Where to Start
Once your garment or look is finished, make sure you use the Hi-Res Garment tool and simulate to see the realistic drape. Next, go to the Render Menu ▶ Render to enter the Render Mode. Click to start an Interactive Render. As you view the preview, a good place to start is to use the default settings;
● set up the image size as desired
● use a plain background (with an image vignette if desired)
● PNG file format is lossless and will therefore give you better quality than the JPEG
● reset the lighting to Default (Studio Low Contrast) & activate ground shadow (this effect is a must when rendering a full avatar)
● Windows users: use the GPU Engine
● Noise Threshold set at 0.05
● Max Render Time = 20 min
● Light & Material Quality at Medium
If you start here and create a final render, stop Interactive Render and click Final Render. Watch this complete and take note how long it takes. From here, you can make adjustments to the lighting and render properties to improve the image quality.
Further Considerations
Creating a beautiful image in CLO can be tricky at times. You need to balance the complexity of your project with the limitations of your hardware and the amount of time your computer will take to give you the final result. Here are a few things to consider;
● How does your hardware match up to our system requirements? It is better to go towards the Recommended rather than Minimum. If your computer matches the minimum requirements, yes, it may work, but it will not be a good experience. You will quickly run into speed limitations not
only while rendering, but with simulating as your garments get more complex. The amount of RAM in your computer will make the biggest difference with speed.
● What materials did you use? Are there any metals, sparkles, shiny areas on the fabrics, buttons, zippers, snaps, etc.? Anything that will reflect light while rendering can add more time to the rendering process.
● Have you added accessories or objects in the scene that have glass or metal? Did you create a “mirror” or place a ground plane that is very shiny? Think about your environment. It may be awesome to have a detailed room around your avatar and garment, but opting for a simple, plain background will not only reduce rendering time, but also focus the viewer’s attention on the garment.
● How complex is the garment or garments making up the looks? Is there visible internal layers or multiple layered garments? Are you using lots of buttons, zippers, graphics, prints, etc.? Is there puckering or have you activated Realistic Seamline while using the Fill tool?
● What image size are you using? It is recommended you pick from the pixel size options (640 x 480, etc.) as this will reduce the rendering time. The paper size layouts may seem attractive but the document/pixel ratios can cause a slowing of the rendering process. If needed, changing the resolution (ppi) will slow down the rendering process.
● Check your Render Properties:
○ Are you rendering fur? It is recommended to switch to CPU Engine to get better results, but it will take longer. So you need to decide whether the slower rendering is beneficial.
○ What is your Noise Threshold? Default 0.05, the lower you go, the better the details but it will take longer.
○ Max Render Time; Based on all the variables, CLO will do the best it can with the time you have allotted.
○ Light and Material Quality will also affect the length of your render.
※Note: If you want to render an animation (rather than capturing the 3D window), always do a single render to start. The time it took to render that one image should be multiplied by the number of frames in the animation.
● Example:
○ image rendering time = 5 minutes
○ frames in animation = 450
○ how long the render animation will take: 2250 minutes or 37.5 hours (a day and a half)
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