Ancient Architecture: Plaosan Complex

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Plaosan Complex (Candi Plaosan) is a 9th-century Buddhist temple complex covering roughly 2,000 square meters. It’s located in Indonesia. The complex contains 300+ structures and is anchored by 2 temples, Plaosan Lor & Plaosan Kidul.

Here are some images:

Plaosan complex

The defining architectural characteristics are the complex stone work and carvings. You also have to appreciate the giant statues and paving.

Here’s a look at some of the carvings and bas relief artwork:
relief at Candi Plaosan

Why Are We Looking At This?

A lot of modern architecture is driven by European ideas and also built with very commercial interests in mind (office buildings, hotels). But history is filled with structures built to celebrate gods, kings, ceremonies and cultures. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of these structures are still standing and admired.

Taking a look at some structures from Asia, the Middle East, South America, and elsewhere gives us a chance to wash away our preconceptions about what architecture can be. Whether you are designing homes or video game dungeons, it’s worth it to have an open mind.

New Case Study: FluidRay RT Accelerates Rendering Quality for Industrial Designers

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We are excited to announce a new case study about the benefits of using FluidRay RT on complex industrial design projects.  The case study discusses increased production time and shorter rendering cycles; just a few of the benefits that industrial designers will gain both with FluidRay RT as a stand alone or with plugins like Rhino, SketchUp or Shade3D.

Diego Pabon, the chief designer behind international industrial design firm, Cientoveinte shared his experience using FluidRay RT to enhance his work and create better quality final products for his clients.

Let us know your thoughts!

Interior Design for Small Spaces

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Many people are avoiding new home purchases or moving to new apartments, and trying to get more out of their current space instead.

I’ve pulled together a few videos that focus on making creative, smart use of small spaces. Take a look at these and you’ll see how much potential even the smallest space can have.

Make sure you watch the first video (the one right below this paragraph). It will help you get into the right mindset for tackling small spaces.

Small Space Decorating Ideas

Small living room interior design ideas

Man turns 500 sq ft into a mansion - room idea video

A lot of older houses have small spaces that are under-utilized: attics, basements, utility closets, etc. that can be turned into vibrant & functional spaces with a little effort.

Small apartments are challenging because you have to fit all the living needs into a limited space. But their are still opportunities to design something cool & livable if you use your imagination.

Checkout our Interior Design playlist on YouTube for more helpful videos.

Time Waits for No Man: Time Lapse Construction Videos

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It’s impressive to watch things get built from the ground up and also inspirational to see just how much can be accomplished when you put your mind to it.

Here are some videos from YouTube of new buildings and homes being constructed. The videos feature some very cool construction projects ranging from dams to igloos.

Take some time to watch the videos and think about how much effort you put into your work.

NewArk Hotel construction timelapse: 15 storeys in 48 hours.

Portable home delivered as furniture, tailored as smartphone

30-Story Building Built In 15 Days (Time Lapse)

Official San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Construction Time-Lapse

Earthbag Timelapse

Time Lapse - Construction of Gigantic Igloo

Official Cotter Dam Time Lapse

Maybe you’ve got a big project coming up. Thinking about creating your own timelapse and share it with us in the FluidRay RT forums.

FluidRay RT 1.1.3 Released

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We just released FluidRay RT 1.1.3. You can get it here.

  • Reduced noise and faster convergence
  • Removed fireflies on Obj Materials
  • Improved interface
  • Faster loading times
  • Progress dialogs when importing texture & environments
  • Improved drag & drop
  • Solved installation problems with integration plugins
  • General speed improvements & bug fixes

FluidRay RT interior rendering of a living room by Roberto Pittaluga
Image Rendered in FluidRay RT by Roberto Pittaluga

Ideas to Make Your Furniture Standout in Interior Renderings

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Interior designs can be tricky because you need to find the balance between an accessible, welcoming space and something with a bit of style. If you’re too generic or bland, then no one cares. But if you’re too imaginative, then you’ll turn off people with more conservative tastes.

One way to work around this challenge is to mix in a few pieces of furniture or decor that standout, but keep the room pretty simple overall. We’ve pulled together some videos to give you ideas for modeling and rendering interior furniture with a bit of character.

Home & Family - How to Makeover your Dresser using Wallpaper

This video shows a DIY approach to giving dressers or cabinets more style. You can adapt this to your renderings by applying different texture patterns to tables, shelves, cabinets, etc.


This video highlights some very creative pieces of furniture that can be focal points for discussion or the centerpiece of a interior design plan. Look at this video for ways to repurpose objects, re-shape rooms, and utilize big pieces of furniture in your room models.

future furniture design

This video is all about futuristic looks and furniture that moves and changes. Look at this video for different lighting styles you might use and how to mix lighting with textures.

Kids Room designs - for girls and boys , Interior furniture ideas for cheap small spaces

A collection of kids room photos. Children’s rooms can be great because you have more leeway in how furniture looks. But you also usually get less space to work with. Watch this video to see how to make any space more fun by using unconventional or playful furniture designs.

Tonic on form, texture and materials in furniture design.

This video highlights work by Tonic, a very cool furniture design company. There is a lot being covered in this video, but I’d suggest focusing on the use of clean lines mixed with more organic materials. Also think about the repetition of furniture pieces in common areas.


This ones features several very modern bedroom designs. Take note of the difference ways that storage is provided and where the windows are. This is a good video for thinking about lighting, negative space, and how differnt furniture materials can work together.

What’s The Look You’re Trying to Create?

Every project is different and you need to adapt. How do you find pieces of inspiration for your project? Let us know if there is a particular look, a room configuration or a design style that you want help with. We’ll pull up any videos we can to help. Also, make sure to subscribe to our interior design playlist on YouTube for more ideas.

How to Combine FluidRay RT Light Channels to Quickly Adjust Lights

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How to combine and adjust different light channels separately without redoing the rendering. This tutorial builds on top of the Light Channels Tutorial.

The final rendered image is just the sum of the contributions of every single light in the scene. By rendering every light to a different image, it’s possible to adjust the contribution of every single light before summing them up to obtain the final image. This video will cover:

  • Extracting light channel outputs from the renderer
  • Visualizing the light channels in the Render View
  • Changing the light channels scale and intensity in real-time
  • Using the Image Sum node to add together the different light channel outputs

For more tutorials, check out the Tutorial Page.

How to Use FluidRay RT Post Processing for Fast Render Tweaks

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Introductory tutorial on how to setup a basic real-time image post-processing in FluidRay RT.

Rendering complex scenes can take some time. Post-processing in FluidRay RT lets you keep refining renders without starting over and see the changes in real-time. This video will cover:

  • Extracting the different output images from a rendering
  • Visualizing the output images in the Render View
  • Changing the color and intensity in real-time
  • Applying Reinhard Tone Mapping to adjust appearance
  • Automatically saving the output images at specific intervals

For more tutorials, check out the Tutorial Page.

How to Use FluidRay RT Instancer Nodes to Render Highly Complex Scenes

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FluidRay RT Tutorial on how to create scenes with thousands of objects without using much memory, such as a forest.

Complex models, such as trees and grass, can use huge amounts of memory. Instancer nodes allow to re-use the same models in different location of your scene, allowing you to create renderings with thousand of complex objects without much memory consumption. This video will cover:

  • Creating the Instancer node in the Graph Editor
  • Assigning trees to the Instancer node
  • Making the Instancer node duplicate the trees all over the scene
  • Making the duplicated trees stick on the terrain

For more tutorials, check out the Tutorial Page.

How to Use Node Containers in FluidRay RT to Organize Your Scene

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FluidRay RT Tutorial on how to organize your scene using container nodes.

When rendering complex scenes, the number of materials and objects can become very large. In FluidRay RT you can organize your assent into containers to make your project easy to manage. Containers can also be used to add multiple nodes all at once into the asset library. This video will cover:

  • Creating new container nodes in the Graph Editor
  • Entering and exiting container nodes
  • Adding and removing nodes from containers using drag & drop

For more tutorials, check out the Tutorial Page.