rhino and sketchup are great for basic designing, but rhino's built in rendering engine sucks. for realistic lighting, get something with ray tracing, like cinema 4d, flamingo (which is actually a rhino plugin) or just type in ray tracing plugin in google. hope that helps

vray plugin for sketchup allows for great quality renders within the geometric easyness that is sketchup. you just need to find 1 or 2 'sweet' settings sets and then your good to go.

Check out the Maxwell Render Plug-in. The results are absolutely stunning. It can be used with Max, Maya, SketchUp, Rhino and I think a couple of other programs.

don't forget fryrender, indigo, brazil & air(renderman)
also for Rhino with photo real results

AIR^

I still think the finalRender plugin for max is the most impressive. Maxwell looks a lot like it.

Sharpie marker, and Microsoft paint....are my favorite tools..

if you want photo-realism, try oil painting.

v-ray?

for fastness

does anyone have any experience with the sketchup plug-ins?
i am thinking of getting something for my home computer to go with sketchup, since its free
i have seen some of the plug-ins for it are pretty reasonably priced, like $180 and a lot less than $400
but i havent used any yet, i need to download some trial versions of them

since its just my personal use, for like competitions and such, i dont want to spend that much money on it if i can help it
plus i cant spend that much money
i have used artlantis at work with sketchup, but want to get something permanent on my computer so i dont have to install and uninstall demos all the time

anyone in a similar situation?

you can't use a lot of plug-ins with the free version. you have to step up to pro ($495)...ouch.

@marmkid. im loving the sketchup plugin, you should give it a go. quick and easy (just got to find one or two uber settings).

not sure about cost though. im a pirate. yaar

sorry forgot to mention, it has a 30 day trial i think

which one do you recommend ulterior?

i would give a few of the trials, see what you thnk. ive only used the sketchup one extensively, so im a little biased.

sorry, i meant which sketchup plug in do you use that you like
i think i am pretty set with trying to stick with sketchup, since i use it at work occasionally and already have it on my computer at home

when i am looking at the plug in sites, it seems there are multiple ones for sketchup
if you (or anyone) has experience with any of them and would recommend any in particular, that would be great

Thanks!

sorry, it was late. what i meant to say was:

im loving the *vray* sketchup plugin.