Thea Render

dylan · 29 Jan 2011, 15:02

I was wondering what users of Thea render thought about it.
I am wondering wether or not to purchase it, but am slightly worried my lack of rendering skills will mean it is way too complicated for me. Is it mainly designed for the already proficient renderers, such as people who use and are familiar with such programs as Maxwell, Vray and Kerkythea? I use Twilight and I like it a lot, but have considered trying Thea to see where it can take me.
I'm not the sort of person that wants to spend forever tweaking every setting to achieve a good render. I want to work hard, but enjoy myself at the same time!
Is it suitable for a person with more medium level rendering skills and is it an enjoyable program to use?
The fact I can use it as a Mac user really appeals to me.
Any thoughts on Thea?

Pixero · 29 Jan 2011, 15:55

I've worked with a lot of renderers and while Theas material system is a little different than the rest I believe it is not harder to learn than other renderers. Theas road map with GPU based rendering looks great also, plus buying now will give you 45% off and version 1.0 is apparently around the corner so don't miss out if you plan on buying.

Rich O Brien · 29 Jan 2011, 16:28

Dylan,

You won't be disappointed. It does have a very deep UI but it's extremely kind to novice users out of the box.

I've zero rendering know how but this grabbed me initially and never let go. I'm still exploring with it but never is it painful.

I know you use TwiLight, which rocks, but Thea is a natural progression. Although I still use twilight for ease of use. Then I can export to XML and play in Thea. The perfect partnership if you ask me.

Money well spent

boofredlay · 29 Jan 2011, 16:29

Dylan I gotta tell you I love Thea. I still consider myself a rendering noob as well. I still use Twilight quite regularly because it works right inside SU and that appeals to me greatly. However when I started playing around with Thea I found I liked it equally well. It was awkward at first but I got used to it quickly. However keep on it; just playing with it once in a while will get you frustrated.

The relight function in Thea is killer, the materiel editor is awesome, the interactive rendering is worth it alone and the Thea community is top notch, like SketchUcation. If you do get it, read the manual then start reading the help sections on the forum. And as always ask tons of questions.

I don't think it is just for the already proficient and the fact that you know Twilight helps you greatly. I have not used any other rendering packages, just Twilight and Thea and I find it easier to use every day. And it is fun finding that setting you never knew about that makes it pop.

Hope that helps.

Gaieus · 29 Jan 2011, 16:43

I sed to (and sometimes still use) Kerkythea and indeed, at the beginning it was very disappointingly complex and difficult to understand. Later it became better but indeed for me, as an also rendering noob (which I will always be), Twilight was a real refreshment (once Fletch even said to a post of mine that I can no longer say I am a newbie).

Anyway, when I first started with Thea, it also seemed very complex but somehow I got used to it much easier already (maybe the years of experience and that I already know what a bumpmap is etc.)

@unknownuser said:

I know you use TwiLight, which rocks, but Thea is a natural progression. Although I still use twilight for ease of use. Then I can export to XML and play in Thea. The perfect partnership if you ask me.

And yes. Tomasz' exporter has a lot of advantages (and will have even more in the future) but until you get completely comfortable with Thea, this is a very neat trick. Twilight has a very good preset system and materials tweaked with it can more or less perfectly make their way to Thea with the Twilight > XML (to Kerkythea) exporter.

dylan · 29 Jan 2011, 17:38

Are there a decent amount of materials available for it like with Kerkythea, or does it use the same ones?

Rich O Brien · 29 Jan 2011, 17:43

There are good supplied materials. But on their forums you'll get tonnes. One particular has shared over a hundred. You definitely won't be short of materials

Anyway, making new ones is a breeze, nearly addictive

dylan · 29 Jan 2011, 18:06

If you purchase the licence, does it allow you to install it on more than one machine?
I really would want to have it on my iMac and Macbook.

Gaieus · 29 Jan 2011, 18:27

AFAIK you can install it on 2 computers but can only use it on one at a time.
Now the beta license comes with two additional nodes for network rendering as well.

Rich O Brien · 29 Jan 2011, 18:30

I couldn't find that info anywhere? I've 3 node licences but nothing on how many install on my Thea Studio licence?

All I need now is 3 more PCs to put the nodes on.

Gaieus · 29 Jan 2011, 18:42

Yeah, (maybe) three nodes. However it seems that the main app can be installed on 3 machines:
http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/buy.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1&category_id=1

Pixero · 29 Jan 2011, 18:44

@gaieus said:

AFAIK you can install it on 2 computers but can only use it on one at a time.
Now the beta license comes with two additional nodes for network rendering as well.

Actually it's even better. It's three installs on different computers but not used at the same time.

Chris Fullmer · 31 Jan 2011, 04:13

I've got Thea and I love it. I don't do tons of renders, but I hasve spent a lot of time playing with it and learning it. I like how it works. And do read the manual. There is also a video about the material menu that is a must view.

The rendering results are very impressive that is for sure.

olishea · 31 Jan 2011, 22:19

get it....the transition is simple dylan. A day or so and you'll be fine. Just look at the video tutorials etc.

its very fast and easy to use. interactive render makes placing sun and positioning IBL very easy.

you'll love the camera and PP settings like vignette and glare etc...

EscapeArtist · 31 Jan 2011, 22:52

I've used most of the render engines available to SU, from Indogo to Twilight. While many provide great out of the box renders I personally find that once you need to do something a little more complex they tend to fall short (not always true), but with Thea you can really create some great renders and textures. Don't forget all of the extras you get or that will be added on like GPU rendering, a forum full of great free materials and the interactive render feature. Sure, there's a learning curve, I still get stumped with the texturing options, but there will be good guts out when it comes out of beta. The discount is a sweet deal at this time, plus the included nodes and I sprung for SU and Blender exporters - so that covers pretty much any possible modeling and animation need. I'd recommend Thea anytime, especially at this price. Oh, and I'm just a hobbyist, just around intermediate skill at best.

dale · 11 Feb 2011, 20:25

Be sure to let Tomasz know in the Thea SketchUp section on the Thea forum. He is very good at responding.
Your going to love this engine.
Cheers

olishea · 11 Feb 2011, 21:28

shame. The SU exporter didnt work properly for mac a few months back.....it was quickly resolved and works perfectly now....it takes seconds to export a huge model. i'm surprised you have any problems. Thea is absolutely fantastic, its got more than everything you need and the speed is staggering.

olishea · 12 Feb 2011, 15:31

have you emailed the support guys? so let me get it straight...its just your SU exporter that doesn't work? have you tried exporting a simple SU model first?

solo · 12 Feb 2011, 15:45

Bruce, which exporter are you using?

I am under the impression that all issues are fixed, I too had problems but the last two versions have solved all my issues. (win 7 64, IE9, SU8)

notareal · 12 Feb 2011, 17:37

@unknownuser said:

The bad news is the exporter which I was kinda looking forward to...duh..doesn't work on my box
so for now the in-SU material set-up is not going to happen.
I am watching the Thea forum for fixes or suggestions although so far the best advise is to rebuild or repair win7, +IE...etc. My microsoft tools as well as the arsenal of on-line microsoft troubleshooters are all telling me that IE9 and Win7 are working perfectly and that is evident in all other apps that I run.

There been some rare UI corruptions on SU2Thea (one was possible result of a virus), that for my knowledge have not been able to recreate by dev. I think Tomasz will need some detailed info of your system, perhaps even IE registry export. You really have to contact with him.

Perhaps you could create another user account and try if SU2Thea will work fine with it. Then some user profile related issues (or IE settings) can be eliminated.