[caryjames]

Lately I have had to render some rings with large high polish metal areas and diamonds.

I have tried a variety of techniques- lighting using .hdri's, light boxes using .mxi textured emitters, flat plane emitters, different environments.

What I have found is that the lighting techniques for making nice reflections in the high polished metal are not the best for bringing out the qualities of the diamonds. An .hdri is great for the diamonds but not for the ring, a .mxi textured emitter with lightbox seems to work best for the high polished metal.

So I have come up with the idea of rendering the ring in one environment(.mxi textured light box) and the diamonds (black environment lighted by .hdri) in another and then merging the two.

Is this possible?

I read in the manual about the Shadow Channel but that looks useful for putting renders into set photographs.

Any tips would be welcomed!
Cary

[Blitzor]

I posted a reply in the other thread that might help you achieve what you are looking for in one shot.