Hello Joe,

Thank you for the kind words. The piece looks great and even better when countersunk into the post. I always enjoy seeing digital ideas converted into tangible products. Thanks again for the opportunity.

Hi, I would be happy to assist. Feel free to message me. Thank you.

V-Ray version 3.6002 for Windows is available for download from the Chaos Group download portal.

Just a thought but maybe Flowify...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNMhUly6Ojc

@jql said:

Painter is used to directly paint materials (colors, height, roughness, normal, etc...) into a correctly UV unwrap mesh. You can also use ready made materials, with special effects that are affected by the shape of your mesh. You can also import textures and paint your mesh and there are other more advanced options. It's incredibly powerful at that but it really requires a UV unwrapped mesh without it it won't work.

Designer is a material creation sofware that is also capable of texture your model. You can create materials procedurally or based on images, you can combine materials and texture your model. You can also apply effects that react to your model's geometry but you cannot handpaint your model.

The materials used in painter are created with designer, but designer allows you to create materials for any software that uses bitmap textures for materials.

Bitmap to Material is a very very "simplified version of Designer" where you can create materials from base textures for any render engine or software.

Without knowing what you do, Rich cannot recommend any of the above. I would recommend designer for people that use sketchup and render software for stuff like architecture where you need to create materials even if you will eventually texture some of it using UV unwrap meshes.

I would recommend painter for people that use sketchup for isolated objects as it's more likely that they are able to UV unwrap them. If you know that your texture process will eventually lead you to a UV unwrapped mesh, painter is definetelly worth it as you can see in the raygun above.

I would recommend Bitmap to Material for people that will only search for images and convert them to materials.

Hello JQL,

Thank you for the thorough explanation.

Regards

@rich o brien said:

@andybot said:

That's rendered in Sketchup, Thea? Texturing looks sweet, I gotta try out substance painter.

That direct in the Substance Painter viewport. If you're half thinking of adding SP to your workflow don't waste time procrastinating it. Dive in. Best decision I ever made.

The reason WrapR got kickstarted. SketchUp needed a better way to get UVs.

Hello Rich,

Just a quick FYI...Substance Painter and associated software is on sale. That being said would you recommend just Painter or the entire Substance Pack?

Regards

Hello titusc,

In regards to the link, better sooner than later because theses videos will answer many of your questions.

1. Depending on what you are rendering (scene or product) you would utilize the appropriate type of lighting. For example if you are trying to render just the entertainment center, you may setup a studio type scene just as a photographer would with multiple light sources. In addition by utilizing HDRI you could add some realistic reflections. See the attached example (one with HDRI lighting the other with a basic dome light). I hope this illustrates the importance of proper lighting. There is no single magic solution to rendering, all of the elements working together is what creates a realistic render.

2. No. The type of scene setup for rendering a product.

3. You will always need multiple light sources, just as in real life (see example with HDRI and two rectangle lights).

As I mentioned before I'm not the forum expert and maybe somebody else will chime in with a better explanation. Cheers.

Hello titusc, I'm by no means the expert on these forums but right away I would say your lighting is a problem. It appears as your scene is lit with only the sky. Keep in mind rendering is just like photography, without good lighting you will not have a good image. Search online for studio lighting setup and IBL lighting (HDRI). In addition your materials, surroundings and camera settings will also have a significant impact. Checkout the link below from ChaosGroupTV, it contains a great assortment of videos to walk you through the basics. Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE2F8B612F375E98E

Hello ThomThom,

Thank you for looking at this. I was just converting from metric to standard, but it would be convenient if you could enter the actual model units. Thanks again for a great plugin.

Regards

Hello ThomThom,

See attached model. I have the latest version 0.11.0

UV_Example.skp