robertnutter

Thanks for the response! I believe that switching will eventually cost me opportunities. I'm trying to edge my way into working f/t for a studio and am very aware that comfort using 3DS could mean the difference between me and another candidate ie, somebody who knows the pipeline better than I would, making them more desirable (this may just be my naivety talking though, as I already have an extremly weak online presence; something I'm now working on fixing). Finances aside, switching would cost me a lot of self-confidence. I know this because of how uneasy 3DS can make me feel whenever I try doing anything with it, and I think that's only something that'll go away with a lot of time and experience...which as you point out, I cannot easily afford. So it's a tough one. I know good work will always mean more than the tools used to make it, but sometimes I feel like I'm in a very small minority, which may not be a good thing for my career prospects. My specialism is niche enough already!

Hi all, I've been really hesitant about posting this here. Not least because I know it's bound to have been asked before, but also because it may be a bit of a stupid question and perhaps should even be posted in the Cinema 4D forum. Nonetheless, other places like creative cow and CGtalk havn't helped much so I feel I have no other choice but to annoy you fine folks with it. Sorry in advance... Anyway, I primarily visualise historical structures which tends to involve a lot of detailed modelling; it also means I have to make 98% of all the assets I use. This is ofset by the fact my clients (museums etc) tend to be more willing than most to give me extra time. However, I've been trying to make the switch to 3DS from C4D for little over a year now (in part thanks to what I've gleaned from this forum about it), but it takes me so long to produce anything with it, I simply can't afford to use it. I've tried so hard to make it work for me; but even simple things like modelling a chair or wall panel ends with me bending over backwards trying to use the simplest of tools. Perhaps it's just me being really closed-minded, but I just cannot get comfortable with how the program works. Don't get me wrong, I understand *how* to use it; ie where everything is and what it does and how to use the indiviudal things etc, but when it comes to doing it in practice, I feel like it takes me 4 hours to do something I could've done in 4 minutes flat with Cinema 4D. Even following tutorials ends with me wondering why I just used certain tools to do things I'd use other tools for. Then I'm reminded that most of you probably use it everyday for infinitely more complicated projects, so the problem is clearly sitting in the chair. Practice and experience is the obvious answer here I know, but I just feel myself getting increasingly confused about why certain things work and others don't, a feeling which gets worse the more I try to use it. So does anyone have experience of having made this switch? Or perhaps making the opposite switch, who can offer me insight into what I may be missing/not quite getting? I understand I don't *need* to use 3DS as I get some amazing results from Cinema on a regular basis, but I feel it'd be a very useful string in my bow. I also feel very stupid not understanding it. NB: I realise I've posted about a somewhat similar post here before, but that was in my introduction thread which I'd feel bad digging up after almost a year. I also feel my problem is slightly different now.

I got back to this almost instantly but for some reason it got moderated out or something Either way, sorry for super late response! Anyway, this is all gold here! And I'm happy about what you say regarding studios, as that's pretty much what I was hoping; fitting into other people's pipelines; for better or for worse; is something I already know a bit about so that shouldn't be too much of a shock. I'm learning Max either way so that won't affect me; just good to know smaller ones are willing to be adaptive, as you say! And I've been very satisfied with the standard rendered so far; even in my older C4D version it really is amazing, and in some ways find it liberating. I've also started trying to learn bitmap2material/quixel and stuff just to get acquainted with the finer points of texturing, so PBR is hopefully something I'm going to be able to start using effectively at some point in the not too distant future. I chose Digital Tutors over Lynda and they have been great so far; and though some of it's a little iffy (ie I found the archviz realistic vegetation didn't really do as promised), I have learnt so much from them. Of course, GreyScaleGorilla is where I started (as I think everyone did with C4D ) so I occasionally dip back into them too; just anything really so long as it keeps me on the path. Hopefully in a few months I'll have a bit more to show for myself too. Overall great advice, thanks! May I ask, are you a Cinema user at all?

You've probably already been there but I know CGTrader has a respectable cache of maritime stuff. Wouldn't vouch for the overall model skill of them but there's bound to be something useable depending on the quality you're after.

Hi Nejc! Thanks for the input, it's very appreciated Thankfully I think you're right; it could be a worse set of qualifications to be saddled with. I'm was a DaVinci Resolve specialist, so I don't know if that's a tool many archviz'ers use? As I am dreading learning PS (another program I never understood) and having to use the layers in AE instead of Resolve's nodes for post production makes my head spin ... So it's good to hear you say that the post stage of the process is user subjective to an extent. Obviously I'll teach myself Revit/3DS and the other acknowledged tools once I feel I'm ready for that, just so I'm at least a tiny bit employable! As many of the companies here seem to use Revit exclusively from what I've seen/read. Lighting's an odd one for me; I can light a night scene with lamps literally everywhere and get an interesting image, but once in C4D I'm lost even with the physical sky. So a big part of it for me is determining the differences and similarities of 3D lighting to real life; though I'm very impressed so far with how realistic even the standard renderer is so I can probably transfer that knowledge with a decent degree of success. It's encouraging to hear you say what a large part it plays though, and I'd have to agree. Viewing the inspiration library on here is a lighting tour de force! Thanks again for the insights and I definitely find it more fun than anything else at this stage; that may change, but I doubt my passion for it will

Just thought I'd show my face instead of just liking other people's posts constantly So this is my introduction. If you don't like essays or people going on about themselves on the internet though, consider yourself warned. I just feel it's polite to say a little something about myself. I'm an absolute from scratch newbie to 'real' 3D, though I have a strong passion for 3D architecture which stretches as far back as I was learning to talk. I promise that isn't BS; a program called Floorplan 3D Essentials was the first 'design' program I used on Win 95, and I was bitten by the bug. My grandad was also a respected civil architect so I was all the more susceptible! Sadly, it wasn't to be that simple so here I am now; 24 and broke from doing a Master's degree in a mostly unrelated subject (cinematography/colour grading). To break myself just that bit more financially, I decided to learn using Archicad (for blocking it out) and C4D Studio with Vray for everything else (though I'm still to learn much of the lattermost). I don't think Sketchup is something I'll use (can't understand it's workflow for some reason) and C4D just seemed to come more naturally; I can also use Maya 5 (yep, 5) for basic stuff. I've done some simple projects for an AOS game I was lucky enough to land, including one very basic colonial mansion (below), for which I'm now forcing myself to learn Substance Designer to texture for both the exterior and interior models. I know it's not a great start modelling or even from an architectural perspective, but this stuff is literally 100% new to me; I didn't even know what a polygon was until 4 months ago so I have a lot to learn... EDIT: I am genuinely open to any and all criticism on my situation/naivity/possible arrogance. It'd be great to hear from anyone else coming from a film/tv background as well. I don't plan on returning to the industry as I have no interest in it anymore, but if I can transfer something (ie my substantial but mostly useless knowledge of lighting) from my existing skillset into archviz, I will gladly do so...it's just where to even begin doing that.