17 Advanced Enscape Tips

from Real Users

01
Introduction

As an Enscape user, you understand the power of 3D visualization in bringing

2D designs to life. It not only helps stakeholders better grasp your vision but also
improves communication and collaboration, leading to the best possible final
product.

Enscape is a fast and easy-to-use solution with a gentle learning curve, making
it accessible for beginners. However, its flexibility works two-fold, Enscape also
offers extensive depth for long-term users to explore and master.

With so much to explore, seasoned Enscape users have found numerous ways
to streamline their workflow.
You asked, we answered

Our community often requests new tips and tricks, so we asked Enscape experts
to share their best tips, tricks, and advice. These user-tested tips have been
honed through years of practice, helping you to enhance your renderings,
optimize your workflow, and deliver superior client presentations.

Whatever you’re looking to improve, this ebook has invaluable insights. Explore
this treasure trove of expert advice and elevate your Enscape experience.

If this ebook inspires you to share your own Enscape tip or experience, we would
love to hear from you. Click here to contribute and help us continue building a
resourceful community.
Materials and textures

Adding accurate materials and textures in renderings

enhances realism, visual complexity, and provides clients
with a tactile quality before construction begins. Clients
can quickly identify the different building materials,
helping them understand the scene faster and engage
with your design. When combined with the right light
and shadow, your renderings gain atmosphere and
mood. Accurate materials and textures also convey
context and history, offering clients a more captivating
and believable experience.

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01
Improve efficiency with
proper material setup
Neil Fraser - Director, Curio Architects

Spend time ensuring that elements such as walls, floors, and

roofs have the correct material from the start (or at least
in an editable way) to ease the workflow. From there, the
presets and rendering ability make creating visualizations
a breeze.

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02
Learn how to master
custom tiling patterns
Ofri Gerber - Architect / 3D Archviz, Studio Ofri Gerber

Here’s how to make seamless tiles with a “grout” B/W bump

map. This is what I do when the client picks a specific material
and wants it tiled in a particular pattern (with a reference from
the supplier). For example, acoustic wood wool ceiling tiles in a
hexagonal pattern:

1. Find high resolution seamless texture as in the client reference.

2. Add the material to the ceiling surface in SketchUp. Scale it to the

right proportion as in reference.

3. Create a black and white AO height map of the spacing with ARTX
plugin (or you can simply draw it in SketchUp and export it as 2D).
The ARTX plugin automatically creates the right edges of the tiles.

4. Add the map you created to the height map of the material in
the Enscape material editor. You should add it as a displacement
map with a value of about 2-3 cm depth.

That’s it! A simple and fast way to create seamless texture tiling in
any pattern that the client wants.

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03
Craft realistic
rain texture
Vijay Aadithya - Grad Student, Georgia Institute of Technology

To create a rain-based texture on the ground, replace the

reflection mask with a cloud texture, increase the specular
value to 100, and play with the metallic setting of a material.
Additionally, for natural settings, always keep sun brightness
at 15% to 20%.

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04
Enhance realism with the
Enscape Material Editor
Joshua Heasman - Architect, Joshua Heasman Architecture

Firstly, I get the camera angle right. Then, I focus on lighting

from the sun to achieve a soft glow—usually evening light.
Once that’s set, I compose the image by placing objects and
vegetation and work in materials.

Materials are extremely important, and I use Enscape to design

and pitch a concept to a client. The Enscape Material Editor is
fantastic for this.

The key for me is selling the client the most realistic possible
representation of the project. The material editor helps me
achieve this by allowing me to create custom materials that
match real-life products. The key to making them look real is
adding surface mapping and getting the texture, tone, and
reflectivity correct.

Most of the renders don’t need any post-editing, which saves

time and ensures consistency.

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05
Revolutionize walkthroughs
with a game controller
Jeremy Nesemeier - Owner, County Line Design

You’ve got to get yourself a video game controller to navigate

Enscape—I use it 100% of the time. It’s great when I’m doing a
walkthrough with a client and I want to provide a real walking
experience. It’s smooth and easy to look around. I use an Xbox
controller because I’m already familiar with it.

Pro tip: Learn the quick commands!

See a game controller walkthrough in action here >

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06
Invite client feedback with
sketch-like renderings
Ken Parel-Sewell - President, One World Architect

When presenting a work-in-progress to clients, we’ve found

that a common issue is renderings look “too finished.” This can
stymie conversations about needed changes in the design.
To help our clients feel like the work is still in progress and
that changes are still welcome, we try to give a drawing-like
character to our renderings.

We overlay a hidden line rendering over the photorealistic

rendering. By adding lines back, the resulting image looks like
an awesome drawing of something we are working on, not a
photograph of something complete.

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Light and shadow

Light and shadow are fundamental in renderings, bring-

ing layers of realism, creating depth, and setting the
mood. Proper lighting highlights important elements
and showcases the chosen materials and textures.
By effectively using light and shadow, you guide the
viewer’s eye and evoke specific emotions, enhancing
the storytelling of your scene and making the rendering
more engaging and immersive.

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07
Streamline workflows with
organized libraries
Stefano Domenici - Architect, SDA

At our practice, we’ve created several light sources that we

place strategically inside and outside of models to enhance
what we want to show. We have also created a library of
our favorite materials and textures for easy access.

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08
Improve renderings with
strategic shadows
Steven Garubba - Founder/Arch. Designer, Criterion Workshop

For exterior renderings, I constantly see people make the mistake of

having overly washed-out images with light and not enough shadow.
Shadow can be used as a tool to frame your subject, such as the
architecture, the people inhabiting the space, or any detail you want
to focus on.

Many designers forget to add context behind the camera or

outside the scene. Trees and contextual buildings can be vital for
introducing more shadows into the foreground of your scenes.
Sometimes, I even like to soften my renderings with tree shadows
against the face of my buildings and lower the sun brightness to
lessen the harshness of the shadow.

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09
Create immersive experiences
with mono panorama
Jeremy Foster - Director, J Foster Architects

I typically start with white card renders (white mode). I use auto
exposure or turn this off so as not to overexpose certain shots.
Image saturation is set to 70%, sun brightness is set to 20%, and
I attach a custom skybox, typically studio lighting. I sometimes
use 10% outlines in a sketch design.

For photorealistic images, I set the sun brightness to 20% and

shadow sharpness to 20%.

For client presentations, I always use a mono panorama and stitch

these together to create a tour on the Enscape website. These are
incredibly immersive and easy to navigate between views.

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10
Capture perfect skybox
backgrounds with drone
photography
Bernardo Couto Carneiro - Architect, Couto Arquitetura

For the backgrounds with the skybox, I used a drone cen-

tered on the terrain and took photos at the height of each
floor.

I also took photos at times when the natural lighting was

good, which makes all the difference when using the skybox.

In the night scenes, I took the photos with the drone at a

time when the city lights were already on, but there was
still a little natural light so it wasn’t so dark.

I lit the entire building from the inside with spherical lights
and the facade with some accent lights to draw more
attention to the building that would be presented.

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11
Transform your renderings
with atmospheric effects
Lwazi Grant - Interior Designer, Interlink Design

Harness sunlight, artificial lights, and ambient lighting to en-

hance depth and realism.

Explore different times of the day to create diverse lighting

atmospheres.

Fine-tune atmospheric elements like fog and haze to deepen

the scene’s immersion.

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Assets

Using assets in renderings allows you to provide crucial

context for your design, enhancing its realism. Assets can
demonstrate proper scale and proportions and illustrate
how a space is intended to be used, such as furniture
placement, vehicle infrastructure, or human interaction.

Vegetation assets help your renderings integrate with

the environment, letting viewers imagine the design in
its natural setting. Assets set a tone and evoke specific
emotions that can persuade clients, making the render-
ing more engaging and relatable, which helps clients
understand a space’s usability and functionality.

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12
Bring renderings to life with
asset library objects
Lance Windsor - Pr. Manager & Graphic Designer, PLJBD Architects Inc.

Empty space can be the enemy. I’ve seen too many users in
my area produce renderings that lack a realistic feel because
they fail to include Asset Library objects.

Cars and people can add life to your renderings, but make
sure you know your audience. Be sure to add people and cars
matching your building design’s style or income level.

Additionally, ground cover can be important. Blank lawns look

empty and fabricated. Throw some leaves or dandelions in.
Even the best-manicured lawns have these from time to time.

Lastly, we all know to add trees to the background to fill voids.

However, adding some trees behind the camera can also
be a good practice. Even though you don’t see the trees,
you will see the shadows. Some sparse tree shadows on
the lawn and even some on the building will add depth to
your rendering. Drive around your town or city. Look at yards,
porches, parking lots, and storefronts. Let your renderings
imitate the life around you.

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Post-production

To achieve an especially realistic rendering, you might use

Enscape for all the initial work before refining it with tools
like V-Ray or Photoshop. Post-production allows for fine-
tuning lighting, adjusting color grading, and tidying up any
imperfections from the initial rendering. Through post-
production, you can fully bring the scene to life, ensuring
your design is communicated in the best way possible.

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13
Elevate post-processing with
32-Bit EXR files
Danny Jones + Dana Satterlee - Director of Creative Labs, CPL

32 Bits will blow your mind!

Saving out an EXR file will open up a whole new world of possibil-
ities when post processing your images.

Saving this EXR file to a TIFF file will allow you to import into Adobe
Lightroom and use its amazing controls to find the balance on
your lighting and tonality.

Learn more about Danny and Dana’s work in this case study >

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14
Achieve realism with HDRI
and strategic POVs
Rancel Vasquez - Architectural designer, Renvera.arq

When I approach my visualizations, I pay special attention to

every detail. Using references is essential—if you do not visualize
the upper step, you will hardly find the motivation to reach it.

To achieve the best result, it is essential to pay close attention

to each phase of the rendering process, from selecting lighting
to the solar orientation that best highlights your project to
searching for intriguing shadows and achieving a balance
between illuminated and shadowed facades.

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The quality of 3D models and assets is crucial. To add realism
to the project, it is important to explore vegetation, vehicles,
and other externally produced 3D models.

Image composition and camera placement are of primary

importance. Be sure to find a focal approach that gives the
illusion of being a professional photograph, taking into account
the rule of thirds and applying a two-point perspective to
obtain a professional result.

For post-production, tools like Photoshop or Affinity Photo allow

you to add the final touch and any details necessary to reach
your desired look. For example, balance the green tones of
the vegetation, generate warm lighting with a Bloom effect,
incorporate more attractive skies if necessary, and, above all,
guarantee a chromatic balance as close to reality as possible.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I recommend always having

a reference on hand to aspire to or even surpass. A reference
will help you be inspired to create a standout rendering, and
help you identify what Enscape can help you with and what
you need post-production for.

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15
Achieve realism with HDRI
and strategic POVs
Paulo Pereira - Arquitecto

To execute these renders, I haven’t applied any additional

artificial lighting, just a specific HDRI for each rendering to
match the intended environment for each scene. For the
execution of each image, there was a dedicated AutoCAD 3D
project, which was then converted into SketchUp, followed by
allocating a series of assets from Enscape and SketchUp.

The points of view for each render were selected in accordance

with the type of project and in proportion to the human visu-
alization in order to enhance the architecture and its connec-
tion with the evolving environment. I always tried to present
the client with an image of the project that looks as close as
possible to reality. I also used VR visualization for the first time,
which naturally surprised the artist.

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AI

Using AI within architectural visualization is fast becoming

the standard as the technology advances and new use
cases emerge. AI provides architects and designers with
a tool that handles time-consuming processes and en-
hances renderings with small details that might otherwise
be overlooked.

For clients, AI allows non-professionals to share their ideas

and visions from the start, accelerating the design process.
While the use of AI is still contentious, and its output can
be inconsistent, exploring AI’s potential in the architecture
space is worthwhile.

Read more about AI in architecture here >

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16
Enhance Enscape assets
with AI upsampling
Phil Read - CEO, Read Thomas
After about a minute, you have your results
with wonderful and natural looking detail!
The skin, hair, eyes and other features
seem remarkably realistic. I can’t imagine
the time and expertise required to create
this kind of natural looking result via

Enscape’s people assets are a great way to communicate scale, manual photo editing.

context, activity, function, and more. This is perfect when you’re

exploring the project or creating animations.

However, the lack of detail in faces and other features can be

distracting. If you zoom in closely, you’ll notice a lack of detail in
the people assets, which contrasts with the higher detail in the
background and makes it seem like the assets are out of focus.

Upsampling the image creates the illusion of detail in face, hair,

eyes and other features. In my example, the upsampling took
about a minute using an AI tool called Magnific. The results were so
good that when I showed someone, their only complaint was that
the final image seemed “too perfect.”

I achieved this by using my Revit / Enscape sample project,

I added a selection of people assets. Then, created a series
of favorited views. Finally, I batch export all three views. I then
went to Magnific and uploaded the first image. After a bit of
testing, I set the Scale Factor to 4x, se-lected Optimized for Film and
Photography and set the Resemblance slider to 10.

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17
Explore new horizons with AI and
advanced Enscape techniques
Austin Gawrys -Designer, Architect Workshop
One final tip, which I have yet to see others
talk about online, is to use AI-generated HDRI
backgrounds. It’s quite simple to convert
them through Photoshop and achieve pre-
cisely what you want in Enscape.

Never stop learning new techniques or workflows. Over my

eight years using Enscape, I’ve constantly reevaluated how I
use the software and observed industry trends.

It’s not sufficient to just consider practices within your office

or on the Enscape Forum; pay attention to broader industry
developments. Question how images are produced, explore
how it can be done in Enscape or through post-production,
and develop your own workflow.

When Midjourney and other AI software first emerged, there

were no official tutorials on incorporating them into Enscape
renderings. However, by closely observing other artists,
you could discern the integration of AI skies, entourage,
backgrounds, and photomashing, even before generative
AI was available in Photoshop. You had to be vigilant to
recognize this possibility.

As we embark on this new phase of discovery, it’s crucial to

note what artists using other software are achieving and
explore how you can leverage this in your own work.

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About Enscape

Enscape is a real-time visualization and VR plugin that streamlines archi-

tecture and design workflows. It is the only solution that offers direct inte-
gration with the most used CAD and BIM tools in the AEC industry, enabling
you to work with one project and maintain a single source of truth across all
project phases.

Ideate: Explore concepts in real time, evaluate ideas quickly, and envision
your space before it’s built.

Communicate: Convey design intent clearly, iterate effectively, and bring

ideas to life with ease.

Present: Showcase designs with immersive 3D experiences, impress clients

and win more work.
 About Chaos
Founded in 1997, Chaos is a leading global visualization technology company.

Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, Chaos has nearly 800 employees and

© Krzysztof Fendryk © Brick Visual
offices in 11 cities worldwide.

Chaos is defining visualization by offering accessible tools, simplifying and

accelerating workflows, and empowering visual storytelling for artists, archi-
tects, designers, and other creative professionals.

Chaos’ portfolio of visualization technologies for architecture and design,

media and entertainment, and product e-com-merce includes:

© Marcos Tonda
V-Ray, a physically based renderer that has been honored with an Academy
Award and an Engineering Emmy;

Enscape, a high-quality real-time rendering and virtual reality plugin;

Corona, a high-performance photorealistic rendering engine;

Cylindo, a 3D furniture product visualization platform for e-commerce;

anima, a 3D/4D animation software to add realistic people and crowds to

visualizations.

© Tran Ma © RECOM FARMHOUSE / Clemens Ascher

chaos.com
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