Question about 3rd party renderers
-
Hi everyone,
Long time since I last posted. Recently did some 3D work and 'rediscovered' SU as a concept dev tool for a super fast turnaround job (SU concepts down below).
I ended up doing the final modeling in MoI and rendering in Keyshot. Still, it got me back to thinking more about using SU as more of a full pipeline tool (sorta like how Pete does).
To that end, I'm doing a bit of research into some of the rendering tools available. I currently own older versions of Thea, Podium, and Shaderlight. I know there are many others available also. I have a few questions which would be most helpful if I could get some of you smart folks to help me with:
[1]How fast do these compare to Keyshot-- or other renderers? Are they even close? (Please no GPU renderers as I don't have the correct vid cards on all my computers).
[2]Do any SU renderers have micro radius settings aka Keyshot? This is a setting which can render a small radius across sharp corners making it look more real even though no radius exists in the geometry. Very helpful for creating realism for products.
[3]Do any of these create an infinite plane which can be camera mapped to the background (again like Keyshot)?This allows for the easy creation of photo composites and product shots like in the FastCo article below.
[4]Are any more or less harder to use or more or less LESS integrated with SU. I'm on Mac and the Keyshot plugin for Mac has been promised as "coming" for the last 3 years. I think I get the message they're not planning on delivering it
Thanks anyone for any help in this!
Here's the 5-day project I put together for an ambulance drone for Fast Company along with a few of the early exploratory 'sketches' done with SU.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3041696/this-drone-ambulance-is-totally-wild-and-totally-inevitable
Concepts for this design were created quickly using SketchUp and some kitbashing from the warehouse.
Advertisement