Topic: Rendering Programs

[Guest]

Just curious... What program do you use for renderings??

I've been using the built-in rendering in AutoCAD and have been farily happy with the results, however, I'd like to do slightly better.  MAX might be overkill.  AccuRender might not be enough.  So...what DO you use and are you happy with it?  And most important..... is it easy to learn/use?

[Josh Nieman]

Sorry, but I think Max is the best option.  I find that it can be overkill, but only if you choose it to be.

What I like best about Max is the fact that it is quite easy to NOT overcomplicate things.  You can go true photorealism with it, obviously, as the brochures represent.  You can also stay fairly presentational...  It's all in your control.  If you don't want to mess around with setting multiple layers of specular maps or scatter method crap on your diffuse refractions... blah blah... don't use it, and you'll end up with a great product anyways.

I find the flexibility and near limitless ceiling that Max seems to provide to be the best thing.  The price tag however... is the worst thing.  Obviously, though, if it's the company, it's probably easy to win the salesman over with some "ohhhh shiny" pictures, and then they can convince the higher ups to buy it.

I've seen others and they do good stuff... like Accurender.  However, I find that the people who get it to do great stuff, are often at the ceiling of the software's capabilities and flexibilities.  No room to grow.  Max, I think, is where it's at.

Couple that with it's incredibly easy and fluid transition of an Autocad model to 3dsmax, and you got a great marriage, there.

Max also has it's popularity working for it.  I say that because there are tons of tutorials, guides, walkthroughs, resources, etc etc etc out there already.

Sorry I can't offer alternatives... I find Max to be the best choice, despite the price.

[hendie]

I use Viz, I used to use Max, but there's no real requirement for it in this company but I did get them to fork out for a copy of Viz, and since I'm not doing a great deal of complicated animations anymore Viz is just fine.
I used to use Acad for rendering but after I discovered Max/Viz, I can't stand trying to render in Acad anymore.
One of the key aspects to any rendering is the lighting and mapping ~ and after using Max/Viz ... Acad is just a major pita in those areas

[Josh Nieman]

lighting and mapping ~ and after using Max/Viz ... Acad is just a major pita in those areas

So true

Lighting, though a bit handicapped... has improved a bit.

[MSTG007]

We are currently in that realm. Testing different software's for conceptual 3D 2D design.

- Sketchup is great! for Flat surface with 3D objects on top and generic materials

- Autodesk Impresssion. 2D and Great textures

- Autodesk Revit - IMport of topography is easy and assigning materials. I love the 3d Video animation.

we use them all.

[Josh Nieman]

I'm not keen on sketchup for us, because, (probably like you, Matt) our models are actually used for construction drawings, so being able to use it will help, and a converted sketchup file will be useless.  Plus Autocad does a better job, from what I see.  Depends on what you want, though I guess.

Impression, for 2D, though, is pretty awesome.  I was playing with it a while ago in anticipation of it's shipping with '09... pretty sweeeeeet.

[Guest]

Impression is part of '09??!!?

[Josh Nieman]

Impression is part of '09??!!?

They're giving it away for free now, for those on subscription.. separately.

[deegeecees]

I've used Accurender and found it to be just a cut above AutoCads native rendering engine. For the most part it's probably what you're looking for as far as bang for your buck goes, where 3DS would be overkill, as well as a decrease in production due to the learning curve. I'm actually getting Accurender again, today. This is the third thread since yesterday where I feel like someone is inside my head.