Diving Straight into Photographic Rendering - Photographic Rendering with V-Ray for SketchUp - page 3

Good composition is the foundation of
photographic rendering
Once the geometry populating a scene has been lovingly prepared, the thing that we
as the render artist will be charged with is the task of turning plain scene models into
a finalized, photo-realistic render. We can give ourselves a solid foundation on which
to build by, first of all, giving consideration to the compositional quality of the shot (or
render) that we have been tasked with creating.
In fact, when you start to give some serious thought to the subject, doesn't it stand
to reason that in order to look like a photograph, a rendered image would need to be
constructed in at least a similar manner as the photograph that it is seeking to mimic?
This is why compositional rules such as those listed in the following bullets need to be
thought of as the foundation or starting point from which a photographic render can
be constructed.
• Thirds
• Positive and negative space
• Balance
• Leading lines
• Focal point
• Symmetry and patterns
• Point of view
• Subject and background
• Depth
• Framing
As a computer artist, if we are not already familiar with the total accuracy of the state-
ment Put garbage in and you will get garbage out , we will be very soon, because it is
one of the most often citied and indeed accurate pieces of advice that you are likely
to hear.
In other words, what we get out as the end result of a piece of work or project can
only be as good as the materials, the time, and the effort that we put into it. If we start
our rendering project with a weak or unstable foundation (such as poor composition),