Capture Render Settings from completed Renderings

I received the following email from an IRender nXt user:

As a huge fan and personal subscriber of Irender nxt I was wondering if you could, along with the renderings that are posted on your site, include/identify the settings that were used to establish the finish result?

Or

Can you create some rendering samples specifically to show different styles and post the precise settings that were chosen to achieve the style?

For example:

Night time, sun sets or sun rise, wet look, different types of reflections for windows, metal surfaces, etc.?

I ask this because I don’t have a lot of time to experiment with the settings. Meaning moving numbers up and down until I see something I like. It would be nice to see an established example, then start from there by picking and choosing.

This is a great question and I want to share my reply to Richard because I think that this will prove helpful to many.  First, when a completed rendering is saved as a .jpg file, the render settings are written to the image.

Please be aware that if another program has been used to post-process and then save the rendering (with the same name), the render settings will not be retained in the image.

Reviewing the settings is not difficult:

NOTE:  The following method describes retrieving render settings from a completed rendering and copying them to the current model.  If you are experimenting, you might want to open the SketchUp default, empty model first so that you will not inadvertently change render settings for one of your models.

1) Click "Render Settings" on the IRender nXt toolbar.

2) Select "More" on the dialog. The collection of "More" settings includes  "Load Option Values from" + "JPEG Image".  This feature permits loading render settings from a completed rendering.  The benefit is that you might use the same settings from a completed rendering to process a rendering of your current model.   This feature can also be used to examine render settings.

When you CLICK "JPEG Image", File Explorer will open, to facilitate browsing your computer's file system to locate a completed rendering.

If you want to capture render settings from a completed rendering that is not on your computer, for example an image that has been uploaded to the renderplus.com gallery, do this:

1) Browse the Internet to find an IRender nXt .jpg file.  Remember that if the image was post-processed with another program the render settings will not have been retained.

For a quick test, RIGHT-CLICK on the image below and select "Copy image location".

You can paste the file location into the File Explorer address.  With this image you will see the following path:

http://api.ning.com/files/gZMrtGx-8ctwZwnk*XDtZDwCf0aa74oE-ExDVMtHd7KwQsoyirgRFq92kpyoyJ4IXV-xy76M1yPWKBOjk-gVHFzKNr4r643o/StainedGlass.jpg?width=483

Use the Back key to remove everything after ".jpg", for this specific image that means remove:  "?width=483"

Once you have the image location pasted to "File Name", CLICK Open.

A dialog will display with the Render Settings for the image. The settings are written in plain English and so should be easy to understand.  To use these settings for the current model, CLICK "OK".  CLICK "Cancel" to remove the dialog without modifying render settings for the model that you have open.

Capturing render settings from .jpg images created exclusively with IRender nXt is a very reasonable way to learn about how render settings can be used to create impressive renderings of your SketchUp models at any time of day or night.

Don't forget that IRender nXt includes many post-processing features that can be used to balance lighting, brighten or darken the image, and adjust color saturation to name just a few.  With these features you'll find it easy to create several presentation images from one completed IRender nXt rendering.

If you have any questions about the method I've described, please let me know.  Also, please share your renderings on the renderplus.com gallery, perhaps your next rendering will be selected as our "Rendering of the Month"

-Russell Houlden

Render Plus Software, Inc.