Indigo Renderer Forum

I have been trying to learn Indigo from the tutorials that are available on the website itself, but I believe there is a lot to the software than that ? Because I certainly am not able to produce high photographic quality renders from sketchup. Revit Indigo itself doesn't give much editing tools for indigo though , the way sketchup indigo gives us.
I would appreciate if anyone here could help me with learning the software more in detail to get fabulous quality of renders in short time. I have an i5 processor and 8gb of DDR3 Ram +nVidia 9400GT.

I have attached here some of my recent developments on sketchup indigo.
I would appreciate if you could comment and help me improve a great deal then what these are !

Thanks and Cheers
H

Sketchup is a little underrated I think. Its certainly possible to use it combined with indigo and get some stunning results - look at anything Pibuz has created to get a feel for whats possible.

I think the issue here is you're expecting Indigo to magic away any dodgy modelling/texturing which is clearly won't. No matter how clever Indigo is, if you have unrealistic stuff in your model then that will always be noticeable.

As for you images, they're a great start definately, but the model could be improved here and there I think:

1) let them render longer for a start - the grain has a real negative impact on the realism of a scene.

2) Try a few sketchup plugins, for example bevelled edges. Furniture rarely has perfectly sharp corners which will make it look a little unrealistic. Especially if you're going to do massive close up shots of furniture then suddenly you need to start showing a lot more detail.

3) I'm assuming those sofas are from the 3D warehouse. They're ok as placeholders, but they're not modelled well enough if you're going for ultra realism. If that truly is your aim then you can download far better models from elsewhere which will add immeasurably to your scene. Don't forget you can import .3ds model files into sketchup and there is sites out there with some better .3ds model files for free download.

3) Texturing is massively important - again, no matter how clever indigo is, if your textures show obvious tiling, like on your carpet for example, then the final render will always look a little off. So its worth tracking down better quality textures (loads of sites do them for free) and using them rather than any of the stock textures in sketchup.

4) Vegetation - always a tricky one, can be hard to get to look right and again, if its unrealistic thats all that will come across in the final render. Harder to find decent tree/bush/plant stuff for sketchup as it doesn't handle high poly models well. One way is to grab free bushes and trees off the xfrog site and convert for sketchup - another way as I do is to use the branches/basic bush shapes that people have created on the 3D warehouse or xfrog and then using the fur plugin scatter a leaf component around the branches. Can make for some nicer enough trees.

5) Have a play with the lighting and tone mapping and camera settings a little - its very easy on the default settings for renders to look a little flat and bland which again hurts realism.

I'm not claiming to be an authority on indigo in any way, but Sketchup is certainly a very viable solution to creating excellent renders with Indigo - its what I use and I and my clients are always pleased with the results. you just have to see where the issues with sketchup models lie and then learn how to work around them.

Looks to me like you've got the essential idea of rendering with indigo already, as I say those images look fine as a starting point. Really from there its just playing with materials and textures, experimenting with the lighting a little and improving the model in place.

Good luck

Thanks a lot for such a precise professional reply. I would like to clear somethings here.
1. I am not an animator or someone who has free time and fantasize to create realistic renders.
2. I am a student of Architecture. I learn how to design spaces. And as you are in the field already you know what is the role of Renders in Architecture and Interiors.
3. I believe that though 3d modeling is not necessary to get a good design but as a representation tool it is quite a vital element.
4. Frankly speaking , the lack of time made me learn & use just sketchup and Revit ( BIM ). and not max or maya.

So it is just perfect realistic representation in least time that I am searching for. Indigo is a well designed tool , but an unbiased render get on my nerves because it leaves me with dusty image even after a day is invested. I know a rookie like me couldn't get better results , but that is why the forum is . I appreciate your sincere effort in helping me but probably a tutorial on lighting and creating better material would definetly help , besides making the model better. So that I can first do my basics at the best and then again get a help from professionals like you on the forum, or otherwise it won't be a fruitful converstation here ( I hope you got what I want to convey )
And secondly I would appreciate to see your work ( professional and otherwise ) , if you don't mind sharing.

Thanks a lot

hemantchhabra wrote: 1. I am not an animator or someone who has free time and fantasize to create realistic renders.
2. I am a student of Architecture. I learn how to design spaces. And as you are in the field already you know what is the role of Renders in Architecture and Interiors.
3. I believe that though 3d modeling is not necessary to get a good design but as a representation tool it is quite a vital element.
4. Frankly speaking , the lack of time made me learn & use just sketchup and Revit ( BIM ). and not max or maya.

Consider 3d modeling as an exploratory design tool. Before computers, it was designing through drawing and model-making; nowadays, it's designing through modeling and scripting. You have to be careful not to limit your designs with the software you use. If you're not careful, it will be the tool informing the design, not the other way around. Remember that architecture isn't just four walls and a roof.

The crazy thing about 3d modeling these days is that the creation and representation of it are so closely tied together. Take a poke around here: http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/

Absolutely ! But I think I am a live example of , 3d modeling is noway near to judge and discover what a Real design is , Paper and sketching ( 2d ). Beyond a certain acceptable level of 2d it is definetly a recommended tool , but yes , one can never start with a visualization.

hemantchhabra wrote:Absolutely ! But I think I am a live example of , 3d modeling is noway near to judge and discover what a Real design is , Paper and sketching ( 2d ). Beyond a certain acceptable level of 2d it is definetly a recommended tool , but yes , one can never start with a visualization.

Yes, but one can start with a model The design is always ultimately experienced with the senses, so any visualizations, drawings and models are just approximations anyway.

visualizations are near to surreal. 2d is more like near reality with mathematically revealing !

hemantchhabra wrote:visualizations are near to surreal. 2d is more like near reality with mathematically revealing !

Not sure what you mean...

I became a better designer when did it on 2d then when I did it on 3d

hemantchhabra wrote:Thanks a lot for such a precise professional reply. I would like to clear somethings here.
1. I am not an animator or someone who has free time and fantasize to create realistic renders.
2. I am a student of Architecture. I learn how to design spaces. And as you are in the field already you know what is the role of Renders in Architecture and Interiors.
3. I believe that though 3d modeling is not necessary to get a good design but as a representation tool it is quite a vital element.
4. Frankly speaking , the lack of time made me learn & use just sketchup and Revit ( BIM ). and not max or maya.

So it is just perfect realistic representation in least time that I am searching for. Indigo is a well designed tool , but an unbiased render get on my nerves because it leaves me with dusty image even after a day is invested. I know a rookie like me couldn't get better results , but that is why the forum is . I appreciate your sincere effort in helping me but probably a tutorial on lighting and creating better material would definetly help , besides making the model better. So that I can first do my basics at the best and then again get a help from professionals like you on the forum, or otherwise it won't be a fruitful converstation here ( I hope you got what I want to convey )
And secondly I would appreciate to see your work ( professional and otherwise ) , if you don't mind sharing.

Thanks a lot

I'm far from a professional Indigo user - a lot of my stuff looks positively amateurish compared to some of the work you see on here (DCM, Cotty, Pibuz, loads of others whose names I forget).

But for the work I do and the clients I have, what I produce is good enough. Speed is of the essence for me, rendering images isn't my main work (I'm a CAD tech) so any that I do need to be produced quickly and rendered quickly - generally even the biggest projects I ever do I need to be modelled and set up within the day with a render running overnight to be issued the next day.

Naturally this means that uber realism is often out of my grasp, but even a fairly basic user such as me can get some half decent results using sketchup and Indigo fairly simply.

In terms of posting work - sounds like a big excuse I know, but I tend not to post main work here as I don't own the copyright to most of it. I'll have a rummage and see what I can find, but they won't be examples of massive realism I'm afraid!

And I agree about speed of rendering - one of my biggest issues with Indigo (and I presume with any other unbiased renderers) is the length of time it can take to produce a smooth render. But I think thats compensated for by the quality of the results you get with Indigo, plus now theres GPU support etc, and combined with ensuring your models are set up correctly with the correct path tracing method set for the situation then you can get smooth renders within an hour or so sometimes.

so finally ! Anyone here tender to offer help ? Materials lighting and environment ?
Thanks

It's a learning process, hemantchhabra, practice and tips come along

Bosseye wrote:5) Have a play with the lighting and tone mapping and camera settings a little - its very easy on the default settings for renders to look a little flat and bland which again hurts realism.

Start there for instance, say tonemapping for a first step.

Prefer blackbodies for base emission, alterate temperatures. Then explore Indigo's white point for a finer control.

CTZn wrote:It's a learning process, hemantchhabra, practice and tips come along

Bosseye wrote:5) Have a play with the lighting and tone mapping and camera settings a little - its very easy on the default settings for renders to look a little flat and bland which again hurts realism.

Start there for instance, say tonemapping for a first step.

Prefer blackbodies for base emission, alterate temperatures. Then explore Indigo's white point for a finer control.

What is Indigo's white point ?

The Indigo camera white point, situated right below the tonemapping section int he Indigo UI. In SkIndigo it is called white balance.

It indicates the temperature for luminaires that will look white, as opposed to cold or warm tones. With a camera white point set to D55, blackbodies at the temperature of 5500°K will look white, hotter ones will look cooler (blue-ish), colder will look warmer (red-ish).

More natural tints Sounds counter intuitive said like above; just use the camera white balance temperature as a reference for blackbodies temperatures.