Thanks, Acadia.
Here are a few tips that can make your "taste tests" go faster.
- For most tests, extreme detail is not needed. For super fast renders, turn off shadows, and set Min Shading Rate = 3, and Pixel Samples = 1. But do enable "Use displacement maps" and "Raytracing". These are free if the material doesn't use those features. But if it does use those features, you'll be glad you didn't forget to turn them on. When you want to study the details, then set Min Shading Rate=.5 and Pixel Samples=3. If you're studying bump maps or tiny displacements, then Min Shading Rate = 3 will fuzz them out, so lower that to 1.
- Render directly from the material room - don't switch back to Pose mode unless you want a big render. I make a lot of small renders while I'm in the material room. I can often do a render in less than 3 seconds, so you can try 10 variations a minute.
- The material room preview is your friend and your enemy. Many times it will let you see coloring effects just fine and rendering won't give you any more information than the preview did. But sometimes (especially with reflections, displacements, transparency, etc.) the preview is not the whole story and you should do a render.
- Make heavy use of the slider at the bottom of the render display. Two renders in a row can be very quickly compared by sliding that little widget back and forth. Your eye will then easily pick out the differences.
- The nodes that have to do with lighting really need a shape in order to understand what's happening. The sphere is the simplest shape to work with. However, sometimes it helps to see the effects on flat surfaces as well as curves. What I suggest is to make your own test prop by combining a few simple primitives. Then you have only one material to set but you can see it on multiple objects.
Here's how to make a nice test prop.
- Clear your scene.
- As I've done in the attached picture, add a hi-res sphere, torus, cylinder, box, and cone.
- Do the menu item File/Export/Wavefront Object
- Select single frame from the dialog that pops up.
- The next window is the hierarchy selection - check the ball, cone, box, torus, and cylinder.
- Save to your desktop with the file name testprop.obj
- Uncheck all the save options in the next dialog.
- Now do File/Import/Wavefront Object.
- Select the testprop.obj you just saved.
- On the Import Options, choose Centered, Place on Floor. Turn off all the other checkboxes.
- The new prop should show up.
- If you're happy with it, delete all the old props, otherwise, delete the new prop, adjust your objects, and repeat the save steps above.
- Now select your testprop and add it to your Props library with the plus-shaped button at the bottom of the library palette. Call it TestProp.
Now you have only one material zone for all five shapes.
Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)
