Newbie rendering question

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

Hi all,

I read somewhere that there are many different third-party renderers out there for Blender. But that was an older article. Today, with 2.5.2, what is the situation in the rendering arena? Can Blender do high quality professional rendering on its own? Or are we encouraged to use a third-party one? If so, which one would you recommend?

Any other relevant suggestions/advice about rendering and Blender would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

JDL

2

I’l let you decide for your self:

http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/ < Many in that gallery are done with blender’s internal renderer.

And on the top of this page is a link called “Gallery”. Check that out. If you apply your self to learn blender’s renderer, you can do the same.

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I need to modify my first post with this:
As for rendering internally:
Can Blender do as good a job as its third-party counterparts?

As for rendering externally:
I just had a look at the gallery of YafaRay and found some very impressive renderings there.
So nevermind my previous question.
So third-party renderers do a nice job, no question about it. The question now is:
Which one would you recommend then?
Please consider rating things like ease-of-use, quality level, stability, community support, etc with your reply.

Thanks,

JDL

4
  • I guess we were typing at the same time… -
    Cool! Thank you so much RR, I should’ve thought of doing that myself (rolling eyes).
    I see that the line between what Blender can do and the other rendering engines is not so clear. I suppose I’ll stick with the internal engine for now as I’m just starting with Blender.
    Although I still wouldn’t mind hearing what most people out there are using. Again, if it’s not the internal renderer, then which one do you prefer and why?

JDL

5

I’ve been messing around in Luxrender, and so far it’s been great. I didn’t like Yaf(a)ray. Indigo is rather popular, though I haven’t used it before. Also there is Kerkythea, but I haven’t used that either.

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There are so many threads out there, with your very questions asked and answered. It’s all a matter of personal taste and experimentation, no one can tell you which rendering engine is working well you. You should know what you want and what you’re looking for, see the available choices and then try some of them.
At the moment there are 4 main options, I’d say, besides the internal engine, which are the aforementioned Yafaray, Kerkythea, Luxrender and Indigo. All of them are worth checking them out, I know all of them and they all have their good and their weak sides. To start with, Indigo (fully unbiased) and Yafaray (fully biased) might be good choices if you want to get to know some other rendering engines, with excellent integration into blender. Lux is getting better and better but so far I still prefer Indigo, same goes for Kerky, but the latter one takes an unusual approach to materials and lighting (it provides its own application to set them up).

Of course I’d love to work with Vray someday but in the meantime, these 4 provide plenty of options to experiment with :wink:
And don’t underestimate the internal engine, it does its job and the node-system as well as render passes are extremely useful tools when you’re working with it!

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Wow, i asked this question just two days ago, it seems a lot of people wonder the same thing. I personally use LuxRender. I have a trusted (i guess) source that tells me LuxRender does better than Indigo. Also, the Blender Internal renderer, so i have been told, is an extremely powerful renderer for “unreal” or “cartoony” effects. I would go get either LuxRender or Indigo, and also learn the Blender Internal. These are “unbiased” renderers, and the only thing that tells me, being a new person to this myself, is that you can render with these for however long you want. It will keep going until you tell it to stop.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks a bunch for your replies guys :slight_smile:
This helps.

JDL

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Haha, who is that source :wink:
And in what way does it a better job than Indigo?

Not trying to argue about software here but please stay away from such statements. Both engines are capable but QUITE different. Lux might be better for you, but not for others. There’s no such things as a “best rendering engine”.