This is tangentially related to MoI itself, in that I am looking for the best (and affordable) rendering and animation application on Mac for rendering scene and object rendering of some of my MoI models.

I really like the idea of Keyshot using the native NURBS for rendering (at least it is my understanding is can directly render NURBS models natively w/o tessellation) as some of my models have long subtly curves in them, and tessellation "faceting" those edges bothers me. But the subscription model Keyshot has, where you are committing to spending $1,200 per year seems a bit insane to me.

I like the robust texture creation in Adobe's Substance suite of applications, though their animation capabilities are basically nil, and their Stager app, while seemingly easy to use, makes me wonder how sophisticated setting up scenes my be, particularly precise placements of components in relation to each other (ala CAD level precision).

Blender of course is an option, it's price is ideal (free) but it doesn't deal in NURBS directly, and has a fairly steep learning curve (my brief puttering around with it on the Mac version a few years ago left me very underwhelmed).

So what options are out there that others use (or have used) on the Mac platform that are high-quality, yet also affordable?

Don't know the subjects of your projects...and the level of animation needing...
In the near past (but i believe that is maybe always existing) a Creator of crazy worlds!
there was the incredible TwinMotion free in 2K ...Movies, Panorama etc... very intuitive the anti Blender! :)
Nurbs conversions is not really a problem export in OBJ + color material or in SKp format (Sketchup) from Moi ?

Yes seems always a free version! ;)
https://www.twinmotion.com/en-US/license

And seems this last version has terrific possibilities of animation!

Have fun ! :)

Well, Simlab Composer could be another option, the basic version is quite capable and free....
just try if it fits your expectations: https://www.simlab-soft.com/3d-products/simlab-composer-main.aspx

best regards
Ken

Simlab Lite version free ...very cool but no animation with it! ;)

I like simlab also.

Note to self, the rendering software that “works on NURBS” i am pretty sure you are just relying on them to tesselate your NURBS model at render. Nothing WRONG with that. In my opinion, MoI’s mesher for poly output is very powerful. I would just stick with sending my polys to other places using MoI’s mesher. I am better served.

related to Blender, in case you may not know

There this also a special fork (Version) of Blender which is a bit behind
the actual Version but offers all Features.

Its call "Bforartist" "Blender for Artist". The goal of this fork is to make
Blender easiere to use. They revampe the UI and the make the tasks more
mouse orientied.

Here the Link to their Website
https://www.bforartists.de/

hi frenchy,

twinmotion looks interesting. i like that you can use it for free, for non commercial use, and that it has the animation type i would want. however, it looks like it has very steep hardware requirements. it doesn't seem like it will run on a low spec laptop apu (cpu with integrated graphics). keyshot will do that. can anyone confirm this? from reading their site, and reviewing their hardware requirements, it looks like at a minimum you would need a gaming laptop but ideally you would need a gaming desktop.

anthony

you have also this free one.. ;) D5 Render...another monster! :)
limitation to 16 k size image! :) Maybe less Objects possibilities animation than TwinMotion...depending of what you want...

https://www.d5render.com/features

I use sometimes UE5, but it,s hard zu start:

this is a example by me with a car made in plasticity

Seems this can be made very easily with TwinMotion! ;)
it has the same heart of UE5 inside! :) (Unreal Engine) but transparent for the user! :)

Hi,

You can also have a look at Light Tracer Render. https://lighttracer.org/
It's quite cheap (6.99 USD / month yearly plan or 99.99 USD perpetual license) and it can import Nurbs data.
It is limited in terms of animation possibilities though.
There is a demo version available

Schbeurd

"you have also this free one.. ;) D5 Render...another monster! :)"

Price is right, but it not on the Mac so it is a non-starter.

So take TwinMotion! ;) (free personal or not if commercial project)

Not yet tested but seems amazing! There is a free version "online"!
You can import your own volumes 3D!
No animation at first view...

in less 3 hours! :)

Sorry guy above shows hundred of cars but not how use the tools!

This is a better one!

So you can even make animation inside Vizcom! :)

A new one! Online! A free version is existing!
accepts 3dm format!

... but queue rendering is some long so better to make a SnapShot of the Sceen's work! :)

I can only recommend Blender.
You can follow tutorials to do what you want and move on, but I recommend learning it.
Its learning curve is not that steep. learning 3D in general is somewhat hard.
If you know 3D, then Blender won't take that much time to learn. If you don't know 3D, then Blender is the best place to start. Otherwise you'll be facing many problems and limitations with any software you use, and I'd argue it'll take you more time to know what you're doing and to learn the basics.
Also, Blender will be the future of 3D. I'd argue that its position is already cemented, but in the future, many horizons will open if you know Blender deeply.