Complete Guide to Rhino & V-Ray

Rhino uses NURBS geometry rather than meshes—a key distinction that affects how you model and what outputs are possible. The interface has four viewports (perspective, top, right, front) that you can maximise by double-clicking. Radu walks through the menus, toolbars, and command line, setting up a workspace you'll use throughout the course.

Object types in Rhino include points, curves, polylines, surfaces, and solids—each with different uses in architectural modelling. Curves can be drawn with control points (the curve passes near them) or interpolate points (the curve passes through them). File setup covers units, tolerances, and templates that match architectural workflows.

A 2+ hour deep-dive into every curve tool Rhino offers. Line commands include both sides, normal, angled, vertical, and four-point variations. You'll draw arcs, circles, ellipses, and freeform curves, then edit them by moving control points, adjusting weights, and rebuilding with different point counts. This is the foundation for everything else in Rhino.

Turn curves into surfaces using the plane command, then learn loft—Rhino's tool for creating surfaces between multiple profile curves. Loft has different styles: normal, loose, tight, and straight sections, each producing different results. Solids are closed surfaces (polysurfaces) that can be booleaned together for architectural massing.

Richard Meier's Smith House becomes the project for applying your Rhino skills. Import the floor plan drawings using the Picture command, which places images as reference planes you can trace over. Set up layers for walls, floors, and structure, then use Smart Track for precision snapping while you outline the building footprint.

Extrude Curve turns your floor plan outlines into 3D walls and floor slabs. The "solid" option with "delete input" creates closed geometry with lids—floors are 300mm thick, floor-to-floor heights are 3m, and the parapet level sits at 4m. Structural columns get extruded from circles, and the glass facade framework takes shape.

The Shell command punches window openings through wall solids—select the faces to remove and Rhino hollows out the rest. Structural beams span between columns, internal and external stairs connect floor levels, and the sloping site gets modelled as a landform surface. The model is now complete and ready for materials.

Rhino's material system works by layer—assign materials to layers and every object on that layer inherits the material. Presets include metal, painted finishes, plaster, and glass with adjustable transparency. You'll also create custom materials and learn export options for sharing the model before moving to V-Ray rendering.

Trees and foliage bring renders to life but can slow your model to a crawl. The solution is V-Ray proxy files—externally linked geometry that only loads at render time. Radu sources models from Ever Motion and Flying Architecture, imports them as block definitions, then exports as proxies. You'll match the reference photo with trees, rocks, and foreground vegetation.

Rhino's document sun provides direct lighting, but HDRI dome lights create realistic skies and ambient light. Place a dome light in your scene, load an EXR or HDR file, and set it to spherical mapping. The sun's size multiplier controls shadow crispness—lower values give harder shadows, higher values soften them. V-Ray proxy materials need reassigning after import.

V-Ray's asset editor controls everything. Choose CPU or GPU rendering based on your hardware, or use hybrid mode. Progressive mode lets you set a noise threshold or time limit—the render stops when it hits either target. The denoiser removes grain from the final image. Camera settings mirror real photography: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed control exposure without affecting render times.

Lightroom Classic handles the final polish. The develop tab controls exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks—each slider targets a different tonal range. Tone curves give precise control over how darks and lights render. HSL adjustments let you shift individual colours: push greens toward yellow for warmer grass, increase red saturation for foreground flowers.