Book Image

Shading, Lighting, and Rendering with Blender EEVEE

By : Sammie Crowder
Book Image

Shading, Lighting, and Rendering with Blender EEVEE

By: Sammie Crowder

Overview of this book

Blender is the most important up-and-coming 3D software package in the world. EEVEE, a state-of-the-art real-time rendering engine is a fairly new addition to Blender and provides the capacity to create artwork at blazing speed, almost 12 times faster than Cycles. Lighting, Shading, and Rendering with Blender’s EEVEE provides a high-level overview of what EEVEE is capable of, then teaches users about Geometry Nodes, Rendering Techniques, using shortcuts like Kitbashing and Alphas to speed up scene creation, volumetrics, reflections, adding lights, cameras and even special effects like fire and smoke, all in EEVEE. All of this is in the context of creating actual scenes that readers will work through from start to finish. By the time a Blender Artist completes the book, they will have created three separate works that have challenged them to iterate and design with the full power of Blender’s EEVEE.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share Your Thoughts
1
Section 1: Configuring in EEVEE – Mini-Project 1 – Stylized Scene
Section 1: Configuring in EEVEE – Mini-Project 1 – Stylized Scene
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Introducing EEVEE – A Real-Time Rendering Engine
Chapter 1: Introducing EEVEE – A Real-Time Rendering Engine
Technical requirements
What is EEVEE? EEVEE as a rendering engine
Setting up – configuring the start of mini-projects
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Creating Materials Fast with EEVEE
Chapter 2: Creating Materials Fast with EEVEE
Technical requirements
Materials in EEVEE
Quickly previewing lighting ideas for fast iteration
Creating our first image-based material
Creating our first procedural texture
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Lights, Camera...
Chapter 3: Lights, Camera...
Technical requirements
Adding lighting to our mini-project
Creating and configuring cameras
Learning about the Line Art modifier
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Non-Physical Rendering
Chapter 4: Non-Physical Rendering
Technical requirements
Adding clouds to our composition
Configuring Render settings
Compositing Render layers
Summary
6
Section 2: Real-Time Rendering – Mini-Project 2 – Creating a Realistic Environment Concept
Section 2: Real-Time Rendering – Mini-Project 2 – Creating a Realistic Environment Concept
7
Chapter 5: Setting Up an Environment with Geometry Nodes
Chapter 5: Setting Up an Environment with Geometry Nodes
Technical requirements
Setting up the scene – adding grass and rocks to the Asset Browser
Setting up the scene – adding grass and rocks
Adding more complexity and applying the modifier to other objects
Summary
8
Chapter 6: Screen Space Reflections – Adding Reflection to the Water
Chapter 6: Screen Space Reflections – Adding Reflection to the Water
Technical requirements
Screen space reflections
Light probes – reflection planes
Advanced water – volume and transparency
Summary
9
Chapter 7: Faking Camera Effects for Better Renders
Chapter 7: Faking Camera Effects for Better Renders
Technical requirements
Atmospheric lighting
Bloom
Ambient occlusion
Depth of field
Summary
10
Chapter 8: Using Alphas for Details
Chapter 8: Using Alphas for Details
Technical requirements
Adding detail to the scene (with birds!)
Faking volumetric mist
Using an image to create a background
Summary
11
Section 3: Advanced Features – Mini-Project 3 – Creating a Sci-Fi Concept
Section 3: Advanced Features – Mini-Project 3 – Creating a Sci-Fi Concept
12
Chapter 9: Lighting an Interior Scene
Chapter 9: Lighting an Interior Scene
Technical requirements
Troubleshooting a common lighting error
Designing the lighting for our interior
Previewing render passes to inform our lighting decisions
Summary
13
Chapter 10: Working with Irradiance Volumes and Cubemaps for More Accurate Rendering
Chapter 10: Working with Irradiance Volumes and Cubemaps for More Accurate Rendering
Technical requirements
Implementing an Irradiance Volume
Implementing a Reflection Cubemap
Summary
14
Chapter 11: Kitbashing – Adding Details Fast
Chapter 11: Kitbashing – Adding Details Fast
Technical requirements
Kitbashing with small objects
Using Geometry Nodes to create sci-fi panels
Summary
15
Chapter 12: Special Effects with EEVEE – Fire and Smoke
Chapter 12: Special Effects with EEVEE – Fire and Smoke
Technical requirements
Creating fire with Quick Smoke
Tweaking the shader for fire and smoke in EEVEE
Optimal EEVEE render settings for the smoke and fire
How to combine renders in Cycles and EEVEE
Summary
16
Chapter 13: Exploring the Wide World of Blender
Chapter 13: Exploring the Wide World of Blender
Technical requirements
Review of the main concepts covered in this book
Further reading (or watching)
Add-ons for further improving your workflow
Further projects to tackle
Summary
Why subscribe?
17
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Materials in EEVEE

Materials in EEVEE are not that different from materials in Cycles. Of course, there are many ways to get better materials in EEVEE that don't even exist in Cycles (and vice versa), but the main concept of materials is exactly the same as you are aware of with Cycles. The Blender developers have been really great at adding to the functionality of EEVEE so that materials that work with Cycles should mostly work with EEVEE (there are some exceptions, but for the most part this is true). If we look closely at the material output node in any material node tree, we can see that the default option is All, which means materials will work, regardless of whether you switch to Cycles or EEVEE in the render panel. We can focus our output by choosing a target engine. I find that to be extraneous, but it's good to know in case you want to hyper-focus your material development on one engine.

Figure 2.1: Material Output node

When creating art...

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