and now for something completely different

[vizwhiz]

i guess i am in The middle of (not-so-middle) change of pace

 

previously only having done exterior work, That makes me an exteriorist

not To be confused with an ex-terrorist, i have never an interior, so now

 

here goes nothing

 

some basic questions, about workflow

 

i (still) model in autocad 3d solids, but i have been handed a library of max

and dwg files from etc specific medical equipment vendors which i need To

 

assemble into scenes and Then render

This is going To be interior work ONLY

 

i am anticipating doing 100's if not 1000's of med eqpts

so how do you handle This? xref's or proxies. merge, insert?

 

if you do each med eqpt piece individually, do you add The Textures

in That file, and if so will Those Textures show up automatically when

 

(inserted, xrefed, merged) into a larger scene?

 

some basic questions i before i start down a long path (hopefully)

i can get some feedback as To what might be The most efficient way To go

 

what about layers?

 

if materials are assigned by layer (which is how i am currently doing This)

does each piece of equipment have To have its own 'unique' layers names

 

or can 'The same layer name' repeat in separate files and can be assigned

The same Texture(s) after merge/insert/xref in the 'final' rendered scene?

 

i havent done The multi-sub object material Texture Technique

so i am not anticipating going There unless convinced otherwise

 

**

 

so much To learn, i am just now getting into max/interiors/mental ray

 

see attached, (dont laugh Too hard)

 

This is not a real scene just some eqpt Thrown Together

To start doing some rendering and working on lighting and

 

Trying To figure out workflow

i am presently using mental ray

 

hopefully switching over To vray eventually (sometime soon)

 

Thanks in advance

 

randy

[John Dollus]

If you are using MR and these are generic environments meant to showcase the equipment, there should be no reason to use GI. Just create a stage setting, use Fg only and you will be fine.

If I am understanding you correctly, you will be rendering 100's of seperate renderings. If the equipment is from the same manufacturer, I would suggest starting with the most varied object with regards to materials and setting up a material library based on that. Once you have those finishes approved, the rest should be easy. I would imagine swapping out control panel bitmaps would be the only variable.

If you are modeling the objects, develop a standard naming system so when you merge objects into your templated scene, you can assign materials by name (create a script for this) without looking.

If you are not creating the models yourself, perhaps you can deduce a naming convention from the files you receive and create a script to assign the materials by character string to make it automatic.

MR actually seems more forgiving when it comes to using precomputed lighting files so you might be better off sticking with it.

Are you using Max9?