Hi Michael, that's great, it looks like it is working well for you.

I haven't had a chance to use Kerkythea myself, how does it work after you import your model data? I mean does it have a full UI for assigning materials and textures to things?

- Michael

Use Indigo.

http://www.indigorenderer.com

I export my MoI (.obj, ngons, medium complexity) into Blender, then use Blendigo to assign materials.

Using an unbiased MLT renderer like Indigo (or Maxwell, or Fryrender, etc) means no wierd lighting set up or modes or anything - just set up some light boxes and a backdrop, just like a real studio set up, and then render. I'm surprised Jewelers are screwing around with material settings and stuff for their renders.. - pick a .nk file (or .ior, in maxwell's case) as the material, and you get perfect gold, copper, aluminum, etc.

-

Example image:
http://zsouthboy.com//displayimage.php?pos=-176

If you guys want a step by step tutorial, I'll write something up for this forum.

Hey here is another option.

This is NOT a free rendering app solution, but what about getting your hands on an older version of an app. I have attached two renderings of my model (100% MOI) rendered in Carrara. I have version version 5 but the easy to use "scene wizard" has been around since version 3 I believe. These images were done with the stock scenes and I only tweaked the lights little. The image with the large tiles is the stock texture for that scene.

- Easy= comes with great preset scenes for raytrace, GI, AO, etc.
- Easy= the default controls are basic. You do have the option to have deeper mixing controls.
- Easy= Just export ".obj" from MOI.
- Fast= I looked at indigo and read about rendering times of 2hrs and more. my test images here took about a minute or less.
- Cheap= I had bought carrara v3 from Purplus.com for $30 a while back. I'm sure you can find the deals online.


Anyway, just a thought.


Dooki

Thanks Michael G.

It's UI is very easy to use. When I open a my models exported from Moi I reset the view to show everything that was exported. All objects are assigned individual I.D.'s i.e. object1 etc. You can adjust the view screen from wireframe (default) to shaded to pick up all the detail (visually) on your objects. You can click on an individual object and it highlights/selects it in the "tree" so you know exactly which object you are going to assign material to or make changes to.

Kerkythea 2007 system comes with a default materials library, but if you go to the web site there are many very useful material libtaries that have been created by some incredible individuals.

I still have a lot to learn about MoI and Kerkythea, but they definately have earned there places in my design arsenal!

Thanks agaim Michael G. for the wonderful tool that is MoI3D!!

Why dont support these renders the 3DMfiles directly?

To fully support a 3DM then you have to support a NURBS object. most rendering engines don't render the NURBS object anyway, they only render the attached render mesh. So probably the engine's authors only prefer to support mesh objects. the exception of course is Renderman which can render the Nurbs model directly (and other Renderman engines such as AIR which does have a free 3DM link). But AIR costs about $500 so i guess it's off-topic in a "free renderer" discussion...

jonah