Rendering Resources

Hi folks.

Im curious if anyone has any rendering learning resources available that are focused on the stock Rhino renderer and/or Neon (and/or any other free options). I am running a pilot project in Rhino for my firm, and while the modeling has been great, I am used to having Vray available to me at my school - they are not committed yet to paying for a dedicated rendering machine, thus I am confined to the free options. Ive been pleasantly surprised to find that Neon can produce decent clay images if I let it run for 10-15 minutes, but I’d like to see if I can push these a bit. Therefore, if anyone is able to point me in the direction of some resources I could use to improve on my own, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
-BC

I’d suggest using the Brazil for Rhino eval in conjunction with Neon. I’ve made several tutorials over the years with this combination and most can be found here… https://vimeo.com/album/1468070

Post here in the forum if you have questions and @BrianJ mention me if you want to make sure I see it.

Thanks Brian. However, Im wondering if there would be a more permanent option, at least for the foreseeable future until the office fully buys into the software - from what I can tell Brazil is only for 15 days, yes? Then it requires buying a license?

Im thinking along the lines of an equivalent to Kerkythea in Sketchup.

The Brazil eval will limit how long you can access all of Brazil’s features when actually clicking Render but since you are using Neon as a conduit for Brazil, it won’t matter that it expires. You’ll still be able to use some of Brazil through Neon because you’re never rendering with Brazil. I know this is a bit confusing but I think it is a long term option for you.

Hi Brian, could you elaborate a little about that?
What type of features will be available with Brazil that are not in the vanilla Rhino+Neon setup?
thanks Willem

I’m also curious about this. What would the advantage be for using the Brazil modeling options without the actual rendering engine? Is it a matter of materials? Something deeper?

As far as I can tell, Neon runs a render in-window, which can be live-updated so long as your computer can keep up with it? I’ve been finding decent results just from saving a NamedView and letting all 256 passes roll through (for simple clay/glass renderings). Ive used a couple Auxpecker materials but haven’t found these to be overly helpful…

@BrianJ Any more info on this? I read the quick brief on the Neon website that mentions features from Brazil 2.0, any elaboration would be appreciated.

I find there are generally three features of Brazil that make it worth while to use Neon with it over Rhino Render.

  • Indirect illumination or GI
  • Glossy Reflection/Refraction as a material property. This is fancy Brazil speak for scuffed up reflections or frosted glass.
  • Depth of field, which is actually way faster through Neon than rendering with Brazil alone.

I’m not sure if the Brazil eval will always work unimpeded with Neon but at the moment it does and I use the combination in my own teaching of college students on a budget.

Hi Brian, thanks for the info it seems worth the while.

-Willem