Anybody here ever switch to Blender?

[Aaron2004]

Hey all,

 

I'm currently a user of VIZ 2007 and wouldn't mind trying out blender...as it's free and I want to do some things on my own outside of work. I just started sitting down with it tonight. It's still too early even for first impressions, but I was just curious if anybody here uses Blender as their Archi VIZ software.

 

I mean...if it can add materials, do nice lighting and import models...why spend 2000 dollars on VIZ? Is it just not as user friendly once it comes down to it? Is it not as powerful once you start getting into large scenes...ie Community Fly-throughs?

 

Aaron

[thinice]

Tried it once.

 

Just could not get my head around the interface to be productive.

It didn't have raytracing as well.

 

But that was about 2 years ago. Things may have changed.

[manta]

IntelliCAD ...$149.00

Blender.......$0.00

Indigo unbiased MLT renderer....$0.00

Yafray....raytracer renderer....$0.00

Wings3d....polygon modeler....$0.00

 

total....$149.00

 

Hardware not included....

[IC]

Blender has moved on a huge amount in the last two years but I wouldn't say it's production ready for arch viz yet.

There have been some really good architectural scenes posted on CGTalk using it but they're few and far between. What you have to remember is that a lot of the very highest standard of rendering is currently to be found in our sector of the industry so you need the most capable tools to compete.

 

Saying that, I like tinkering with Blender. It has some amazing features most of the big guys don't have like fluid simulation.

 

No harm in learning it, I'd say.

[FlytE]

Im personally quite interested in the game aspect of blender more specifically whether or not it can be used for virtual reality environments etc. Its somethign i looked into briefly a while back but I havent found the time to get back into it since.

[jendrzych]

Well, I'm trying to put Blender and some of other free tools (Yafray, Kerkythea) to my workflow. All those tests and finished works were made with those apps. So far I noticed, that Blender is quite ready to be used in architecture field. At last worth to take a look and play with a bit...

 

rendered with Yafray:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1429&d=1132256981

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1430&d=1132257910

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1431&d=1132257826

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1741&d=1133747081

 

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1740&d=1133747114

 

http://img287.imageshack.us/my.php?image=widokogolny9om.jpg

 

rendered with Kerkythea:

http://img194.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ters6zn1.jpg

 

Soon I will try to post a fast'n'dirty virtual walkthrough made with Blender's game engine...

[Aaron2004]

Well, one thing that I noticed after using it for a few nights is that the interface is HARD. Now, Any new interface is bound to be hard so I am going to give it a pass...but just navigating is really tough (rotating, etc). I'm scared to think about when I have a whole house and I need to move a some things around. Time will tell, I'm sure...it's just daunting...that's all.

 

Once you learned it...did you find it as easy if not easier that VIZ/MAX?

 

I've used viz for many years now, so I kind of forget what it's like to learn a new program. It's good for me.

 

Aaron

[manta]

rendered with blender and indigo...