Blender

Intro

Blender is a great FOSS (Free Open Source Software) for 3D modeling and rending. 

People use Blender for many things including:

• Video Games

• Movies/Animations

• Art Scenes

• 3D Printing

•  and Making Pretty Scientific Figures + Journal Covers

How can we use Blender for scientific figures?

1. Import a chemical structure

   • Method 1: Blender-chemicals python package

   • Method 2: Built-in Atomic Blender PDB/XYZ Add-on

2. Adjust materials/textures

   • Adjust colors, specular, metallic, emission strength, and so on.

   • Possible to make things look like glass, marble, wood, etc.

3. Make a background scene

   • Be creative and feel free to check tutorials to help you design something the way you imagine it.

4. Adjust lighting and camera

   • The Camera and its settings can be adjusted. The render will eventually happen as if its a snapshot from the camera.  (swap out lens, exposure, ISO, etc.)

   • Many lights can be added to a scene, of any color. They can be: points, sun, spot, or area sources.

5. Render!

   • Everything finally comes together and the whole scene is turned into a beautiful snapshot. 

   • Lights are raytraced mimicking real-world lighting. 

   • Surfaces, textures, and material properties are taken into account. 

   • The whole scene is rendered in sections and can take hours or even days depending on complexity and computational power.

   • Don't forget to save the image at the end of the render!

Note: Rendering with a GPU can be an order of magnitude quicker than CPU alone. For NVIDIA GPUs, OptiX Denoiser is useful for improving the speed and quality of a render.