Commands

Two of these commands are RhinoArtisan’s own — they solve the two things you always have to do before rendering a piece of jewellery. The rest are Rhino’s rendering commands, gathered into the ribbon so you do not have to hunt for them: panels, lights, texture mapping, colour synchronization and the advanced display effects.

They are shared ground: whatever you set here — materials, lights, environment, mapping — is used by Render Studio and by Realtime Render alike.

Positioning the piece

• Lying on the groundDrops the piece into a natural resting position, calculating the inclination that balances it on the ground. A ring standing perfectly upright always reads as fake, no matter how good the render is.
• PairBuilds a pair from a single model — earrings, matching bands — with control over mirroring, distance and the angle between them.

Panels

The panels where the scene is actually set up.

• MaterialsColour, finish, transparency, texture and bump for every material in the model.
• EnvironmentBackground colour, image and projection — the light the piece reflects.
• LightsEvery light in the scene in one list, with its own toolbar to add and edit them.
• TexturesThe textures used by materials and environments.
• GroundAn infinite ground plane at a chosen elevation, far faster to render than a surface.
• LibraryMaterials, textures and environments saved to disk, shared between models.

Lights

Creating and aiming the lights themselves.

• Point LightLight from a single point in every direction.
• Directional LightParallel rays from one direction, like the sun.
• Linear LightA tube of light, for long soft highlights along a band.
• Rectangular int LightA rectangular area light — the softbox of the studio.
• Light PropertiesIntensity, colour, shadows and the rest of a light's settings.
• Edit Light by Highlight LocationMove the light by pointing at where you want the highlight to land.
• Edit Light by LookingAim the light from the light's own point of view.
• Set Spotlight to ViewPut the spotlight where the camera is.
• Set View to SpotlightPut the camera where the spotlight is.

Textures

Texture mapping: how an image lands on a surface.

• Planar MappingProject the texture flat onto the surface.
• Box MappingProject from the six faces of a box around the object.
• Spherical MappingWrap the texture around a sphere enclosing the object.
• Cylindrical MappingWrap it around a cylinder — the projection a band asks for.
• UV MappingMap along the surface's own parameters.
• Unwrap TextureFlatten the object so a texture can be painted onto it.
• Show MappingDisplay the mapping widget so you can see what you are adjusting.
• Hide MappingHide the mapping widgets again.
• Edit Mapping CoordinatesEdit the object's mapping coordinates directly.
• Apply Custom Texture MappingUse another object as the mapping cage.
• Extract Custom MappingRecover that mapping object as geometry.
• Match Texture MappingCopy one object's mapping onto others.
• Remove Mapping ChannelDelete a mapping channel from an object.
• Pack TexturesStore the texture files inside the 3dm, so the model travels complete.
• Unpack TexturesExtract them back out to disk.
• Refresh All TexturesReload the image files from disk.

Sync

Keeping display colours and render materials telling the same story.

• Set Render ColorAssign a render colour to the selected objects.
• Synchronize Render ColorMake each object's material colour match its display colour, creating the material if there is none.
• Set Material Source LayerTake the material from the object's layer instead of the object.
• Match Identical MaterialAlign objects onto the same material.
• Merge IdenticalFind materials with identical settings, keep one and delete the rest, reassigning as it goes.

Advanced

Effects the display pipeline adds at render time, without changing the geometry.

• Curve PipingRender a curve as a solid pipe: wires, threads, milgrain paths.
• DisplacementPush the surface in and out from a texture, for real relief instead of a bump.
• SofteningRound off sharp edges at render time.
• ShutliningCut a groove along a curve on the surface.
• ThicknessGive an open surface a rendered wall thickness.