What is rendering?

[SigonWulf]

Its a term I see quite often on the forum, but I have yet to figure out what it exactly means.

If anyone can help enlighten me I will be very grateful.

[Atlantis]

I'm fairly certain that 'to render' is to give a shape a sense of form by application of tone. To "render" the effects of light on a surface, or maybe also texture. Say, to take a line drawing and "render" it to give it the illusion of 3-dimensionality, or possibly to render it to look like metal, or glass or whathaveyou.

I've actually never heard a clear definition of this term, either, though I've always heard it used as a synonym for 'shading.' If there's a better definition than what I've offered, I'd be interested to hear it too. :)

[-sideshowbob-]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_rendering

[zeitgeist]

also... It's usually used as an ambiguous term to "fine-tune" an image... to take it from the loose sketch stage and bring it into the as-real-as-they-can-make-it stage.

if you go to Bumskee's sketchbook and look through it... you can find a good example of this in his step-by-step explanations on how he creates a few of his CHOWs.

[Farvus]

Rendering is like shading but to me it means something more. It's about putting lines in a way that they give the form 3-dimensional quality - different direction of strokes that follow the form, putting the marks to get some feeling of texture and so on.

[Seedling]

“Rendering” is a poorly defined term that gets used to mean a lot of things. Basically in the context of 2D art it’s just another word for “drawing”, though I think the term is usually used to include values as well as edges. It pretty much means “the act of creating the illusion of something 3D on a 2D surface.”

In the context of 3D graphics, rendering is when you set the computer to apply lights, textures, and other stuff to a model. Rendering a complex image for one frame of a movie can take hours.

[DanielC]

I think it's taking a piece to it's final state, whatever style or approach you're choosing....(haven't read the wiki definition)

[AndreasM]

I agree with seedling. In general (and as all ready stated), "rendering" can be defined as 'giving the impression of form to 2d shapes, through use of light and shadow.' However, there are several ways of depicting light and shadow but I don't think I should indulge myself into trying to describe all those aspects. In stead, If you really are interested, read this book:

The practice and science of drawing -- Harold Speed

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14264

As far as I know, it's a free download. It's well worth the read!

[SigonWulf]

Thank you all for enlightening me.

I have another question. For someone wanting to pick up a book on anatomy, what should I get?

[AndreasM]

I'd go for both "anatomy for artists" by paul richer and anything you can get a hold on by George B. Bridgman. I find they supplement eachother pretty well. There is a great book by Bammes, but it's expensive and written in german. There are few who rival his constructive anatomy, though (as far as I know). Also, get any book by Robert Beverly Hale. His reasoning is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn how to draw the human figure, among other things. Finally, do an image search on google: "Albinus" .

Good luck!