Archviz pros, how much modeling do you do for clients?

[innerdream]

I have been a professional model maker the physical kind for years and I am learning the 3d kind. At the moment I only model in Sketchup and a little in Cheetah which is the only 3d package I own beside SU. I know how to use Max from the 30 day demo but I can't afford to buy it right now. I'm getting a little nervous that I won't be able to handle doing any paying jobs with these tools and my modeling abilities as they are. So, my question is how much modeling are you doing and how much is the client providing in terms of a 3d model in most cases? I suppose I can job out the model part...

The second part of the question is what 3d package besides Max has good modeling tools to build with in real scales, Architectural, Engineering, Metric etc.?

 

Thanks in advance.

[aaron-cds]

Honestly, you don't want 3d models from your clients. You'll get better with practice. I prefer to do all of my modeling so I know what's what. What I've gotten from clients in the past was very difficult to work with. By the way, have you looked into the vray plugin for sketchup?

 

Sketchup is a great modeling tool. This is a lounge chair I just finished in sketchup and rendered with vray. You can model this in max, but it can be modeled in sketchup just as easy.

[kippu]

sketch up is a fun and a great modelling tool.... i am sure it can do whatever 3dsmax can

[STRAT]

it's advisable to do your own modelling. (clients dont generally provide you with models anyway). SU is perfectly fine for this task.

 

then for rendering, why not purchase Vray for SU?

[alexg]

All client's model are usually useless, most of the time they are built in a rush or just for checking the proportions. some over-built the models to include bolts etc which does nothing to improve the render but clogging up the no. of faces.

 

But, there are more and more that supplies model because they think it 'speeds up' the process. It actually is not. Checking other people's 3d model sometimes took longer than rebuilding it based on 2d dwgs. Even worse, when revision comes, it is a headache to find which to be changed to what.

 

Anyways, we always said the model supplied only used as reference only. We can try to salvage as much as we can, but we will need to 'detail it more' to make it visible in render, just to avoid saying it is 'unusable'.

[innerdream]

Thanks everyone, good stuff.

 

I didn't know there was a Vray plugin for SU? Does it give results like it would in Max? Another question, how long are you spending say to model a 40 story office building with site etc.? I have a good handle on smaller buildings and interiors in terms of time I just haven't taken a pass at a large project.

 

Aaron, that's great! How did you do those sweeping curves? In Cheetah I can import splines for Illustrator which I may give a try.

[aaron-cds]

That's a tough question. It depends on how detailed the model is. If it's for a view far away and you don't see much detail, probably a day.

[innerdream]

That's a tough question. It depends on how detailed the model is. If it's for a view far away and you don't see much detail, probably a day.

 

That doesn't sound like enough time to me but thanks you're probably a lot faster than me. Is everyone charging a seperate fee just for the model? I would think so...

[aaron-cds]

I don't. It's all one fee which is based on a hourly rate X an estimated number of hours. That hourly rate becomes the rate for additional services.

[innerdream]

Thanks Aaron. It is amazing how tight lipped people can be when it comes to questions like this which is quite silly really. Sharing information helps the trade it does not hurt the trade.

[aaron-cds]

You're welcome. Good luck in your transition.

[Vince Paske]

sketch up is a fun and a great modelling tool.... i am sure it can do whatever 3dsmax can

I've never used Sketch-Up to model with, and from what I've seen I'm sure it's an amazing product - but can it really do everything 3dsmax can? The toolset in 3dsMax is huge, and if you really want to get into making money as an illustrator the key word is "animation". I know its a little off-topic, but you will eventually be asked to do a video so I would advise to learn 3dsMax (or another animation capable program) and its full capabilities.

I still model 75% of my stuff in Auto-Cad - I like the accuracy, its snaps, and being an "in-house" visualizer at a firm that does a variety of A/E work - it makes getting geometric info from diverse app's easy. It essentially becomes a communication device.

It's a preference, and it's been discussed to death on these forums (the merit's of what modeling app to use) - but what's been said about having to do your own models for visualization is absolutely true. The architects where I work use Revit, which management thought would help me, it does to some degree, but I still end up re-modeling to clean it up to make it lighter and make assigning materials easier.

[aaron-cds]

but can it really do everything 3dsmax can?

 

Definately not. I use max 9 and do 98% of my modeling in sketchup. I'm trying to learn how to model in max because I think I should, but sketchup is just so darn fast.

 

IMO, anyone modeling in autocad (earlier versions that don't have to new enhanced modeling tools - sketchup-like) is working in the past. Try sketchup, you won't go back.

[Vince Paske]

Try sketchup, you won't go back.

Will do Aaron - thanks for the little push. I am stuck in the past - I've been modeling in auto-cad since the stone age. Time to learn some new tricks.

[innerdream]

Just an FYI on Max. The Ted Boardman small building video tutorials are great for getting the nuts and bolts of building modeling in Max. Available for free from his site.