christosviskadourakis Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Hello dear community! I am thinking to start a professional career in the field of architectural visualization. I was just wondering wether you can pursue a career in this field by just mastering Mental ray. Is Vray such of importance to attract interest? Because I am pretty sure that mental ray can create great images. Regards, Christos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Well, clients don't usually start their emails by asking how much I am charging for Vray's rendering. On other hand, if you want to fit within existing studio pipeline, you're going to have to use what they do unless they're liberal bunch :- ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris MacDonald Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 I'd say it would benefit you in terms of getting a job in a visualisation company, generally. If you have a look at what jobs are available the majority will want VRay experience. That said, most render engines are entirely capable and will do the same job, with more or less the same kind of settings. Jumping from Mental Ray to VRay was a very easy and logical step for me. I dare say that I would find Maxwell or Corona to be just as easy. I think as long as you know a (professional, highly regarded - not podium for sketchup, etc) rendering engine you are likely to be able to convince someone to employ you given that your other talents are up to par. By this I mean modelling, lighting, texturing, composition and so on. If you're planning on going freelance, go for whatever you feel suits you and your workflow best. I personally would be very tempted by Corona if I were going freelance; but I'm not, and VRay does absolutely everything I could want it to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M V Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 Learn about art before you learn about any software. If you do this, then it will not matter what software you use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 i wouldn't employ you if you could only use mental ray unless you had *amazing work* and a willingness to quickly transfer to vray. it wouldn't be profitable to train you up on our time. as a freelancer you would be expected to be able to come in and start producing commercial grade images immediately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippelamoureux Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 There are so many assets made specifically for vray. If you can find a good converter from vray to mental ray that would save you alot of time in the future!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padre.ayuso Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Having used MR, I think what the above has been said happens to hit the nail, I'm just going to reiterate. I have used MR and it is limited. I have used Corona and it is simple, cheap and great to use. And I'm currently using VRay because it is within the pipeline I have to fit it through, and it is a learning experience but it produces great images and it has soooo many options to do so many things I had only wised from MR for 7 years. Having said that, you can go Corona if you don't want to pay the extra money for VRay (although worth it) and if you want to freelance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris MacDonald Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Mental Ray is limited? I still haven't seen anyone replicate Alessandro Prodan's work in any other software yet and that was done in 2009. Where there's a will, there's a way. Sorry, this post is going off topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 If you are looking to break into the field and seek an entry level position, vray knowledge will increase your chances of getting beyond the front desk but so would a healthy amount of scripting knowledge. Keep in mind that the software changes significantly about every 3 years so don't get too fanatically attached to any singular product going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beestee Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 I would say excellent renderings in a portfolio would go further than specific software knowledge. When we were hiring a lot, we were not too concerned with software knowledge since we had workflows well ironed out. We could get someone up to speed as long as they had a general knowledge of 3D software. But it became apparent that an eye for good renderings was critical, otherwise you were tying up the time of the better artists in checking and critiquing more than producing. There is something to be said for anyone that can make Mental Ray sing. Of all of the rendering engines that I have used, it was the most difficult because of the oversimplified tools and presets being less than optimal for producing good results in a timely manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padre.ayuso Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Mental Ray is limited? I still haven't seen anyone replicate Alessandro Prodan's work in any other software yet and that was done in 2009. Where there's a will, there's a way. Sorry, this post is going off topic. Yes off topic, but can you replicate anything like that with MR? If so, great. I agree with you, it all depends on how good you are with it. But I think the rest of the people here are giving very valuable insight and whatever the industry standard is and what companies ask for. For us, it is VRay, it was MR as of a year ago, but we found we had to go VRay as VRay became the software the rest of the pipeline was using and so it became imperative to work wit VRay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippelamoureux Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 If you have zero knowledge in any rendering engine, just start with Corona. It's one of the easiest to learn, it's affordable and can produce superb results. Just have a look at the gallery on their website. The more you learn, in any engine, the more you'll have a deep understanding of the whole process of making cg imagery. That knowledge (KNAWLEDGE, like Tai Lopez would say) will be applicable in any other software very fast after that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christosviskadourakis Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 (edited) First off all I would like to thank you all for your replies. I agree with Chris MacDonald. Mental Ray is not limited. Everything is there, but you have to find them. And that's the issue with Mr. For me, it's time consuming. A lot of people goes to Vray and support it because it is faster than Mental Ray. Beyond that, Vray is not something else than a trend. People asking for it because they heard it somewhere and somehow. They don't actually know its advantages. A lot of people left surprised when my answer to their classic question " Of course this is Vray, right?" is NO. They believe that stunning images come out only from Vray, which is totally wrong. What I get from this thread is what I was thinking. I have to make a very comprehensive guide of Mental Ray, put it on the closet and start practicing Vray. It might by handy after some years when the trend will come back to Mental Ray. And about Corona. My target is to increase the number of clients or employers and I feel that Corona will make it more difficult. If everyone asking for Vray, then give it to them Edited December 10, 2015 by christosviskadourakis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris MacDonald Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Yes off topic, but can you replicate anything like that with MR? If so, great. I agree with you, it all depends on how good you are with it. But I think the rest of the people here are giving very valuable insight and whatever the industry standard is and what companies ask for. For us, it is VRay, it was MR as of a year ago, but we found we had to go VRay as VRay became the software the rest of the pipeline was using and so it became imperative to work wit VRay. Did you not read my first reply then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippelamoureux Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 If you start learning vray...then just let mental ray go...let it go. Mental ray is free with 3ds max and people still prefer to buy vray, there must be a reason. Game engines will probably be mainstream before the mental ray trend comes back :-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Beyond that, Vray is not something else than a trend Rather long (10+ years) lasting trend I would say then.. the trend will come back to Mental Ray. Maybe in some alternate reality where nVidia's MentalImages didn't stopped working on it long ago in favour of iRay, another soon to be deceased but franchised (Keyshot,etc..) renderer. And about Corona. My target is to increase the number of clients or employers and I feel that Corona will make it more difficult Corona is far more popular than MentalRay, multifold. It's closely second after Vray and in less then year will probably equal the amount of people using it in Archviz. Outside of that, Vray will dominate for long time after all they're heading for battle on VFX field with competitors like Arnold, but on archviz field it's going to be very equal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christosviskadourakis Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Rather long (10+ years) lasting trend I would say then.. I think the first vRay released at 2002. This is only 3 years to dominate the field. Maybe not, but that's not the point of this thread Maybe in some alternate reality where nVidia's MentalImages didn't stopped working on it long ago in favour of iRay, another soon to be deceased but franchised (Keyshot,etc..) renderer. I didn't have any idea about this. Thank you! Corona is far more popular than MentalRay, multifold. It's closely second after Vray and in less then year will probably equal the amount of people using it in Archviz. At least in my country (Greece) Corona is almost something unknown. Maybe this is particularly in Greece. Sorry if I was wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Schroeder Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 I would have to say that if your portfolio had work as high of quality as Alessandro Prodan's work, then I doubt most places would care what software you used. You just showed that at the core, you are an amazing artist. Sure, I would prefer you to know Vray but at some point I don't care if you used Mental Ray, Corona, Scanline, Brazil, Micorsoft Paint, Renderman, or anything else. The one reason we've stuck with Vray, for the moment, is I finally was able to start to create a unified pipeline between all of our softwares with the release of Vray for Revit. Vray being in all 3 of our major rendering and design softwares (Max, SketchUp, Revit) is a massive plus. It now frees me up from having to do the 500 design iteration renderings and frees up the SketchUp and Revit teams from having to learn the nuts and bolts of Vray as I can export pre-made materials/presets for them from Max. It's a total win-win. That being said, if I was freelancing again or stating my own studio, I would be 99.99% leaning towards Corona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graphite Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Mental Ray is limited? I still haven't seen anyone replicate Alessandro Prodan's work in any other software yet and that was done in 2009. Where there's a will, there's a way. Sorry, this post is going off topic. I'm just goint to leave this link, right. Here. lol The Third and the Seventh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyderSK Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) The Third and the Seventh: I always need to remind myself to never read youtube comments. Drivels about incorrect turbine movement, emotional accusations of music plagiarization, CGI not being art, the piece being 'merely average' :- D Are these people for real... Edited December 13, 2015 by RyderSK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ludnid Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I'm just goint to leave this link, right. Here. lol The Third and the Seventh: I was going to the same. This still happens to be the most popular standard regarding architectural visualization today. I always need to remind myself to never read youtube comments. Asperger's drivels about incorrect turbine movement, emotional accusations of music plagiarization, CGI not being art, the piece being 'merely average' :- D Are these people for real... No. Most of them are usually just absurd critics. I tend to tag such people as psychos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredericlavender Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I also have a similar situation in which I am good with mental Ray but learning to use vray. I think we would benefit more from learning multiple softwares. I think vray would give more photo real renders but ultimately is down to how well the materials and textures are created by the user. All the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christosviskadourakis Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 Are these people for real... Brainless people... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christosviskadourakis Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 I also have a similar situation in which I am good with mental Ray but learning to use vray. I think we would benefit more from learning multiple softwares. I think vray would give more photo real renders but ultimately is down to how well the materials and textures are created by the user. All the best I totally agree with you in every part of your reply! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomasEsperanza Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Asperger's drivels Please don't use autism as a put-down, it's not necessary or fair to generalise about people in this way. The 3rd and the Seventh as a classic, but pedantic and ignorant comments about it should not to be arbitrarily attributed to Aspergers; it's insulting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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