need help spending my money

[sdds]

Hi guys need a bit of advice on what things eg. textures, clipmaps, models etc I need to invest in to improve my workflow. I am a freelancer at the moment building up a portfolio of renders both exterior & interior for that future dream job.

 

I have some evermotion models - chairs, lights, miso objects etc.

some basic textures - bricks, tiles, wood etc - some not that great..

5 VB visual bush clipmaps.

 

Iam thinking on this - http://www.realworldimagery.com/Textures/pd_thumbnails.html

 

Seems like a good all round arcviz pack for about £144, then also get a small tree pack from VB vis.

I like the idea of using clipmaps for detail like plants, pots, objects etc so if there is any site offering this? Basically trying to build up a library of things to speed myself up and spend less time with the small details in a scene.

 

 

I have around £200 to invest.

 

Thanks guys..

[kippu]

yes thats a very nice collection to have

[sdds]

Thanks mate, worth the money then?

 

Seems like a good site, recommended here a few times.

[STRAT]

personally, i wouldn't touch any texture less than 1000 pixels. 512x512, in my opinion, is tiny, and will show up drastically when carpeted to yuor buildings.

 

*for bricks and paving, you cant beat the free on-line masonary designers. (ie, McNear or Beldon)

*for 2d peeps, i use Got3D

*for 3d peeps, i use AXYZ metropoly

*for wood or concrete or tiles, these chaps are great - http://www.arroway.de/textures/en/index.html

*for general 3d foliage, ie, trees, shrubs and bushes, i use http://www.vbvisual.com/product_info.php?info=p11_VB-EXTERIORS-3D-Plants-Vol-1.html specially created with C4D in mind.

*for fast rendering realistic cars i use lowpolygon3d (who are also great for shop interiors and plants with pots)

*marlin studios also give great foliage and sky textures

*Dosch Design are good too

 

and most of all i'll create my own texture librarys using my digi camera and photoshop. but the important thing is size. in today's market place you'll find 512x512 is woefully too small.

 

ps, and dont forget, visit all the commecial texture sites you can and download all their freebees. you'll be suprised how quickly your library will build up with quality hi-res images.

[AFK_Matrix]

I found this site:

 

http://www.mayang.com/textures/

 

You can download 20 textures a day or just buy the 3400 textures on a DVD for £25. Seems resonable and the images are a minimum of 1600x1200.

[alrawli]

Would recommend spending the money on a camera and making the textures myself. I feel these texture librarys are good to a point but when everyone else is using the same textures there isnt much to make your work stand out. I take my camera with me everywhere and just snap photos. Granted you look like a bit of a eejit taking photos of pavements but there free.

 

Also try this site linky

[Claudio Branch]

Would recommend spending the money on a camera and making the textures myself. I feel these texture librarys are good to a point but when everyone else is using the same textures there isnt much to make your work stand out.

 

Excellent advice...I just spent some discretionary income on a digital SLR.

 

I would much rather go outside and shoot images then search for images on-line. There are definately alot of good resources out there, but doing the photography yourself adds such richness to the process of creating 3D.

 

Personally, I do this stuff because the PROCESS is so rewarding...

[Tommy L]

In that collection (realworld designer) there are a whole load of 2d objects that you will never, ever use. The plants arnt very good either. I would put this 200 toward onyx or xfrog or another flexible tool that you will use in multiple projects.

How are your peripherals? A better mouse or a wacom can work wonders as well.

As the others have said, if you dont have a decent digital camera, it should be top of your shopping list. Get a digital slr if you can. Its more than 200 quid, but well worth it.

[louis.cho]

The new Nikon D40X is my next buy...I can't wait! I personaly think that making my own texture maps is the only way to really have that you want to acheive.

 

You could buy a best work chair...like them in thoses magazines who seems very comfortable!

 

a vertical mouse! I can't gat separate from it now!

 

Onyx trees...wow

[sdds]

thanks chaps, got the message that its best to build up my own library with photoshop/self shot photos. I am trying to work smarter by putting all recyclable models, textures, ps actions etc in a library so (which I am not a natural at) they can be reused. I do find texturing to be the biggest pain in the workflow - find the modeling and light fine good I enjoy them.

[ash_work]

Try this site http://www.arroway.de/textures/en/index.html

If you were already referred to it, try real world imagery also.