Hi Forum! Please give a newbie some advice on software etc.

[alexmorgan]

Hi there,

 

I am soon to start the 3rd year of my undergraduate Architecture degree and I would like some advice on what visualisation software would best suit my needs for this year.

 

I am hoping to get into the visualisation profession when I am finished, so I would really like to boost my portfolio with some quality renders from my final year.

 

I am currently considering purchasing a v-ray license for Revit, as the Revit software is most familiar with me. However, after watching lots of videos I have come to realise that maybe v-ray in Revit is quite basic compared to sketchup+v-ray or 3dsmax+v-ray.

 

To achieve the quality results I am after, Which of these software combinations would you recommend and why?

 

Things to consider:

 

Can models from Revit be imported straight into 3dsmax or sketchup for rendering/visualisation purposes??

 

What is the general work flow for creating amazing visuals? (i.e. Revit --> Sketchup --> Vray = final visual??)

 

Will any of these softwares freak out if I imported a parametric geometry and tried applying material etc?

 

Which is easier to learn?

 

Which combination is more impressive to have on a Cv or portfolio?

 

 

I know this is a lot for a newbie ask, but I would really appreciate the advice from some of the forums experienced members.

 

Thanks in advance

[notamondayfan]

First question you need to ask yourself is "who do you see yourself working for / with?" If you're going into a practice, then research what is standard software they use. No point in learning Sketchup if they use Blender.

 

If you're working for yourself, then use what the hell you like. I use Max because that's what I was taught at Uni, and the assets, plugins, scripts, etc avaible for Max means going anywhere else would be a massive step backwards.

[alexmorgan]

Thankyou for your reply Dean, your work looks awesome! Especially the section visual on your cgi page.

 

I have been in contact this week with a really decent, local Architectural visualiser who says he uses Sketchup + Vray to achieve photo realistic renderings so I have since been trying to learn these softwares. From everything that I have read It seems that Vray in Revit is more basic in terms of the results achieved and more focussed towards designers for quick and easy rendering. Whereas Vray in sketchup apparantly offers much more detail for the visualisation market.

 

I am going to keep practicing and hopefully be up to your standard in the future

[Michael Pickard]

I work for an Architectural firm and deal with all the visualisations within it.

I use a combination of 3DS max, Vray, Photoshop and sometimes Revit.

 

At university i was mainly taught either Maya & 3ds max. After leaving university i found that the majority of Arch Viz was using 3ds max rather than Maya so started doing my work in 3ds max instead.

I have been in my job for 2 years now and still find new things to learn everyday in all the software.

 

There are alot of tutorials on line which can help but just setting yourself a task to create something and learning as you do it, i find is best.

 

I found when using Revit and then import into 3ds max some geometry would come in broken or just wrong (might be my own fault) so generally I do all modelling in 3dsmax and use Revit to create basic visualisation or to understand the basic shape & layout.

 

As Dean said look into jobs which you find interesting for you and see what software they use.

 

Good Luck

[notamondayfan]

Thankyou for your reply Dean, your work looks awesome! Especially the section visual on your cgi page.

 

I have been in contact this week with a really decent, local Architectural visualiser who says he uses Sketchup + Vray to achieve photo realistic renderings so I have since been trying to learn these softwares. From everything that I have read It seems that Vray in Revit is more basic in terms of the results achieved and more focussed towards designers for quick and easy rendering. Whereas Vray in sketchup apparantly offers much more detail for the visualisation market.

 

I am going to keep practicing and hopefully be up to your standard in the future

 

Cheers!

 

Also, don't get too hung up on software too much, a good artist will produce amazing results with any renderer. The Vray for Max, SU, etc will have more feature, but the versions for Revit will be capable.

 

And finally, sometimes practices / clients won't want "photo realism", instead something quick / less accurate will be the key, but speed will be important.