Enscape & AI Enhancement | Modulus Render

Modulus render
30 Mar 202420:09

TLDRThis tutorial showcases how to enhance architectural renders using AI tools. The creator explains that while AI isn't perfect for starting projects, it can significantly improve materials like glass, reflections, and fabrics in Enscape renders. They demonstrate a technique to scale models for more realistic textures and then use an AI service called Kaa to enhance these elements. The tutorial concludes with tips on integrating the AI-enhanced images back into the original render using Photoshop masking.

Takeaways

  • 🎨 The video is a tutorial on enhancing 3D renders with AI tools, specifically focusing on materials that are not photorealistic enough in Enscape.
  • 🖼️ The creator shared the image on Instagram and received many questions, prompting this tutorial to explain the process.
  • 🛋️ An example given is enhancing the appearance of a carpet material in close-up, using a chair in the foreground for context.
  • 💡 The lighting setup involves a large soft box and a reflective surface to bring back details in shadowed areas.
  • 🔍 Scaling the model up by 10 times allows for finer details in materials like carpet strands, which appear smaller and more realistic.
  • ⚠️ A caution is given not to scale lights along with the model, as it doesn't increase their power or size.
  • 🖥️ The tutorial demonstrates using Enscape for rendering and then enhancing the image with an AI tool called Kaa.
  • 🤖 Kaa AI was chosen over Magnific due to cost and satisfactory results, using the 'enhance' feature rather than generating new content.
  • 🖼️ The AI significantly improved the appearance of the carpet material, which was the primary focus of the enhancement.
  • 🎨 Post-AI processing in Photoshop is necessary to mask and blend the enhanced parts with the original render to avoid over-enhancing other elements.
  • 🌿 Additional examples show AI's potential in enhancing details in fabrics, plants, glass, and other materials, though results vary and require selective masking.

Q & A

  • What is the main focus of the tutorial in the video transcript?

    -The main focus of the tutorial is to demonstrate how to enhance 3D rendering materials, particularly in Enscape, using AI tools to improve the realism of elements like glass, reflections, fur, carpet, and vegetation.

  • What AI tools did the presenter experiment with in the tutorial?

    -The presenter experimented with two AI tools: Kaa and Magnific, ultimately choosing Kaa due to its cost-effectiveness and satisfactory results.

  • How does the presenter suggest improving the appearance of the carpet material in Enscape?

    -The presenter suggests scaling up the model by 10 times to make the carpet strands appear finer and more realistic, and then using AI enhancement to improve the material's appearance.

  • What is the importance of not scaling the lights along with the model in the tutorial?

    -Scaling the lights along with the model is discouraged because it does not increase their size or power, which is necessary for proper lighting in the scaled-up scene.

  • What is the recommended workflow for using AI enhancement on a render according to the tutorial?

    -The recommended workflow is to first scale the 3D model, then set up the lighting for the scaled-up version, and finally apply AI enhancement to specific materials that need improvement.

  • How does the presenter use Photoshop to integrate the AI-enhanced materials back into the original render?

    -The presenter uses Photoshop to overlay the AI-enhanced image on the original render and manually masks out the enhanced materials to keep only the desired parts, such as the carpet, while preserving the rest of the original render.

  • What are some of the materials that the presenter mentions AI can help enhance in 3D renders?

    -Some materials that AI can help enhance include glass, reflections, fur, carpet, fabrics, vegetation, and details on cushions.

  • What is the presenter's opinion on the current state of AI tools for 3D rendering?

    -The presenter believes that AI tools for 3D rendering are improving but are not yet at a point where they can be used 100% from the start of a project.

  • How does the presenter create a soft box lighting effect in the tutorial?

    -The presenter creates a soft box lighting effect by using a large black box with a soft box light, a dome light, and a sphere with an emissive material on the inside to diffuse the light.

  • What is the presenter's advice for using AI enhancement on different render engines?

    -The presenter suggests that the AI enhancement method can be applied to any render engine or photograph, not just Enscape, to improve various aspects of the image.

  • What is the presenter's final recommendation for using AI in 3D rendering?

    -The presenter recommends using AI enhancement wisely and selectively, focusing on specific areas that need improvement and carefully masking out other parts in post-processing to achieve the best results.

Outlines

00:00

📸 How AI Tools Can Improve Rendering Results

In this introduction, the speaker talks about a recent Instagram post where they received many questions about how to enhance rendering results using AI. They clarify that while they don't fully support using AI from the start, they believe AI is improving rapidly. The speaker highlights how AI can help with specific aspects like reflections, fur, carpets, vegetation, and more, and proceeds to explain the process of enhancing these elements, particularly focusing on carpets.

05:01

💡 Lighting Setup for Enhanced Carpet Renders

The speaker explains their lighting setup in SketchUp for achieving a realistic carpet close-up. Instead of using 'scatter' to apply texture strands, they built a large-scale model with a softbox and used emissive materials to simulate lighting. By scaling the model 10 times bigger, the carpet fibers appear finer and more realistic. They emphasize that the lights should not be scaled along with the model to maintain proper lighting intensity.

10:02

🔍 Enhancing Carpet Textures with AI

In this section, the speaker dives into the AI tools they used to enhance the carpet material, primarily focusing on Kaa AI due to its affordability and results. They demonstrate how they used the AI's 'enhance' option without making any changes to the settings. The AI significantly improved the texture of the carpet by adding more realistic strands, though it also altered other materials in ways the speaker wasn't satisfied with.

15:02

🖌️ Using Photoshop for Precise Masking

The speaker describes how they used Photoshop to selectively apply the AI-enhanced textures. By using a mask, they isolated the enhanced carpet and left other elements unchanged. They explain the process of masking in Photoshop and emphasize the importance of carefully selecting the areas to enhance, as AI sometimes distorts other textures like leather or wood.

🌱 AI Enhancements on Various Textures

The speaker shares additional examples of how AI tools enhanced other renders, including plants, fabric wrinkles, and glass surfaces. In each case, the AI improved fine details, but the speaker still had to use Photoshop to selectively apply these enhancements. They also show how the AI added realistic effects to fabrics, wrinkles, and materials like velvet, which are otherwise challenging to render.

🎨 Applying AI to Improve Velvet Textures and Glass Details

This paragraph highlights how AI improved the look of complex materials, such as velvet and glass. The speaker notes that while the AI produced impressive results for specific areas like plants and velvet chairs, other parts of the image still needed to be selectively masked out. They point out that while AI can't fully replace manual editing, it is a helpful tool for enhancing specific areas of renders.

🛠️ Balancing AI Enhancements in Final Renders

In this concluding paragraph, the speaker provides final thoughts on using AI enhancements. They discuss how AI can sometimes produce overly enhanced, unnatural images but emphasize its usefulness in creating detailed textures like glass and metal. The key takeaway is that while AI can significantly improve rendering, manual touch-ups in Photoshop are still necessary for optimal results.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Enscape

Enscape is a real-time 3D rendering and VR software platform for architects, designers, and developers. It allows users to create realistic visualizations of their designs. In the video, the creator uses Enscape to render images but finds that certain materials, such as glass and carpets, are not photorealistic enough, prompting the use of AI enhancement.

💡AI Enhancement

AI Enhancement refers to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms to improve the quality of digital images or renders. In the context of the video, the creator uses AI tools to enhance materials in Enscape renders that lack photorealism, such as making glass look more realistic or adding detail to fabrics.

💡Photorealistic

Photorealistic refers to the quality of an image or render that resembles a photograph. It is a key aspect of 3D rendering where the goal is to make virtual scenes look as real as possible. The video discusses how the creator seeks to achieve photorealism in their renders through the use of AI.

💡SketchUp

SketchUp is a 3D modeling computer program for a wide range of drawing applications such as architectural, interior design, landscape architecture, civil and mechanical engineering, film, and video game design. In the video, the creator mentions using SketchUp to create a model of a scene with a carpet and a chair.

💡Emissive Material

An emissive material is a shader in 3D rendering that emits light, simulating a light source. In the script, the creator describes using an emissive material on the inside of a sphere to create a soft light effect, similar to a softbox in photography.

💡Softbox

A softbox is a photography lighting modifier used to produce soft, diffuse light, which is desirable for portraiture and product photography. In the video, the creator simulates a softbox light in SketchUp to create a pleasing lighting effect on the rendered carpet.

💡Scatter

In 3D rendering, scatter refers to the technique of distributing small elements like hair, fur, or grass across a surface. The creator clarifies that they did not use a scatter method to add detail to the carpet but instead scaled up the model to achieve a finer detail in the carpet strands.

💡Upscaling

Upscaling is the process of increasing the resolution or size of an image or model. The creator mentions upscaling their model by a factor of 10 to achieve a finer detail in the carpet material, allowing for more realistic strands than what is possible at a normal scale.

💡Kaa

Kaa appears to be the name of an AI engine used for enhancing images. The creator experimented with Kaa and another engine called Magnific, but chose Kaa for its cost-effectiveness and satisfactory results in enhancing materials like carpet in their renders.

💡Photoshop

Photoshop is a widely used software for image editing. After enhancing the image with Kaa AI, the creator uses Photoshop to composite the enhanced parts of the image onto the original render, creating a final image that combines the best of both worlds.

💡Masking

Masking in image editing is the process of selecting a portion of an image to apply effects or make adjustments while leaving the rest of the image unchanged. The creator uses masking in Photoshop to isolate the enhanced carpet material from the AI-enhanced image and combine it with the original render.

Highlights

The tutorial was inspired by the positive response on Instagram and aims to show how AI can enhance renders, specifically in improving materials like glass reflections and carpets.

The presenter emphasizes that while AI is not yet perfect for complete render creation, it can be highly effective for enhancing certain aspects of existing renders.

One method demonstrated involves using a larger scale for the model in SketchUp, which helps achieve finer details in materials like carpet strands.

The presenter created a custom lighting setup with emissive materials and soft boxes to achieve realistic lighting and reflections in Enscape.

Instead of using scatter tools for detailed carpets, the model was scaled up 10 times, allowing for finer adjustments to the carpet material, which resulted in a more realistic texture.

The AI tools used for enhancement were Kaa (preferred for its affordability) and Magnific, but only the 'enhance' feature was used to refine existing renders rather than generate new ones.

The AI enhancement significantly improved carpet texture by making the strands look finer and more realistic, which would have been difficult to achieve in Enscape alone.

Despite the benefits of AI, some materials like leather or wood in the scene were altered in unintended ways, highlighting the need for selective masking in Photoshop after AI enhancement.

The presenter uses Photoshop to mask out unwanted changes made by the AI tool and retains only the improvements to specific materials like carpets or fabrics.

Other examples of AI enhancement include adding realistic wrinkles to cushions and enhancing fabric textures like velvet, which are difficult to simulate in Enscape.

AI enhancement proved effective for improving the appearance of glass, making it more detailed and realistic, which is typically a challenge in Enscape.

The presenter suggests using AI-enhanced details selectively in Photoshop, as applying enhancements globally can result in unnatural looking renders.

For fabric enhancements, adding keywords like 'velvet' to the AI's prompt can yield significantly more realistic textures with intricate details and folds.

The presenter used AI enhancement to add realistic metal and leathery textures to a render of a GI Joe character, showcasing the tool's versatility across different materials.

The video concludes by recommending selective use of AI in the workflow and inviting viewers to leave comments, subscribe, and like the video for future tutorials.