Getting the render right
How the diamonds are rendered: Traced, Sparkle and Crystal
Most quick renderers fake a diamond with a sparkly texture, and that is why most quick renders look fake. The studio has three real approaches, chosen per stone, and knowing which does what is the difference between a stone that reads as a diamond and one that reads as glitter.
Traced — light through the real facets
The Traced renderer follows light into the stone's actual cut geometry — the pavilion, the crown, the girdle — bouncing it internally with dielectric Fresnel and splitting it by wavelength for dispersion. That is what fire is: white light separated into colour by the facets. It is the most realistic and the most expensive; it is the renderer for a hero shot and for any stone the camera is close to. Facet count and sparkle depth are tunable per stone.
Sparkle — fast, bold, stylised
Sparkle produces internal brilliance without tracing every bounce. It is much faster, and at catalogue size — a pavé halo, a tennis bracelet's forty stones, a listing thumbnail — it is indistinguishable from Traced and renders at a fraction of the cost. Use it for small stones and many stones; save Traced for the centre.
Crystal — physically transparent
Crystal is real transparency: refraction and dispersion through a solid, without the internal facet tracing. It suits stones that are meant to read as glass-like or lightly coloured — a quartz, an aquamarine, a pale sapphire — where seeing through the stone matters more than fire.
Gem lighting: Softbox or Gallery
Separately from the renderer, stones have their own lighting environment. Softbox is smooth and even, which flatters colour and suits pavé. Gallery is a structured interior with more contrast between facets, which makes a large stone flash. Try Gallery on the centre stone of a solitaire; leave Softbox on a halo.
Per stone, not per render
All of this is set per stone in the diamond console: click a stone in the viewport or the parts list and the settings apply to it alone. The usual arrangement is Traced with Gallery on the centre stone and Sparkle with Softbox on everything small. Forty cuts are available, sixteen built from real cut geometry. Everything here happens on your own machine: the file is converted and rendered in the browser through your GPU and is never uploaded, so an unreleased design stays unreleased.
- Centre stone, hero shot: Traced, Gallery
- Pavé, halo, tennis: Sparkle, Softbox
- Pale coloured stones: Crystal
Questions
Why do rendered diamonds usually look fake?
Because most renderers paint sparkle on as a texture. Fire and scintillation come from light bouncing inside the real facets and splitting by wavelength, which is what the Traced renderer does — and it is why a traced stone changes as the camera moves, the way a real one does.
Is Traced always better than Sparkle?
Better, but not always worth it. At catalogue size the two are indistinguishable and Sparkle is far faster, so use it for small and many stones. Traced is for the stone the camera is close to.
Can I set the renderer per stone?
Yes. The diamond console applies to whichever stone is selected, so the centre stone can be Traced while a halo of twenty stays on Sparkle.
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