twcurry Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 (edited) I have tried doing a search for this question, but nothing came up in the results, so here goes! The firm I work for wants to start doing high quality, in house, architectural visualization. I have limited experience in a few modeling packages, but have not come close to being able to do any photorealistic renders. So far my workflow has been to build a model in SketchUp, and then import it into 3DS Max to set up some lighting and render with MentalRay. Basically giving it the WIP look. I have no experience with materials, shaders, or modeling in Max. My question is whether this is an efficient workflow, and would be faster or easier to build the model directly in Max? My office is willing to send me for training on Max, but I would like to be sure that this is the appropriate tool to invest in. An Autodesk distributor has tried to convince me the the best tool to use would be Revit, but I'm unconvinced. All of the work we do is highly detailed, traditional design. I would appreciate anyone's comments or suggestions. Best, Troy Edited November 13, 2008 by twcurry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innerdream Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 There are two issues, the model and the render. What you choose to model your project is up to you. I personally think the top render engines used in this field are Vray, Maxwell, Fryrender, Modo, C4D as a brief list. Getting photoreal results from all of them are possible but requires the time to learn how. I've seen great renders from Mentalray too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexg Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Mental Ray also produces good render. You might need to research a bit for some tutorials. Your workflow is fine. Some of the best works here uses sketchup as base of their model. Modelling in Max opens up more possibilities, especially on freeform / nurbs. If your office didn't produce these kind of objects, then I suggest stick to what you are familiar with. The more you tweak on the software, the better your image will be. IMO There's no such thing is a good rendering software anymore. Anyway : Some of the combo's are : Modelling : Acad / Rhino / Sketchup / Max Render : Max scanline / Mental Ray / Vray / C4D / Maxwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 If you use smoothing on the columns your modeling will be fine, and with some practice you'll find a combination of Sketchup and Max modeling that works for you. Get started learning mental ray texturing, lighting and rendering. You don't need any new software for the time being, assuming you also have Photoshop, and your Max version is reasonably new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackb602 Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I personally think the top render engines used in this field are Vray, Maxwell, Fryrender, Modo, C4D as a brief list. Getting photoreal results from all of them are possible but requires the time to learn how. I've seen great renders from Mentalray too. There's an important distinction to be made here. Maxwell and Fry are "unbiased" render engines, which basically means they take no shortcuts in calculating an image. The resulting images can be exceptionally realistic, but there is an enormous penalty to pay in render times. An image that takes 30 minutes in Vray might take 12 hours (or much longer) in Maxwell or Fry. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifebuilder Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I have tried doing a search for this question, but nothing came up in the results, so here goes! The firm I work for wants to start doing high quality, in house, architectural visualization. I have limited experience in a few modeling packages, but have not come close to being able to do any photorealistic renders. So far my workflow has been to build a model in SketchUp, and then import it into 3DS Max to set up some lighting and render with MentalRay. Basically giving it the WIP look. I have no experience with materials, shaders, or modeling in Max. My question is whether this is an efficient workflow, and would be faster or easier to build the model directly in Max? My office is willing to send me for training on Max, but I would like to be sure that this is the appropriate tool to invest in. An Autodesk distributor has tried to convince me the the best tool to use would be Revit, but I'm unconvinced. All of the work we do is highly detailed, traditional design. I would appreciate anyone's comments or suggestions. Best, Troy Hi everybody, i'm looking for something that makes ground-plan surveying easier. I've already heard about OrthoGraph software, it is something to do with PDA so it's kind of an electronic surveying which sounds good. Does anybody know more about this or other stuff that can help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 ^ wrong thread mate. _ _ _ _ I think your current workflow sounds liek a slow pain in teh ass Why not get Vray for sketchup? I dont think introducing max into your workflow is going to improve it really, unless you are willing to put in alot of time learning it - and then if you have max you would be stupid not to model in it as well! 2cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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