Cineware Basic Settings: Background Panel

This panel of PhotoRendering Settings is identical for all PhotoRendering engines.

A Background is a plain 2D picture that is placed “behind” the rendering. (You can use it to place the 3D model into a context.)

Note: In contrast, the Environment (available with Cineware) is a genuine 3D environment which covers up the background. Thus, if you are using an Environment with Cineware, the Background has no purpose.

Use the Background controls to adjust parameters of your rendering’s background image.

None: This option will give you a non-transparent black-and-white background if you are using the Basic or Sketch Engine.

With the Cineware Engine, this setting gives you a transparent background. The same effect can be achieved with Cineware Detailed Settings: In the General Options section, enable Generate Alpha Channel.

Colors: Set the color of the sky and the ground by clicking the respective color-picker fields. During the photorendering process, Archicad will automatically locate the horizon line of the background to correspond with the horizon of the picture.

In parallel projections, if the bottom of the elements is visible, sky color is used; if not, ground color is used. The 3D Window can also use the colors specified here. If you just need a single-color background, click the Chain icon and set either the Sky Color or the Ground Color.

Image: Use this option to browse a background image from the library.

ImageBackground.png     LoadImageBackground.png

Note: You can save the background picture together with your Project. Use the Save As command to save the project in archive format, then check the Include Background Picture checkbox in the dialog box.

ArchiveOptionsPicture.png 

Position: Use this pop-up to fit the image to the 3D window in several ways:

ScaleToFit.png 

Scale to Fit: Rescales the image so it fits within the 3D window.

Scale to Fill: Rescales the image so that it fills out the full 3D window.

Custom: The control switches to Custom whenever you manually reposition the image to the frame: either by clicking and dragging the preview, or by filling out new values in the Offset fields.

PositionBackgroundImage.png 

Blend Image with model using alpha: This checkbox affects renderings done with the Sketch rendering engine; it produces a blending effect. (An alpha image used as a Background with Cineware will also have this effect.)