I used Viz (Max's little architectural brother) for 2 yrs, and was just about to purchase V-ray because I tired of the plain (flat) old Viz renders. I started using Mental Ray and got good results on exteriors, but was worried about going to interiors when I found Kerkythea. ... after 2 years in VIZ I was considered better than most at my work in VIZ (but it's like giving a haircut to someone one-hair-at-a-time-painful-to-use), I was very ready to find something simple- can't I just get a good render engine for SketchUP w/out the hassle?!

I would say that Kerkythea is not your average 'cheap or free' program. It integrates more easily with SketchUp than Max, and you light it up inside of SketchUp... add materials in SU, etc... but then you have choice of ray tracer (which is VIZ scanline render - but KT renders faster than VIZ in that mode) or you have automatic wonderful preset Radiosity settings (PM+FG in KT-speak), plus you have unbiased methods (MLT+BiPT very similar to Maxwell) and for exteriors I use Progressive Path Tracing (similar to Vray, as I understand) No other program, free or pay can offer you that.

My gallery is here and it has side-by-side comparison with Viz, Viz+M-ray, and Kerkythea.

I'd say if you want something more advanced than Podium, and just about as easy to use, but with as many or few advanced options as anyone could want, then Kerkythea is the way to go. SketchUp is free, Kerkythea is free. AutoCAD-$4000, VIZ-$4000, V-ray $1000. hmmm... I did the math, the work, and compared. I decided.

congrats on the grandfather thing! my fourth child is due in less than a month.

Here's a very nice render of a drumset, didn't know if you saw it, with your photostudio setup, but using the model (I gave the link to in my previous post)

I want the scale tool enhanced so that I can use it like the skew tool in Photoshop. Let's call it non-uniform deformation. The easiest example would be to use the scale tool to quickly make an egg shape. Not a perfect oval shape, but a real egg shape... smaller on top, fatter on the bottom.

I would use it for architectural modeling in many situations... skewing the end of a cabinet to fit in an odd corner... don't know if you get what I mean here... but that's the tool I wish for a lot these days... and I want it integrated with the scale too, not as a new separate tool.

just to tie up the loose end of this thread... SU2KT3.0 is out and beautiful.
you can download it from the site Kerkythea.net.
or just click the Kerkythea banner in my signature to visit us

great work, Tomislav, though I prefer Croatia to remain a secret.
here's a link or two for folks to know a bit more about your city.
http://www.osijek-tvrdja.hr/Fort%20Tvrdja.htm
http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/osijek.html

Did you see this fireplace done in KT?

I can't get the item to show up on my menu, Todd.
I use GSU6free at home... any idea why it won't show?

does it need other rubys to work?
is there another ruby that conflicts with it?
does it go in a folder other than 'plugins'? I tried it in 'tools'... still no dice.

Is there a limit to the number of Ruby scripts one is allowed to have in their Plugins folder with SU6free?

Hi Roger, thanks for your response!

Not to be a pain, but ... Did you try saving-as, then deleting the mechanical object, then go to Model>Statistics>PurgeUnused ? Save as "RogersLovelyPhotographyStudio.skp" From what I can see in the image, this model should be EASILY under 1Mb, then zipped it should be much smaller... so I am surprised at the 5mb... but if it is, please share it as suggested by my friend Mr. Lay above. Thanks.

Here's my clumsy attempt to recreate your studio... it includes my model for d/l

I was refering to the sticky at the top of the forum for "ruby scripts depository"

I love how it says at the top of this forum "Do not discuss scripts in this forum" and everyone proceeds to discuss the scipt... even the mods.

So, I will continue.

Thanks for this script. I did the circle on top, box on the bottom test, and the Line on top, arc on the bottom test. Here's my suggestion. The script should figure out the lowest poly lines chosen and divide them to equal the same number of segments as the highest-poly lines. Then it should stitch them, working it's way along to make triangles between each consecutive nearest segment to one another. But that's just my opinion.

oooo... care to share the skippy?! pretty please?!

Have you tested some of Patricks metals? I like "Reflective Aluminum 2" or something like that... good brushed alum. mat.

Autostich is what I've been looking for... if it's as good as it claims... I'm going to try it now.

Thanks for the tip, Maggy! and, er... don't look now, but I think a cat is sucking your face. 8O

edit
so... I tried Autostich, and I feel like a COMPLETE IDIOT! Thanks "Maggy Van Nistelrooy", you are my new hero. It did just as good of a job in 3 minutes automatically what took me more than 2.5hrs manually in Pshop.

I enjoy watching Madrid very much... VN is really great to watch. Unfortunately for me, I've picked Barcelona as my fav spanish team

hmm... was confused by the panoramic stich comment. I stitch pans in Pshop all day long... no prob... but lately have enjoyed using Hugin(panotools front-end gui) for that... just cant get the auto point sift proggie to work and play nicely w/ it for some reason

to save HDR in JPG, you must convert in Pshop image>mode>8bit
or in 16bit, save as png (bigger image, but more info)

Hi Maggy! Long time no speak! How's our hero Van Nistelrooy doing?
I prefer PshopCS2 very very much to any free HDR workshop... but give it a shot.
I've been using Pshop since like v.1, so it's a bit easier for me.

Hi Robert and all, great that you gave this tutorial Robert, but thought I could save you some time and pain... as KT already contains all 32bits of light info in the rendering if you don't save as a .jpg you won't lose it.

Instead of going thru all that trouble to export 3 different images w/ diff. exposures and merge them inside of Pshop... in KT, when you save the image, choose to save it in HDR format.

Now, to tonemap it, in Pshop go to Image>mode>16bit, this will allow you to now Tone Map your HDR.
%(#FF0000)[EDIT
But there's a better way, and it retains the 32bits of info...

After you open the .hdr file in Photoshop CS+ go to Image>Adjust>Exposure]

see my HDR tonemapped using the Exposure control on the Beach_Probe.hdr here. using my old stand-by the "Beach_Probe.hdr"

This is by far the quickest, most direct, simplest, perfect real-time preview way I've found to tonemap an HDR. I have tried the other programs suggested on this forum, like PictureNAUT, but I like this way far better, as I can see the result in a perfect auto-preview in real time.

There may be better tonemapping proggies out there. My favorite WASPictureNAUT I have beta 2.11.

Also, If you just have a .jpg and didn't save the hdr or the 3 diff. exposure, you can tonemap a .jpg in Pshop CS with Image>Shadow/Highlights and Image>Exposure tools... these are really incredibly done and easy to use tools once you get used to them.

It was back up for a minute, but down now again...
We are trying to get help from the service provider.

we are experiencing some sort of server issue since between 9and10am Milwaukee time... very frustrating, and we hope to be up soon. sorry for inconvenience.

You will also find some video tutorials and other great tuts if you check out the stickies here or also some tuts here.

Hi Danny, simply go to http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla and download the globals I made with HDRIs already loaded. then you don't have to worry about any settings

Hi Danny - great start!

You have 2 out of a possible score of 4. You have a good model, and you've got a great render engine. Now you need to work on lighting and materials. Kim's suggestion to use an HDR is a great suggestion... or you can d/l this perfect light studio all set up for you for lighting an object like this perfectly. Open it in SU, import your model, and place it on the stage, apply a chrome material from the KT's download section metals collection, and render with PM Med+AA or High +AA preset.

Or there's this studio HDRyou can place in KT in the spherical sky slot created by Alex.

keep posting!

3LightStageStudio.zip