Stupid Veras Tricks :)
Veras is 10/10 for ideating and communicating design ideas before committing to detailed and time consuming 3D modeling. The following list of tips and best practices is guaranteed to help you use Veras to improve your workflow in subtle yet important ways.
Rendering entire scenes in Veras is amazing. But there's often prerequisites to getting that final image. Before you get to post production, there's preproduction: assembling the required materials, assets, templates, and more as necessary starting points to create the final images in post production. By the end of this article you'll be able to create what you need in Veras for preproduction, bypassing time consuming 3D modeling, lengthy online searches, and post production in photo editing software. Bottom line: faster and more elegant workflow with Veras.
Starting from Nothing.
Rendering entire scenes is great, but what if you need specific elements before rendering entire scenes? You can use Veras to create specific assets like people, materials, furnishings, fixtures and other entourage without having to render an entire scene. Once you have the required pieces, it's easier and more predictable to create the desired sum of the parts.
You simply need to render without selecting a source image and then using a description. To do this, select None from the drop-down Source Image panel as shown below.
Now you can create an image strictly from a text description with no Source Image. Here's an example:
Prompt: On a completely white background, please render an elderly, slightly overweight, grandmother with her suitcase next to her. A young child is embracing her waist and she's holding a toddler in her arms. The grandmother's daughter who's about 35 is standing to the left, happily watching her children welcome their grandmother. No one is looking in the direction of the camera.
After rendering a few times, you'll finally get a result that satisfies the specifics of your use case. Here's my preferred result.
Now this grouping of people can be added into a new scene or swapped with an existing grouping. For example, note the family checking into the hotel in front of the reception desk in the image below.
Let's use the previously generated image with the grandmother as a Reference Image and replace the family in the above image.
Prompt: Please replace the family checking into the hotel
Here's the result in the image below. We didn't have to spend time rendering the entire image over and over in order to get a specific desired result. This has the additional benefit of adding the previously generated grouping of people to your Veras Gallery. This specific grouping of people can be quickly and easily recalled for future renderings.
Green Screen the Background.
Once in a while, you need to maintain specific assets in a specific location for your renderings. For example, the building and other surroundings are changing, but the client wants to avoid potential distractions by using the same groupings of people for each iteration. This kind of controlled workflow typically happens in post production tools like Photoshop.
Prompt: Re-render this image, but instead of a white background convert the background to green screen no shadow no shading completely flat green green background, suitable for layering and post production in photo editing software
Here's the resulting image. It’s quick and easy to select the green screen portion of the image for removal and maintain consistency in subsequent renderings.
Saving the Initial Image in the Veras Gallery.
Veras doesn’t save your starting image when rendering, only the renderings created from the starting image. But having the starting image on hand for further iteration is useful and time saving.
In order to save your starting image in the Veras Gallery, begin by rendering or editing something inconsequential in the starting image. As a result, the starting image lives in the Veras Gallery along with the subsequent renderings.
For this example let's select a single pen stroke in the hand sketch. The pen stroke is highlighted in the blue region lower right. We'll ask Veras to remove this pen stroke from the image.
Prompt: “Delete the line in the highlighted area and don't change anything else about the image.”
The image has been added to the Veras Gallery as shown below.
The resulting rendering is practically unchanged. You can quickly and easily find the starting image and add it to your Workspace for further iteration.
Creating Seamless Textures from Photographs.
Don't spend countless hours manually creating and editing seamless textures in photo editing tools. It's faster, easier, and more satisfying to create them in Veras using a photograph or image that's close enough to your design requirements.
Here's a photograph of real world condition of exsting metal panels that have to be matched in design and color for the next phase of a project. To get started, simply drag and drop a photograph into the Veras workspace.
Prompt: Describe the texture of this grey sheet metal siding in exquisite and careful detail. Then, create a seamless texture based on the above description resolution 1024 x 1024 suitable for computer rendering making sure the image is not skewed in horizontal or vertical direction.
Let's render four times to see some different options and select the option most preferred texture.
The results are amazing with subtle color differentiations and even hardware. Who knew grey metal panel textures could be so subjective! Personally, I prefer the metal panel texture to the lower left. This texture can be saved from Veras and used in Revit, SketchUp, Enscape and more! And because this texture now lives in the Veras Gallery, it's available as a Reference Material for future ideation.
Create a Template for Rendering with Multiple Reference Images.
Sometimes you need to render and iterate a base image with multiple reference images. Rather than start from scratch, you can quickly and easily create a template containing placeholder images for the base image as well as likely reference images.
Let's begin by creating a base image placeholder.
Prompt: Render a completely white blank background with a light pink question mark In the middle of the image
And here's the result.
Next, take a screenshot of the pink question mark in the middle of the screen and use the screenshot to create a placeholder Reference Images as shown below.
Finally, render one more time with no prompt. This creates the final image with all of the reference images. My prefer preferred result is shown in the image below.
Now you have a starting point in your gallery to add to your Veras Workspace. The placeholder base image and all reference images are ready to be swapped out with actual images for further iteration.
The Bottom Line: Why model when you can describe?! Veras is perfect for creating and communicating design ideas without time consuming 3D modeling. But in many cases, you have to assemble the pieces and parts in order to create the preferred whole. Whether a particular texture, group of people, or other specific assets, Veras is often more elegant and less complicated than using professional photo editing tools like Photoshop for post production.
Congratulations! No more lengthy online searches or complicated and time-consuming 3D modeling. Now you have the skills to create what you need in seconds with Veras!
We hope this article helps you and your team get the most out of Veras. Questions, suggestions or comments? Please add your feedback in the comments section below! :) And don't forget to Sign Up for Enscape Monthly Updates!
ReadThomas would love to help you succeed with Veras, Enscape and your entire Chaos portfolio! Email us for a private demo or best practices webinar for your team. And when you purchase from ReadThomas, we’ll provide your team with complimentary training, implementation and support! www.readthomas.com.
