whats the easiest 3d rendering program for interiors?

[F&F Interiors]

I'm trying to get find the best 3d rendering program for my interior design business. I need to be able to apply the finishes I'm recommending to the surfaces as wall color, furniture, carpet, ect. I also need it to be fast and relatively simple to use and learn. After deciding which program is best for me I need to find training on it, so if anyone has that info too, I would appreciate the help!

[mattclinch]

i would say something like sketchup is the perfect place to start, and there are plenty of training resources on the web for it.

 

http://sketchup.google.com/product/gsu.html

[Tommy Burns]

Most people here use 3D studio max I'd say

 

As for a simple to learn program no such thing!!! Anyone that is half good at rendering here has put in a lot of work to get there.

[Matt McDonald]

It seems like you should be asking the people who will be working for you what software they like to use. Or is it just you? If you know that you need rendering capabilities how have you gone about producing them in the past? Maybe talk to the folks who produced them for you...

 

But I'd agree with other Matt, everyone I've known to kick the tires on sketchup! finds it quite easy to use.

[thinice]

The most important factor in interior rendering is to have a comprehensive library. It is just not practical to model everything from scratch.

 

I highly recommend formfonts.com

[alexg]

if you are more into decorating, changing colour of walls etc, it's faster to do it in photoshop (2d) rather than doing it in 3d.

[3ply]

Revit is very easy to do interior renderings...

 

Our office just jumped on the Revit bandwagon. I'm a 3dstudio Max guy that used to do most of the renderings in our office. Lately I have been getting phased out due to younger people using Revit. They don't know anything about 3d modeling and rendering, but are producing decent interior renderings. Revit is very watered down when rendering... draft/low/medium/high quality buttons. Some of the renderings would take 3 days to render a single image.

Edited February 19, 2010 by 3ply

[Slinger]

Sketch-up for modeling. Kerkythea for rendering. Both programs are free and have a huge following of supporters who will help you out.

[Grohu]

The way I see it from my perspective is you simply can not rush with your decision and especially do not go cheap. If it will take you one, two, three months longer to get the software - do it. Once you get into the vibe you will find more and more limitations which will only lead to frustration and in the end you will still buy the "other" package.

Everybody was telling me to go with Max when I was researching same question you are now. Not because it's the best as this is a totally subjective opinion but because has a massive user base with gazillions of super cool plugins, tutorials, scenes you can grab from the net on the go.

I ended up buying a used copy of Cinema 4D (I bought it for pennies from a friend) and till today I look at it as the most user friendly software I ever put my hands on.

The greatest part about it is that you do not have to drop $3.5K on it like most other packages go for these days. It's expandable with modules and you only buy those that you use/need. Just add Vray to it and you're in a journey of a lifetime.

I had 2 months hands on experience with Maya when I was working on a project, I work with Max for over a year now (work environment again) and till this day C4D is the most clear app to me. Learning curve was amazing even though I came into it as a total noob.

Many people discredit C4D for some reason but just go to vrayforc4d . com and browse their gallery to see that there are no limits.

 

To answer your question I suggest you simply download the software one by one and go play with the trial. You will get hands on experience with each app and it will be easier to decide which interface suits you better which is 50% of success in my opinion as it's pretty easy to get discouraged learning 3D.

If money is a issue then just hunt ebay. You can get nice deals on 1-2 versions back (just make sure you check with the developer if license can be transferred).

And most important of all... have fun and just be patient

 

PS. Sorry for my English

[pat1217]

Hello,

My first post:)

 

I currently do renderings for those using Chief Architect software and use Kerkythea for my renderings. It's a free program and does a fairly nice job. It's fairly easy to use as well. I'm looking at 3DS Studio Max but it is definitely a learning curve.

 

If you would like to see some samples of what your renders can look like with Kerkythea you can go my website (3D-Diva) and click on "Video Gallery". (since this is my first post, I'm not allowed to give you the link to click on)

 

I have free textures on the website if anyone would care to use them.

 

Pat