3-D Rendering Software / Techniques

Christian,

Sketchup is a very good program because it is easy to learn and can be used to create 3D models quickly. However, the end results are usually somewhat unrealistic and sometimes almost cartoonish. Hence the use of Adobe suite with sketchup, but you still often get renderings that look a little mismatched (plants dont quite match the sketchup rendering, etc.). I use sketchup but combined with a render engine called Kerkythea-I create the model in sketchup and export the model into Kerkythea where I apply materials and lights to do the final render. I also add most of my plant material in Kerkythea, which brings me to my next point-one of the toughest parts of landscape rendering is acheiveing realistic plant material. You can get some pretty good shrubs and grasses in sketchup, but only a few look realistic.

The best program I have found for creating plant material is called Greenworks XFrog. Be warned however, this program is very advanced and very tough to learn. You can find free samples of some of their plants online or you can simply buy their premade plant libraries (this is probably your best option). You can then add these very realistic plant materials into Kerkythea.

Now, about some of the benefits of Kerkythea: the program is freeware so it won’t cost your company a thing, and it is a very powerful render engine once you learn to use it. Kerkythea is a ray tracing program which means it is very good at rendering light components and their actions. Also, the online forum on the Kerkythea website is incredibly helpful-I have taught myself Kerkythea, and whenever I had a question or problem the forum is the place to go.

Below are some examples of renderings I’ve done with Sketchup and Kerkythea:

I use Vue Infinite (http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/solutions/?page=6) for rendering. Everything is built in 3d in Autocad and then exported to Vue to add materials and vegetation.

It is much more specialized than 3DS for the type of work that we do and significantly less costly. The downside is software stability and accurately locating 3d models in space.

Ben Yahr

Rhino a better product than Adesk ??

I dont know. Personally, I use vray for Sketchup with linework usually done in cad, but alot of times I do very very little modeling and complete 75% of the drawing in photoshop and other media and keep the modeling and rendering to a minimum with only the highly textured or focus objects like walls and paths, etc..

-n

It sounds like youre getting the jist of it….I havent used Vue or Rhino at all so I cant speak for those. For Vray, I know it has become a very popular product, but whenever I try to use it on more complex models, it freezes up the whole computer-not sure if Im doing something wrong or not. It certainly isnt my computer, it should have more than enough power- 2.83 ghz. Quad core processor, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia 9800m gtx 1GB video card….anyways you get the idea-my computer should have no problem with rendering. For what its worth, I do know many people that use Vray happily.

-Jon

RFox,

I am a Sketchup user who is learning Rhino. Do you know plugin for Rhino that will allow “face me images” like in Sketchup?