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Table of contents:
- Showcase of what render we will be making today
- Part. 1 - Basics of Chunky (for beginners / first time users)
- Part. 2 - Selecting ratio and camera navigation
- Part. 3 - Focus, HDRI and Lighting
- Part. 4 - Background

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Showcase:

In this tutorial I will be showcasing how I do my renders. We will start from scratch with a finished house, and from there we will be using Chunky and the rendering process, to help guide us in terrain creation, in order to ensure, that the build we want in focus pops out, and becomes the main focus point of our render.


If you don't have your own build to make a render of, then you can download the same build that we will be using throughout this tutorial for free here: https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/cozy-winter-cottage-6114126/ . I must also note, that for the terrain-creation process I highly recommend using the following free World Edit, Terrain assets:

The_funkuchen - 338 Custom Trees and Shrubs
Dannypan - Huge Rock/Boulder Pack - 25 shapes in 5 styles at 6 different sizes

For realistic builds (both terrain and vehicles) I highly recommend the work of DreamWanderer

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Part. 1 - Basics of Chunky For beginners / First time users

This part of the tutorial is made for anyone who is a new user of Chunky / have never tried the program before. So if you already know how the program works, you can skip part. 1. To start off with, we need to download and launch Chunky for the first time. I will also give a short introduction to the program itself once you have it opened.

1. Downloading Chunky______________________________________________________________________
   You can download Chunky for free on Github. You need to make sure that you have installed the latest version of Java 17 (Not Java Edition of Minecraft, but the actual Java program), and then following that, you need to install the Chunky Launcher.
   
   Github / Download:
   https://chunky-dev.github.io/docs/getting_started/installing_chunky/
   
   There are instructions and an FAQ on the Github website, in case you need further assistance with installing Chunky.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Launching Chunky______________________________________________________________________
   When you have installed Java 17, and have the Chunky Launcher installed, open the 'ChunkyLauncher.jar'. It will show you a bunch of info and settings that can be adjusted according to your PC's capabilities, however, for this tutorial we do not need to make any significant adjustments to this, so instead we go to the right corner of the launcher and click 'Launch'.
   
   
   
3. Layout of Chunky / Basic functions______________________________________________________________________
   When you launch Chunky for the first time, it will select a random world. For now, it does not matter what world has been selected, what we care about is the different panels and basic functions of Chunky.
   
   
   
   The first panel we want to look at is the panel in the top right. We specifically in this section care about the 'Change World' button, which allows us to select a specific world that is in our Minecraft Saves folder (Appdata → .minecraft → saves).
   
   
   
   The second panel of interest is the big middle-panel. This is our map- and render-viewer, and it is also where we can control the camera, zoom and position, as well as where we select the chunks (part of the builds) that we want to be in the render. Please also notice the two buttons in the left hand corner of the middle-panel that say 'Map' and 'Render Preview'. These two buttons will be very important for later.
   
   
   
   The third panel is our editing menu. This is where we will be spending most of our time, because this is all the various settings that affect how our final render will turn out. I will personally recommend that you mess around with the different settings, just to try them out and get familiar with what each setting does. This will allow you to make a wider ranger of renders than what I am showcasing in this tutorial.
   
   
   
   The fourth and last panel is in the left corner, and is where we control the rendering process itself. All you need to know is that, you can use SPACEBAR to start or pause the rendering process. But for now, it is not of much importance. But we will be using it quite a lot in this tutorial, when we get to the actual rendering tests and final rendering.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. World and Region selection______________________________________________________________________
   Go to the first panel and click on the 'Change World' button. Select whichever world you'd like to create a render of, and let the world load in. When your world has loaded, you should be presented with an overhead 2D view of your world, and your curser will be followed by a red square. If you Left-Click you select a single chunk of your world, and if you hold down SHIFT + Left Click, then you can drag the box and select a larger area of interest.
   
   
   
   When you have marked the area of interest, you must right-click on the middle-panel and select 'New Scene From Selection'. Depending on how many chunks you have marked, the loading time will vary. Once the new scene as been made, Chunky will automatically switch you from the Map-viewer to the Render-Preview screen
   
   
   

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Part. 2 - Selecting ratio and Camera navigation Locating the Isometric Pre-set I use for all my renders

This part will quickly go over how to select the image ratio, and how to navigate with the camera. This part also includes where to find the Isometric Pre-set, that we will be using for the specific render. If you already know how to do this, you can skip Part. 2.

1. Selecting the correct ratio:______________________________________________________________________
   While it may seem trivial, selecting the ratio is crucial for the way I do my renders, because this is what decides how much of the background I am going to work on. I personally prefer to use the 400x400 ratio for any build that has an overall 'square' shape, while for this build - which has more of a rectangle overall shape, I will be using the 1920x1080 ratio.
   
   You can select the ratio by going to the left-hand panel, and selecting 'Scene' in the menu. Find the section called 'Canvas Size' and select your preferred ratio.
   
   
   
   

   STUBBS TIP: It's a good idea to select a ratio that corresponds to the overall 'shape' of your build. To showcase what I mean by this, let me show you these two examples: The first example is my Abandoned Radio Observatory build, in which I used a 1600x1600 ratio for the final render. Why? Because the build itself has an overall 'square' shape, which is easier to notice, if I paint the square onto the render: Another example is the French Chateau I built, which uses a 1920x1080 ratio, because of the shape of the main build - the focus point of the build itself. The basic principle is that you shouldn't let there be "empty" space in your render, by which I mean, large patches of stuff that is not what you want the viewer to focus on; or stuff that does not serve a complementary function to the main subject of your render. The important thing to keep in mind is that your build and the render must not be two separate 'entities' so to speak. They must work together and complement each others strengths. If for example you want to make a build that is geared towards Pinterest or Instagram, then you should make sure that the focus of your build, corresponds to the ratio your use for your render.

   
   
   
   
2. Camera and navigation:______________________________________________________________________
   To navigate around the render preview, you can use your usual WASD buttons to move around. You can also move the camera up and down on the Y-axis by using R = Move up, and F = Move down. You hold left click in the middle of the render preview and drag around to move the camera focus.
   
   
   
   
3. Isometric Pre-set for the Camera:______________________________________________________________________
   Go to the left-hand panel and select the menu titled 'Camera'. In the very top of this menu, you will notice there is a drop-down menu called 'presets'. This is the menu we are interested in, because it will allow us to quickly move the camera into our wanted position, and then make final adjustments from there-on out.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Positioning the camera:______________________________________________________________________
   Before moving on the part. 3, it is very important to spend some time moving the camera around your build and finding an angle where the build looks amazing. Keep in mind, that we currently only care about making our focus-point (the main part of the build) look good. Anything in the background, good or bad, we do not care for at this point. Spend some time, and try a few different angles until you find something you're happy with.
   
   Just a small reminder, but you can always move the camera, or make small adjustments. Throughout this tutorial you may notice that compared to the progress / tutorial images I have uploaded, the final render actually has a few very small camera adjustments to it, such as the final render being 1 tick to the right, and zoomed 0.5 more out than the progress images.
   
   
   
   

   STUBBS TIP: When you position your camera, please keep guiding lines in mind. While it can be very hard for beginner builders to keep in mind, this is the kind of stuff, that even intermediate and expert builders will still struggle with, so don't beat yourself up over it, if you forgot or if it turns out the result was not what you hoped for. I would personally say this is the most difficult part of both building and rendering. Guiding lines: A big thing you will notice in almost any painting or amazing render, is that it uses lines or shapes to guide the eyes towards what it wants you to see. A good way of visualizing this is going back to my French Chateau example. The foreground was specifically built in such a way, that it would contain lots of guiding lines that lead the gaze of the viewer towards the main building. Heck, I even tried to use the clouds as guiding lines haha!

   
   

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Part. 3 - Focus, HDRI Skies and Lighting Adjusting using the Auto Focus and the Depth of Field settings + HDRI Skies and adjusting Lighting

This is where we get more into the specifics on how I do my renders. Assuming that you have now found a good camera angle for your build, we must now make sure that the build itself is in focus. Please note that it is personal preference to keep the background and foreground blurred, and it can sometimes actually be better to have no blurring occur at all. However, for this specific build, I will be using the Depth of Field setting to blur the background and foreground, to make the main build stand out.

It should also be noted, that while I would love to share the HDRI Skies that I use, I use paid HDRI Images which I am not allowed to share. I will therefore have to refer you to finding a HDRI sky that you like by yourself. I would highly recommend finding high-resolution HDRI skies if part of your render needs to have non-Minecraft clouds in the background, or a non-Minecraft clear blue sky in the background. However, most free HDRI's are good around 1000x250 ratio for making renders in Chunky. And if your build does not need to have a sky in the background, then using a skymap will help your build look better in the lighting.

1. Auto Focus:______________________________________________________________________
   When you are in the camera menu, you should notice that we have three different settings that we can use: Field of view (zoom), Depth of field, and Subject distance. For this tutorial, we will only be making adjustments to the 'Depth of field' setting, while letting the Autofocus button at the bottom of the menu, decide the Subject distance for us.
   
   To start off, go to the middle-panel and right click in the middle of your build. Then click the 'Select target' option, and go back to the Camera menu. Now the program knows which specific block to target, and which block it must focus on. From here we use the AutoFocus button.
   
   
   
   Please note that the AutoFocus can sometimes mess up and make your render preview look like a bunch of scattered pixels. Do not worry, simple adjust the Depth of field, until your build appears in focus again. The lower the depth of field, the more out of focus everything is - The higher the depth of field, the higher the focus is.
   
   
   
   
2. Skymaps and HDRI:______________________________________________________________________
   Start by going to the left-hand panel, and find the menu titled 'Sky & Fog'. At the very top you will see a section called 'Sky mode', which by standard is set to 'Simulated', meaning it simulates the in-game sky. For this tutorial however, we are interested in choosing the 'Skymap (panoramic)' option. When you have selected this option, you must load the skymap (The HDRI image), and let it load.
   
   
   
   The reason we add a skymap, even if the sky itself will not be visible in the final render, is because Chunky adds part of the skylight to the scene itself, meaning: To avoid having a matte or plain lighting in your render, you should use a skymap to add nuance to the lighting.
   
   
   
   
3. Fog density:______________________________________________________________________
   In the same menu, you will notice that at the bottom there is a scroller called 'Fog density'. This - like the blurry background - is a personal taste thing again. I personally enjoy adding a very tiny amount of fog to my builds, as it adds that much needed atmosphere to the build, that really makes the render go from 'that looks cool' to 'Wauw!'. Personally I would recommend using a fog density between 0.001 and 0.0001. For this render I used a 0.0001 fog density.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Lighting the scene:______________________________________________________________________
   Go to the left-hand panel and open the menu called 'Lighting'. In here you will find two of your most important tools: 'Sun azimuth' and 'Sun altitude'. In order to get the best result, I would recommend going Render panel in the left corner, and clicking on 'Start'. When Chunky starts rendering, then adjust the Sun azimuth and Sun altitude, as this makes it easier to see, where exactly the light and shadows of your build will be present. This equally means, that this is where you should be spending a great deal of time getting it right. However, keep in mind that you can always go back and change it if needed.
   
   
   
   

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Part. 4 - Background Now its time to open Minecraft, and build the background for your render!

As you have probably noticed by now: None of the progress pictures have had anything in the background so far. We have only had our focus set on the main build - And this is intentional. I must now let you know, that I Stubbs1, am a Render Builder. What does this mean? It basically means, that the only thing I care about in a build is whether or not it looks good in a render. Therefore, everything that is outside the render, is just never finished (this includes why my builds rarely include interior). It is personal preference, and I admire people like DreamWanderer that go to great lengths of adding interior to everything they make.

Please keep this in mind for this part of the tutorial, as I know there are some builders who would disagree with me on whether or not a 'good build' includes interior or not.

1. Marking the area of interest:______________________________________________________________________
   Go in-game and find the world, now take any sort of bright coloured block which will be easy to spot in your render. Look at your render, and try and guess where the camera can see, and what it cannot see. Then using the bright coloured block, create a rough estimate of where the line of sight for the camera ends.
   
   
   
   When you have given it your best estimate, go back into Chunky and find the Scene again. In the Scene menu, at the very top, there will be two buttons that we need: 'Load selected chunks' and 'Reload chunks'. Whenever you have made an estimate for the area of interest, go into Chunky and use the 'Reload chunks' button to see if you got it right. If you can see the coloured block in the render, move set section outwards, until it is no longer visible.
   
   
   
   The reason I do this, is because this will tell me, what parts of the background I must focus all my energy on. There is no reason to focus on stuff outside the scope of the render, when our only goal, is to create a good render.
   
   
   
   
2. Adding terrain and chunks:______________________________________________________________________
   If it so happens that part of the terrain is missing in the render, you can go to top of the left-hand side of the middle-panel (the render-preview), and change back to the Map-viewer. Go into the map-viewer and repeat the chunk selections process (see Part.1). When you have added the missing chunks, go back into the Render-preview, and find the Scene menu, and click on the 'Load selected chunks' button.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Adding the background:______________________________________________________________________
   This part of the project is where you create the background. Here we apply the ideas of Colour and Contrast from part. 2, by first adding some basic terrain / nature elements into the background, which helps us establish the environment and atmosphere of the render. Please notice that for this specific background I used the following free World Edit, Terrain assets:
   
   The_funkuchen - 338 Custom Trees and Shrubs
   Dannypan - Huge Rock/Boulder Pack - 25 shapes in 5 styles at 6 different sizes
   
   
   
   Following this, I now want the building itself to stand out, because the theme of the build is 'Cosy Winter Cabin'. The theme can therefore be represented using snow, while the white colour of the snow, will equally help make the build itself come into focus.
   
   
   
   And lastly I end off by adding a bit of foliage, making sure that what I add to the background does not create unnecessary noise which might take away focus from the main build, but instead add foliage and background elements that compliment the build in focus.
   
   
   
   The final result (building wise) looks like this:
   
   
   
   

   STUBBS TIP: When you build – and especially when you choose stuff such as background elements to include – Always make sure that the elements you add, compliment the focal point of your build. Two aspects I use very often is colour and contrast in my background elements. Colour: When I say colour, I am asking if the background and the build blends too much into each other. A good tool for avoiding this is using the colour-wheel. A rule of thumb, is that the colour on the opposite side of the colour-wheel, is the colour which will make your chosen colour pop out more. A good example of colour-use is my Castle - Survival Base render. What you must notice in this render, is that because the castle itself was mainly grey, white and black, it blended too much into the grey background (left), and was therefore changed (right). Contrast: Another great tool for making things stand out is contrast. I specifically used contrast to make the render feel more alive with my Old Rundown Train Service Station. You can see the original render on the left, which had no contrast adjustments, and the final render on the right, where I has used the post-processing in Chunky (ACES Film Filter) to give the render a higher contrast. Another example, that you have just seen, which uses contrast is that I on purpose placed snow-blocks instead of just snow, where the outline of the building and the background terrain meet. This is because the brown colour of the dirt, blends too much into the brownness of the sprucewood – so to differentiate it, I use a snowblock, as it is completely white, without any brown. However! Only where the outlines meet.

   
   
   
4. Final Rendering:______________________________________________________________________
   The last part of the whole rendering process, is to go to the bottom left panel, and click the 'Start' button, and then letting the build render. A quick little heads up would be, that in the top on the program, just above where you select between the map-viewer and the render-preview, there is a button called 'Save current frame'. I personally don't wait all the way until the render is complete, and usually use the 'Save current frame' button to pull my final render, usually between 350-500 frames.
   
   
   
   
   

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The end - That's all I can teach you I hope this blog / tutorial will help you in your Render-making adventures!

And that's it! I would love to hear if you found this helpful, and would love to see your rendering work!
Have a good day, and I'll see you around

- Stubbs1

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