Lots of Vray

[Devin Johnston]

For many years I've been the sole user of 3d Studio & Vray in my office but that's about to change, we have several people that want to use Vray with programs like Sketchup and Revit. I've been asked if we need a Viz Manager to facilitate the creation of standard materials and lighting setups between these applications and to make sure image quality is consistent. I know that the Vrmat Material will allow us to share materials but how would you go about standardizing lighting and camera settings between 3 different programs?

[Francisco Penaloza]

Hi Devin,

Let me give you my old man rant

I am sick and tired of several people, architects and other asking for the same question, treating rendering like a simple CAD block. Something that you can plug and always will look great.

No, is not that simple, No is not the software. no is not Vray.

 

Now that I feel more relax I can suggest, than instead of looking for the magical light setup and, you know it won't work for each situation. Maybe you should talk with them and select a few people in your team or everybody interested, and teach them the basics of how to manage the software, a little of compositions, and color theory. so they can resolve their scenes accordingly.

 

Straight answer to your question, V Ray work the same no matter what platform are you using, interface and some features may be different or missing, but the basics are the same. A light is a light, exposure, frame buffer is always there. If you know the basics of V Ray you should be able to render the image no matter what.

[jacobwallace]

fco3d has a point if you want your studio to output consistent quality this is an issue with your teams knowledge in the mentioned software's. Practitioner with proficiency in vray 3ds max should technically be equipped to optimize scenes accordingly in any other program. However I think your question refers to your method of work. Revit supports bridging between 3dsmax and Sketchup allows for the import and export of 3DS max files.

[John Dollus]

What you need is an experienced art director instead of a dept. manager. The consistent look/feel and representation of your brand comes down to the AD.

[Morne Erasmus]

Devin, don't forget even though you can load vrmats into 3ds Max, Sketchup etc, you can't edit it in Max 2017. There's been some changes to Max 2017 SDK and they havent yet figured out a way to make the VRayVRMatMtl editor work in 3ds Max 2017.

 

Also, even though VRay works pretty much the same across platforms, it's a little more complicated than just transferreing assets between programs. Also, when the other people in the office want to start using VRay on "their" platform, they may not necessarily produce renders like yours, since YOU'RE the archviz artist. There's a LOT more involved in making a great image, than just the software you use. Just because the other people in the office want to also get onto V-Ray, doesn't mean they will suddenly overnight produce awesome images. Besides all the technical stuff involved, there's also composition, mood, etc. Some things take years to master, regardless of your chosen software

Edited October 31, 2016 by Morne

[Devin Johnston]

Just because the other people in the office want to also get onto V-Ray, doesn't mean they will suddenly overnight produce awesome images. Besides all the technical stuff involved, there's also composition, mood, etc. Some things take years to master, regardless of your chosen software

 

This is the most annoying part to me, people that think they can do what I do just because we both use a computer and they once did some renderings back in College. I've seen several people through the years try this and they always end up producing pretty crappy work. They all think it's quick and easy and don't realize the amount of time you have to invest to get good results. I don't even try and stop them anymore, I just let them figure it out for themselves.