Rendering and Exporters
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Hi all,
I'm a newbie with a couple of weeks under my belt. I tried to learn SU two years ago but gave up in frustration. This time, thanks to all the great tutorials out there, things are going mostly ok.I realize now that learning SU is a lot like learning a musical instrument, it don't matter how good you get, there's always more to learn.Plus there are many different styles out there. Anyhow, after completing some models I was disappointed in the results I was getting when I printed them out. Thanks to this forum I've learned how to export a larger size file and get much crisper images. From reading all this I realize that there are rendering programs and also exporters. But I havn't been able to get a simple explanation as to what these two things are and what what exactly the relationship is between the two. Doesn't SU do both of those? I kind of get it, the way a kid who overhears the adults gets it,just a little fuzzy on the details
I am using SU mainly for cabinet and furniture design. At this point I'm concentrating on good working drawings with dimensions and cutlists. As I improve I'll start pushing the image issue, with hopefully better looking renditions for presentations. Any advice I can get is mucho welcome. -
In a way SU does both export and render geometry, but its rendering capabilities are quite limited. For example it can only have one light source, the sun. And it cant handle complex materials like reflective materials, or scattering materials (such as milk, skin, wax etc.)
To get around this numerous 3rd party apps have been developed that can make much more complex renders (complex materials, multiple light sources etc.) In some cases they work within sketchup (Lightup, twilight and podium) and so dont need an exporter, but in most cases you must first export the geometry of your model to the external rendering program before you can start getting pretty pics out of it.
Some times SUs native exporters are fine for this purpose. For instance I believe Vue renderer can use .obj files, so you could simply export your model as normal and not have to worry abut any exporters. In other cases the rendering program requires the model to be in a specific format. This is where exporters come in, as they'll put your model in that specific format which can then be read by the rendering engine and subsequently turned in to lots of pretty pictures.
On top of that many exporters also let you do lots of other things to your SU model, such as set up your materials ready for the renderer or add light sources. This can be very helpful as it quickens the process of getting a render out significantly.
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You can see a full list of Render applications with links to their home pages...
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Rendering is the process of taking that SketchUp model and making it look prettier. When done well, a render aspires to photorealism. I recommend watching the extras in Pixar's "The Incredibles" DVD for an amazing explanation of this.
There's a wide variety of render plug-ins for SketchUp (which work within SketchUp) and external renderers, which, as Remus explained, need an exporter.
I'll give you an arbitrary list of the ones that I have tried myself.
Those that work inside SketchUp:
V-ray is the favorite tool of some SketchUp users. Everyone seems to agree that among rendering plug-ins it has the very best balance of speed/quality. However, if you use lots of cutout vegetation, you'll spend a bunch of time loading alpha maps:
http://vray.us/vray_for_sketchup.shtml
The commercial version is $720 and the educational one is $220. Here's the demo:
http://www.vray.com/free_vray_demo/Podium is also popular among SketchUp users, and it's $179 for the professional license and $79 for a student license:
http://www.suplugins.com/index.php?p=home
It has an evaluation version with a limit of 500x500 pixels:
http://www.suplugins.com/index.php?p=page&page_id=DownloadIDX Renditioner is another easy to use render plug-in. It's $199:
http://www.idx-design.com/IDX/IDXRenditioner/tabid/709/Default.aspx
But I know they have a $99 offer now, you just have to look for it. (Or ask).
It has a free version that renders at 640x480, called IDX Renditioner Express Free:
http://www.idx-design.com/IDX/IDXRenditioner/FreeVersionofIDXRenditionerExpress/tabid/1011/Default.aspxRenderPlus are the makers of two render plug-ins for SketchUp with different prices and features. One is nxtRender, $79, and the other is IRender nxt, $399, which, as far as I know, is the only render plug-in capable of rendering section cuts:
http://www.renderplus.com/htm/purchase.htm
You can download the demos here:
http://www.renderplus.com/htm/download.htmTwilight Render is the newest among internal render plug-ins and was launched in August. It has a watermarked demo version that renders at 800x600. The full, unlimited version is $99 for professionals, and there's a discounted price for students. Its material editor integrates nicely with SketchUp materials, and incorporates the concept of material "Templates". It can also export models to Kerkythea Rendering System for further manipulation.
http://www.twilightrender.com/
You can download the demo here:
http://www.twilightrender.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=65LightUp is in a category of its own. Instead of aiming at photorealism, it aims at speed, and when in the right hands, can produce wonderful videos. It uses technology very similar to that of videogames to produce real-time rendering. If your thing is video walk-throughs more than still images, you might want to check it out. It's $149 and has a 30-day trial version:
http://www.light-up.co.uk/Now, the ones that work outside of SketchUp:
Indigo Render, has an exporter for SketchUp called Skindigo. When you hit the "render" button, a command line window and a render window are automatically opened outside of SketchUp and the render starts. It has a free version that you can use for non-commercial purposes, limited to 0.7 megapixels (For example, 1000x700) and which includes a watermark in all your images. The full version is around $430 at today's exchange rate.
http://www.indigorenderer.comKerkythea Rendering System uses an exporter called SU2KT, but you can also use the full version of Twilight as an exporter. The last version of SU2KT I used gave you the option to open Kerkythea after export. The interface features a studio environment that allows you to create far more than you can from within SketchUp, especially when it comes to smooth camera Fly-throughs and placing big amounts of high-poly vegetation. It's free (as in free beer) and uses the same internal render engine as both Podium and Twilight, the Kerkythea Echo 2008 engine.
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/I have tried to keep this list objective, but of course everyone has favorites, and this influences how you write.
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Now I'll try another classification by render methods. I'll include some I have never tried, but a lot of people here use them:
Photon Mapping has the advantage of being generally speedy for interior renders, as it uses a two-pass technique: It first shoot "photons" from light sources and in a second pass they gather light from the photon map for every pixel in your rendered image. Render programs that I know for certain to have this render method available are:
- V-ray for SketchUp
- Kerkythea Echo 2008 engine:
++- Kerkythea Rendering System
++- Podium
++- Twilight Render
Unbiased methods do not take the two-pass approach, but instead they fastidiously calculate everything, without approximations. The images they produce are "cooked" progressively. They start out grainy and become clearer over time. The end result is usually stunning, a thing of beauty. Render programs that I know to have unbiased methods available for your use are:
- Fryrender
- Maxwell
- Luxrender
- Indigo
- Kerkythea Echo 2008 engine:
++- Kerkythea Rendering System
++- Podium (I believe the "noisy settings" preset uses Path Tracing, please check)
++- Twilight Render
Among these, some can leverage the SketchUp concept of component instances, and thus are able to render scenes with lots of repeated elements, like tree foliage. Some even allow the use of dummy "proxies" in the SketchUp viewport, which get replaced by the high-poly objects at render time. The ones I know that have this feature are:
- Fryrender (has proxies)
- Maxwell (has proxies)
- Indigo (has proxies)
- Kerkythea Echo 2008 engine:
++- Kerkythea Rendering System (has proxies and an "instancing brush")
++- Twilight Render (No native system of proxies yet, but compensates with layer manipulation)
Now, as I said before, LightUp is in its own category. Instead of using Photon Mapping or any unbiased approach, it uses Ambient Occlusion, again a technique popular in video games, and fast.
A really cool feature of some render programs is the ability to keep the information from each light source in separate layers, which can be mixed after rendering, thus giving you infinite variations. I believe Indigo and Maxwell have this capability.
Lastly, if you're a fan of SketchyPhysics, the ones that can render those animations are Twilight Render (both with photon mapping and unbiased methods) and Indigo render (unbiased methods).
There are a lot more features, perks, etc., to look for in a render program, so I'll let the experts step in and explain those to you. As I said, I do have my favorites, and their names must be pretty obvious to you by now, so please don't take these two humble posts of mine as a guide but rather as a personal opinion.
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Thanx guys ! Ahhh, so nice to have that itch scratched
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For cabinet design and furniture design, another feature to look for is the ability to render edge lines.
Often, because edge lines are turned on by default in SketchUp, modelers tend to use edge lines to provide detail which is lost in rendering add-on which cannot process edge lines.
(Cabinet rendered with edge lines)
(Cabinet rendered without edge lines)
Al Hart
IRender nXt from Render Plus
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