Indigo renderer
fantastic rendering engine to drive mainstream software
by Albert Kiefer

Hadn’t it been for my colleagues at VizWorld I would not have heard from this nice little gem of a renderer. But everything that spans all mainstream platforms and plugs into the general 3D software packages has my immediate interest. It is always a good idea to be flexible with the images you can generate and having an alternative renderer, and a great one too, is a good addition to the toolbox of any visualization artist.


image credit Filippo Scarso

What it is
Indigorenderer is a rendering engine. As such it’s always going to be dependent on software that exports files in a format it can read in order to generate an image. Obviously there are already some really great engines out there like VRay (my main workhorse) Brazil, Mental Ray, Maxwell Render and of course one of the mainstay long time studio favorites: Renderman. So why even look at Indigo? Well, for one thing there’s the quality of the images. Looking at the galleries on their website you can get a sense of what this renderer is capable of. But more importantly is what software packages it supports and what platforms. This is obviously a two way benefit since the more software and platforms are supported, the wider the target customer base will be.

Working with Indigo Renderer
I downloaded the software a few days ago and installed it without any problems. There are some test scenes avaialable to get that first ‚accomplisment’ factor going but that was a bit of a let down because most of the files in that folder were technical and esoteric scenes that a layman can’t make any sense of. I’d encourage the New Zealand developers of Indigorenderer to pack some great example files that will immediately show any prospective client what this renderer can do.
Since this is a stand alone rendering engine the next step is to install the plug-in for your particular package. In my case I downloaded and installed the Mac version of plug-ins for Sketchup Pro and for Cinema 4D.
The first thing I noticed is that the Cinema 4D plug-in is not 64bit so I had to start my software in 32bit mode to test it (normally, when I work with very heavy scenes this is obviously an impossible scenario which would prevent me from even using Indigo as a viable production renderer).
The Sketchup Pro installation was as straightforward as the Cinema installation and it was really exciting to see how fast you can get really great images out of Sketchup this way. So right here and now a very powerful forte for Indigo is the connection to Sketchup that enables architects to produce some great imagery without knowing much of the rendering process involved behind the scenes of Indigo.
When I tried to dig deeper I stumbled on things that are obviously still under developed issues of their plug-ins.

Plug-in or Break
Any external renderer is made or broken with the success of integration into their host package. This is no different for Indigo. And it’s here where the company will still need to do serious work. The plug-ins that I have worked with (for C4D and Sketchup) were very basic (with the Sketchup version a little ahead of it’s C4D cousin in terms of features). It’s great to have a powerful renderer at one’s disposal but if all this power is hidden behind a wall of technical knowledge, only very die hard artists will work with it and create winning images. If, on the other hand, the technology is made available in a user friendly way there is a whole host of people that could employ this renderer and make incredibly convincing images direct from the most unexpected packages like Sketchup, which normally doesn’t do more than do a nice flat shaded version of a 3D scene.

One example is the image I saw on the indigo site from an Italian artist that shows how Sketchup can turn into a deadly weapon with Indigorenderer as rendering ammunition. You can see that one in the opening of this review.

It is vital that Indigorenderer becomes more sophisticated in the way it allows users to easily set up materials and lights in their host packages. This will sometimes mean better integration into the host workflow (Cinema 4D, Blender, Max, etc. which already have a very well established material and lighting workflow in place) or create an elegant and easy to use new workflow for packages that have none, or underdeveloped workflows in place (like Sketchup in this case).

Image Quality
The image quality can be quite superb if you let the renderer either work long enough (think in multiple hours here) or make use of the network capabilities of the renderer that allow you to grab processors on your local network. If the renderer is given too little time the images can be on the noisy side. You can also send your project to a renderfarm for the final high res rendering and get it back at a fraction of the cost in time it would take on single or small number of local machines.

What’s Up Doc?
The documentation for both renderer and plug-ins is very sparse. There are some nice Sketchup step by steps wich will get you up and running fast but for serious work and people trying to understand more of what’s going on and how to control the software it’s vital to have a bit more material to document themselves with.

Conclusion
All in all this is a great renderer, especially for users of a package like Sketchup that has a very barebones system in place Indigorenderer will blast yoou to much more succesful presentation quality images. For Indigorenderer to compete with the likes of VRay and Maxwell Render, two of the competing brands it has to put a but more pollish and beef on the plug-ins and documentation, create a better material editor that works together with the host and allows for easier material exchanges (the Cinema 4D mac plug-in crashed several times on importing materials from the web database) and keep development equal on the platforms (Mac 64bit!).

Tags: Software, Rendering, 3D