What does rendering mean?

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I see this used all the time and looking it up doesn't provide a clear answer. It's actually a little confusing because most definitions just talk about the "final stages of colour or detail added to the work". Like....what? In context that doesn't add up to how I've seen the term used.

When a digital artist talks about rendering an image, what does that mean? What is actually happening?

Like is it just painting in the drawing? Is it a specific type of painting/using a particular brush/a particular style? Is it an auto feature they're talking about? Like a program?

 

[Retrojapan]

source: anya-chalotra.tumblr.com

Rendering is the process through which a program like Photoshop consolidates your work from design (.PSD) to product (.png, .jpeg, .gif, etc). There are all kinds of techniques and individual preferences for rendering. I've included an example so you can see just how different settings will render different results. Though not as dramatic in this example, it does make a huge difference depending on the project and I frequently adjust my rendering settings accordingly.

 

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I...think I understand. It's just altering the file type to use on different sites?

 

[ƒeral]

I...think I understand. It's just altering the file type to use on different sites?

not quite

rendering is basically image synthesis via math

how it works, what is being done, depends entirely on context. for example, what retro showed you is an example of how photoshop might 'render' something into a finished gif

but rendering is more complex than that, depending on the software in question, and depending on the 'goal'

in 3D software, for example, you can 'render' natural lighting onto a 3D model. i.e., there's a computer process that will cast lighting onto your target object (let's say a sphere) if you click a few buttons. so, instead of ending up with a solid green ball, you now have a solid 3D ball that appear to have light cast upon it from a certain angle

in 2D, you can render the same picture via hatching (equally spaced parallel lines one way), strippling (innumerable small dots on paper), scribbling (filling an area with random scribbles). these are all traditional drawing techniques an artist might use on a pencil/paper piece. with a computer program, you click a few buttons and the computer runs the applicable formulas, and 'render' the picture for you

there are also ray tracing, shading, scan lines, etc etc. essentially, tons of the options

but, the take away, since you asked for a definition, would be this: rendering is a process in which a software generates a finished product (image, video, model, etc) from something else (a model, a series of slides, a picture). for example, if I take a picture, and turn it into a picture consisting only of parallel lines, I rendered it.

that would take a long time to do by hand, right? render basically makes it super efficient

 

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

not quite

rendering is basically image synthesis via math

how it works, what is being done, depends entirely on context. for example, what retro showed you is an example of how photoshop might 'render' something into a finished gif

but rendering is more complex than that, depending on the software in question, and depending on the 'goal'

in 3D software, for example, you can 'render' natural lighting onto a 3D model. i.e., there's a computer process that will cast lighting onto your target object (let's say a sphere) if you click a few buttons. so, instead of ending up with a solid green ball, you now have a solid 3D ball that appear to have light cast upon it from a certain angle

in 2D, you can render the same picture via hatching (equally spaced parallel lines one way), strippling (innumerable small dots on paper), scribbling (filling an area with random scribbles). these are all traditional drawing techniques an artist might use on a pencil/paper piece. with a computer program, you click a few buttons and the computer runs the applicable formulas, and 'render' the picture for you

there are also ray tracing, shading, scan lines, etc etc. essentially, tons of the options

but, the take away, since you asked for a definition, would be this: rendering is a process in which a software generates a finished product (image, video, model, etc) from something else (a model, a series of slides, a picture). for example, if I take a picture, and turn it into a picture consisting only of parallel lines, I rendered it.

that would take a long time to do by hand, right? render basically makes it super efficient

This helps a lot! Thank you, feral and retro. This really clears it up for me.

I keep seeing people say, "That was beautifully rendered!" about artwork and felt kind of foolish, not understanding what exactly they were talking about. ^^;;