#Question
9 messages in this thread
What is the difference between rendering, modeling, and raytracing?
Robert,
modelling is what we call the design of three-dimensional objects. The
tool used for this is a modeller, which can be interactive or
script-based. The so modelled objects will be put to action in
staging, which is the placement of objects, a camera and light
sources like actors on a stage. This setup will now be
rendered, meaning you have the computer simulate the picture a human eye
or a photo camera would see if it were in that virtual environ-
ment.
ray-tracing is just one of many methods of rendering a picture. It was
the first to be developed. It is fairly easy to program and
produces extremely realistic output. Ray-tracing is however
painfully slow. What it does is follow the rays of light from
the light sources into the eye, reflecting and refracting on
the objects inbetween. In fact, it does this backwards.
Other rendering methods use approximations to get around
calculating millions of light rays. They include phong and
gouraud shading algorithms. Modern renderers use one of these
fast methods plus they apply ray-tracing selectively in those
parts of the picture that require it.
Hope this answers your questions.
Tom / Amiga Imagineer from Switzerland with AutoPilot engaged
Thanks for the help! Does Imagine use raytracing?
Robert,
Imagine allows you to either render in scanline or ray-tracing mode. The
difference is that in scanline objects DON'T cast shadows and shiny
objects reflect only the ground and the global brush (for example a cloudy
sky), but not other objects. Apart from that they are fairly identical.
Tom / Amiga Imagineer from Switzerland with AutoPilot engaged
Imagine WILL Raytrace but it is NOT Neccessary MOST of the time.If you use
scanline rendering MOST of the time it looks GREAT in Imagine,if you use
alot of Reflective or Refractive objects Raytracing gives BETTER results.
But Raytracing is approx 4 times slower than Scanline rendering.
Yes, Imagine does Ray-Trace and so does LightWave, Sculpt and a few
others. There are some that don't Ray-Trace like Aladdin 4D and others but
that doesn't mean that it isn't any good.
Most of the time we use Scanline instead of Ray-Trace since it is about 4
times faster that Ray-Tracing and can give VERY good results, even though
there won't be any shadows or reflections but even those can be
simulated.
Unless you ABSOLUTELY, positively have to have Ray-Tracing don't use that
as your only basis.
<<< Tony D. Tracer >>>
OOOOOOOer Thomas,your answer to Roberts Question was Infinitely better
than mine.Lucky for you your miles away so when I tear my own head off in
frustration I won't get any Muck on you hehehehehehehe
Rendering and Raytracing are SIMILAR,tho you can Render without Raytracing
you can't Raytrace without rendering hehehehehe Modeling is the Actual
CREATION of a 3D Model(object) from Primitives or by latheing or grabbing
points/faces and stretching them around.
"Rendering" is the term used to say "making a picture from the data",
"modeling" is the creation of objects and their motions, and "ray tracing"
is a very particular kind of rendering that attempts to achieve realistic
images by computing the color of each pixel by tracing the path of an
imaginary light ray from your eye into the scene, hopefully determining the
right color by finding the object it hits, and then following *that* ray as
it bounces to other objects and light sources…