Update 2:  I remade the model after some trials with the first one and made the M to look like it is made from a sapphire. Here is a 1 minute render just to test the lighting.  As I’m going to bed now, I have 6 computers in the house working together to render the same view with all options at max.  I’m really looking forward to seeing what it will look like when complete.

Update:  Here is another image made using LuxRender that took 5 hours.

After spending quite a bit of time using Blender, I decided to try one of the third party rendering engines compatible with it called Luxrender. I had tried to get it to work before, but had problems. Now with the real release version of Windows 7 on my main computer, everything has worked perfect so far and Luxrender installed without any errors. I decided to try it first on a model I’ve been working on for a new logo for the organization my brother works for called the Maslow Project.  After I clicked the Render button, I was surprised at the first glance of what I saw, it was a VERY grainy image after about 30 seconds.

But then I did some reading about the program and I found out what it’s capable of.  After a little big of time, I had my computer plus 4 other computers in the house all rendering the image After 5 hours 13 minutes, here is the final image.