Photorealistic Jewelry Render

Whats up everyone. Recently I purchased my own .com website and have put my designs on hold to focus on the website. It will be interactive and have some 3d elements on my product page. I just want it to look different then most pages. My question is: since I want to make it interactive wieht 3d elements, I need to be able to render my models and have them look like I took a picture of them. I only use 2 programs, i know those well but I havent really explored realistic rendering of metal. Ive done a lot of research and from what ive read it looks like V-Ray 2.0 and Maxwell Render are 2 great plugins to master. What do you guys think? Those are just plugins, but im not sure what program is best to use those on, I know V-Ray goes well with 3d studio max, but for jewelry? Anyone out there...? Any help will be appreciated... By the way, what I plan on doing is render my items 360 degrees so when you click and drag over the item, it spins around and apply that to all my other producs similar to a carousel style flash gallery like this one but in a more true 3d stye. http://thetoke.com/#/works/drum_channel_metronome Anyways, I cant get to this point if my renderings arent realistic.

Hey Sal.

I'm the CEO of a South African based jewellery company, called ADARA.

Most of the industry here, as well as in the US, design using NURBS modellers like Rhinoceros. The new kid on the block seems to be Gemvision Matrix, which is built on the Rhino engine, but has a whole host of plugins, such as VRAY and T-Splines bundled in. (www.gemvision.com)

The Photo-realistic rendering is really great and it is actually really intuitive. It does cost a little bit though.

VRAY is a great bet though. It is just a challenge to get the textures and lighting right.

Good luck, hope I've been at least a little help.

Regards,

Matt,

i like to use blender and cycles... but i have to admit that there is a little bit of illustrative look to it...

here is my website...

http://victorrings.weebly.com

blender is what i used to render out everything...

i also happen to model everything in blender too...

chris

This picture was made in blender using cycles. And practically same result can be achieved in almost any rendering software... if you know how
I am posting this just for comparison...

Author: Alexander Mitzkus

that looks really good... i would love to pick apart this blend file and see how it works...

lighting and rendering is not my best subjects.

chris

The jewellery on this site http://www.alexandrerosenberg.com/ is created using 3d software and then 3d printed in wax for casting according to this article (in French).

Does blender have a plugin that simulates patina? I know 3ds max had one called dirt, i think, and that simulated a similar effect. Im just got GemVision Matrix and will play around with it tomorrow but I really want something for my mac, only because my mac is a beast. I only use it for graphics, nothing compares to a mac when using it for graphics. Yeah, your render looks real good. I do remember reading a few posts about cycles and its uses with jewelry. I'll see if they have Blender for mac, thanks for your advice.

Check it out, this is what I have in mind for my product viewer. I plan on making it look elegant and creepy at the same time. LOL... Just something different. After I get my renderings to where I need them to be, im definitely using the following...

3d Product Viewer
http://activeden.net/item/360-product-viewer/26071?sso?WT.ac =search_item&WT.seg_1=search_item&WT.z_author=Webmar bles

Ill post my .com website address as soon as I have at least the intro and main page done.

I want a 3d product carousel and after selecting the product, you get to view it larger and in 3d.

Product Carousel
http://thetoke.com/#/works/drum_channel_metronome

I have 3 new designs I will be printing soon, my fingers feel naked. he he he... Thanks a log guys.

One thing with render though is that you have to be *extremely* careful not to suggest a higher quality of your products than what you can actually fulfill. I would strongly recommend taking actual photographs instead of rendering your items, just for this reason.

Bart

You make a good point. Seems like its the better option too. Everything I sell outside of shapeways I patinate and thats another hurdle to overcome when rendering. The 3d product viewer is still a must for my site, Im sure there has to be some sort of 360° photography service. Thats why these forums are great, cuz I tend to do things back asswards.

Hmmmm, just a wild idea here: would you be interested in us offering a 360 degree photography service? What do you think a fair price would be for professional quality product photos?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1 ZUdsXw_N14

Bart

Excellent idea.


That's the 64,000 dollar question (hint: that would be too much!).

Ah crap

Bart

I use KeyShot. Not terribly expensive. Very easy to use, and pretty awesome results. Contact them about a watermark free trial version to give it a good trial run. And even if you don't plan on getting the animation part of the software, it's easy and fun, so play with it too.

Yaah, Keyshot is surprisingly easy to navigate though with very good renders.

Im almost done with my own site. Ive never done a site before, right now i have a countdown page with my logo up and working on the rest for now.
http://www.SGcustomsilver.com

That would be the best idea ever not only for 3D pictures but for regular shoots aswell !

http://www.shoogleit.com/

here try this.

+1 I LOVE this idea!

Re pricing: once you have an automatic kit setup like in your link, the photo processing would be a cinch, base the cost on hourly wage for the time it would take for an employee to setup, shoot, and process the photos plus a percentage to pay off the camera...what would that take? ...an hour per item? ...so $25-50 per item? Depending on the model, I would pay that for professional photos!

Sorry, but no, I don't need anything else to eat into my already low profits. Coming from a photographic background I could see this being a real headache for Shapeways. For one thing the photographer would not be able to spend the time coming up with original shots for the numerous models to shoot, so that leaves a formulaic set-up with all items ending looking the same. Then you'll get the complaints from members "I'm not too happy with that shot; I think the angle sucks and should have been raised up some more...", "...lighting could have been better...", "...don't like those reflections...", etc., etc.

Just stick to making things. If someone wants professional photo's he/she should wait until they have a lot of items to shoot and then hire a pro in their area to spend an hour or so shooting them in one session. It'd work out much cheaper that way.

Yeah, im curious to see what the price range is. I think 40fps would be best for a smoother rotation. Im currently working on my website, I have to learn html5 and css. I gave myself 2 months so I gotta see what direction im going to go with for my products page. Here is a teaser of my website. Click on the image to view the site. I cant wait to put up the intro video... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:



http://www.sgcustomsilver.com