hello all,

i'm a long time poser user who's looking at blender as a rendering solution (as a start).  the interface is definitely intimidating, as is its power, but i'm slowly going through the wiki textbook Noob to Pro.  i've also poked around in forums, tutorials and galleries.  so far, the only two (free) renderers  i've come across that work with blender (besides the built in one) are yafray and indigo. 

the thing is this: i haven't seen much skin or sss at all in any blender, yafray or indigo galleries.  indigo seems especially impressive (if highly resource intensive).  what i have seen of people looks as if the skin was treated like either plastic or a plain matte diffuse material.  i've seen architectual renders, still lives and even abstracts that (of course) completely blow away anything i could render with poser or d|s, but what very, very few human(oid) renders i've found have been less realistic (sometimes obviously purposely so) than what i can do right now.  sinces poser doesn't even have true sss or global illumination, and every skin shader is a fake of varying degrees of complexity, i think i'm not looking in the right places. 

getting to the point (finally), can anyone show me pictures of impressive blender native, yafray, or even indigo images with good skin shaders?  are there any other free renderers that people would recommend?  are there (fingers crossed) any material or lighting tutorials you'd suggest?  right now my sources of information are very thin and broad (blender.org and Noob to Pro mostly), and i'd love to know about  any recommended resources when it comes to rendering poser scenes in blender.

if no one has any recommendations, i'll bungle along with blender and yafray on my own (and maybe one day dare indigo).   i believe in the tools; i'm just trying to find out if there's a clear path before i begin subjecting blender and other software to random, blind and probably misguided trial and error. 

Attached Link: http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-244/subsurface-scattering/

I believe Indigo has had sub surface scattering since .7, but I don't know how good it is or if there are any tutorials for it.

oh, i know blender has sss now.  that's what tipped me over to deciding that it would be the next 3d tool i learned, rather than saving up hundreds or thousands to find something with more lifting power than poser or d|s.   but thanks for the information-  i didn't know it was just this newest version, which explains why i can't find it used much more than in tests (marble, jade, etc.).  i figured it was recent, but not that recent.

ooooo!  beautiful skin!  thanks for the link, that's just what i needed to see.

the sss for i've seen in the indigo site's galleries is beautiful but i think it renders like molasses in a maine february (based on the grainy renders and their times i've seen posted to the forums).

edited to add: now i feel like a doofus for not searching blender.org enough.  it's just all a lot to take in, and i'm kind of overwhelmed by the amount of information and my general lack of knowledge.

Well, part of the problem is that SSS is one of the newest features. However, there was a thread in this forum a few months back showcasing SSS renders.

As for other external renderers, you might want to try Sunflow or Kerkythea.

thanks for the pointers and the links.  do you have any preference yourself?

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1506019

very nice!  thank you for the view.  the model is great, too.

Thx, by the way i also used Blenders internal render.

Attached Link: http://www.netscribes.co.uk/suzanne.zip

Personally I tend to use mainly blender internal and indigo with the blendigo export script...

I hear lot's of good things about kerkythea but have yet to play with it...

wow, thanks so much for the file!  that's above and beyond.   and your workflow is pretty much what i was tentatively setting as a goal.  i figure it will be quite some time before i acheive a working understanding of  lights and materials in either blender or indigo, but it seemed like a good plan.   i have a few questions:

do you find it easier or more efficient to supplement your blendigo exported xml files with hand coding?

does blendigo port blender sss to indigo sss, or does the indigo sss need to be hand coded?

can you do anything else while rendering with indigo, or does it take up all processing power and RAM?

have you ever used indigo to render something at 2000px or larger?  if so, how long did it take?   if not, how long on average do your indigo renders take now?

I use Final Export for Indigo, and yes, I typically modify the .igs files after export. As for the length of the renders, I recommend rendering for at least 2 hours. Let sit overnight for best results.

Final Export.  good to know.  how do you modify .igs files, and is it an intensive process?  i thought i read that indigo had a gui, would that be what you'd use?  sorry for asking so many questions, but i'm really not sure where to begin when i'm just learning about things like GI and biased and unbiased renderers. 

It's really the same process as editing .xml files. You just right-click, select Open With... and choose a text editor like Notepad.

However, I've never heard of a GUI for Indigo; the .pdf pretty much guides the user through the whole process. But if you really want to find out, Google knows.

Quote - wow, thanks so much for the file!  that's above and beyond.   and your workflow is pretty much what i was tentatively setting as a goal.  i figure it will be quite some time before i acheive a working understanding of  lights and materials in either blender or indigo, but it seemed like a good plan.   i have a few questions:

do you find it easier or more efficient to supplement your blendigo exported xml files with hand coding?

does blendigo port blender sss to indigo sss, or does the indigo sss need to be hand coded?

can you do anything else while rendering with indigo, or does it take up all processing power and RAM?

have you ever used indigo to render something at 2000px or larger?  if so, how long did it take?   if not, how long on average do your indigo renders take now?

I rarely change the files that come from Blendigo other then minor tweaks as I like to use the export and instant render., BUT you need to play with blendigo for a while until you understand how the settings relate between blendigo and igs.

The SSS isn't picked by blendigo very weell (yet) so I ahnd change it in blendigo before the export to igs.

If you have a single core machine indigo will use all resource, on a multi-core it won't, but it does use multiple cores - and defaults that way with the latest test release (v9.06). Biggest I have rendered is at 3200x2400 and it was 24 hr render on my old (spare) machine - Athlon xp 2500..

I currently use blendigo 9 .4s and indigo v9.06 with blender 2.44

I have a single-core machine, but i use a special work-around to free up system resources under XP. Open Task Manager and under the Processes tab, find indigo. Now right-click and choose "Set priority level." You can now adjust how the memory and processing power is distributed.