Recommended way to start

[John Martin]

If you had never used Max or Viz before, but have used ADT and VIZ Render a lot, what would you produce to try and convince your company that they need a high end modeler and render program? I recently completed a rendering using ADT/VIZ Render and although it looked OK, it is nowhere near what I think it should look like. Although my bosses liked the final product, I want to create something for them that will blow their socks off and am unsure what I should do. Should I do a small facility and render an nice exterior and interior or convert one of our projects and do that. I do not own Max and downloaded the 30 day demo to try and see how fast I could learn it all. I do not think 30 days will begin to start the process Any comments on how I should proceed would be appreciated.

 

John

[Tim Saunders]

take a class. if your not the class type, you could always buy some books. viz and max also have some tutorials to get started too. and of coarse you could show some of the images produced by the renderers your interested in. of coarse just buying the software doesn't automatically give you those results, but explain that it is a huge step in the right direction.

[Brian Cassil]

2 separate issues really. A, convince your boss to get max and B, learn how to use it. I would show some renderings done in max/viz to the powers that be to sell it, then they might even pay for you to take a class. If you have never learned a true modeling and rendering program I would, I would strongly recommend taking a good class. You'll learn much, much faster that way.

 

BTW Tim, is this why you were in a hurry to leave our meeting? To post more on CGA? We are so pathetic.

[manta]

Its too bad, cause I doubt you will acheive your goal in 30 days, its a shame Max doesn't have a demo like Maya, I'm pretty sure you can use their demo for as long as you want...

[John Martin]

Thanks for the replies so far. I am going to take a class soon once we get the software. At least while I have the 30 day demo I am going to concentrate on the materilas and lighting poritons of the software. I can model everything using ADT with ADT objects, mass elements, and custom display blocks and map materials via sub-object if necessary. Right now the lighting is my biggest issue. The main render I want to accomplish is an exterior from street level of a 2-story office building composed of mainly split face CMU and a glass curtain wall entrance (just a general design created to show capability for a possible contract) along with the parking lot and the surrounding landscaping. I have the facility and surrounding stuff created and did a render in VIZ Render and it came out OK (certainly nowhere near the quality found on this site) but now I want to transform it into a Max drawing and modify the materials and lighting to be a LOT more realistic so I am going to go through the tutorials. I saw a Max 7 book yesterday at Barnes and Noble so I may go pick it up since it comes with a CD. It can't hurt. Any suggestions appreciated again.

 

John

[ki_cz]

I'll throw my 2 cents in and say download vray-free as well to show them some of it's capabilities, maybe then they'll invest in that as well?