I've been interested in the concept of Speed Renders for some time now. I recently downloaded some great Speed Painting tutorials and they've helped me start to shape a 3D version of the same sort of thing. Speed Rendering is like Speed Painting, only using 3D software instead of Photoshop or Painter. The idea is to be able to quickly create a 3D image as a concept development tool.

David Levy is one great Speed Painter. His portfolio is pretty awesome. My last two renders, Cloud Carrier and Entrance to Syntron were created using very fast techniques, fully composed and rendered in only a few hours.

A key component in Speed Renders is the appearance of very small details, which fool the eye into thinking there is more there than appears. Transparency helps. I used GridModeler to create most all the transparent maps for these scenes.

Levy has a great render called "Gallactic Worm" which is wonderful. IMO, it's a prime candidate for a 3D Speed Render, so I knocked out a Vue7 version of it last evening to learn more about what it takes to do a Speed Render. It's shown below. Please know mine is not original material, but a copy done in 3D-- all the composition, lighting and concept credit is Davids. I just tried to see if I could copy it and come close to a 'speed' feel. Not sure I succeeded.

Some notes: All background terrains are very small 128x128 resolution. The water and roads are alpha planes with quick scribbles for the features, floating slightly above the ground plane, and with cast shadows turned off. This uses a standard atmosphere (more control over color) and GI. There's a large mountain off screen to the left to cast the foreground shadow.

I'm not too happy with the foreground building complex, so I know I need more work there. But overall, for a quickie, it's a start.