Practical Photorealistic Rendering Advice?

[gagartist]

Okay, so I've been using SketchUp for about 5 years, but only to create wireframes that I use in creating traditional watercolors and sketches. So, I'm probably 15 years behind when it comes to creating photorealistic images and am really overwhelmed at the available options out there that will render my SketchUp models. My typical clients are new home builders who of course want the best quality they can get, but really need fast turn arounds. I need something that is good at rendering lots of wood, stucco, roof tile and is quick. Oh, and is very good with landscape materials. Good, fast, cheap, easy to use. Not asking too much, am I!
So, hopefully some of you veterans out there might have a practical suggestion of what to choose. Thanks in advance!!!

[Vicspa]

The only way to decide as to what will satisfy your render needs is to download and try as many as you can before buying, and there are some good ones that are FREE, and work just as well.

[solo]

Food for thought...

• There is no one renderer that can do it all.
• All good renders are born from great models
• The software you use is 50% your abilities the other 50%
• Fast, cheap and quality cannot all exist at same time...pick two.
• Time spent reading and learning tutorials can be deducted from learning curve.
• The best render app for you is the one you enjoy using, not neccesarily the one with the most features.

[McGyver]

There is Kerkthea:
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=4&limitstart=0
Which I like because if is Free, easy to use and looks pretty darn good.
I've also been looking at Shaderlight for SU...
http://www.artvps.com/content/shaderlight/sketchup/what-is-shaderlight
That looks pretty cool and it has a free version(low res).

[brodie]

If you're just starting out with rendering I'd suggest Podium. It's bar none the easiest rendering software out there. Down the road as you get more comfortable with rendering and start to run into Podium's limitations, you'll be better equipped to choose the right program for you.

-Brodie

[minguinhirigue]

For your concern, I would say the same than McGyver, Kerkythea is the most complete opensource (and free of course) renderer I know with sketchup easy export :

• Support multithreading and network rendering
• Supported Rendering Techniques
  • Classic Ray Tracing (fast but not so nice)
  • Path Tracing (medium)
  • Bidirectional Path Tracing (A bit longer but quite nice))
  • Metropolis Light Transport on top of Path & Bidirectional Path Tracing (A bit longer tahn Path tracing but really nice render for exterior render)
  • Photon Mapping (mesh maps, photon maps, final gathering, irradiance caching, caustics, ... perfect but quite long to achieve what you want)
  • Diffuse Interreflection (never used )
  • Depth Rendering (For some post-processing effect)
  • Mask Rendering (IDEM)
  • Clay Rendering (Quite powerfull with some post-processing texturing sofware (Photoshop, Piraneisi or Gimp)
• Good tutorials and collection of materials

The only other opensource renderers I am thinking of are :

• Yafray
• Luxrender
  But they is not good SU exporters for those one. You have to go through Obj or Collada export...

As speeking of cheap shareware, You could take a look to :

• Twilight, which a good and fast integration of Kerkythea in sketchup UI
• Poduim, which is eaven simple than Twilight and can give some amazing reasult
• And some other fully integrated sketchup rendrer.

Do not exclude either professional soft like :

• Vray, which have fast processing renderer, many user, tutorials and material a really good result for architectural rendering.
• Artlantis, which is, as far as I know, the renderer whith the better compatibility with advanced rendering options of sketchup (fog, section planes, view, ratio, animations, etc...)

So, have a look and test some of them... but never forget that good modelisation and good use of 2D post-processing could give a really big difference to your pictures.

[gagartist]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I appreciate it very much. I guess that I'll start trying all your suggestions this week. Yeah, I'd like to have that magic bullet that will do it all, but didn't expect that! Good and fast probably has the priority as I'm not afraid to spread the cost of the renderer out over time. Thanks again!

Gary

[honoluludesktop]

If it doesn't look good in Sketchup, photoreal rendering will not fix it. Photoreal is not real, it is "realistic like a photo". I use it primarily to add shine, reflection, and texture to the image of a scene. In my case, ninety nine out of a hundred renders are the result of post processing that come with real time adjustment of dynamic range, gamma, and contrast. It cuts down the time required to get a desirable photoreal render by 50 to 90 percent.