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Automotive Exterior Image Workflow Tutorial

Introduction

This guide provides a walkthrough for setting up an exterior image, from initializing your session to lighting and rendering.

Step 1: Start a New Session

  • Open COATcreate and enter the Dashboard.

  • You can:
  • Create a new workspace
  • Open an existing one if you're continuing a previous project.

  • Choose Start a New session.

  • For this demo Start a new session

Step 2: Choose Product

  • Select the vehicle you want to showcase. (for demo purposes the Generic vehicle is the only option.)
  • Options may include make, model, and year.
  • Click Select Environment to proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Choose Environment

  • Select the environment in which the vehicle will be placed.
  • Options can range from studio, outdoor environments or custom environments created for your organization or OEM client.

  • Press "Start configuration" there will be a brief loading period.
  • Press "Let's create" after loading has completed.

  • You will be presented with a viewport showing the vehicle in it's default position within the selected environment. Sun postion, camera, vehicle configuration and custom lights will also be at their defaults.

Step 4: Configure Vehicle Options

  • Set up the vehicle by choosing options from the Product menu on the right.

Options that can be chosen from the Product material variants section include:

  • Trim level
  • Exterior color
  • Interior color
  • Wheel color where applicable

Vehicle specific options that may be found in the Product visibility variants section can include:

  • Turn on DRL
  • Turn on Rearlights
  • Other vehicle specic options if available

Choose the options you prefer or as shown in the image below.

Step 5: Position Vehicle & Choose Environment Variants

  • Place the vehicle in the scene.

Use the Pose a car menu at the right to reposition the vehicle to your liking, pay close attention to the tires and ground plane. Just as in reality, the environments are not always level or perfectly flat. Therefore the vehicle may need small adjustments to ensure the tires contact the ground in a realistic manner. Adjustments may include vehicle height and rotation depending on the surface on which it has been placed. (e.g., roads that are off camber or slightly banked curves.)

The color coded X, Y, and Z axis controls for Move a car as well as Rotate a car correspond to the colored axes displayed on the small icon of the vehicle in the upper right side of the viewport. This can serve as a reminder which axis to manipulate while positioning the vehicle.

  • Choose from any available visablity variants from the Environment menu (e.g., lighting setups, ground textures). Note that not all environments will have variants.

Step 6: Compose the Shot

With the vehicle configured and positioned within the desired environment it's time to compose the shot camera. There are multiple ways to manipulate the camera and it's resulting view. The viewport shows what the camera sees and what will appear in the final rendered image. If you change the camera’s aspect ratio, the viewport will update to match.

  • Position the camera to frame the vehicle as desired. The standard viewport controls are going to be the main method of manipulating the camera.

  • LMB will roate the camera left, right, up, or down.
  • MMB pans the camera left, right, up or down.
  • RMB dollys the camera in and out (as will rolling the scroll wheel).

For this example a left side low profile has been set up.

  • The camera also has alternate means of positioning

  • Free fly camera uses keyboard short cuts similar to gaming

  • Sequenced uses the arrow keys to switch through set of camera presets.

  • Locked Rotation the cameras position is locked but is free to rotate just as a physical camera on a tripod would.

COAT also includes a few helpful tools when working with cameras.

  • Camera Grids: Are viewport overlays that can assist in composition. There are several styles available and are enabled from the Camera grid section of the Camera Menu on the right side of the screen. Camera grid options include:

  • Golden ratio

  • Rule of thirds
  • Rule of fifths
  • Spiral

  • If you are working with a layout made in an external program you can use Image compare to overlay it in the viewport.

an example of a generic layout created in photoshop and saved out as a .png indicating the following:

  • image size (red) 16:9
  • bleed (green)
  • copy (gray with greeked type)
  • key visual (blue)

  • logo (light blue)

  • Image compare is found at the bottom of the Camera menu on the right side. Click the Add Photo to bring up the upload dialog box

  • Drag and drop the .png of your layout into this box and press Apply photo.

  • The result will be the layout image ghosted over the COAT viewport, the layout can be toggled on or off, the opacity changed, or a comparison line be enabled. The comparison line will show the overlay on one side and the viewport on the other.

  • The camera can be adjusted to accomodate the layout and position the vehicle to fit with in the key visual box. There are some helpful options within the Camera position and Camera pivot sections of the Camera menu that allow you rotate the camera incrementally left, right, up or down. The pivot can also be moved left, right, up or down. These tools may allow for extra precision when repositioning the camera.

  • Here the Focal length was increased to 110mm from the default to give the car a longer less fisheye look. The car now fits into the key visual area of the layout, but the two small plants are distracting. This can be resolved by repositioning the vehicle in the environment and bringing and the camera along with it.

  • In the Pose a car menu on the right side, open up the Move a car section and enable Lock Camera to the car toggle. Then transform the vehicle forward or backward along the road to find a place that is less cluttered visually. You can either type in a value in the transform or move the vehicle interactively in the viewport with the color coded arrows.

  • Also in the Pose a car menu there are some pre-set animations for parts of the car, in our example the doors have been rigged to open. In the Move parts of the car section the doors can be repostioned using the sliders, or typing in a value from 0-100%.

Step 7: Save a State

  • It is a good time to save your progress, in COAT saves are represented by States States can be saved at any time and can be used to recall individual attributes fron one state to another. States are compact text files that contain all the choices you have made during your session. They can be downloaded and shared with collegues for collaborative work, submitted as renders, or archived for future use.

  • Save your first state Click on the teal States button and choose Save state from the drop down menu to create your intital state.

  • A large Add new state button will be added to the States menu along with a thumbnail of the state you just created. The State may be renamed by double clicking it's title.

  • Save States throughout your session to create a backup of your progress.

Step 8: Set the Key light source position

  • With the vehicle configuration and composition completed, the next step is to set the key light source height and direction to set the mood of the shot.

  • Use settings found in the Sun settings menu to the position the sun.

  • Sun height raises or lowers the sun's height relative to the horizon, going below the horizon creates a night shot.
  • Sun rotation orbits the sun's direction around the center of the scene, changing the direction of cast shadows.

  • The small car icon in the uppper right corner of the viewport shows the sun's relationship to the vehicle. It updates as the sun position is changed.

  • For this demo the sun has been postioned very low to the horizon and from the front of the car to mimic a late afternoon sun.

The new sun position is seen in the car icon mentioned earlier.

  • There are also settings to adjust the sun's size (larger = softer shadows. smaller = sharper shadows). Haze and atmospheric effects are also available, feel free to experiment with these settings but they will be left to default for this project.

Step 9: Create Custom Lighting

  • Adding custom lighting to a shot can help enhance details in areas that may be too dark or lacking interest.

  • Custom lighting can be found in the menu on the right side of the interface.

  • Custom lights consist of three types of lights

  • Point lights - a light that illuminates in all directions from a single point, similar to a light bulb.

  • Retangle lights - A light that emits light from a rectangular shape similar to a soft box. Rectangle lights are directional and emit light toward their target.

  • Disc lights - A light similar to a Retangle light but, round in shape. Disc lights are also directional and emit light toward their target.

An example of each of the light types with their emitters made visible and they types of illumination they create. Please see the Custom Lighting section of the documentation for more information on custom lights and their attributes.

  • When adding Custom Lighting to your shot it is important to evaluate the look of your subject and identify areas that need fine tuning. In our base image the front of the vehicle is nicely lit by the Sun, with highight and shadow describing it's form. However, the wheels and tires as well as the side of the car can use enhancement.

  • Click Add a new light source In the Light list of the Custom Lighting Menu to create a new light. Choose disk as the type

  • A new disk light will be added to the viewport in it's default position with default parameters. It's position can be seen relative to a place holder vehicle in the pop out window. The perspective of the pop out window can be changed by toggling between Top and Side The light and it's target can be repositioned in space by clicking and dragging their icons in the pop out window. The pop out window may be resized by dragging one of it's corners, repositioned in the viewport by dragging the title bar. You can zoom in your view with the scroll wheel and pan the pop out window with the middle mouse button.

  • Adjust the lights temperature, size and position to add a natural warm raking light to the front wheel. In this example the temperature is set to 4000 kelvin, intensity of 8 and the size is left at the default of 5

  • Light and target positions in the pop out window

  • An alternate angle to give and idea of the light's position and emitter made visible in the viewport.

  • The light's effect as seen throught the established camera

  • Continue creating and positioning lights in the scene to add interest to the rear wheel, and vehicle body as you see fit. Take care to create lighting that feels natural and enhances the shot vs overpowering it and feeling artificial. This balance can be achieved with practice and patience.

  • Feel free to create States as you progress along and experiment with your lighting design.

Step 10: Postprocess

  • In the Post process menu you will find a few options to adust the overall look of your image:

  • Temperature will adjust the overall color of the image from warm to cool, similar to white balance.

  • Vingette will slightly darken the edges of the image as seen here.

  • Saturation will adjust the image's color saturation all the way down to black and white if desired.

  • For this demo the Temperature is set to 15000 and the others will be left at defaults.

  • Once you have made any Post process adjustments save and additional State

Step 11: Rendering Options

  • In the Rendering menu choose your rendering resolution (in pixels) and preferred render output type:

  • Standard PNG Renders

  • Download includes:

  • Simple tonemapped 8-bit image render, ready for presentation.

  • AOV Renders A more advanced output suitable for a compositing workflow like Nuke or Resolve. Giving further creative control over the final image using individual render passes

  • Download includes:

    • PNG preview
    • ZIP file with 32-bit EXR images (separated render passes)

  • Layered Renders 8-bit tonemapped renders separated with pre-multiplied alphas

  • Download includes separate PNGs for:

    • Background
    • Shadow
    • Vehicle

  • When you have made your redering selections, save a final Render state. This will embed your render choices to the state, allowing you to batch submit renders from the Dashboard. Remember that submitting a render in COAT does not tie up your interface like many offline rendering programs, you are free to submit renders and continue working on addional images as you please.

  • Click the Render shot button in the Rendering menu submit a single render to the Renders tab at the bottom left of the interface.

  • The current position of your render in the Queue will shown above it's icon. It's percentage of completion will be displayed once rendering begins.

  • Once rendering has completed you will see a thumbnail of your image along with a 3 bar menu in the upper right of that thumbnail where you can choose to download your completed render or renders. Renders will save to your browser's downloads folder by default.

Step 13: Post-Production

  • Once downloaded the renders can be taken into to any post processing package you choose for final color grading, retouching etc.

  • Import render outputs into external tools like Photoshop or Nuke

  • Use AOVs for:
  • Color correction
  • Shadow refinement
  • Selective enhancements

downloaded render

final

Conclusion

Hopefully this workflow overview provides the fundamental insights to creating automotive visuals in COAT. From selecting the car and scene to fine-tuning the final render, each step helps craft a compelling image.