I can also recommend 3D Coat
The latest version 3.2 :
http://www.3d-coat.com/3d-coat-32/

Hi Pilou,

I don't know about the learning curve, I have the feeling blender looks complicated for someone used to an other software.
Maybe if you start 'from scratch' in, it's not that painfull ... maybe :)

Well 3D coat is cool for scuplting and uv'ing ... but it's not a render engine right ?

I did a video tutorial on using Blender and Luxrender for MOI models. I hope that it breaks down some of the stereotypes of Blender.

http://www.vimeo.com/4810249

Of course I love working in Octane, but there are some things that you must do currently to get the best out of MOI3D models as PAQ stated. We're working on resolving the issues.

Hi Pilou,

> Well 3D coat is cool for scuplting and uv'ing ... but it's not a render engine right ?

Please take a look ;-)

That's what I said, it's not a render engine :P

Can you have custom light ? (planar, point, sphere, linear)
Surface description ? (glass, metal, SSS, emitter)
Do you have any GI solution ?
Can you do caustics ? Render hair of fur ?

I's not because there is a render button that you can actually say that 3DCoat is render engine.

Give to MoI a quick shadow pass and you have probably something similar.

>I can also recommend 3D Coat
>The latest version 3.2 :
>http://www.3d-coat.com/3d-coat-32/

Stay fair, Pilou...

http://www.3d-coat.com/gallery/

Super cool gallery, but probably 1% or the images are actually 'rendered' inside 3Dcoat ...

If you visit MoI gallery, you'll also see nice rendering ... doesn't mean you can actually rendering anything in MoI right ?

I don't get the point sorry ...

Carrara is cheap or free depending on the version, Daz gave away 6.2 Pro some time ago. It produces good results and I've used it for over half of everything I've done with MOI.

Hi Phil:

I wanted to thank to you for your video.
For me it has been one of the most useful tutorials about the way to export to Blender and the first steps into Luxrender.
I am doing a personal project in MoI and I am rendering it in "LuxBlender". I hope to show it soon.

Thank you again!

> Super cool gallery, but probably 1% or the images are actually 'rendered' inside 3Dcoat ...

> If you visit MoI gallery, you'll also see nice rendering ... doesn't mean you can actually rendering anything in MoI right ?

> I don't get the point sorry ...


3D Coat Render ... it is not my favorite, but there is a Render, right?

Carrara (http://www.daz3d.com/) or 3D-Paintbrush (http://www.3dpaintbrush.com/) are probably a good place to start looking, they're inexpensive and kind of more aimed at someone who may not have a whole lot of prior 3D experience.

But as you can see from the discussion, there are a lot of different types of rendering programs available.

- Michael

Hi Ralf-S,

[ 3D Coat Render ... it is not my favorite, but there is a Render, right? ]

Not really, I would say a fast preview mode using some opengl/directX trick to compute a draft ambiant occlusion, with some dof effect option ... at best.
It has nothing to do with any average render engine, supposed to handle any kind of lighting situation or material/surface simulation.

I see in the doc you can do a turn table animation ... but ... I don't think you can consider 3Dcoat as a animation software too ?

3Dcoat has a lot of features, but introduce this software as a render package solution is a bit funny O) ... (I'll even finally consider Octane 100 times more appropriate then)

... or just like BurrMan said, just tweak some surfaces and lighting option in MoI, hit PrintScreen ...

Hi PaQ,

The question came from a beginner, right?
And I have posted a recommendation for a beginner with additional useful tools to a very good price.

3D Coat:
- Voxel sculpting http://www.3d-coat.com/voxel-sculpting/
- Retopology http://www.3d-coat.com/retopology/
- UV-mapping http://www.3d-coat.com/uv-mapping/
- Texture painting http://www.3d-coat.com/texture-painting/
- Render room was essentially improved - realtime render on the fly while tweaking render params + multiple colored light sources
- Support of multiple UV-sets
- Three types of displaying a mesh: no checker, simple checker, complex checker.
- ABF++ UV Unwrapping
- ...

Hi PaQ,

http://www.pi-vr.de

...one of our apps. in daily use... :)

Guys, please let's not turn this into a flame war about different renderers...

Certainly there are a lot of choices for the original poster to check out.

- Michael

Here's some extra looks at the MoI's lighting system for doing clay rendering:
















I think I got the Z Brush look! :o

Is that your head Burr? Why so angry? ;)

- Michael

Thees gyi weel paump yu aup!!! Very funny michael. Actually it's a solidworks model thats downloadable. A guy in another forum was asking me how to work it and I remembered I had it laying around. I thought it was good for the Z-brush thing....

Anybody that wants that model, I think it's in those "3dcontentcentral" download sites....

Anyway, I think MoI's lighting and shading is very cool and cant wait for that "little extra control" you add to it in future versions. I know you added a few different lights, I'll probably ask about how to move/set/adjust those in a script after you get settled from your release.

Ralf-S wrote:

"http://www.pi-vr.de

...one of our apps. in daily use... :)"


Wow, the price is extrem, I suppose so not the typical MoI user budget. ;)

It's a pity that the gallery show not the GI lighting without reflections at all surfaces. Also no diffuse interior lighting.

Doe's the benchmark mean 3min until 15min for a VR that can be turned in realtime?

-Micha

Hello there,

These discussion confuse me a lot.

Again I have nothing against 3Dcoat, really, but I still don't understand how this software is supposed to be the next step to render MoI models.
Basically it's a paint/uv/voxel modeling package, with some smally options to do a quick shot from a model ... It's not specially targeted to beginners either,
except maybe for the price ...

The scuplture image looks nice for sure, that's exactly the kind of job you can probably expect from the 'render part'. The spaceship looks like any 3D viewport from a 3d package.
I don't get the golf interrior shot, or the message behind it ... looks cool ... can you render that in 3Dcoat :P ?

.... I give up :)