Is C4D Prime + Vray enough for archviz? (or modo)

[johnrygielski]

I'm just coming back to archviz and was looking for some thoughts on C4D/Vray. I like this combo because, although I love and own modo, no one really sells ready-made assets for modo and Vray renders are pretty much the standard for archviz. But the cost difference is there. So would Vray cover over a lot of the features missing in Prime that I would need for real-world jobs? Ie: subpoly displacement, IES lights, caustics, hair/fur for grass and foliage, etc?

[Francisco Penaloza]

Hi

if you do mostly still images and basic animation Cinema Prime and VRay for C4D give you all the power for a pro image, now the only thing that I would be missing is MoGraph, essentially it is design to do animation but the tool are really time saver for some modeling task, in some areas works a scatter tool in other work as itoo software railclone and so on.

But again everything depend, now if you already have Modo maybe you can cover those modeling task in MODO and then finish it in Cinema VRay combo.

[johnrygielski]

Right, I forgot about MoGraph. That's what I would use to array objects, instance trees, and scatter grass right? I can do all of that in modo, but exporting that over to C4D would negate all the benefits of proxy items, etc.

[Francisco Penaloza]

well yes exporting MODO cloner or replicator wont work, now there is some scatter scripts and plugins for Cinema, I use e-on carbon scatter, but I know there is others around you should check in C4dcafe and see what other tools you'll need to make it work.

I have tried both(in my way to distance of Autodesk products ;p) and MODO is very capable for most of my freelancer work but if I get REVIT FBX from Architects MODO get really leggy, then Cinema 4D perform better, still viewport is not that fast as Max(that is not the fastest one) but it seems to handle better big scenes than MODO.

Now what type of ready made assets are you missing, nowadays most of the big modelers give you the option of FBX or OBJ that can be used in Modo.

I use Xfrog plants in modo, some OBJ from ever motion and designconnected have a great collection of furniture OBJ friendly.

[johnrygielski]

Now what type of ready made assets are you missing, nowadays most of the big modelers give you the option of FBX or OBJ that can be used in Modo.

Standard interior/exterior things: trees, foliage, grass, furniture, light fixtures, decorations, hardware, etc. I have Xfrog trees and some assets from Design Connected and Model+Model, but I have to recreate the materials for all of them in modo. Evermotion's model collections have Vray .c4d materials already setup though. I like the idea of just being able to buy a model pack and use them; not have to set them all up first before I can do anything with them. Plus, I work in inches and OBJ/FBX scaling is always an issue.

[Janwalli]

to scatter objects, you also can use SurfaceSpread. More dedicated to scatter objects on a terrain, plus it is a bit faster comapred to Mograph. But of course Mograph still is very handy in many places.

Silva3D also has plants ready to use for Vray for C4D (shameless self advertising, as those are by me ;-)

So in general I also would say that you can do many jobs with the prime version of C4d and Vray.