Rendering jewellery, by type
How to render a necklace or chain from a CAD file
A necklace is the largest thing in jewellery and the hardest to photograph, in a studio or in a render: it is long, thin, mostly chain, and its shape is whatever it was draped into. The CAD decides the drape. The studio decides the rest, and these are the choices.
The drape is in the file
A rendered necklace lies exactly as it was modelled. If the CAD shows the chain as a circle, the render shows a circle; if the designer draped it into the teardrop of a worn necklace, that is what renders. The studio does not simulate a chain falling, so the pose you want is the pose to export. Most jewellery CAD tools can lay a chain along a curve; do that before exporting, not after.
Set the category to Necklace. Jewellery treatment stays on.
A chain is a thousand parts — keep it fast
A cable chain modelled link by link can be hundreds of thousands of triangles. It renders, but it renders slowly, and a turntable video slower still. Two things help. Export the chain at a modest tolerance — links are small in the frame and do not need the fine tessellation a stone does. And if the links are exported as separate bodies, Auto Jewelry Setup dresses them all at once; if the chain is one interlocked shell it is one part already.
The studio shows a triangle count in the status bar. Above a few hundred thousand, expect the first frame to take a while on a laptop.
- Lay the chain along a curve in CAD before export
- Export links at a coarser tolerance than stones
- Watch the triangle count — a chain is usually the heaviest thing you will render
Pose and camera: it is wide, not tall
Flat lay with the Top camera is the catalogue shot: the whole necklace, its length legible, the pendant centred. The Flat Lay Look sets it in one tap. For a hero, the Catalog ¾ camera at Leaning gives depth; Re-frame (F) after changing pose, because a necklace fills the frame differently in every pose.
Shoot the pendant on its own as well
In the full shot the pendant is small. Every listing also wants the pendant large, so export it twice: once on the chain, and once framed with Close-up, or from a separate pendant-only file. The pendant guide covers the bail and how a pendant hangs.
Export
The Store listing pack's top view carries the necklace; the Social square at Close-up carries the pendant. A turntable on a Flat lay necklace spins it flat, which shows the whole chain catching light in turn — the Sparkle sweep move does this with the lighting moving the other way. 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.
Questions
Can the studio drape a chain?
No. The chain renders in the shape it was modelled. Lay it along a curve in your CAD program before exporting — most jewellery CAD tools do this — and export the pose you want photographed.
My chain is very slow to render. Why?
A chain modelled link by link is often several hundred thousand triangles, far more than a ring. Export the links at a coarser tolerance — they are small in frame — and keep fine tessellation for the pendant and stones. The status bar shows the triangle count.
What is the best pose for a necklace?
Flat lay with the Top camera, which shows the full length with the pendant centred. The Flat Lay Look sets pose, camera and paper lighting together.
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