Rendering Engines

Presets, material libraries, actions and asset packs for the render engines used in architecture, plus the Photoshop tools used to finish their output.

Engines differ less than their marketing suggests. What separates a convincing image from a flat one is lighting and material response, not the renderer — a single credible light direction, materials with roughness that varies across a surface, and exposure that keeps highlights from clipping. A preset saves setup time; it does not save a badly lit scene.

Post-production carries the last ten per cent. Contrast, colour grading, atmospheric depth and entourage are almost always added afterwards, which is why a render workflow and a Photoshop workflow are really one workflow.

Our comparisons of V-Ray, Twinmotion and Lumion, rendering software for students and why renders look fake cover the choices.