This tutorial demonstrates the section rendering process from Rhino to Photoshop. The first part is about how to cut and export section in Rhino. Then the second part shows some advance rendering techniques in Photoshop. The model in the tutorial is Winton Guest House.
- Section cut and export in Rhino.
1.1 On the top view, draw the section cut line and use “ExtrudeCrv” command to extrude the line into a big enough surface. Then select the surface and “Trim” the cut out part on the model.
1.2 For the terrain, we can go through the same process as above, just make sure the cutting surface is big enough for the imported terrain.
1.3 In order to generate the front surface for the section, we need to draw the boundary of it. Use the “DupBorder” command to extract edge curves of the terrain. Then draw the rest of the lines. To make sure the surface edges are closed curves, we can select all the curves and type in “CurveBoolean” command. To generate the surface, we can use “PlanarSrf” command.
1.4 Choose the best view of the section, on the Name Views option, save the view and name it Section Render. For different surfaces that will show on the section, we need to add materials to them. We can click the + icon and select More Types. Then select Octane Material and add several of them. After the materials are added, we can apply them on different surfaces like walls, building facade, terrain, etc.
1.5 Then we can open the view port under Octane Render panel. We can adjust the sun under the Sun panel, and adjust sun color and brightness under Octane Render panel, Environment options. Under the Render Pass options, turn on (enable) the Material ID. If we go back to the view port, we can switch the option Beauty to Material ID. The Material ID would allow us select different areas on the drawing more easily in the Photoshop. We can also change the resolution under Film Settings options. After all these settings, wait until the Pixel reach/over 500. Then we can export them as images Material ID and Section Raw.
2. Advance rendering in Photoshop.
2.1 Material rendering.
Open both Material ID and Section Raw in Photoshop. We can download some proper materials from Google Image and editing them in Photoshop. If we turn on the Material ID layer, we can easily use magic wand to select any areas to render. We can also change the mode of each material layer (normal to multiply in order to let them fit in the background more natural). By adding level to each layer we can adjust the brightness of them.
2.2 Adding section cut line.
In the section view in Rhino, change the option from Shaded to Pen. Then select the section cut line and click the Export Selected under File options. We can export the line into Illustrator, then in the Photoshop use Place Embedded function to embed the Illustrator file. We can scale the section cut line and make adjustment on stroke and color in Illustrator so the line in Photoshop will update as well.
