Rendering?

[PollyBoffin]

Could someone please explain this thoroughly to me? I've come across this term on several places since joining both CA and CGTalk, and I feel terribly stupid when I've no idea what you guys are referring to. So, in terms and easy to understand English (a.k.a. if you use terminology, explain what they mean, please), I would be extremely grateful if you took your time and told this, in some areas, noob, what it means.

Thanks!

[bill618]

Render simply means to ‘make’. In the traditional sense of pictorial art, rendering a finished image is done by manually drawing or painting it. In 3d digital art you render a picture literally by pushing a button (usually called Render) to let the computer software render your picture for you.

[PollyBoffin]

Render simply means to ‘make’. In the traditional sense of pictorial art, rendering a finished image is done by manually drawing or painting it. In 3d digital art you render a picture literally by pushing a button (usually called Render) to let the computer software render your picture for you.

Oh, it wasn't more complicated than that? Thanks for explaining! ^^

[Frida Bergholtz]

Usually I think that people use the term a lot when they are describing the surface of a painting or a drawing. The final pen and brushstrokes. After you made the composition and layed down the colours. That is why people sometimes write that "you should wait with the careful rendering of a picture until you got the basics down." And talk about a smooth or a rough rendering.

[Elwell]

Oh, it wasn't more complicated than that? Thanks for explaining! ^^

Actually, like most things about English vocabulary, it is a bit more complicated that that. In most cases, people use "rendering" to mean "bring to a high level of finish." One wouldn't generally refer to loosely drawn or painted work as rendered, but a courtroom sketch, for instance, is usually called an "artist's rendering." You will also sometimes hear a piece criticized as being "overrendered," which means the detail has been developed at the expense of the overall form.

[bill618]

Rendering, the noun, from my exposure of the word, doesn’t suggest a finished work of high polish, in and of itself. A ‘highly-rendered’ work can be a work of high polish. Other descriptive types of ‘rendering’ would be finished work that could be classified as a loose-rendering, tight-rendering, photorealistic-rendering, etc.
Rendering, the verb, is simply the act of painting or drawing—making an image.
I usually hear the word (as a noun) used by non-artists or 3d cg artists (when describing 3d software renderings).

At least that’s the way I hear it used in my neck of the woods.

[tobbA]

"Being hit with the artists brush had rendered the victim unconscious."

[Elwell]

Rendering, the noun, from my exposure of the word, doesn’t suggest a finished work of high polish, in and of itself. A ‘highly-rendered’ work can be a work of high polish. Other descriptive types of ‘rendering’ would be finished work that could be classified as a loose-rendering, tight-rendering, photorealistic-rendering, etc.
Rendering, the verb, is simply the act of painting or drawing—making an image.
I usually here the word (as a noun) used by non-artists or 3d cg artists (when describing 3d software renderings).

At least that’s the way I hear it used in my neck of the woods.

We live in very different necks of the woods, then.

[Arshes Nei]

Rendering, the noun, from my exposure of the word, doesn’t suggest a finished work of high polish, in and of itself. A ‘highly-rendered’ work can be a work of high polish. Other descriptive types of ‘rendering’ would be finished work that could be classified as a loose-rendering, tight-rendering, photorealistic-rendering, etc.
Rendering, the verb, is simply the act of painting or drawing—making an image.
I usually here the word (as a noun) used by non-artists or 3d cg artists (when describing 3d software renderings).

At least that’s the way I hear it used in my neck of the woods.

Actually, like most things about English vocabulary, it is a bit more complicated that that. In most cases, people use "rendering" to mean "bring to a high level of finish." One wouldn't generally refer to loosely drawn or painted work as rendered, but a courtroom sketch, for instance, is usually called an "artist's rendering." You will also sometimes hear a piece criticized as being "overrendered," which means the detail has been developed at the expense of the overall form.

Well you both can be correct. I believe it's just all about context. I hear it used during 3d or CG/digital work more often than traditional work - but when I do hear it, it's often in the case Elwell stated.

Unless we want to go to "better naming things" I just think it's best to look at when people use or say it to make the judgement as to what meaning they are going for.

[Kea]

I've generally heard rendering used by 2D artists to refer to any stage beyond the initial laying down of structural elements. With comic artists, specifically when they get to the hatching and surface detail stage. scratches & cracks etc. With painters it's generally going into further detail after the basic block forms have been laid down. Adding texture and bits. (what do I mean bits? highly esoteric knowledge I'm afraid. Let's stick with confusing you about rendering for now).

But I generally hear 3d guys use it more in the way bill618 explains.

I do personally tend to qualify it with 'render the details' or such though.

[bill618]

Rendering, as a verb, is also used as a generic word to describe the act of producing an image [EDIT: to finish], without specifying media or technique. E.g.--When rendering (regardless of media; paint loaded brush, airbrush, pencil, pastel,…) the setting Sun, never make it darker in value than the surrounding sky.
This is the context in which I normally use the word 'rendering'.

[arenhaus]

Rendering, the verb, is simply the act of painting or drawing—making an image.

I mostly encountered it in the context of painting or drawing sans the planning and sketching part. As in, you prepare the final sketch and then you render it to get the finished work. So it's clearly not the complete process of making an image, but rather its later half, when all the structural and compositional decisions had already been made.

[bill618]

I'm not talking about sketching or idea brain storming, either. ^^

Now I'm off to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a bit, to see some renderings [sounds so wrong].

[Kea]

artists, please stop rendering the dictionary useless.

and get back to painting your pretty rocks and flowers, or whatever it is you do. :3

[Elwell]

OT, but I love this sooooooooo much!

[kev ferrara]

Rendering is adding specificity to a generality.

[dpaint]

Rendering is what they do to animals after they die and they want to use the leftover parts. They have rendering trucks and factories for processing.

[JeffX99]

Even farmers are getting in on it: Render Farm.

[bill618]

The rending of my hair has rendered me bald over the rerendered iterations and definitions of the evil word.

This thread has been reindeered useless.

[PollyBoffin]

*snorts*

Okay, you guys have rendered me speechless. Thanks for answering my question (I do have an idea of what it means when used to describe a painting now) and for finding new and interesting uses for the word.