Digital rendering; photography of the 21st century
Author
Roland Guijs
In the early 19th century, photography was invented. Groundbreaking, it was finally possible to show someone else what you have in mind and to enhance your words with images.
Fastforward to almost 200 years later, so much has changed. With the advent of mobile phones and AI-driven photo editing, everyone has a photo studio in their pocket, and we are inundated with photos online. But for showcasing products, prototypes, or visions of the future, there is a technique that is much better, namely rendering.
What is rendering?
Rendering is the process of generating a graphic image with a computer, based on raw data. In practice, this means that an image is created based on one or more models. Depending on the chosen lighting, texturing, and positioning, this image can be created entirely according to your own creative insight. The most well-known example of rendering is video games, where real-time rendering takes the gamer into the story and the environment. Falling stones, running people, and flying objects, all graphical representations based on the models and algorithms used in the game.
Why would you choose a rendering?
Practical. Machines are large, surrounded by fences or have not yet been put into production. This makes it ideal, especially for the technical sector, to choose rendered images of their products.
Flexible. Do you want to show a version in the colors of an integrator with whom you are in the middle of an acquisition process? Or has a new add-on become available, or has a small update just been implemented? This can be arranged digitally with a few clicks.
Clear. Rendering provides opportunities
A render, that's really quite valuable, isn’t it?
For photography, there needs to be a crew present on location, and the product must be ready, preferably with distracting objects removed from around it. This brings many practical challenges. For a render, you only need a model. Most of the time investment goes into developing textures, lighting, etc. But rendering a second machine or a third variant of a product? Done in the blink of an eye! Moreover, these renders can also be used for animations, online product configurators, etc. All in all, a very good investment!
Using rendering for videos
The rendering technique can also be used for videos. This is also known as animation. An animation (or video) is nothing more than 25 images per second shown in sequence. Through rendering for videos, for example, the functioning of a machine can be very well explained, which shows internal mechanisms, among other things. Or just the functioning in slow motion or fast forward, to give the viewer a good impression of the product flow. The possibilities are endless!
