Overview

This standard is about using previously created elements to prepare and render VFX scenes and should include the set-up of all passes required for compositing. 

For VP, Renders may run in real-time on an LED wall or be pre-rendered from software

This could apply to those involved in lighting and render wrangling.

Performance Criteria

You must be able to:

  1. analyse briefs, scripts, visual references, technical and production parameters to determine what is needed
  2. provide information to others on render times and conflicting priorities in ways that enable solutions to be found 
  3. establish what render passes are required by artists later down the workflow and accommodate requests in order to factor these into calculations and schedules
  4. select and use the software that is most appropriate to the production 
  5. undertake test renders to determine the length of time required for rendering and check for errors establish the render settings needed to gain the required appearance, whilst creating sufficient flexibility in the compositing stage
  6. apply appropriate render settings to render the required degree of realism
  7. prioritise renders in accordance with production priorities and compositing requirements
  8. fix bugs and resolve problems that arise with rendering
  9. respond to feedback and changing requirements and make refinements as needed

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand:

  1. the creative style, overall concept and render quality and compositing requirements 
  2. the technical requirements of the project, such as the aspect ratio, frame-rate, format, image resolution and colour space
  3. the rendering requirements for the production
  4. who to collect information from and pass information to about render requirements, render times and render schedules 
  5. the intended appearance and required degree of realism of the finished image you are working on
  6. the computer processing power and storage space available for rendering factors affecting render speed, such as size of texture map, ray and reflection depth, global illumination, ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing, blurry reflections or area shadows
  7. rendering techniques, such as ray tracing; texture mapping to define the colour, texture and reflectance of 3D objects and environments
  8. buffering techniques to simulate a sense of perspective to describe the distance between 3D objects and environments
  9. exposure depth of field to alter the sense of depth or focus on 3D objects and environments
  10. creative blurring and transforms to give the appearance of live-action, toon rendering and stereo rendering
  11. how to save and duplicate render settings across multiple files
  12. surface properties and how shading models can be applied to represent variations in different materials
  13. how to calculate render times and storage space required