Exterior Stills- Workflow & Training suggestions?

[m_cubed]

Hi-

Among my many hats at work, I do exterior architectural visualizations for industrial facilities. After 12 years of "self directed learning", I finally have the opportunity to get some training on my employer's tab!

 

I'm wondering two things:

 

1. What's the best workflow for exteriors?

We're currently using ADT for modelling

and up to this point I've used VIZ Radiosity with the scanline renderer.

 

I'm looking at moving to:

modeling in ADT

Render with MAX and VRAY

 

is there a better combination to use for exteriors?

is there a better workflow with models from ADT?

 

2. Training Recommendations?

I'm looking at the following courses right now:

Vismasters: 3DS Max & VRAY courses

VM Store: Global Illumination: Exteriors by C. Nichols

 

Are there any training courses geared toward architectural exteriors that anyone would recommend?

 

Up to this point, I've been producing (relatively) photorealistic images composited to match site photos in Photoshop. I would love to learn a better workflow that might allow more control of highlights (my rendered images are generally pretty flat).

 

My background:

BFA/MFA "pre-computer graphics" (I used to do "paste up" with Paste!)

10 yrs construction document production

10 yrs 3D modelling/graphics, starting with ACADr12 solids

I'm starting back to school in the fall to work toward a Masters of Architecture.

 

Thanks for any ideas.

Michele

[Devin Johnston]

Up to this point, I've been producing (relatively) photorealistic images composited to match site photos in Photoshop. I would love to learn a better workflow that might allow more control of highlights (my rendered images are generally pretty flat).

 

This is a typical result of radiosity, it tends to flatten the lighting as it distributes it. As for coming up with a better work flow I think your doing it like most people do. The only real advance that I can see that would speed things up for you would be to use some BIM software like ArchiCAD. That way you don't have to waste time modeling, this is taken care of while you’re designing the project. Vray is a great program and it's a good idea to do some training before jumping in because the program can be very complex.

[guitarboy]

the exterior Dvd by Chris Nichols is definitely worth your time and money. i have both the int. and ext. and have learnt huge amounts and my work has come leaps and bounds. Ive also been look at the Vismasters courses, just cant afford to do them unfortuently, but they sound great.

 

There are also some nice books out the if your interested at looking at them. 1 i would personally recommend is 'Digital Lighting and Rendering', while it doesnt specialise in ext stills like what your after, the understanding of lighting you'll get from this book is great.

[m_cubed]

Thanks for the Comments!

(and reassurance for my leap from VIZ to MAX)

 

Yeah, I've had Jeremy Birn's book for a while- it is really good.

 

I'm excited to finally have access to MAX and VRAY (officially ordered today), and am looking forward to some training through Vismasters-

 

thanks again-

[guitarboy]

Happy to help.