How To: Using My NXS20 Scene

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This manual is designed for individuals new to rendering NR2003 scenes in Blender. Although I strive for clarity, creating tutorials is not my forte. Consequently, I do not offer support for these NR2003 scenes. However, there is a wealth of tutorials available on YouTube that can assist in mastering the software, which is how I acquired my skills. Those tutorials provide clearer explanations than I could. While this guide specifically addresses my scenes, it may also prove useful for those working with any NR2003 Blender scene.

Overview

At the end of this guide, you should have an understanding of how to use my scene and render your own paints. This should apply to most of my scenes as I like to keep things simple enough to understand and easy to edit. If you read these directions and follow them correctly, you should be able to:

  • extract packed files
  • select the car make
  • change the texture in the material editor or replace the texture in the folder
  • render the scene

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What You Will Need

This scene was saved in Blender 4.2. People using Blender versions older than 4.0 may encounter issues. It is recommended that you download and install the latest version to ensure compatibility. Before following this guide, please ensure you have the following:

  • Blender 4.0 or newer
  • my NR2003 scene
  • your paint
  • knowledge of how a computer works

Simple enough? Good. Let’s begin.

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The Tutorial

This guide assumes you’ve already downloaded the scene and have it opened in Blender. Follow the steps carefully and you should have no problems rendering your paint.

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Step 1 – Unpacking The Textures

When you first open the scene, you should have a window like this (see fig. 1.1).

The first thing you’ll want to do is unpack the textures. To do this, click on “File”, scroll down to “External Data”, and choose “Unpack Resources” (see fig. 1.2). When the next prompt shows, choose “Use files in current directory (create when necessary)” (see fig. 1.3). And choose a folder on your hard drive to extract the textures to. This will create a new folder named “textures” as shown in fig. 1.4.

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Step 2 – Choosing Your Make

Changing the make is quite straightforward. On the right side of the screen, there’s a column with two views. The upper view is the “Scene Collection,” where you can hide and unhide various objects and collections (refer to fig 2.1). The car makes are organized into collections. To display the car you wish to render, click the checkmark next to “Chevy” to hide it, and then click the empty box next to the make you want to reveal (refer to fig 2.2).

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Step 3 – Loading Your Paint

There are a few ways of loading your paint. I’ll go over the two most common ways NR2003 users use. The first way is simply going into the Shading workspace and changing your texture in the material graph. This is the easiest and the preferred way. To do this, click on the “Shading” tab at the top of the screen (see fig. 3.1).

Upon loading the Shading workspace, two viewports should be visible. The upper viewport displays your model and enables you to select various objects. The lower viewport is the material graph, where you can edit materials or create your own, as illustrated in Fig. 3.2.

You’ll see in the material graph the LP_Wheel material is loaded (see fig. 3.3. This is because the last item I was working on was the wheel material. We will select the paint material now. In the top viewport, just select the car. The correct material (in this case, Chevy Paint) will load in the graph (see fig. 3.4.).

In the graph editor, click on the folder icon within the Card_Chevy.jpg node (refer to fig. 3.5). This action will open a file dialog, allowing you to navigate to your paint (refer to fig. 3.6). Locate and select your paint. It should now be loaded as depicted in Figure 3.7.

For a list of Blender’s supported image formats, please check their website, Supported Graphics Formats.

Another method for loading your paints involves simply replacing the “Card_Chevy.jpg” file (or whichever model you intend to render) within the “textures” folder. Remember, you must overwrite the existing file, not create an additional one. This is why the previously mentioned method is recommended. Ensure you do this before launching your scene in Blender for it to load correctly. If not, you will need to make the change within the material graph.

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Step 4 – Changing Cameras

This scene includes 3 cameras so you may choose your favorite view. Changing them is relatively easy. On the right side of the screen in the column, the bottom view you’ll see a bunch of icons stacked vertically as shown in fig. 4.1.

In this stack, look for the “scene” icon as shown in fig 4.2 and click it. This will take you to the menu where you can choose your camera view (see fig 4.3).

From here, just click where it says “Camera” (inside of the input box) and it’ll show a list of available cameras for you to use. Choose whatever one you like best and you’re set.

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Step 5 – Rendering

Perhaps the simplest part of this tutorial, rendering. As you can see in my window (see fig. 5.1), the scene is ready to be rendered. I have my make chose, my paint loaded, and I’ve selected the camera I wanted.

In the menu on the top left of the window, click “Render” and choose “Render Image” (see fig 5.2) or just hit F12 on your keyboard. A render window will appear as shown in fig. 5.3 and before you know it, you’ll have your render.

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To save your image, go to the top of the render window, click on “Image,” and select “Save” or “Save As…” as indicated in fig. 5.4. In the following window, adjust the settings and choose the desired save location, then click on “Save As Image”. Congrats, you have just rendered your car.

Learn More

Now that you’ve successfully rendered your car, or if you didn’t, here are some links where you might find some help. I’ll also include Blender communities in case you’re looking to learn more about using the program. And remember, people are not being paid to help you, so be respectful in other communities.

Helpful Links: