Ok, here is the statement, based on a reflexion on this thread http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=19778&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30 :

We've all tried to make really good rendering of wonderful architecture (or anything else), but sadly the success is not always easy to gain...
We've all think that one rendering application should be the one we were waiting for, but the first tries does not at all give the shiny picture we were waiting for...

So, why not showing it here, with a little explanation, about the effect wanted, and the unwanted result...
It can be a good exercise, and quite funny if we take a step back on our productions !
I does not intended it to be a junkyard or an execution chamber for bad pictures, but just a slighty different approach of the subject !

I'm looking in my files to find this kind of little hidden treasures...

Just give it some though...

And coasterdude184, why don't you post some of the thing you don't like, so people can talk about it...
I mean, why not creating a topic "the render I've failed to achived"...
Seriously, you can get feedback and understand better how things works, instead of just saying that nothing's good... Plus it will be an original place...

Well done Eulgrand, the scene is missing some materials to me, but the glass is just what it should be. The bump effect create a perfect bad quality glass effect, and the caustics works well.
I've also give it a try on my scene with Kerky, but with a biased solution and the result was not convincing, so good that you gave your settings, It helps !

Trillium, if you take a closer look to the post, it was not done with Atl, but with indigo, an unbiased render.
Artlantis does not take the glass thickness in consideration, but you can play with the index of refraction of the shader itself, and change is nature (airs, glass, plastic...). That should affect the resulting shadows...

Oli, The Studio edition include animation tools that the render does not have, that's the only difference... so if you just want to make pictures you don't need the studio.

Adam, here is a try for you (the other one can also enjoy, of course!). It took about 1 minute with a 10x resolution, and the result is a simple screen grab without postprocess (appart from the watermark...) so, it's fully real time, as you like to precise (and you're right to do so!)... You can check the raw sketchup on the post above to see the lightup efficiency on that scene (the 'caustics' are a bit weak, but the overall sensation is really close to a real render)

Ok, now let's try to improve the effect...

I modified the glass panel, applying a single texture to each element, making it able to be taken into consideration by other render engine.

I'done two test in Indigo, and here are the raw images, whithout any post process. I took about 20 minutes on an octocore to get that result (resol 1822x1031 originally).

First : same configuration of element than before...the caustics look a bit the same than in Artlantis.

Second : I've increase radically the thickness of the glass (around 10cm on this one). The resulting lighting is interesting to observe...The caustics are far more effective, and some glass element are no longer transparent due to the too important thickness.

Now I've to figure out why indigo just show the color and not the texture of my glass panels...

-- Dylan, the ceiling and wall are simple CGtextures images, apply has a texture, with a bump. Here is the pure skp image, so you can see how it looks without effects

Thanks you all for all your positive comments, It's really good to share with a community!

So, about the render, here is the trick:
-The glass is made of one high resol pict of a Stained glass.
-The structure have been redraw over it to have a solid element casting shadows.
-Vray does not cast automatically good caustics, or colored shadows linked to the color of the texture...
-On the other hand Artlantis does, so I've switch to it, and after a bit of photoshop adjustment it gives this. (actually Artlantis 2 present some graphic bugs with complexe interactions, like a smooth "caustic" shadows on a reflective surface with bump for instance... so photoshop is necessary in that case)

And, Oli, yes, it's really easy to get a grip on it. If you want to take a look, I've made a first tutorial of the basis here : http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19361

My technic does not work for unbiased renderer (at least not with indigo ) and I will have to separate and texturize each peace of glass if I want to get something out of it...

Stained glass, that's a great challenge idea !

I've begin with a simple model, a kind of middle age room, with a simple window.

The first render is a a quick try with Vray and a simple area light. The glass looks good to me, but there's no interesting shadowing or caustics...

... So I switch to Artlantis, and the result is more convincing :

And a black and white version, just for fun...

It's not, at this point, a physic simulation of the light behaviour, but just a visual research...So I will give it a try with indigo and see what I can get...

Jorgensen, the best way should be to do several scene close to the beginning and the end of your animation, and then play with the scene transition time script, to make it as smooth as you want.

http://morisdov.googlepages.com/scenes_transition_times.rb

Mr Planet, The project is interesting, but, if I may, there are some elements that can be improved (like the cheminey not touching the ground, or some textures that you can place more accurately, and the resolution of the ground texture is a bit weak too).

But the overall mood of the place is really cool, so here is a try.. I've just changed the grass and the tree to poly ones, because handeling the clipmaps is never has easy as it seems in a 3D rendering apps (I don't know why...), appart from lightup in fact, which is clever enough to recognize an alpha...anyway :

Prisoner, of course it's possible to increase the size of the windows, but actually I've never seen it goes over a 800x800. I'm working with a 24 inches screen, so I will be really happy to make 1920 pix screenshots, but Atl always stopped at 800... if you enter 2000x2000 in the preference, the max size of the preview will be 800x800 and if you put a 2000x1000 you will have a 800x400, No matter if you say 'display / enlarge' or 'fit to window' several times...
But if you have a screenshot of yours I'm interested to see it, and maybe find out the hidden trick !

Roger, if you're missing some blood spot, cracked skulls and distant pain screaming, just let me handle a more 'Conan the barbarian' scene and I'll see what I can do for you !

Then, Prisoner, Artlantis is able to create a quite good DOF, but (as far as I know...)not a motion blur (or at least not on a fixed image ). Here it's all about post processing (and it is so everywhere...start Photoshop, sorry...). There's a directional blur on the shells, a Photo filter on the global image, a glow on the flame, a vignetting and a motion blur on the whole image...

By the way it's interesting to precise that the second picture is done on the basis of a screenshot of the Artlantis preview. It's not a real render... so it took about 10 sec of calculation (before the post process in photoshop of course). The only issue is the quality of the AA and the limited size of the preview (800x800).

An other call of sketchy screenshot... !

Good job =Physicsguy=, the model is really clean (Appart for the concrete ground coplanar with the other one, creating trouble for the rendering, but it's not a big issue...).
Here is a quick Artlantis and Photoshop render (I've just changed the trees and grass to polygonal ones, because handeling the alpha is always a trouble in Atl...)

Hey kwistenbiebel, here is a rapid tutorial to explain a bit better how I've done that thing. It's directly the sketchup model (kind of safe paced tutorial..).
Besides, I'm not found of video tutorials, where there is, for me, too much loosing time between each action... I mean, do we really have to follow constently the mouse to understand an action ...?
I'm for good 'old school' slideshows, which also helps reducing the world bandwidth consumption (some are fighting to save snow bears, why not fighting for bandwith after all...)

Sketchup model tutorial

Also, by making the explanation, I've though of an other method, using more or less only sketchy FFD and bend... maybe someone could give it a try to see where it goes!

... and by the way, I really like your Hypershot render princedragoncok,the DOF and the material quality are perfect (even if the white elements are a bit to "plastic" regarding to the real model)

Thanks Boofredlay ! And sorry Coen... don't let the chalenge upseting you !

By the way, maybe a short explanation of the method could be good(about 99% ruby...)

• Top and bottom parts are done with a f-spline around a circle + a follow me and keep.

-Lateral elements are far more tricky, because there's a double curving in their drawing (in elevation).
So, in 2D : bezier curve + 7 time scale + adjustment to make it clean. Then extrude line + Joint push pull + bend.
This gives us a quarter of the complete shape so, 2 time symmetry, a quick Artlantis rendering and it's done!

Hey Crazy Eyes, you DroidDeka model is really good, keep on !
I also had a try, with Artlantis and a bit of photoshop...

ps : actually the arms of the droid are the canons. The two elements on the head are sensors or something like that... I think Star Wars fanatics will mind if we don't render properly their universe!

A challenge... really good idea, but I end up spending two hour of work trying to figure out how to make that stuff look real, thanks for that !

...is this an omen?... Hmmm not, or at least I don't mean to !

The first picture of this serie was something like ' fallen eams'...
but it did not occupied the space enough efficiently, so I switch to a more iconic (and quite bigger!)object.

...At the beginning it was a simple light / texture test in Vray, but then I needed a central object to fill the space... The 3D warehouse provide me the lady, randomly...making her fit in the space may have harm her a bit, I'm afraid...

Ceiling detail... because it always have to be a bit architectural...