Chunky

Chunky is a popular Minecraft mapping and rendering tool. This tutorial will guide you through the step-by-step process of creating a render.

NOTE: Whilst this thread explains how to render with an earlier version of Chunky, the principles are the same in regard to newer versions of Chunky. The buttons may've changed place, but the functions & theory remain the same.



DOWNLOAD Chunky here!

Step 1

Open Chunky, if the window below comes up, just click launch. If not, go ahead to the next step.



Step 2

Chunky will automatically load the world with the first letter of the alphabet starting it, or the first number. If this isn't the correct world, go ahead and click on Change World and you can then navigate to the correct world.

Once you've selected a world, wait for it to load so there are no question marks left.

Try zooming out to get a better view of the map you've loaded. You can now make a selection by clicking and/or dragging across one area to another. Your selection will appear red. You can also hold shift and click & drag to select specific areas.



Step 3

Once you've marked the area you're interested in rendering, click the 3D Render Tab and click New Scene as shown in the picture below.



Step 4a

Your world will now load all the chunks and then finalize the octrees. (Don't ask me, I have no idea).

After it's done loading, what I like to do is go into the Camera Tab and position the view to render.

However, if you have a smaller scene, you can simply click inside the Render Preview and use W, A, S, D plus your mouse wheel to position the camera, and zoom in/out.



Step 4b

You can position your view manually by Click the Camera Tab, then open Position and Orientation and adjust the number fields. Usually, you'll need to increase them. Experiment!



Step 5

After you've positioned your camera to your likening, click the Lighting Tab as shown below.



Step 6

In the Lighting Tab there are several settings, but let's focus on "Skylight", "Sun intensity", "Sun azimuth" (Sun angle), "Sun altitude" (Sun height)
and "Sun color".

Personally, I like the light source to come from the side of the map so it will produce clear highlights and shadows. Besides, I like the sun to be low in the sky and the color to be a light yellow/orange. Play around with the settings and once done, head over to the Postprocessing tab circled below.



Step 7

Now the Postprocessing mode is usually set to Gamma correction. However, I feel it looks much better with Tonemap operator 1. You can of course play around with these settings to find your own preference.

Once done, head back to the General Tab.



Step 8

Now comes an important step: choosing the resolution of the render you're about to start rendering.

For Planet Minecraft posts you don't need a resolution higher than 1024x768. So if you don't have the best computer, choose that.

For desktop wallpapers, 1920x1080 is a decent resolution. However, I like to take it up a notch and select 2560x1440. Keep in mind, the higher the resolution the longer it will take to render.



Step 9

Once you have chosen the resolution, you will see that the size of the render preview has also changed. If it's in your way, click the Hide preview window button in the General Tab. This will also reduce the resources your computer consumes while rendering your scene.



Step 10

I like to change the Target SPP from the default 1,000 to 250 since you don't need much more for a good render. However, if your render is still noisy after finishing at 250,
simply turn it up to 1,000 again.

Now you can start rendering by clicking the green play button shown below!



Step 11

Once the render is done, press Save current frame and navigate in your viewport to the location where it will be saved.



OPTIONAL POST PROCESSING STEPS:

Photoshop Color Correction

Here's the Special Color correction PSD file that I personally use: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

Step 1

I usually start simple with a Brightness/Contrast Filter and adjust until I think it looks good. Sometimes, I just click the Auto button and it does it automatically for me.



Step 2

Then I use a Hue/Saturation Filter and adjust until I'm happy. Also, I'll adjust the Lightness because I like it a bit washed out.



Step 3

Then I add my ColorCorrection PSD File, which I first open, then click and drag into the render tab. I almost always enable the New CC in ColorCorrection and sometimes the
Old Style CC if my render is dark enough for it. I always enable ColorCorrection1 since it gives my renders a crisp look.



Step 4

For a final touch, I usually add a LUT (Kodak 5218 Kodak 2395 (by Adobe) cube which seems to work for almost all my renders so far. I do like to try different LUTs
and find something that works for specific renders.



Step 5

To save the final render after all post-process, go to File > Export > Quick Export as PNG. And click the last button.



Step 6

Once you've clicked the last button, a new window will open, and usually, it will be the location of where you opened the pre-processed render from. I like to add "_F" at the end of the original text since that makes it easier to find in a folder of many files. And then I just press "Save". Now you're finish- OH! Wait! Before you do anything else, remember to press CTRL + S, to save the Photoshop file, as you might want to open it up again.




Thanks for reading and I hope you've learned how to create your first render! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.