Pete,

Can you give a little more insight as to the modeling and texturing of the Coke bottle? Is the liquid inside the bottle textured on an inner surface layer. I can almost perceive the meniscus on the top of the liquid....is this something you modeled in there? I'm assuming SDS for the bulk of the modeling for the coke bottle....how did you achieve the beautiful ridges in the bottle?

Amazing render and great display of what Vue can achieve, besides simply landscapes.

Awesome models. You have a real style going for yourself. Keep it up!

Nomer,

I love it. Good work. You achieved a very nice, almost non-photo real look. I especially love the first one.

Thanks Stu,

If it were up to me, I would've liked to do a full planting layout to soften it up as well. Travertine pavers have started to become a big seller in my area. When I get a chance, I'll take some overhead pics of the travertine, make it seamless and share it here. Here's a few other travertine textures I made from two previous jobs - http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=13561

Here's a few travertine paver textures I made from taking photos of jobs I've done. Thought they could be useful to those who do exterior work and would like something a little more interesting to use for paving.

This is a 6x6 & 6x9 paver in, what is known as, an "I" pattern.

These are pavers in a French Pattern, consisting 4 sizes- 8x8", 8x16", 16x16" & 16x24"

Here's one that is just a desaturated and more tan version of the one above.

Here's a project I finished building a few weeks ago. I designed the patio in sketchup and did the rendering Vue 6 Xstream. C&C welcome.

And a few photos of the actual project. Materials are two blends of Travertine Pavers and tile with a cast stone veneer. We used sandstone for the capping on the walls and planters, as well as for the firepit.

Here you go Ray. Nice model.

Thanks! I was just in the middle of downloading the beta. Can't wait to give it a go. I'm using a quad, so the multi thread should be a big improvement. The clipmap thing is a huge improvement too, IMO. I use a lot of imagecel stuff as well and trying to keep track of clipmaps is a pain. That's actually what I love most about Vue. It automatically clips out imported face me plants.

I wanted to ask you too, how do you make the boxwood hedgerows like that? Is it textured geometry? I'd love to see a SU output.

Besides functionality, it will always come down to taste and personal style. I don't think it's a horrible idea to have a simple scene rendered by different renderers and juxtaposing them so that someone a little undecided on what renderer fits their taste, could better discern where to spend their money. (Or if free is the better route)

Coming from someone who's tried most GSU compatible render engines, Vue 6 is my favorite, with Vray and Kerky coming in 2nd and 3rd.

Awesome Stu! I've always admired your work. You have a real sense of balance in your designs. The boxwoods add so much to the overall flow. Great job.

I think the lights look great. Are they an HDR material? Just turn up the strength on the environment HDRI by a point or two and you should get a little more exterior light coming into the room. Also, if these are just screen shots, make sure you have "Detailed indirect illumination" checked.

Can you post a few "daytime" shots?

Pete,

I'm using DE 5.04 and tried your method of converting a .skp to .3ds. When I import into Vue, I get an error stating that the .3ds format is obsolete and that the materials may not be correctly converted. When I choose to import anyway, I indeed get some weird UV screw up that jumbles up my textures. Any clue why this is? Would an upgrade to 5.5 solve this issue? Also, is the .3ds convert/import preferable in your opinion to the .obj export from sketchup that Chipp Walters recommends? I'm excited for your Sketchup to Vue tutorial, as I think Vue fits my line of work (landscape designer) better than any other renderer out there.

As a heads up, the Material Studio that you guys are referring to does NOT convert 3DS Max materials to be compatible with Vray for Sketchup. It is for making your own materials as Scott said. ASGvis has put out a Material Converter for this purpose, but this requires you to have a copy of Max on your computer as the conversion is done inside of 3DS. Still with this method, you would only be able to convert those materials that do not have attributes that are not supported in sketchup, i.e. fur, toon, etc. The material converter is here - http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=0&func=search ...and here's a thread with a discussion about how to use the converter and issues users are having, as well as a bunch of successfully converted material. - http://asgvis.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=90&topic=3190.0

Great tool Tomasz. Works like a charm. Just wanted to say thanks!

Pete,

Was this the model you rendered with Podium a while back as a night scene? I remember seeing the fountain with a blue light.

Very Cool render Ibon! How did you achieve that great water texture?

That's amazing work! Looks like you spent quite a long time on getting it perfect and it shows. A+++

@plot-paris said:

nice image Adam.
the motion blur of the background makes the image more dramatic, as if taken out of an action film sequence (allthough it makes me feel slightly weary )

great copper-like coloures on the Droideca. is it the reflection of the HDRI map or did you actually use a reddish metal?

For the reddish metal I used an alien texture from 3D Total Textures vol. 7 and added some reflectivity and a spec map of some scratches. I did the laser glow with photoshop and the alien skin 'corona' plugin. Glad you like it.

Awesome chairs! I could sit, scratch my back and play a few chords all at the same time!!

@unknownuser said:

Looks great. Looks like a cookie jar but for dog treats. Can you lift off it's head and fill it with milk bone dog treats?

That's funny....yet cruel all at the same time. That would be like putting snacks for my kids into a headless human jar...