Amateur 3-D graphics (finding a renderer)

[Delvo]

I've done a bit of dabbling in creating 3-d objects and scenes before. I was using Wings 3D to create the shapes and putting them in Vue d'Esprit to render the full scene with backgrounds and virtual camera, materials, textures, and lighting. Wings 3D is free. I downloaded the cheapest possible version of Vue, which I think was lower than normal at the time just because it was version 4 and they were switching to 5 (which is something I can't count on happening again and won't know when it does if it does). I never bought any of the additions for it either. But, due to some past computer problems I won't get into, I don't have Vue anymore.

The cheapest renderers I know of are Vue and Bryce, but even their cheapest versions are expensive enough that I won't pay that much for my rather minimal work with this kind of stuff. At those prices, I'll just get by without making any image I can't make by screengrabbing while Wings is open and then editing the image in regular 2-d image editors. Still, it would be nifty to have at least some kind of a true renderer, at a sane price.

Their most stripped-bare versions start at $100, but already have more features than I've used or expect to use; I never even used most of what Vue 4 was capable of and they're up to 6 now. Is there anything more basic and simple out there for rendering (presumably so underpowered that serious 3d artists wouldn't go near it!) for a fraction of that cost or even zero?

[selden]

Anim8or now includes a ray-trace renderer.

[Nowhere Man]

What about POV-Ray? (http://www.povray.org)

Fred

[GeorgeLeRoyTirebiter]

I'll second POV-Ray, although some people are put off by its text-only interface. Recent versions of Wings 3D allow you to export entire scenes in POV-Ray format, including lights and camera, so it's not the inconvenience it once was.

Another option is DAZ|Studio (http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/?&_m=d), a free competitor to Poser. It's unusual in that it is beginner-level software with a built-in professional renderer, the RenderMan compliant 3Delight (http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php/products/3delight/3delight_overview). However, many of 3Delight's advanced features aren't supported yet.

Yet another free option is Blender (http://www.blender.org). It's quite powerful, having modeling, animating, and rendering tools, but I can't really recommend it. The interface is so spectacularly awful, using it makes me want to punch the programmers responsible for it.

[jt-3d]

Anim8or (http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html) sounds like what your last paragraph described. I used that for years before switching to blender to do exportable animations, which anim8or won't do. However blender is one complicated peice of gear. But it has a lot of support from users. Anyway, I can vouch for both of those. Anim8or is fairly easy to learn but limited. Blender is more powerful but also way more complicated.

If you opt to try blender do check out the tutorials at youtube and especially the excellent ones at Blender Underground (http://blenderunderground.com/).

[BigDon]

Why did I read the title as "finding a reindeer" ? I was expecting graphic art depicting tundra and boreal forests...

[Delvo]

Funny... I tried Blender before but only remember it as a bad modelmaker. I had no idea it was also supposed to be a renderer.

[Veeger]

I do a fair amount of playing with OpenGL, which of course is nothing but a set of calls to an API but remarkably I have zero experience with the kinds of 3D renderers you are talking about. I assume they allow you to create objects and backgrounds, and then render the scenes from different points of view or different lighting effects. Is that about it, or can you create nice animations, and perhaps allow the user to interact with the scene?

[Night G]

Daz|Studio is a viable (& free!) option. You will need some way of creating shading domains and I'm not sure if Wings does that. Daz Hexagon is a pretty good poly modeler that has primitive shading tools that can be tweaked in Daz|Studio.

Also there is a "basic" version of Carrara called Carrara 3D Express and it is $90. You could import your Wings models to 3D Express and texture there.

[Delvo]

I do a fair amount of playing with OpenGL, which of course is nothing but a set of calls to an API but remarkably I have zero experience with the kinds of 3D renderers you are talking about. I assume they allow you to create objects and backgrounds, and then render the scenes from different points of view or different lighting effects. Is that about it, or can you create nice animations, and perhaps allow the user to interact with the scene?With a modelmaker, you can create and edit 3d shapes. With a renderer, you can arrange them together in space and set up other elements of the scene. Apparently, some modelmakers now have some rendering ability, and some renderers can do extremely simple Boolean edits on objects. Objects don't interact with each other or have laws of physics or built-in joints or liquidity to dictate how they can move, like you might have seen in demonstrations of CAD or Hollywood character animation; they can only be put where you put them. The result is normally a still image or a relatively simple animation (just one or a few movements of the camera or other objects). It's one-way; the viewer can not interact with it but just receives the information passively. The output is in normal visual file formats like AVI and JPG. digitalblasphemy.com is an example of the kind of stuff people make with these things, although the purpose can be technical illustration instead of art.

[Veeger]

Thanks for that Delvo. I'm always looking for ways to cut development time for the kinds of applications I play with. These renderers look like awesome tools for realistic art. But no big help for me.

[Fazor]

I'm spoiled, I use 3DStudio and Mental Ray, but both are way out of date seeing as I haven't been in school for 8 years now.

[selden]

Delvo and Veeger,

What kinds of things are you trying to do?

I've been using Anim8or to create models and Celestia to render them in realtime 3D. The most recent version of Celestia (v1.5.1) makes it possible to animate objects and to interact with them in realtime. The code to do the interactions is somewhat clumsy, though.

Two animation examples are in the CelestiaGuru channel on YouTube.

[Veeger]

Delvo and Veeger,

What kinds of things are you trying to do?
...

Two animation examples are in the CelestiaGuru channel on YouTube.

Mainly I play with 3D animation for the pure enjoyment of learning it. Weird, eh? I like to create 3D worlds and walk in them or rudimentary flight simulators. (I'm not opposed to reinventing the wheel for the sake of learning about these things.)

On the practical side, I wrote an application which allows me to display topographical maps and I can dynamically vary the sea level to simulate ice age sea levels or global warming scenarios. This is used by friends of mine who do research in archaeology.

I have several flavors of stellar cartography applications which use OpenGL and I have used OpenGL to create animations for explaining precession and the basics of archaeo-astronomy and celestial mechanics on other boards.

:)

I'll check out the demo videos.

[dcolanduno]

All my experience with 3-D is with Lightwave. Back in the 90's I did some freelance for Foundation Imaging for the TV show Babylon 5. Also did some other stuff for documentaries they aired on the History Channel and such. Lightwave is renown for its render engine, so I never went to get another one.

But, I know people who like the Renderman engine as an add-on. I think it might be part of the line of stuff that the folks from Maya produce.

[GeorgeLeRoyTirebiter]

But, I know people who like the Renderman engine as an add-on. I think it might be part of the line of stuff that the folks from Maya produce.

OK, folks, it's clarification time. First, this is one of my pet peeves, and second, Pixar has an army of attorneys that like to pounce on people who get this wrong.

RenderMan is not a renderer. It's a software interface specification developed by Pixar for modeling and rendering software (it's also a registered trademark of Pixar ;) ).

The first, and most well known, RenderMan compatible renderer is Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan (PRMan). Pixar uses PRMan for all of its movies. It's also used by some other FX houses, such as ILM Digital.

My personal preference in RenderMan-compatible renderers is the aforementioned 3Delight. Its developers are approachable, helpful, and responsive to customer needs. They've been working to make 3Delight faster and less memory intensive than PRMan. It also helps that the first license (fully functional) is free.


For those of you interested in the RenderMan Interface Specification, you can download the current version from Pixar here (https://renderman.pixar.com/products/rispec/rispec_pdf/RISpec3_2.pdf) (688kb PDF).