SU Podium + Sketchup VS Max (mental ray or vray)

[ivanjay]

I have been using max for renderings for a very long time and am comfortable getting good results with my skillset.

 

However, the deadlines are always getting shorter and shorter and shorter and quality has to be maintained.

 

We have switched to Sketchup for modeling because we can lay down a concept in 1/2 the time it took in max.

 

My question is this... Anyone having luck getting really good photo realistic results with SU Podium? My clients are not looking for exact replication and perfect lighting, etc. They just want it to look like you are standing in the room and it is more photo like and less "sketchup" like.

 

Any thoughts? SU Podium just seems so fast to setup it seems too good to be true!

[Chris MacDonald]

I've gone the opposite way; began life in Sketchup and moved onto more complex renderings, etc. Podium is (pardon my french) absolutely shite in comparison to mental ray/vray.

[ivanjay]

That is exactly what I am thinking, I guess just hoping it isn't

[Umesh Raut]

And the fact that newer hardware and software combination is much faster for getting same earlier quality output; at least that's the case now, should zip you through the process. (my 2 pence)

[ivanjay]

And the fact that newer hardware and software combination is much faster for getting same earlier quality output; at least that's the case now, should zip you through the process. (my 2 pence)

 

Well, not exactly. The workflow in max is much slower. Setting up materials takes a lot of work and getting the light solution just right does as well. But it always looks really good!

[Scott Schroeder]

Well hopefully you are saving your materials to build a material library so you don't have to rebuild the same types of materials each time. You make one good wood material, you've made pretty much them all. Also, hopefully you have saved your light rigs so you don't have to re-light the same types of shots. I don't see a daytime exterior shot changing much from scene to scene. Ditto on saving the presets. Make sure you have a very speedy low quality preset so you aren't rendering full resolution and full settings just to test things out.

 

Try Vray RT out, on low settings of course, as a way to quickly see your lighting set ups.

 

Max isn't slow in terms of production. If it was it wouldn't be used in high end production houses, games, and film. People using max are slow. Note, this isn't a rif on you. Not by any means, but look at your own workflow and see if that's slowing you down and not the software itself.

 

Remember. Speed, Quality, Budget. You can ONLY pick two. Choose them wisely.

[ivanjay]

Well hopefully you are saving your materials to build a material library so you don't have to rebuild the same types of materials each time. You make one good wood material, you've made pretty much them all. Also, hopefully you have saved your light rigs so you don't have to re-light the same types of shots. I don't see a daytime exterior shot changing much from scene to scene. Ditto on saving the presets. Make sure you have a very speedy low quality preset so you aren't rendering full resolution and full settings just to test things out.

 

Try Vray RT out, on low settings of course, as a way to quickly see your lighting set ups.

 

Max isn't slow in terms of production. If it was it wouldn't be used in high end production houses, games, and film. People using max are slow. Note, this isn't a rif on you. Not by any means, but look at your own workflow and see if that's slowing you down and not the software itself.

 

Remember. Speed, Quality, Budget. You can ONLY pick two. Choose them wisely.

 

Scott,

 

No offense taken and you are right. I am not a CG artist by trade. I learned on my own to be able to create visualizations for presentations to my client. I frequently and short on time and as such although I am proficient in max, some things still do take some time for me.

 

I am also very bad about saving materials and creating a library. i cannot blame anyone except for me for that!

 

My hope was to possibly find a quick solution for sketchup. I find skethup much more intuitive to model in. Of course i can always export a 3ds object into max and do it that way.

[Umesh Raut]

I am also very bad about saving materials and creating a library. i cannot blame anyone except for me for that!

But if you save the max file at least, you still can get your materials by loading that max file into your new scene's material editor by 'open material library' by that down pointer beside 'search by name...' in the material/map browser. Then you only need to change the uvw mapping, at the most.

[Speaker]

As long as the clients are happy with what they get and you can achieve results in a faster, easier and more cost effective way then why wouldn't you be using Sketchup? Podium may not necessarly be the best choice, so I'd suggest you to look what renderer would best fit your style when working in Sketchup. You could also try to use a studio renderer. That woud mean you could easily import your models both from Sketchup and 3ds Max, and avoid Sketchups limitations.

[cafric1]

Podium would constantly crash for me so I went on to learn max. (still learning, btw.)