Autodesk® A360 | Interactive Rendering Beta - Getting Started Guide

[ruffoc]

What is Interactive Rendering in Autodesk A360?

Interactive Rendering is a real-time photorealistic-rendering environment that makes creating beautiful images and turntable animations super-easy. Simply drag and drop lighting environments and materials onto your project, adjust your camera, and then click the render button. With the power of cloud computing, we take the guess work out of what your final images and animations will look like — what you see in the view port as you work is what your final rendering will look like. 

How can I access Interactive Rendering in Autodesk A360?

Although it is part of Autodesk A360, Interactive Rendering only works with the Autodesk^® Fusion^™ data type at present. You can access the feature set by clicking the ‘Try Beta’ button located in the rendering mini gallery view from your Autodesk A360 Dashboard.

 

How do I use Interactive Rendering?

Using Interactive Rendering is super-easy. Simply drag and drop lighting environments and materials onto your project, adjust your camera, and then click the render button. When you launch the beta, you will see a help screen outlining how to get started.

The Interactive Rendering workspace is divided into several zones:

• A tool pallet where you can assign lighting environments, change materials and adjust camera parameters. As you make changes you see results in real-time ray traced mode in the interactive canvas.
• Real time interactive viewport. With the power of cloud computing, we take the guess work out of what your final images and animations will look like — what you see in the view port as you work is what your final rendering will look like.
• A shots bin where you can save your favorite shots.

Navigation

Use the navigation tool pallet to orbit, pan (drag + alt), zoom (drag + shift). The home icon resets your model. You can also switch to full screen mode by clicking the zoom icon. 

 

Environments

To change the appearance of how your scene is lit, simply drag an environment from the environments list on the left to your scene. Predefined examples include a selection of studio environments as well as different outdoor daylight conditions. Use the slider to adjust the rotation of your environment within your scene. A green bar indicates the currently selected environment for your scene.

Materials

A wide selection of high-quality materials is available to help you visualize the look of your design. To apply a material, drag the material from the material pallet on the left over to the desired part of your model. Choose from metal, metallic paint, paint, plastic, glass, rubber, wood, leather, stone, fabric, and carbon fiber material types.

Camera Parameters

Three camera parameters are available to help you refine the look of your rendering.

• Exposure. Move the slider left or right to decrease or increase the exposure of your scene.

• Depth of Field. Adjusting the depth of field simulates the effect of adjusting the F-Stop on a camera lens. Double click the spot on your model where you’d like to set the focal point, and then adjust the slider to achieve your desired depth of field (a cross hair icon will appear over your model indicating the location of your focal point). Sliding to the left simulates the effect of a larger aperture (low F-Stop) creating a bokeh effect. Sliding to the right simulates the look of a smaller aperture (higher F-Stop) keeping a larger area around your focal point in focus.

• Field of View. Move the slider to the left or right to shrink or enlarge the field of view of your scene

My Favorites

To create a collection of favorites, click the star icon below any environment or material. Selected items will be added to My Favorites. To remove an item, click the star icon below the item you’d like to remove.

Search

Use the search box to search for available environments and materials.

Taking Snapshots

Click the plus icon to save a shot of your current camera settings. Snapshots are collected in the shots bin. At present, snapshots only save your camera position. 

Rendering

To create a cloud rendering from your scene or shot, click the carrot icon and follow the instructions in the rendering dialog. During the beta period, it is free to use the Interactive Rendering feature set and create cloud renders at standard quality under one mega pixel. Cloud renderings and turntable animations at higher resolution require cloud credits. The dialog shows your available cloud credit balance and estimated wait time to complete your rendering job.

To create a turntable animation, click the turntable icon in the render menu. Expected wait time and required cloud credits will be displayed in the dialog box.

The settings you select become your default settings. You can add a render to your collection with your default settings by clicking the word Render. As you hover over the button it will indicate the number of cloud credits require to render. 

What data types are supported in Interactive Rendering?

At present, only the Autodesk^® Fusion data type is supported.

Will I be charged for using the Interactive Rendering Beta?

During the beta period, it is free to use the Interactive Rendering feature set and create cloud renders at standard quality under one mega pixel. Cloud renderings and turntable animations at higher resolution require cloud credits. Your available cloud credit balance is shown in the render settings dialog.

What are the system requirements for interactive rendering?

Interactive Rendering will work in any web browser that supports WebGL.

How do I give feedback?

Your feedback is very important to us, so don’t forget to let us know what you think in our beta forum.

What learning resources are available?

This document outlines how to use Interactive Rendering. It will be posted to the beta forum along with a series of how to videos.

Where can I find the legal terms and Conditions?

A little legal stuff: ‘Try’ means you agree to the Autodesk 360 Beta Preview Terms and Conditions.

[DarrenP]

i am not seeing a try beta button anywhere on the a360 dashboard

[ruffoc]

Hi Darren,

Right now the interactive rendering beta is turned on only for the Fusion data type. If you are using Fusion and your can't see the 'try beta' link in in your Autodesk A360 Dashboard, let us know.

Best

Chris

[ukdxb012]

Very interesting! Like it... do we know when this will be available to a wider audience e.g. Not Fusion based models.

Is this available via the App as well?

[ruffoc]

Hi Duncan

Thanks for your feedback. We are on a mission to make cloud rendering easy and accessible to everyone! 

It made sense however to expose interactive rendering for the fusion data type as a beta to start. We are looking at other data type and as soon as we have a timeline we will let the community know.

In terms  of turning Interactive rendering into an App, there are no plans at present but this is a good idea and we will add it to our idea station

Thanks

Chris

[DarrenP · Accepted solution]

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@ruffoc wrote:

Hi Darren,

Right now the interactive rendering beta is turned on only for the Fusion data type. If you are using Fusion and your can't see the 'try beta' link in in your Autodesk A360 Dashboard, let us know.

Best

Chris

---

i found it

[ruffoc · Accepted solution]

A few people have asked about exactly who can try the Interactive Rendering rendering beta. Right now Fusion customers and Fusion enthusiasts can try the beta. At present our beta doesn't work with the student entitlement. Student users really keen to try interactive rendering can sign up as a Fusion enthusiast here http://fusion360.autodesk.com/pricing

[urbanluthier]

Many users have are asking for detailed instructions on how to access Interactive Rendering from Autodesk Fusion. We are working on ways to make Interactive Rendering more discoverable, in the mean time here are a few steps to help you get started

Step 1. Launch Autodesk Fusion

Step 2. Click on the view options button

Step 3. Click on the Info icon for any file and select ‘Open details in A360’

Step 4. Select the ‘renderings’ icon and then click the ‘Try Interactive Rendering Beta button’

 

[asraf.kafaouin]

Hi,
I cant find this interface to access the interactive rendering, it seems things has changed,

[asraf.kafaouin]

Hi,
It seems the interface has changed, I can't find the tool. I am very confused, please help.

Thanks

[anavaidya]

Hi @asraf.kafaouin,

You are right, the A360 user interface has changed and the ‘Try Interactive Rendering Beta' button is missing. We will be adding it soon to this new UI. For now, if you want to user Interactive Rendering, you will have to follow these steps.

- On the A360 page, go back to Home.

- Click on your profile icon and from the window choose "Go back to Old version" 

- Once you have the old UI, you can access it as before.

Thanks,

[asraf.kafaouin]

Thank you.