here is the blend

Suzanne isn't a single solid mesh. Go into edit mode then select a vertice on the eye ball and you will see that it is its own mesh. The darkness is the result of light passing through the surface twice, doubling the refraction/absorption (I think?). If you want to fix it, delete the outermost edge ...

For the clouds: I'll probably do something like: you can have an arbitrary number of layers, for each layer you can specify * the start altitude * end altitude * a list of Perlin noise (frequency, amplitude) pairs * overall noise bias; controls sparseness of clouds :shock: Wow. very decent looking ...

Yeah, if it were free that would be great. :D Would still like to know what the ratio of operating cost to utilization fee would be. What would be the minimum you could charge and break even? Because essentially(if it is a farm of desktops) you are spending the same operating cost (not including per...

Hmm, what's the electric/ conditioning/ spaceleasing tab on that setup? It's not just a bank of desktops, right?
For professionals this would be a very good service, but for fun, way too expensive.
Perhaps a separate Professional/Commercial Use and Hobbyist/fun rate?
0.75 vs 0.10?

there is such a thing as a ductless stove hood, simply uses a filter and blows the air back into the room
cool render...
for the level of detail you have everywhere else, maybe you should go ahead and just model the joints in the concrete?

know of something better?

I was thinking something more along the lines of a giant hip replacement, but I guess it would work for trying out transparent materials as well.

Here is the file. Sorry it took awhile. House literally falling apart. Enjoy.

Here are two pictures of merlot.
Daylight:

Flash:

a laptop screen really doesn't put out that much light, so in a room lit only by monitor, red wine probably would look very dark?

Actually, I think the technique involved not plywood but thin veneer lumber, this allowed them to bend and glue one layer at a time, making much greater deformation possible. I don't know what the polys look like in blender but I would think you could get somewhere fairly easily by: 1. use Select>Ed...

If you place an Exit Portal some place inside your mesh it should improve render speed for interior renders. This is something I learned today. I odn't really know what it does, but it has to point in the direction that the light enters your scene. So am guessing that would be the normals that poin...

I'm trying to figure out how to balance interior and exterior light and optimize render speed and noise. The first two images are rendered in 0.9t2, and I don't have the settings or lamps from them because I left it running over the weekend and at some point the power went out. :( http://img329.imag...

looks nice I think the eames chair has a deeper curve at the back of the seat and the sides of the back and seat also curve back more dramatically. Impressive deformations they managed to get from single pieces of plywood (or was it solid?) If it's ply, you could map the lamination pattern onto the ...