The_Quasi-Clay_Style.pdf

8/13/2019 The_Quasi-Clay_Style.pdf

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The Quasi-Clay Style

The Quasi-Clay

Style by Oliver Shea

The image I am us ing for this tutorial is part of a housing project I am pres ently working on. We are going to try and achieve a

fake or Quasi Clay Style effect in this tutorial. For this tutorial I used Podium as my choice of render application, but you

can use anyone you prefer for your raw render image. You will also need Google SketchUp and Photoshop.

1. Open up your model in SketchUp.

Generated by Foxit PDF Creator Foxit Softwarehttp://www.foxitsoftware.com For evaluation only.


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Step 1

2.In the SketchUp Styles window set the line Extension to between 3 and 5. Set Front/Back face colour to light grey. Set

Background colour to very light grey (never use absolute white for renders). Now paint your windows a darker grey and add

a very smal l amount of reflectivity if desired. Highlight certain areas by using deeper grays/colour if you like. See settings in

below images:

Step 2

3.In the SketchUp Shadows window Display Shadows. Set Time and Date to compliment your scene. Set the Dark slider to

between 8 and 15 (this affects the sun strength in Podium). Check Use sun for shading (this produces soft shadows in



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Podium).

Step 3

4.Now open SketchUp Podium. Make sure you have the latest version. Set Render Size to at least the Viewport Resolution.

Set Quality and Smoothness to Full. Select the 2_quality.xml preset. Click Render and wait for it to finish. Now change

preset to Black and White.xml to create a mask of your render.

Step 4

5.Now change the SketchUp Face Style to Hidden Line. Turn off Shadows. Change Background Colour from very light grey

to white.



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Step 5

6.Export image at twice your Viewport Resolution (this will give crisper lines). See settings in below images:

Step 6

You should now have a raw render, line export and mask to begin the next step.



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Raw Render

Line export



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Mask

7.Open up Photoshop or s imilar image editing software. Open the render, line export and mask. Copy and paste the line

export over your render. Re-size (accurately) and change blending mode to Multiply. Your layers should look like this:

Step 7

8.Set Blend Mode to Multiply



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Step 8

9.As you can see, the render is quite flat in tone. We need to adjus t the levels to create a more contrasting image. Select

your render layer and create a new adjustment layer (levels). Check Use previous layer to create clipping mask. Up the

whites and lower the blacks. See images below:

Step 9



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Check 'Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask'

Increase the Whites and Lower the Blacks

10.Now open up your render mask. Copy and paste over your other layers.

11.Select the white using select color range tool.



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Step 11

12.Now, while the sky is selected, select your render layer and create new adjus tment layer again, but this time choose

Gradient. Check Reverse when you get the option. Change the opacity of this layer to around 35% (opacity depends on

your scene).

Step 12



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Choose Gradient and Check Reverse

Set Opacity at 35%

13.Now create another gradient over you render layer. Change the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light and opacity to

around 40% (again, opacity depends on your scene).



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Step 13

Set Blend Mode to Soft Light and Opacity

to 40%



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Image Result

14.Merge the gradient layers to your render layer when you are happy with the results.

15.Create New Layer. Fill White. Go to Filter>Dis tort>Lens Correction. Adjust vignette level. When you are happy, change the

blending mode of this layer to multiply with opacity around 60-80% (again, opacity depends on your scene).

Step 15



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Lens Correction

Blend Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 62%

16.Your image is nearly finished. You may want to add more variation to the line export layer to give a more hand-drawn

impress ion. In SketchUp, change the line extension to 30 and export another Hidden Line image of your scene. Place this

second l ine export over your image and erase some parts here and there. This step is not completely necessary but it

softens the transi tion between line and render. Change opacity to suit your scene.



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Step 16

17.Now do some final levels/contrast adjustment to make image more punchy. You may want to add som e more

gradients/overlays to balance the image. Also, a high pass filter overlay can help bring out some lost details .

18.Select the render layer. Add noise (Filter>Noise>Add Noise) try 2 % monochromatic gauss ian noise or less (dont use

too much). This s tep is vital.

19.You can also add some warmth to the image using Photo Filter or ColorAdd. Finally add a border to finish the image.

Thats it!



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Final Image

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and find i t useful in your workflow and presentations.

Oliver Shea

Here are a few example images of Olivers work. They show different ways of using his style with and without textures/colour

Images Courtesy of Nicol Thomas Architects




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Some new recent Images by Oliver



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Image 1

Image 2



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Image 3

Image 4



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Image 5



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Image 6



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Image 7


Documents

The_Quasi-Clay_Style.pdf