This project ranges from the basic to the esoteric.

How I Came to appreciate Artlantis:

In the 1970s the American comic Steve Martin talks about being ignorant of other languages: “The French call an egg, ‘oeuf…’” His punch line is “Those French! They have a different word for everything!”
In 1997, when my colleague showed me the symbolic controls of Artlantis, they seemed different than those I found in other applications. Simplistic, symbolic… yet, my chum was getting impressive renders quickly: a fast setup and quick output.
I thought “Those French! They have a different dialog box for everything!”

Rick, I suggest you click on the "Memberlist" link above. Then on Select sort method: Top ten posters, and Order: Descending.

You'll find that Dwight Atkinson has been, and is, the one most active and helpful contributor of all in this forum. And if you don't know, I can tell he was that already long before this forum existed, when the community still just was an email list.

You should also know by now that his advice is often asked for, generous and well received. And free!

This book is his third on how to make the most out of Archicad's illustration capacity, where the first one was about using Archicad's own tools, the second explaining Lightworks within Archicad, and this third about Artlantis, which has been an easier-to-use Archicad rendering companion for many years. There is no duplication of knowledge in his books. The knowledge he shares is simply impossible to obtain elsewhere, unless you're willing to spend thousands on courses - except here in this forum, where it's free!

Despite that he makes a living from selling these books, he has shared his knowledge freely with us, the last months including posting generous excerpts from the last book. I've been collecting them (despite that I've ordered the book), and I can tell that they contain important parts of what you have to know to make good use of the Archicad-Artlantis combo. He shares that despite that it may harm his sales.

Still, I know from his previous books, that purchasing it will be worthwhile - as a professional, I'll save time already on the first rendering I make after reading it, enough to pay for the book at once because I'll be able to do more billable hours. The book will cost you the equivalent of one - or maybe two, if you're cheap - billable hours. I can't even imagine the amount of countless hours I've spent to get more or less decent renderings out of these programs, before I got his books, or his free forum advice and tips.

You call what he does 'opportunistic'. You allegate that he's 'taking advantage'. I say we're lucky to have him here. He's an asset of this forum, and the moderators have realised that, even if you haven't. I think you owe him an apology! If your negative statements will make him stop posting here, I don't know what I'd like to do to you. Please stop!

Perhaps wrathchild can make some shaders up for you after he gets a haircut.

If you have Artlantis, they provide a pretty good start-up bunch - the coatings, especially can be tuned to different roughness. Some of their woods and such are too large — simply reduce the scale. It pays to examine the freebies closely.

Now that Artlantis can import any image of any proportion, I am particular to the Arroway and Dosch shaders. Expense — nothing, compared to building them yourself.

The book shows a number of solutions with the basic shader - for instance Lars Guy has a white plaster ceiling that reflects gray — perfect. plaster-like attenuation.....

The book also focuses on complex multi-layer shaders — where Artlantis artists build their own shaders...

I have just begun to scan Dwight's book which arrived today. I can already say it's awesome. Over 200 pages, all of them packed with illustrations, tips, methods and enlightening information about how to make great illustrations, with focus on Artlantis, but not excluding other methods, programs and more general advice. They're all densely packed like the samples he's already posted here! Now I see why he's so generous. He's made the soruce so abundant that it can't hurt him to post some. There is so much more in this book. Go get it!
(And just so you know - I paid the full pre-order price)

And what about that beer glass, eh?

Michael Charek ordered the book when it was first announced and taunted me to make a sweating beer glass. I didn't think that I would be able to do such detail.

It's too good. I'm thirsty, it's midnight here, no shops open, and my fridge is empty. Your posting feels like a terrorist attack!