Chaos Corona Online Course | Exterior Rendering Guide

Lesson 1 – Introduction & precedent (2:19). In the first lesson, we introduce you to the course, the precedent we’re going to replicate and a quick overview of the SketchUp model we’re going to use as our subject. A nice easy way into the lesson series to get you ready!

Lesson 2 –Landscape tools (13:12). We then dive into 3D Studio Max to create our landscape, in minutes! You’ll learn three methods; the first utilising the sculpting brushes, which can be used for completely bespoke solutions, the second is to bring in your own landscape maps using white to black tones and the final is the one we use for the rest of the series, which is an in-built map to automate the landscape and give us an instant, perfect terrain to sit our building within.

Lesson 3 – Importing the building (15:49). Using the correct settings to export and import your building is crucial to ensure a smooth transition from whatever modelling software you use. Here, we bring the building model in from SketchUp and we apply some simple, in-built textures to get us underway.

Lesson 4 – Cameras & lighting (18:12). An exciting point in the course as we take our first renders. You’ll learn to place cameras in two ways, one by dropping in a camera from the toolbar and the other is to create a camera from the viewport position. You’ll master the relevant settings within Corona cameras and then we move into dropping in a HDRI, with advanced settings to change the dynamics of the HDRI to perfectly suit your scene.

Lesson 5 – Texturing & populating the interior (01:04:33). Strangely, one key to successful exteriors is a convincing interior, so we use Chaos Cosmos to populate the interior of the building to give a realistic result when looking through the large glazed opening of the side elevation. You’ll then learn how to create high-end bespoke textures and we finalise the water texture for a more realistic, varied result.

Lesson 6 – Chaos Scatter (57:01). Probably the most exciting lesson within the course, as we populate our massive landscape full of trees, grass, rocks and more! The in-built library within Chaos Cosmos is all you need to create mega realistic landscapes. You’ll learn to make the most of the settings list within 3DS Max and also utilise the spline include/exclude to accurately avoid the water and make paths through the vegetation, with ease.

Lesson 7 – Finishing touches (15:38). Before we finalise render settings, we make some final tweaks to the colour grading of the shots within the frame buffer and enhance the overall mood of the scene by introducing Corona Volumetrics to the mix and a few other tweaks before we round the course off.

Lesson 8 – Final render settings & post-production (20:44). Chaos Corona boasts fewer settings than Vray, but there’s still some critical moves to make the most of your visuals, we cover all in the final lesson. We then jump into Adobe Photoshop to make the shots look more crisp and cinematic before saving them off, ready for distribution.