So much software and so little time.

[Pete V]

Hey everyone,

I am an inhouse 3d/render dude at an architecture firm (i also do planning here and there, recently graduated but have been working there for 3 years full time).
Since we work mainly wiht Lumion - which is very limiting - I want to learn rendering the proper way. I use 3dsmax/rhino/Fstorm. 

There are so many programs that can be used in the archviz pipeline - substance/marvelous designer/daz3d and so on.
Now my question: Which programs do you really use? Is it crucial for you to use substance for materials? Do you need marvelous designer for cloth/curtains? Do you make your own 3d people with daz3d?

My plan was to really focus on composition/mood and realism - while getting to know Fstorm/Vray/Corona and their workflows better. Since my work at the office mainly has to be done quick and is also used during the design process (which is a good thing) I cant really take much time to take care of composition/mood there. I would like to build a strong portfolio of work that i find interesting and good.

 

with kind regards.

[Karin Skaug]

I have been working as an inhouse visualizer for an architecure firm for the last 14 years. In my area clients generally don't want to pay for more than two days work for an illustration, so that has put a brutal limit to all my ambitions. I never have the time to mess around. I now use SketchUp with Enscape because they are quick to work with, that's how I can free up most time to be vaguely creative in my imagemaking.  (But they also have a lot of limits, so there is still much I can't do.)

[Scott Schroeder]

Short answer is no, you don't need any of those tools. Long answer is yes, you need those tools (sort of).

With the sheer amount of available 3D people on the market, you do not need to use Daz to create your own unless you are in a niche visualization field. One of our aquatics consultants uses Daz as the people they need, pool people that work well with slides, splash pads, water parks, etc are not necessarily readily available in either 2D or 3D format. Outside of that, it's far cheaper to purchase people than for your company to pay you to create them.

Substance is a great tool to learn, but at the same time the resources available on Substance Source fill the need for most of your needs. Why pay someone to create something you can download? Unless you need to create specific materials that the designers are picking, you only need to know Substance at the high level. Though of all the software listed, this one is probably the most important to know at some point in your career. If you have interior designers on your staff, they will benefit quite a bit from someone in the studio knowing Substance.

Marvelous designer isn't something you need to learn unless again, you need to fill a niche need. There are just way too many readily available resources to purchase that with far offset the cost of you learning software enough to get good with it to use it in production. For 99.99% of your needs, a small set of purchased curtains will suffice. For that .01% custom need, there are people out there who know the software that you can just contract out to do the custom work. Me paying someone for 8 hours of work to create a custom asset is far cheaper than me taking time to learn software, buying the software for a rare use need, and then actually creating the asset.

You need to pick software, stick with it, and build a solid pipeline around it. You've listed 3 rendering engines, you don't have time to mess around with all 3. Pick one, they are all equally good, and use it. 

Lumion isn't exactly limiting, we have people in our firm that can produce works with Lumion that rival quite a bit of what can be produced from Vray. The key is that they know Lumion really well, and when to do some of that extra work in Photoshop. They've stuck with it, built a functional pipleline, and stick to it.