======Brazil Getting Started Guide======

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This //Getting Started Guide// is for Rhino users unfamiliar with advanced rendering programs like Brazil. If you are new to advanced rendering, much of the learning process comes down to absorbing new terminology such as //global illumination// and //render cache//. Once you have a basic understanding of these terms, you'll find it easy to set up a rendering in Brazil for Rhino. In this guide you'll find a synopsis of the basic settings used for high-quality renderings.


=====Get started=====
  - [[http://wiki.mcneel.com/_media/legacy/en/Brazil_Pens.3dm|Download the example files.]]
  - Open the example file **Brazil_Pens.3dm**.
  - On the Rhino **Render** menu, click **Current Renderer**, and then click **Brazil for Rhino**.
  - With the Perspective viewport active, on the Rhino **Render** menu, click **Render**.

At this time, all objects in the scene are their default white color. The result should be similar to the image below.

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=====Turn on the lights=====
  - On the **Brazil** menu, click **Renderer Settings**.
  - In the **Brazil 2.0 Settings** dialog, expand the **Simple Luma Server** panel.
  - Under **Skylight** check the **On** box. The Brazil **Skylight** casts white light evenly throughout the scene.
  - To make the rendering brighter or darker adjust the **Skylight** **Brightness** value.

Rendering the scene with the **Skylight** turned on will produce the image below.

{{:legacy:en:GettingStarted1108_0001_Layer_Comp_1a.png}}

**Note**: You can use regular Rhino lights with the Brazil **Skylight** or use them on their own. Every Rhino light in your scene, such as a spotlight or rectangular light has its own Rhino **Properties**. Keep in mind that fewer lights result in faster rendering times.


=====Image resolution=====
Before continuing with other settings, increase the resolution of the rendering. The image produced by the default settings is too rough to use for demonstrating the other rendering settings.


Two sections in the **Brazil Settings** dialog determine the rendering resolution: the **Simple Antialiasing** and the **Simple Luma Server** panel.


====Antialiasing====
The settings in the **Simple Antialiasing** panel determine how sharp the edges of your model look in the rendering. The detail of fine textures also depend on these settings. The simple options consist of three choices... **Low**, **Medium**, and **High**. Higher values equal sharper edges.

====Luma Server====
In the **Simple Luma Server**, in the **Quality** section, setting the quality to **Slower and smoother** will produce smoother shadow detail, but will take longer to render. The quality settings change the //sample rate// for the **Skylight**. Click the **Show Detailed Controls** button to see the changes to the sample rate. Higher sample rates yield smoother results.

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The image below shows the results of increasing the rendering resolution.

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=====Indirect light=====
So far, the **Skylight** illuminating the scene has used only //direct illumination//. This method lights the model by shining light directly at it. In the case of the **Skylight**, this happens evenly around the model from all directions. The result is a nice, soft shadow where objects meet. Brazil also has an indirect lighting method called //global illumination// (GI). This method allows light bouncing off objects to further light the model. Both direct and indirect illumination are normally used to realistically light a model, but Brazil only lets you use one or the other.

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Since the **Skylight** shines light evenly around the model, it is easier to see the effect of indirect illumination using a single directional light source such as a spotlight. The example below illustrates a single spotlight with the **Skylight** turned off. The detailed control panel for the **Luma Server** contains a setting for the number of light bounces in the scene. When indirect illumination is calculated for the **Skylight** the number of bounces must be set to a minimum of two for any effect to be seen.

{{:legacy:en:GettingStarted1108_0002_Layer_Comp_2.jpg}}

=====Materials=====
On the Rhino **Render** menu, click **Material Editor**.

====To assign a material to an object, do one of the following:====
  * Drag and drop a material swatch onto the object in the scene.
  * Right-click  a material swatch and assign it to a selection or layer.
  * Use the icon in the **Material Editor** dialog to assign the current material to a selection.
  * Use the Rhino **Layer** dialog box **Material** assignment.

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====To make a new Brazil material do one of the following:====
  * In the **Material Editor**, click the **Create New** icon, and choose the type of material you'd like to create.
  * Right-click a material swatch in the **Material Editor**, and choose **Create New**.

Several material types can be used to make just about any type of material. For example, the **Brazil Chrome Material** and the **Brazil Glass Material** can be used as a base for metallic or translucent materials. The **Brazil Advanced Material** (BAM) has several material types included as base shader options.

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===Color and reflectivity===

Color and reflectivity are the first material settings to familiarize yourself with. The default **Basic Material** is very simple and has only a few controls available for customizing it. On the other hand, the **Brazil Advanced Material (BAM)** has many options and is often a good choice even for simple materials because it is so expandable.

  * To specify a material's color, in the **Brazil Default** panel, click the **Diffuse** swatch as shown below.
  * To specify a material's reflectivity, in the **Brazil Default** panel, under **Reflection control** click the **Reflectivity** swatch.

Clicking these swatches opens a **Select Color** dialog box. The **Reflectivity** value can be set in the grayscale range if no additional color is desired in the material.

{{:legacy:en:GettingStarted1108_0008_Layer_Comp_8.jpg}}

It may be helpful to think of materials in Brazil as simply containers for textures. A texture can be a .bmp or .jpg image or a procedural pattern already installed with Brazil such as the **Noise** or **Tile** textures.

With a BAM selected, expand the **Basic Surface Parameters** panel. You will see several slots containing the word **none**. These //channels// are aspects of the selected BAM material that can receive textures to customize the material further. To select a texture or to create a new one, right-click the slot to the right of the **Color** swatch and on the menu select **Change**. 

Here are a few simple uses of Brazil materials and the settings used to produce them.

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The expandable panel to the left of the material thumbnails lists the **Nodes** in the active material. When you select a material, this panel shows all the textures applied to the material. Select a node to display its parameters in the **Material Editor**.

To create the checkered sphere, the **Brazil Checkered** texture was selected from this list and edited. In this case, the number of times a texture is tiled on the object was changed in the **Local Mapping** section.

=====Texture mapping=====
For the textures in your materials to look correct when applied to your model, you need to understand the concept of texture mapping. Look at the two spheres in the images below. One sphere has a checkered texture **mapped** around its own UV coordinates. The other has been mapped with the identical texture projected on to it as if from a flat plane. This is due to a different texture mapping method chosen for each sphere.

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====Edit texture mapping====
  - With any surface or polysurface selected, edit its **Properties**.
  - From the list at the top of the **Properties** dialog, select **Texture Mapping**. The default texture mapping projection for all objects is **Surface**. This means that textures will flow along the UV direction of each surface within the object.
  - Check the **Show advanced UI** box.
  - In the Advanced UI, click the **Add** button. This lets you create alternate methods of texture mapping materials.
  - Under General, expand the **Projection** list.
  - Select a different mapping style. In general, it is best to use a projection method that closely resembles the overall shape of your selection.
  - Use the **Show Mapping** and **Hide Mapping** buttons to display or hide the texture mapping widget for the active selection. You can reposition this widget and alter the look of the resulting projection.

===Box mapping example===
In the following example, the square cushions of the sofa chair work well with **Box** mapping. However, two of the cushions respond better to **Planar** projection and were individually selected to change their texture mapping method to be planar. Using the same texture, several different projection methods are below.

{{:legacy:en:Brazil-rs-2-for-Rhino_Getting-Started-9c.jpg}}

=====Environments=====
A big part of how a rendering looks has to do with where the objects rendered are supposed to be. Changing the environment surrounding your model in Brazil produces more realistic lighting and reflections.

====To change environments====

  - In the **Material Editor** select the **Environments** tab. The default or **Basic Environment** is a solid gray color. This solid color is all that will be reflected in the model and the resulting reflections can look a bit flat. Just as with the **Material Editor**, right-click a sample swatch for more options for working with environments.
  - In the **Tasks** panel, click **Create New**.
  - In the **Content Type Browser**, select **Brazil GI Environment**. The environment appears as another sample swatch. It will look black at first.

====Insert a High Dynamic Range image====

  - Download and save this HDR image of a beach provided by [[http://www.debevec.org/Probes/|Paul Debevec]] http://www.debevec.org/Probes/beach_probe.hdr to try image-based lighting. This is one of the many HDR images available online for free or for sale.
  - In the **Brazil GI Environment** node, in the **Equirectangular Texture** panel, right-click the slot labeled **(none)**, and select **Change** from the menu.
  - In the **Content Type Browser**, click the **High Dynamic Range Texture** button, and select **beach_probe.hdr**. The sample swatch updates.
  - Double-click the GI environment thumbnail to make it the active environment.
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====Use the environment to light the scene====
  - In the **Brazil Settings** dialog in the **Simple Luma Server** panel, in the **Skylight** section, select the **Use environment background color** option. This option uses the HDR image from our active environment as the **Skylight** in our scene.
  - Render with both options to see the difference. Notice that even when the HDR image is not being used as the **Skylight** color, the HDR image will still be used for the reflections to make our pens look glossier.
  - To make the HDR lighting brighter, in the **Environment Editor**, in the**HDR Texture Parameters** panel, increase the **HDR Multiplier** value.
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=====Save your work=====
Option settings, materials, textures, or environments can be saved and loaded into Brazil when needed.

In the **Tasks** panel fo the **Material** and **Environment Editors**, select **Save To File** and **Load From File** options.


You now have the basic building blocks to effectively use Brazil to render your Rhino models.

Be sure to check out more advanced tutorials and share your own work at [[http://www.brazil.mcneel.com/|www.brazil.mcneel.com]].

[[brian.james@mcneel.com|Contact the author.]]