Studio: materials, lighting and renders

Studio is where you dress a model for presentation. You put a material on each part (brushed aluminium, black rubber, glass), light it like a product shot, and render pictures at Full HD or 4K. Renders are made on your own computer by your graphics card, in the browser tab. Nothing is uploaded until you add a picture to Images.

#Open Studio

You can open it from three places:

• Studio in the sidebar. Pick a model from the list.
• On a model's page: click the Lighting button on the toolbar, then Open in Studio.
• On the Models page: open a model's ••• menu and choose Open in Studio.

Studio opens the latest version. Your work is saved on the model as you go, so the next version opens dressed the same way. The Saved label at the top tells you when it's stored. Undo and redo are in the top bar (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z). The sun and moon button switches between the dark and light themes.

#Put materials on parts

1. 1

   Pick a part

   Click it on the model, or in the Parts list on the left. Shift-click to pick several. Select all picks every part.

2. 2

   Choose a material

   Click a ball in the strip under the model (Metals, Plastics, Rubber, Glass, Paint), or drag a ball onto a part.

3. 3

   Adjust it

   On the Material tab, set the Colour, Metallic, Roughness and Clear coat. Back to the file's material undoes it for that part.

The eye next to a part hides it in Studio and in your renders. Clients still see every part on their review link.

#Light it

On the Lighting tab:

• Environment: the light set. Free has Studio, Warm and Cool. Solo adds Soft, Contrast, Dark product, Outdoor and Upload .hdr for your own HDRI.
• Brightness, Rotation and Exposure.
• Lights: each set comes with softboxes (key, fill, top). On Solo you can move them around and above the model, change their size, colour temperature and brightness, switch them off, or add up to eight. A bigger light is softer, not brighter, as it is in a real studio.
• Ground and background: Shadow strength, Reflection (Solo), and the background: White, Grey or Colour. On Solo you can also choose Transparent, a cut-out with no ground and no shadow.

#Move around, cut and explode

The dark toolbar on the left of the model has the same tools as the model page:

• Orbit (O) and Pan (H): what a left-drag does. The right button does the other one.
• Camera views (V): front, back, left, right, top or 3/4, framing the whole model. Fit to view (F) brings the whole model back into the frame.
• Section cut (S): cut through the model along X, Y or Z to show the inside. Exploded view (E): spread the parts apart, out from the middle or along one axis.
• Floor grid (G): a grid under the model while you work. It never shows in Preview, Rendered or a render.

The cut and the explode are saved with the look, so an "Exploded" look and an "Assembled" look can sit side by side. Renders show them too: the cut faces are closed, so a solid part looks solid. When you show a look to your clients, they open the model cut and exploded the same way, and can change it.

#Camera

On the Camera tab, Focal length sets the lens: 50–100 mm flattens the perspective the way product photographers do. Turn the model to an angle you like and click Add this view under Camera views on the left. Click a saved view to go back to it.

On Solo, Depth of field blurs what's out of focus. Set the Aperture, and focus on the model's centre or on the selected part.

#Render

1. 1

   Frame it

   The frame over the model shows exactly what the picture takes, in the size picked on the Render tab.

2. 2

   Click Render

   Pick the angles (the current view and any saved ones), the size, the quality and the background.

3. 3

   Wait while it builds up

   The picture starts grainy and gets cleaner with each pass. The dialog shows the samples done, the time so far and about how long is left. Keep the tab open. Stop cancels it.

4. 4

   Use it

   Click Add to Images to put it next to the model for your client to review, or PNG to download it.

A faster graphics card renders faster. A 4K Final render of a big assembly can take a few minutes on a laptop.

#Show your look to clients

Show this look to clients at the top of Studio (Solo and up) makes the review link open the model in your Studio look: your materials, your light and your background. Clients can still turn it, measure and leave notes as usual. It's off until you switch it on. While it's on, the model's own Lighting panel says so, because its settings don't show for clients.

#Several looks

On Solo, the Look menu at the top holds several looks for one model, for example a matte black version and a brushed aluminium one. New look starts clean, and Duplicate this look copies the one you're on. The look that's picked is the one clients see, when Show this look to clients is on.

#Good to know

• Studio needs a model with a 3D file. A pictures-only model has nothing to light.
• Parts are the ones in your file. If a whole assembly comes in as one mesh, it takes one material. Export it from your CAD or 3D tool with its parts kept separate.
• Renders use the browser's WebGL2 on your graphics card. If one stops with a graphics card message, try a smaller size or Standard quality, and close other heavy tabs.