Set Up Cameras and Export a Consistent Image Series

1. Take manual control of the camera before composing anything:
   1. Select Ambience from the Scene Graph and open the camera settings.
   2. Turn off Auto-Exposure and start from Exposure 0 — otherwise brightness drifts between shots.
   3. Under the Lens tab, set one Focal Length for the whole series (e.g. 35 mm exteriors, 24 mm interiors).
   4. Enable Parallelism so vertical lines stand perfectly straight — the standard for architectural images.
2. Choose the rendering engine on the Render tab:
   • Real-Time (+ Lumen enabled) for fast iteration and weaker hardware.
   • Path Tracer for final-quality lighting and reflections — slower, and note that rain particles will not appear with it active.
   • Compose and iterate in Real-Time; switch to Path Tracer only for the final export pass.
3. Create the camera set:
   1. Open the Media tab (bottom center) and select Image.
   2. Frame each shot and click the + icon — each image stores its camera and ambience.
   3. After changing framing or light, hover the thumbnail and click Refresh.
4. Make the series consistent — the step juries notice:
   1. Perfect the lighting on one hero image (sun time, Sun Intensity, Ambient Light, fog).
   2. Hover it, click the three dots, and choose Copy Ambience.
   3. On every other image in the series: three dots → Paste Ambience, then Refresh.
5. Export the stills:
   1. Open the Export tab (bottom center) and click the + icon under Image, ticking all images of the series.
   2. Set the Render Size: 4K for printed boards, 2K for screen review drafts.
   3. Enable Tiled Rendering if your GPU chokes on full-resolution output — it renders the frame in pieces.
   4. Export as .png for maximum still-image quality, into one clearly named folder per submission.
6. Check the results at 100% zoom before boarding them: consistent exposure, straight verticals, no missing geometry.

Note: Consistency beats spectacle — one shared ambience, one focal length, and one export resolution make six images read as a single argument about the project, while six individually "improved" renders read as six different buildings.

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Taught in

• New for 2026 — first taught in BIM + Computational Workflow 2026.