David,
I'm liking DAZ Studio. I picked up the UI in less than 10 minutes from cold, and rendered the attached in 22seconds. For a quick and dirty rendering not bad.

Phil,
Those lightbulb renders in the post you linked to are absolutely amazing! I can see now the incentive to persevere to learn the process.

@Argo: Podium (you can't find more easy render prog and free 500*500 ;) http://www.suplugins.com/
Absolutly no problem :) here no artistic result just test your file :)
Try with the 3ds file : I suggest to "clean" your model with a plug name "Cleanup" by Thomthom (erase coplaner face ...etc)
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22920&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=cleanup
(this erasing can be also to be made without plug at the Importation file/Options)

Then if you want (like me here:) made a red wall and lighting you must Edit Component then select any faces wanted and move cursors!
Your object here arrives with this stucture Component/Component... So you must Edit Component/Edit Component...
An easy method is select by Menu Windows / Outliner
Of course better is export from Moi in SKP ;)
Shadows asked in Sketchup with no Shadows you will obtain an another nature of render
Render 2 minutes 50 in a very old computer more than 7 years old! :)
Any regulates : biebel_settings.xml presets
Center your objects in the Sketchup Screen because Podium in free don't make any position refine
So any faces can be a light or/and a reflector :) ("box selecting line" means that I am in Edition of a Component)

Thanks Pilou,

I'll run Cleanup on the 3DS import and then try again.

By the way - re: "... Of course better is export from Moi in SKP ;) "
Is MOI .SKP export a V2.0 feature?

< Is MOI .SKP export a V2.0 feature?
yes! SAT, STP, FBX & SKP export exist in the V2 beta ;)

http://www.indigorenderer.com/

DAZ Studio is really nice, especially when you start working with Puppeteer and add on Animate+.

My other recommendation would be Carrara Pro as well.

Ultimately I'm placing my bets on Lightwave CORE, focusing back on Lightwave will allow me to shed Softimage and Cinema 4D - those packages are too expensive to keep up with especially since currently I'm just a hobbyist...

-Will

Argo,
Thanks for posting your DAZ Studio render, I might re-look at this app as sometimes I need something simple and quick. I really like Blender, and Blender with Yaf(a)Ray but I don't always have the time to set up, assign materials, render, tweak - repeat.
- David

Would anyone like me to make a tutorial on using Kerkythea and MOI3D?

David
Your welcome :-) DAZ Studio sits well with the "wiring" of my brain. Other than the "Darthvader" (black) UI it sort of reminds me of the MOI process. Of course that just me and as they say: "results may vary".

George
Downloading IR now. I glanced at this previously and then moved to the other programs for whatever reason. I really need to stop taking a butterfly approach to this! Almost spoilt for choice for renderers (all with their own idiosyncrasies).

Phil

Yes :-)

If you can afford the time of course!

Hi, all

My example:

Modeled in Moi and rendering in Kerkythea
Great kerkythea software

Thanks

Marco (marcorhino)

Nice render there, look great for a rendering engine.

how is the interface?

hi
i think daz3d (intergrated 3delight) is a really nice renderer with some nice plugins (commercial). some tests with vict. 4 - daz aya. I know that would be better results with cinema4d or other applications. But for quick render really nice...











Regards

(quote from Michael, 3 Dec 2009)

********

The new 3D PaintBrush app Ralf mentions above seems pretty good! (http://www.3dpaintbrush.com/)

Introductory price = $99

The UI seems nice and actually easy to use.

It can load a 3DM file directly but it does not seem to do a very good job of producing a mesh directly from the NURBS data, but bringing in OBJ files exported from MoI seems to work well with it. It appears to load in all the vertex normals and material information from OBJ files so that is great.

This may end up being the kind of missing link for an inexpensive but easy to use standalone rendering program.

It may possibly be a little too streamlined though, there does not seem to be very many options exposed for tweaking the rendering like anti-aliasing settings, etc... but it seems like you can get a basic result quite easily. I wish there was an option in it to adjust the view rotation to keep the same "upwards" direction while rotating around though.

I would think this would actually go somewhere near the top of the list to check out for getting stuff done easily.

********

Hm, I've tested this out and it seems ok...

But I can't seemt o get it to render a png with a transparent background...

Anyone know how to do this?

Hi NightCabbage, if nobody here knows the answer you may want to e-mail 3D PaintBrush tech support which seems to be here: support@3dpaintbrush.com

- Michael

Yeah I did that already but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

Just thought someone here might know - given it's a pretty basic feature?

Marco,
How did you get the symbols on the door and on the bumper? I can't figure out how to make that happen in Kerkythea.
Thanks!
Plish

I'm surprised no body has mentioned "Rendergin" : http://www.numenus.de/index_en.html
Its not free however it has some unique features worth paying for : Direct NURBS raytracing and global illumination. This means that you don't have to tessellate your models and therefore their rendered form is not approximated/is perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gGX1GP_d78

It supports MOI's files directly and scene setup is very simple. The only downside I can see so far(keep in mind its still a beta) is slow rendering speed(when soft shadows/reflections are present) and jumpy interface navigation(seems they are down sampling the image too much).

< I'm surprised no body has mentioned "Rendergin"
This was named "Augenblick" before and the creator was in the Moi forum for test his product ;)
http://moi3d.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3298.37

I have tested today RenderGin ;)
Seems loading Nurbs have always some problem, some surfaces are not rendered! ;)
it's twice the same symetric objet, on in grey, one in bicolor!



http://piloumaison.weebly.com/uploads/3/6/2/0/3620514/boule1.3dm