcase will now have the new library in the list. Right Click on the new library and choose “Rename” to reduce the path to just a descriptive name.
Adding to a custom library is easy 3. Select the object that has the material assigned to it that you would like to save. 4. Chose the display filter called “ Show Materials of Selected Objects “ found in the “Manage“ materials in this scene. This will isolate materials and make it easier to find. 6. Rename the material 7. Choose the “Save to library” either with Right Click on the material swatch or chose it from the “Manage” materials in this scene menu.
8. Save to an existing category or create a new one. There is a “New Category… ” option at the bottom of the list.
Images and Movies I have used images and movies directly from showcase for countless amount of marketing content. It certainly is easier to learn than advanced tools like 3dsMax or Maya. Even better, it’s easy to remember how to use the software after weeks of not using it! Print, Web and Movies. Oh my. When producing content for various media it’s important to make sure that you have enough Pixels to work with. Often you will hear request for a specific DPI (dots per inch) or PPI (Pixels per inch). (**I’m not certain if this is the same terminology in metric based measure?) For all practical purposes, DPI only applies to print! The magic number of 300dpi for photographic material is pretty widely accepted. Web, Monitors, and Video does not actually rely on any sort of DPI. When you create images, just be mind full of getting enough pixels to cover your needs for printing. The dpi can be set/changed in the Adobe Photoshop or similar. Easy math. 3000pixels / 300 dpi = 10” works the same for metric.
Exporting images The “Save Image As” can be found in the File menu. The Save Image displays a transparent black border to show the size of the final output. This box is controlled with either the preset sizes or custom outputs. ** Ray-Tracing must be ON in order to create a final ray traced movie.
The common file formats for images are JPG, TIF (with alpha), and BMP
OpenGL (Hardware) also offers PSD and supports layers (*Recommended) Ray-tracing (Software) supports HRD and TIF HDR output
Alternate Save for Raytracing The Ray-Trace control panel has a Save feature built in. This allows you to save the image currently on screen without recalculating. This is perfect for creating screen resolution images.
: TIP ::::::::::::::::: You can use the “Save Movie As” feature to output multiple still images. 1. Create all the still shots that you require 2. set each of the shots to a duration of 1 and the transition to “Cut to Shot” 3. Instead of using the “Save Image As” chose the “Save Movie As” 4. Within the Save Movie options set “Frames Per Second” to 1 Create movie to “All Shots Separately” Save As “JPEG or TIF image sequence” The rest of the settings are your choice. Each Image will be saved similar to a batch rendering. This is not how this tool was intended so it’s by chance this works. There will be one extra frame in the beginning. Just delete this.
Exporting Movies The “Save as Movie” format is found in the file menu. Each shot can be saved as an individual movie or together in a single movie. This lets you string a series of camera moves together to be able to quickly show the product from multiple views. For Marketing movies and advertising, I would recommend creating each movie separately. This will make it easier to use in video editing software. ** Ray-Tracing must be ON in order to create a final ray traced movie.
Time to Marketing By utilizing the CAD models early in the process allows you to generate all the assets for bringing a new product to market or arming the sales team with brochures to start selling! These marketing proposals have been created in Showcase and the layout in Adobe Photoshop or illustrator. Magazine ad and brochures
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Image and model credits
Technicon Parker Hannifin (PTO ) Astro Gaming (A40 headset) Mike Oakley (Door Hardware) Adept Airmotive (Engine) Mike Prom (Audi advertising mock up)
General Information on using Showcase 1. Import (hotkey is “i”) The import status window allows users to combine various file formats (Alias, Inventor, Catia…) into one file. The file can be further managed by removing, replacing or updating files in the scene.
IMPORTANT FEATURES Drag-and-Drop files Files can either be imported in the File Menu or files can simply be dragged in from windows explorer Change the up axis Right click on file name > Settings > Up Axis (Z or Y) Update the file Click on the “needs Update” in the Conversion status Units Most files support the Unit Value. However if the file appears out of scale the Unit value may need updated to the original source file settings. 2. Decorate Environment
(hotkey is “e”).
I Highly Suggest to Choose a Back ground Environment prior to beginning. The Image Based Lighting or IBL intensity will be required to refine the Lights, Materials and overall appearance. There are 3 basic Environments to consider. Dome Geometry Environment
These Environments Place the Object in Context. Back Plate > Cubic The Default Back Plate Environments will have a “BP” in front of their name. The HDR image is Cubic mapped in the environment and allows for Rotation but not zooming or panning of the Camera. The Mapping Reduces the Distortion sometimes found on the Dome Environments. The actual Back plate does not have to be HDR. The actual Back Drop image is in the Vertical Cross format and can be TIF, JPG, and PNG. Back Plate > Planar Back Plates are Still Images that are fixed to the planar background and do not move. The Ability to replace the background with high resolution images is a common workflow for Marketing and Advertising content. Often the Reflections and the IBL do not exactly match the Back Plate.
For Creation of Custom Environments, Refer to the Showcase Help files. Add lighting and the environment > Set the Scene Environment > Create Custom environment
When decorating a model, ambient shadows will have a large effect on the appearance of materials. Ambient Shadows can be pre calculated and applied directly to the model. Casted shadows on the ground plane can be seen in the Real-time openGL mode. Casted shadows require enabling ray tracing. If time is limited ambient shadows can be calculated in preview quality. After the presentation has been set up or time permits, the ambient shadows can be calculated at a higher quality setting. Ambient Shadows (Scene > Calculate Ambient Shadows…) Ambient Shadows settings The presets for ambient shadows offer a good start with realistic results. Ambient shadow Color The color can be found in the Color section of the applied material. Often shadows are not pure black and will be a very dark value of the same color. For example, a white surface will probably have a med grey shadow where as a Red Paint might have a very dark red ambient shadow color.
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Best practices: Ray Traced Ambient Shadows Ray Tracing can either use Pre-computed shadows or calculate them. Interactive Performance - Pre-computed shadows will help the interactivity of the ray tracing by eliminating the need to include this calculation. Visual Quality or Ray Trace only – for best quality results, Ray traced Ambient shadows can be calculated while rendering. This will take additional time and processing power to compute. I would recommend this method if only a Final Image is required. The distance the Ambient Shadows will be affected by other objects can be found in the Material Properties (CTRL + M) > Ray tracing properties > Ambient shadow distance.
Light and casted Shadows Adjust Environment Light (scene > Environment light and Shadows) Each environment has one scene light that illuminates and cast a shadow onto the ground plane. This feature can be used illuminate and cast shadows or exclusively do one or the other. The “Move Light” and “Move Shadow” are used to interactively place the light and shadow in the scene. Holding CTRL key will place the highlight from the light source. The lighting Properties color, intensity, drop off and softness is found in the lower section of the interface. The ray tracing scene lighting and shadow settings can also be found here. Changing the shadow from a sharp crisp shadow to a soft blurry shadow is set with the “Shadow and Highlight Softness.” The “Ambient Shadow Distance” is a similar effect as the material setting and is based on the virtual ground plane. Add Additional lighting (hotkey = “L”) Often additional lights are required to highlight details, set the mood or help illuminate areas that might not be bright enough from the Environment IBL. Showcase supports the creation of Spot and Point lights from within the Light UI. A corresponding 3D light grip is created in the scene and can be used for selection or placement of the lights. With a light selected, the Light Properties (CTRL + L) contains similar settings to the environment scene light. Associating objects to lights In order for a light to illuminate an object, it has to be associated. This allows specific lights to only affect specific objects and not affect the entire scene by default. 1. Select objects first and then create light will automatically associate the light to the objects. 19
2. To add an object to a light, right click on the icon and choose “Add selection to”. This can also be found in the light properties. Placing Additional Lights Placement of the lights can be done manually with the transform handles, the interactive placement feature or by Auto placement. I recommend the “Behind current Camera View” as it is the most predictable. Manual Placement Use the Transform handle (H) or Transform Controls to Move the Light. Interactive Placement The Interactive Placement feature can be found inside the light Properties window. It will enable the ability to place the lights in the scene by =clicking and dragging to place the light. Additional features can be performed by holding the CTRL key and dragging on an object in the scene will move the light. Holding SHIFT + CTRL and dragging on the object will place the point of interest. Auto Placement
In Front of Lit Objects: places the light in front of the associated objects (relative to the current camera view) and slightly above and to the right. This is the same auto placement that is done when a light is first created.
Behind Lit Objects: places the light behind the associated objects and slightly above and to the left. This is the inverse of In Front, and is useful for back-lighting and “rim” lights.
Above Lit Objects: places the light above the associated objects, pointing at the center of the bounding box of the associated objects.
Behind Current Camera View: places the light behind the camera, but pointed at the associated objects. This is useful for intuitive positioning using the camera controls and for “headlamp” effects.
Materials (Hotkey = m) Replace Imported Materials 20
When you import a model, you can first replace its imported materials with the Autodesk Showcase materials for better visual quality. Each imported Material can be replaced individually or can be defined to suit you or your companies needs. The materials can be replaced based on RGB color, Material Name, or Layer name. Once set up, this workflow can greatly increase the consistency and speed of the visualization. ***2010 Alias Materials now have the same names as Showcase extended materials. The replace imported materials workflow is predefined to replace Alias materials with Showcase. Material Manager The materials interface provides a flexible, visual way to see all of the materials in the current scene and the materials in your libraries. The top section shows the “Materials in This Scene”, while the lower section shows the available “Material Libraries”. When library materials are applied to objects in the scene, they are copied to the Materials in This Scene section. The “Manage” button allows users to filter what material icons are shown, create a new library or save materials to custom library. The small icon with 2 arrows inside a circle will resize the interface and dynamically change the arrangement of the displayed material icons. Material Properties (Ctrl + m) Each default material has its own distinct parameter settings for a variety of properties such as color, reflectivity and surface characteristics such as bump. Adjusting these parameters will tune the look of an existing material to your preference. The Material Properties window contains some or all of the following types of properties. (Click on the links for more information.)
Color parameters (change the color)
Highlight parameters (modify the way that bright light reflects off a surface)
Clear Coat Highlight parameters (provide an extra level of shininess to an object, applicable for car paints)
Reflectivity parameters (determine how objects reflect their surroundings)
Transparency parameters (create levels of transparency)
Bump parameters (create the illusion of surface relief)
New Material Properties 21
Ray trace Settings -
Ambient shadow distance This sets the distance from the surface that Ray Traced ambient shadow calculations will extend. Any objects outside of this distance will not contribute to the ambient shading of the object in Ray Tracing.
Global Illumination intensity Ray Tracing parameter; sets how intense the effect of light bouncing from other surfaces in the scene will be
Blended Reflections are a realistic way of controlling reflection amounts based on physical properties of light (energy conservation). A real surface cannot reflect more than 100% of the light that hits it, and will also be darkened by reflections of darker objects around it. The visual effect is that the reflections will not “blow out” to white as easily, and transparent surfaces will be more opaque as the reflectivity increases.
Reflections Ray trace properties
Enable Blurred Reflections This setting will determine how blurring of the reflection is seen in this material. Useful for simulating materials that are reflective but do not have a perfectly smooth surface. Blurred Reflection Amount Increase this value to make reflections more blurred. A value of 0 will not blur reflections at all.
Transparency ray trace properties
Material transparency properties that is unique to the Ray Tracing display and rendering mode. These settings will have no effect on the material when viewed in Hardware rendering mode.
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Refractive Index: the physical property determining how much refraction (visual distortion in transparency due to bending light) is present when transparent. A value of 1 will result in no refractive distortion at all. Note For accuracy, use real-world values (such as 1.56 for glass, and 2.2 for diamonds) whenever possible. Refractive indices are common to all materials, and lists of real-world values can be found on the internet very easily. Use absorbance: toggles absorbance coloring and transparency attenuation. Absorbance is the visual effect of light being absorbed as it passes through a material, which is a physically accurate version of a transparency color. The greater the depth of the material, the more light is absorbed, so transparency becomes less. Absorbance color: the color of the material transparency when the absorbance depth is reached or exceeded. Omit transparency color: toggles the use of the main transparency color for both color and transparency amount. This uses only absorbance to calculate the color and amount of transparency for the object. Absorbance depth: the thickness at which the Absorbance color is achieved for overall transparency. At depths less than this amount, the transparency approaches 100% transparent in a gradient. Simulate thickness: Used to add depth-based effects such as refraction and absorption to transparent objects that are created as a single, infinitely thin surface. Simulate Thickness will "shift" the rays passing through the object to show refraction and absorption as if there was a second, identical surface at the specified depth behind the actual transparent surface. However, the ray tracing effects will not be as accurate with simulated thickness as they would be with true thickness. This simulation looks best when adding very small amounts of thickness to single surfaces, such as windows.
Hiding the Selection highlighting To hide the selection display, turn ON “Hide selection highlighting�. This is automatically turned on when CTRL + M is used to open the material properties. Pressing CTRL +M while the Material Properties is open will also hide the selection highlighting.
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Decals Decals are important aspect of product visualization. Decals are special materials that use an image as a "mask" to determine their coverage, and a mapping method to determine their location. Decals can be layered on top of other materials and other decals, and have all of the properties available for materials. Individual decals can be applied across multiple objects, and multiple decals can be applied to any number of objects. If an object with a decal is transformed, the decal will transform with it. Decal grip: The 3D locator for decals is called a “decal grip,” which appears as a green star where each decal centered. Decal grips are visible and selectable in front of all other objects, and visually scale as you change the view. They can be hidden with (SHIFT +D) or by the material menu. Decals can be selected and manipulated like objects using their grip, and can also be deleted, or added to alternatives. Selecting a decal grip also lets you edit or replace the material properties of that decal, or reorder a “stack” of multiple decals on an object (moving them up or down in the layering of decals).
Decal Placement: the decal can be quickly adjusted and repositioned with the move texture tool. This intera
3. Prepare Shots (Hotkey = t) Shots allow you to capture and bookmark the current camera position and add optional cinematographic movements around it to create moving shots. For Presenting, Shots can be used to direct the viewer’s attention and seamlessly flow from one view to the next. To Create a Still Shot press “CTRL + T” or the “Create” button in the Shots interface. To create a shot assigned to a hotkey, Press CTRL + any number. Pressing the number will move the camera to that shot. The Shots Properties are found by Right clicking on the shot icon. Within the properties, the motion type can be set to Still, Start and End, or cinematic.
Alternatives (Hotkey = A) Alternatives let you compare and contrast Variations of parts of your scene including the display of the model, different material combinations and the position of the parts.
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Model - the model alternative is used to toggle the visibility of the model. To hide part of a model, select the object and “Add next alternative” in a Model Line-up. Next, deselect all elements and “Add next alternative”. This will create an empty Alternative used to hide the first one. Elements are visible when the small eye icon appears on the alternative.
Material -The material alternative is used to store material settings for selected model parts. Each Alternative can have multiple parts assigned. For example, one Material line up may have different paint materials assigned to the housing of a product. Another Material line up may contain complete material changes for all elements on a product.
Position –The Position Line up stores the transform control information for the model. This can be used to open and close doors, placement of the object in various positions and arrangements.
Behaviors (Hotkey = b) A behavior is the Interface for setting up Simple turntable animations of importing of animations from 3ds Max or Maya. Play back controls can be found by right clicking on the behavior icons. The controller offers standard play, stop, forward and backward controls with the ability to adjust the speed. Each animation can be linked together to be synced by one controller. Turntable Turntable animation is an easy to use method to rotate an object either as a turntable or a rotisserie (end over end) direction. If the pivot is placed at a hinge point, the behavior can also be used as a basic hinge. Animations have to be assigned to objects; additional elements can be added or removed at anytime. Import animation Animation can be imported from 3ds Max and Maya FBX files. If the FBX file is used to import both animation and geometry (import model) then the animation will automatically be connected. If not, then the animation can be parented to any model node in the organizer.
Story Boards (Hotkey = u) A storyboard lets you combine individual elements (alternatives, shots, behaviors, and environments) into a coherent narrative for presentation. In Presentation Mode you can use the slides of the storyboard like a slide presentation to step through a narrative.
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Create a new storyboard and click on it to highlight it in orange. To add alternatives, shots, behaviors or environments to a story board, simply right click on the icon > Add to current storyboard. The small triangle in the upper left of each storyboard slide expands or collapses the view of the storyboard elements. 4. Present Presentation mode (Hotkey = TAB) IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to use the “presentation mode� to reduce the UI and enables single click navigation for all presentations. The extra menus, icons and manage buttons used in the creation of the presentation will be hidden. This makes it impossible to accidently modify the scene and allows viewers to only focus on the visualization.
5. Visualize The Visualization performance is either real-time openGL or software rendering or rapid raytracing also known as Hardware Rendering. Showcase seamlessly switches between hardware and software rendering, giving users full control over real-time performance and visual quality. Either mode can be used for interactive presentations or Image creation.
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Real-time (default view) The Showcase “Look” is a combination of the environment set-up, material properties, lighting and the User interface. The Real-time visualization of Showcase enables the story telling aspect of Design reviews, client meetings and point of sales displays. No other product in the market can compete with the high-end visualization quality. Because of this high level of fidelity, the interactivity performance and capabilities are entirely dependent on the Graphics Card. Hardware rendering mode
Uses the GPU (video card) to calculate and display the scene.
Very fast response time (frames per second) on qualified hardware.
Easy to manipulate objects, materials, textures and cameras due to response time.
Very fast image and movie output at large resolutions.
The minimal graphics cards are NVIDIA GeForce® or Quadro® FX graphics card with at least 512 MB graphics memory. However for best performance it is recommended to use NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics card with 768 MB graphics memory or more. Additional details. NVIDIA Quadro FX and GeForce cards released since summer, 2006 that include the 7, 8 or 9 series graphics chipset. Cards must have a minimum 512 MB graphics memory. More memory is recommended on Microsoft® Windows Vista® or for users working with large data sets or complex scenes. Example graphics cards include:
7 series: Quadro FX 4500, Geforce 7900GTX, Mobile FX 2500M
8 series: Quadro FX 1700, Quadro FX 4600, GeForce 8800 GTS, Mobile FX 1600M
9 series: Quadro FX 3700, Quadro FX 5800, GeForce 9600 GT, Mobile FX 3600M
Quadro Plex Model II and Model D2 are also supported.
System Memory Showcase can use up to 3 GB RAM on 32-bit Windows XP (with modified boot options) or on Windows Vista 32. 64-bit Windows XP x64 or Windows Vista 64 allows Showcase to access up to 4 GB of system RAM. 27
Ray-tracing (Hotkey = R) Showcase now includes an integrated Ray Tracing mode for interactive visualizations and high-quality image output. Ray tracing is a rendering method that produces highly realistic visuals by tracing “rays” from each rendered pixel into the 3D scene, which then bounce, bend and create visual effects similar to real light. In Showcase, ray tracing will be visually similar to hardware rendering, but adds many new effects. Ray tracing in Showcase can be both interactive (the scene can be manipulated while the ray tracing updates), and offline for output (the scene can be rendered at any size or quality level and written to disk immediately). Hitting the “R” key is the easiest way to activate ray tracing. Showcase uses a reduced Sub-Sampling method for interactive display. When the view is static, the quality will progressively increase until the maximum sample rate is achieved. Advanced ray tracing effects can be selectively added and controlled using presets in the Performance and Quality dialog. All tools, controls and manipulators appear the same in Hardware rendering and in Ray Tracing, with the exception of wireframe display and some image output formats.
Ray Trace rendering mode
Uses the CPU (computer processors) to calculate and display the scene.
Very high quality visuals, with realistic shadows, transparency and reflections.
Enhances environments, lights and materials with new properties and capabilities.
Can be optimized for interactivity or final output quality.
Additional Details. Though most modern processors will work, for optimal Performance, it is recommended to use a 4-core processor. Showcase can use up to 3 GB RAM on 32-bit Windows XP (with modified boot options) or on Windows Vista 32. 64-bit Windows XP x64 or Windows Vista 64 allows Showcase to access up to 4 GB of system RAM.
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