Twilight Render User Forum

Here is what I have done:
1)Created a cube and applied standard Sketchup Make material named Color_005 (gray)
2)Opened Twilight Render and rendered the cube (just for reference)
3)Opened Twilight material dialog, clicked the Twilight material picker tool and clicked on the cube surface. The Twilight render preview thumbnail shows matte gray.
4)Chose "Templates->Metal->Platinum" from the Twilight editor menu. Now, the render preview shows shiny material like platinum.
5)Rendered the scene. The cube looks exactly like in step 2. I expected it to look more or less like the thumbnail preview.
6)I didn't touch the lights, so this is a default sun/sky.

What else to do to render the cube with Twilight material??

Good question,

Well, the material preview scene has good lighting. Your cube sitting with no proper lighting, only sun and sky, will obviously result in a weak-looking render at best. Metal reflects the objects and lights around it. With nothing around it to reflect, what is it that you expect to see?

I suggest rendering with an HDR photo studio loaded into the spherical sky slot, and turning off the sun.

Did you watch the video tutorials available on the website?

Subject: Jewelry and Product Shots - the Right Light

Thanks! After changing Background/Sky type in Light Editor to "Spherical sky" and loading a .hdr image as a background, the cube renders much more like platinum.