3Ds Max or Sketchup

[abrahamavila]

I'm fairly new to Arch. Viz.

 

 

I know a bit of 3D drafting (AutoCAD). I currently work for and Architectural Firm. And we currently have a 3rd party company do all of our Renderings.

I would like to learn 3D Arch Viz. to be more indispensable to the firm.

 

 

My question is, should I learn 3DsMax or Sketchup? Which do you remcomend?

[Sketchrender]

What's the guy your paying using?

And Max would be the industry standard.

 

Max is 6 times the price ,well was, now a yearly subscription will get you sorted.

 

Max and vray or corona.

 

All depending on what type of work you want to do and how much time you will be given.

If you get very good, you will do it for a living.

[Scott Schroeder]

Your best bet will be SketchUp + Photoshop. You'll learn it faster and it has the ability, in the proper hands, to produce just as good of quality of images as Max. You don't even need to fully render 100% beauty photo real renderings either. Plenty of highly talented folks use SketchUp to create the hybrid water color images that are insanely high quality. Check out some of the work done by Studio JDK and their talks on YouTube for some great inspiration pieces.

[Nicolai Bongard]

Im with Scott on this one. If you work inhouse with architects you rarely have enough time to make anything fancy/photorealistic both because the architects thinks their geometry works straight out of whatever package they use (it rarely does, and that could either be because of the programs or the user or both), and because you are in house thus they somehow think they can change everything up until the last minute. So it will be far smarter to go for the looser photoshop styles. Thats not to say that they do not require time or technical knowhow to pull off, its just a lot more manageable.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

I'm also suggesting SketchUp (and I don't even like it!).

 

3d is also helpful for explanatory diagramming. Circulation, program, shadow, high brow concept, anything that needs to be explained. If you can whip these out with a nice graphic feel (and consistent to the firm graphics) that could help a lot of people more often than the high end photo-real renders.

 

3d is also helpful for exploratory work. Instead of building a physical model you could give Dave a digital model, with a few variations of... cornice, or signage, or material. This stuff can be un-rendered in-SkUp styles. Or maybe some proposals need to be run by a client. SkUp can be fine for that. Especially if the old saw "you want to show a sketchy drawing so the client doesn't think it's done already" really is true. Some of your cow-orkers might be using SkUp for that sort of exploratory modelling, but you're better because they're really just casual users and never put serious time into learning it and you can help them when they get stuck.

 

I wonder if there's even a hazard in becoming the great photo quality artsy post production render guy... you might end up becoming the render department _instead_of_ rather than _in_addition_to_ your real job. And that "more valuable" might be seen as "an unnecessary luxury, let's let him go and if we really need a render we can send out for it. We used to do it that way it was fine."

 

Look around your firm and see what kind of ways people are using visual media. Be broad. If the marketing person is using InDesign to put pamphlets together don't dismiss that out of hand "oh, that's just 2d pamphlets, I won't write it down." Write it down. Churn it around with all the other stuff. Reject it properly after careful consideration. ;-)

[M V]

You can start making things in a weekend with SketchUp. Once you are comfortable modeling, try out Thea or Podium in SketchUp and see your stuff come to life quite quickly. Convincing an arch firm to spend $1200 vs $5-6000 will be an easy decision for them.

[M V]

I wonder if there's even a hazard in becoming the great photo quality artsy post production render guy... you might end up becoming the render department _instead_of_ rather than _in_addition_to_ your real job. And that "more valuable" might be seen as "an unnecessary luxury, let's let him go and if we really need a render we can send out for it. We used to do it that way it was fine."

 

You can just as easily be let go as a designer or architect. Be GREAT at what you do and create VALUE and you will always have a job, no matter what path you choose.

[Sketchrender]

I have to agree with the lads, but time will tell.

If the company you work with have the money and want to get into the high end viz work,let them buy it, or try it at least.

 

If they are sending the images out after a year to be done, I would think you should have gone for max.

Railclone , Forest Pro are great packages on large jobs and Items I can't do with out personally.

 

 

I know it's mad money, and in the right hands Sketchup can do wonders.

[Dan Norfolk]

I'm fairly new to Arch. Viz.

 

 

I know a bit of 3D drafting (AutoCAD). I currently work for and Architectural Firm. And we currently have a 3rd party company do all of our Renderings.

I would like to learn 3D Arch Viz. to be more indispensable to the firm.

 

 

My question is, should I learn 3DsMax or Sketchup? Which do you remcomend?

 

What do you want to be? Where I'm from if you want to be an architect, it's Sketchup and Revit. 3Dmax is bonus.