Redshift Renderer Functions
The top section of Redshift Renderer sub-palette
Redshift
Turn on the Redshift button to enable rendering with Redshift. The Redshift rendering options will then become available.
Floor Material
Click the thumbnail to select a material for the Floor. Select the Shadow Catcher material to set the Floor as a shadow catcher.
Floor Color
Click the thumbnail to select a color for the Floor.
Gamma Correction
Allows for the changing of the gamma value. On Windows, the default is 2.2; on MacOS the default is 1.8.
Rotate Lights with Camera
When turned on, lights will be rotated with the camera which is especially useful if you want a light behind the model for SSS. When off, the lights will remain fixed.
Use Default Panorama
Use the default panorama for lighting and reflections.
Rendering options
Render options
Render Quality
When Progressive Rendering is turned off, Bucket Rendering is enabled and the quality is determined by the Render Quality slider setting.
Progressive Rendering
When turned on, the render will be shown progressively increasing in quality. The final quality of the render is determined by the Progressive Iterations slider.
If Progressive Rendering is turned off, then Bucket Rendering is enabled. The render will appear as a sequence of squares, rendered at final quality. The quality of Bucket Rendering is determined by the Render Quality slider.
Error Threshold
Lower Error Threshold values improve render quality and reduce noise but at the cost of render time. The default 0.01 value should work well for a variety of scenes. For production-quality results, we recommend lower settings such as 0.003.
Progressive Iterations
When Progressive Rendering is turned on, the final quality of the render is determined by the Progressive Iterations slider. The higher the number of iterations, the better the quality.
Primary GI Engine Quality
The Primary GI Engine Quality slider works to select the global illumination engine used at render time. A setting of zero will yield no global illumination. A setting of one uses Brute Force.
Secondary GI Engine Quality
The Secondary GI Engine Quality slider works to select a secondary global illumination engine used at render time. A setting of zero will yield no global illumination; one = Points Cloud; three = Brute Force. A good general setting is to use one (Brute Force) for the Primary GI Engine and one (Point Cloud) for the Secondary GI Engine.
GI Bounce
The number of simulated photon bouncing interactions.
GI Rays
The number of GI rays to shoot per pixel.
Retrace Threshold
Controls how many Point Cloud points are used in difficult scenarios like around corners and creases to help reduce splotchy artifacts and light leaks in those areas.
The higher the “Retrace Threshold” value is the more these points will not be used around corners and creases but additional rays will have to be shot instead. Shooting rays is slower but more accurate than simply using Point Cloud points, so increasing “Retrace Threshold” can make the rendering a bit slower during final rendering (if Brute-Force is selected as the primary GI engine)
When using Brute Force as the primary GI engine: values such as 2 or 3 are usually sufficient.
Samples Per Pixel
The number of primary rays that will be shot per pixel. Higher values result in greater accuracy but slower renders.
Preview Quality in ZBrush
Sets the quality of the preview material icon inside ZBrush before rendering with Redshift. A lower number will increase speed when rendering and reduce quality. Increasing the value of the slider will increase the quality while increasing the update time.
Preview Size in ZBrush
Sets the size of the preview inside ZBrush before rendering with Redshift.
Depth of Field
Depth of Field
When the Depth Of Field button is enabled, Redshift will render depth of field.
Focus Depth
Focus Depth sets the point at which the model is in full focus. You can click+drag from the slider to the model.
Focus Radius
Focus Radius sets how quickly the model becomes blurred.
SubTool Disable Options
In order to speed up test renders there are three options to disable functions for visible subtools.
Disable DynamicSubdiv
Disables Dynamic Subdivision for visible SubTools.
Disable ArrayMesh
Disables ArrayMesh for visible SubTools.
Disable NanoMesh
Disables NanoMesh for visible SubTools.
Render Recall
Render Recall allows you to scroll through previous renders and recall their settings. What is recalled can be set using the options. This makes it easy to reuse a favourite material or light setting with your current render.
Important Note: Although you will see the previous render it is only the settings that are recalled. If a different model was used then this isn’t reloaded.
Redshift Baker
Redshift Baker enables you to bake the current Redshift render materials into a model as polypaint. The mesh is rotated a number of times and the material color averaged for each polygon.
Redshift Baker 360
Press the Redshift Baker button to start the baking progress
Bake Longitude Steps
The number of Longitudinal rotation steps the baker will make. The total steps will be Longitude and Latitude steps multiplied together.
Bake Latitude Steps
The number of Latitudinal rotation steps the baker will make. The total steps will be Longitude and Latitude steps multiplied together.
Bake Color Mode
The Bake Color Mode slider controls the average of two separate projections. Bake Color Mode works best with materials with reduced specularity or shine.
Preserve Highlights
The Preserve Highlights slider controls the affect of brighter colours being applied to your model for the baking process. Slight variations in lighting may result in a dimming of specular highlights. This slider gives greater weight to brighter colors and specular quality is retained. The higher the value the greater the weighting.
Redshift Materials
Some of the new Redshift materials
New Redshift Materials are provided in ZBrush so that you can get the best out of Redshift. Each material has a set of modifiers which can be adjusted allowing you to tweak the settings and create new materials. Your materials can be saved an reloaded just like ZBrush standard materials.
Material Modifiers
Redshift RoughMetal material selected with some modifiers showing
Redshift Light Properties
The Lights palette has a new section for Redshift Light Properties.
Shadow
Turn Shadow on or off per Light.
Shadow Strength
Strength – full black or degrees of gray.
Shadow softness
Softness – sharp edge or soft edge.
Shadow Samples
Shadow Samples
Intensity Multiplier
Intensity Multiplier
Light Distance
Distance – how far the light is from the object
Light Range
Range – how far the light will reach
Decay Type
Decay Type – power of 2 or linear
Decay Start
Decay Start
Redshift Background options
The Background section of the Light palette has some Redshift options.
Redshift Exposure
The Redshift Exposure slider affects Redshift only so it can be set differently to the HDR Exposure. This can be used to create dramatic effects – for example, the background exposure can be quite dark but the model fully illuminated.
Redshift HDR Shadows
The Redshift HDR Shadows slider affects Redshift only so it can be set different to the HDR shadows.
SubTool: Redshift Properties
Smooth Surface
In the Tool>SubTool>Redshift Properties section is the Smooth Surface button. This option allows you to tell Redshift to smooth the surface at render time. It can be set per subtool. This is designed for making low resolution and faceted meshes look good, so don’t use it with high resolution meshes! The setting can be turned on for all visible subtools by using the Apply Last Action button.
Redshift Tips & Tricks
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- If a Redshift material is on your model then polyframes will not be visible.
- Redshift will automatically use your video card if it is supported. If your video card is not supported then the CPU will be used for rendering.
- LightCaps are not supported by Redshift.
- Make sure you use those materials designed for use with polypaint if you want polypaint to be visible.
- Use the Base swatch to change the material main color.
- If you have a texure applied to you model then you need to use a Redshift material – MatCaps will not show the texture.
- If using a SSS material then the higher the SSS Weight slider is set, the less polypaint will show. A setting of 1 will mean no polypaint shows.
- If using the Floor as a shadow catcher remember that you can change the size of the floor by adjusting the Grid Size slider in the Draw palette. This will mean your shadows don’t get cut off!
- If you are using a Redshift material then the Light icon will not update.
- You can render a region by holding the cursor over a part of the scene and pressing Ctrl+R. This is useful if you are making adjustments to materials.
- Redshift will work with Turntable and TimeLine. Simply do a Redshift render first then do the Turntable.