Audi r8

fabiorossi · 4 Jan 2012, 14:48

@unknownuser said:

Yes I know the potential of cycles which is essentially a rendering in real time

Not exactly. Developers of cycles are sitting on a goldmine software. Cycles is a real time preview renderer but it's also a physically correct engine (essential for animation). On extreme settings is not fast either. But can handle cuda (GPU) and is fast enough. Much faster than kerky based solutions.
Blender internal isn't fast at all, neither supports GI. Not good for archi vis, maybe some exteriors and still not great.

BTW shinny materials in cycles are superior. The best around.

I fully agree with you, however, perhaps because cycles is still in alpha release, I haven't seen impressive archiviz examples around the net.Do you know some goods examples to show me?

michaliszissiou · 4 Jan 2012, 17:51

Something like this?
http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=159702&d=1320515852
It was some fast render, just experimental.
I can't search for what you're asking now, there lot of fine examples. Not possible for blender internal engine anyway.
Neither your car image is archivis scene so, here's mine, using cycles.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24090090/Vol3Nep.jpg

But my question is this.
Do we have a decent way to export SU projects to blender? With textures or without them.
I know much about it but 'decent' means something else

fabiorossi · 4 Jan 2012, 19:06

@michaliszissiou said:

Something like this?
http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=159702&d=1320515852
It was some fast render, just experimental.
I can't search for what you're asking now, there lot of fine examples. Not possible for blender internal engine anyway.
Neither your car image is archivis scene so, here's mine, using cycles.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24090090/Vol3Nep.jpg

But my question is this.
Do we have a decent way to export SU projects to blender? With textures or without them.
I know much about it but 'decent' means something else

the sense of this post is not to wish to demonstrate that the internal blender render engine is better than cycles ;on the contrary, just because I know the enormous potential of the cycles I wanted to test the good old internal engine blender for fun.
with regard to decent export from SketchUp,I have always exported obj format model textured without problems

michaliszissiou · 4 Jan 2012, 19:36

Exporting using what?

you own the pro version
you use the free ruby obj exporter.
a third party on line method.

In any case vertices aren't welded. You can't apply smoothing.

fabiorossi · 4 Jan 2012, 21:00

@michaliszissiou said:

Exporting using what?

you own the pro version

you use the free ruby obj exporter.

a third party on line method.

In any case vertices aren't welded. You can't apply smoothing.

I use free ruby obj exporter and I can smooth the geometry!......sometimes I get the impression that we are talking about different software....

michaliszissiou · 4 Jan 2012, 21:11

In blender/edit mode/select all[A]/[W] menu/remove doubles. How many removed? this welds these vertices.
No, we're not talking about different software. The whole community noticed this. SU exports non welder vertices.

fabiorossi · 5 Jan 2012, 13:43

scottpara,
thanks for the advice and compliments for the works, but there is a fundamental difference between showcases and cycles: you buy the first but the second .....................is freeeeeeeeeeeee!!

ScottPara · 5 Jan 2012, 13:51

Understood although free does not always equate to best. I was just trying to show a low cost ($995) solution for great quality rendering with a built in real time solution that works.

fabiorossi · 5 Jan 2012, 14:07

@unknownuser said:

Understood although free does not always equate to best. I was just trying to show a low cost ($995) solution for great quality rendering with a built in real time solution that works.

Scott believe me, no one doubts about the ability to Showcase but if you take a look around the net to looking for cycles tutorials you will be amazed!

ScottPara · 5 Jan 2012, 14:39

Does cycles offer a real time solution?

Things I REALLY like about showcase:
Alternatives (huge feature)
Behaviors (accepts rigging from Maya)
Real time rendering (done right).

fabiorossi · 5 Jan 2012, 14:49

just yesterday I discovered this feature of cycles ......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Wm4r_FsrU&feature=player_embedded

michaliszissiou · 5 Jan 2012, 18:16

Cycles is a modern render engine, a 2011 development. It still is alpha. Not all futures there, but I love it already.
You have to wait a few more months, yes development of blender is fast.
This last video doesn't show much. Yes, coordinates/windows projection, this probably goes for reflections.
You have to see and understand the superb nodes system to understand.
Here's a link to a small tut of me, in sculptris forum but shows what window projection means for textures. Nothing fancy but bumps are superb in cycles. We're going for micro displacements BTW, soon.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?143454-My-beta-testing-doodles&p=917407&viewfull=1#post917407

sepo · 6 Jan 2012, 14:01

@unknownuser said:

Does cycles offer a real time solution?

Things I REALLY like about showcase:
Alternatives (huge feature)
Behaviors (accepts rigging from Maya)
Real time rendering (done right).

Scott... Did you use Showcase or Showcase pro?

ScottPara · 8 Jan 2012, 02:30

Showcase pro. Most users will never need pro IMO. It is not a perfect render engine but for a super small learning curve compared to results it is great. I rarely use anything else for product rendering. Once you start using things like alternative and behaviors you will realize the power of the software.

sepo · 8 Jan 2012, 18:18

Is it possible to render the quality of that Mercedes render with Showcase (non pro)

ScottPara · 9 Jan 2012, 00:23

Absolutely. Really not that big of a difference with Pro. As far as the render engine there is NO difference.

sepo · 9 Jan 2012, 21:41

OK I am intrigued... I did try it last year and it looked really bad... So you are saying it is much better now. Do you have some very simple file willing to share which is already setup and looks good to render?

ScottPara · 10 Jan 2012, 12:17

Sepo,

The differences between last year and this year are somewhat minimal. Mostly in file organization but very little in the render engine. I could have rendered the same results for the Mercedes with 2011 as I did with 2012. Showcase does take some getting used to in how the materials are set up and how the environment affects them. I do not have any files that I can share at the moment, most of what I have done is owned by a customer and in turn I can not share it. Showcase comes with 3 decent sample files that show the basic abilities of showcase. As with any software, it is going to take some investment in learning the process. If you need help or have questions send me a message as I would be more than happy to help. Once you get your feet wet with Showcase I think you will like it.

Scott

sepo · 10 Jan 2012, 16:12

Thanks anyway. I will download it when I have some spare time.

ScottPara · 23 Jan 2012, 15:31

fabiorossi,

If you have not looked into Autodesk Showcase I would give it a try. It is really pretty straight forward. It will import FBX and dwg as well as many other engineering based formats. I have attached some of my more recent work using showcase. The Ram interiors and SLS have no post work done. The SRT8 Jeep has very little. These were not modeled in Sketchup (used Modo for most of it) although I wanted to show the capabilities of Showcase.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=6848305&siteID=123112

Scott