New Guy! Intro and some question...

[Stailey]

Hi all!

 

I'm a newb to these forums and wanted to introduce myself.

 

I am an architecture major about to finish up my 5th year (thesis year). I have worked with AutoCAD for 12 years and I started "playing" with 3dsmax a little over a year ago. I am nowhere near the expertise I would like to have with Max as I do with AutoCAD and wondered if any of you knew a good place to check out some tutorials (mostly with lighting and materials).

I also want to ask you experts out there which one will produce the best quality images with the least time (as far as renders, mental ray or vray?)

 

I just spent some major money one a new computer, and want to push this baby to the max with my renderings.

Quick Specs:

2 Quad Core Intel Xeon Processors

12 GB RAM

2G EVGA InVidia 285 Video Card

 

by the time spring semester comes up ill have 24GB or RAM and a second Video Card in and SLI config.

 

I need all the help I can get. This community seems very helpful with one another and one day I hope to contribute at the level of most of you.

 

Thanks in advance!

[SandmanNinja]

Welcome to the forums, Chris.

 

Nice hardware!

 

For lighting tutorials, you can't go wrong with http://www.mentalboutmax.com - Brian knows his stuff and knows how to explain it, and it's the best bang for your buck. Most tutorials are $10-$20 tops.

[Noise]

I agree with Joel.

 

Also, if you are going down the vray route - buy some evermotion dvds.

 

And - good luck, you will spend alot of time on this occupation ! It is very rewarding though.

[AndyC]

Welcome Chris,

 

The Mentalray Vray choice becomes a personal one, however I will say that most arch viz firms are using vray, not all of them but a good bunch. I would admit that with enough time and patience Mentalray can put out some simply awesome renderings, but a lot of artists find vray easier to pick up and get resulsts fast. I have tried so many different render engines in the past 14 years and have stuck with Vray for 8 of those for a commercial workhorse engine that can relied on time after time.

 

As I say, it comes down to a personal choice. Try the demos of both and see what you prefer but if you are looking to join an arch viz firm you might want to side with Vray.

[BVI]

Check out: http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials

There are some cool tutorials there that cover some nifty tricks.