Hi guys
I’m ema
I’m new to 3D World learning and try to find the best software to work with
I have one question, can I make transculent orbs and glasses in Rhino?
Hi @Ema_the_Princess
Welcome 
What the end result will look like, has to do with what rendering engine/renderer you end up using. Most 3D modelers has some sort of renderer build-in (including Rhino), some are made as plugins, so that it works from inside your 3D modeler (and many available for Rhino) and some are stand-alone software the will import your 3D files from whatever modeling software you use.
Rhino’s build-in renderer is based on the Cycles render, originally a part of Blender (which is an open-source piece of software for modeling, animation and rendering). Cycles does a lot of things really well, and other things not so well. It all depends on your requirements! Here’s a quick rendering of some objects with various degrees and types of translucency rendered with Cycles (from front to back: glass, frosted glass and subsurface scattering (SSS) type material (milky plastic, translucent stones etc.)).
As for rendering plugins for Rhino, there are quite a few to choose from. V-ray is probably the biggest in terms of users, but alternatives include Bella Render, Thea and more. Here’s an earlier discussion on what render engine people around here use..
Keyshot, which is 3rd on the list in the above discussion, is one of the stand-alone renderers, meaning that you export your geometry and do your renderings in a completely different program.
Prices vary from not-too-bad to OMG-that’s-insane, but a general rule of thumb is that the more expensive render engines will get you a better (or at least more physically correct!) end result (when you learn how to use the software, as the learning curve can be quite steep!), but the ease of use also differ greatly from package to package. The best thing you can do, is to download trial versions of the ones that are in your price range (or stick with Cycles, which is included with Rhino) and test them out.
If you need more info, the best thing you can do is to post some reference images of what you are trying to achieve, as “translucent orbs and glasses” is quite an open statement, that could be interpreted in a gazzilion ways
HTH, Jakob
1 Like
short answer, yes.
welcome to the Rhino fam!