Commands

Three of these commands are RhinoArtisan’s own: two solve the things you always have to do before rendering a piece of jewellery, and one shows the gems with their real brilliance and fire right in the viewport. 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 the natural resting position it takes on a floor.
• PairA pair from one model, like earrings or matching bands, mirrored.

Previewing the gems

• Realistic GemsRay-traced brilliance and fire of the stones in the Rendered viewport.

Panels

The panels where the scene is actually set up.

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

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 ColorMakes each material colour match its display colour.
• Set Material Source LayerTake the material from the object's layer instead of the object.
• Match Identical MaterialAlign objects onto the same material.
• Merge IdenticalKeeps one of each set of identical materials and deletes the rest.

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.
• DisplacementPushes the surface in and out from a texture, real relief.
• SofteningRound off sharp edges at render time.
• ShutliningCut a groove along a curve on the surface.
• ThicknessGive an open surface a rendered wall thickness.