Opinions Please. I'm debating on which software to get familiar with over the summer; have been using Form-Z for close to a year but I'm eager to pick up Maya. 3ds-max and Rhino have my attention as well but for some reason I want to get started on Maya. Pros, cons, and advice would be much appreciated.
My favorite rendering program is Brazil, followed by Mental-Ray.. Every program you mentioned was a modeler so I'm assuming that's what your really asking. Maya is free to try on the Alias site, why not download it and give it a whirl. The program you use really depends on what you want to do..
We use Brazil and Vray with 3dsmax 7. The shaders of Brazil are great but it just doesn't render as fast as Vray. Of course, nothing beats scanline.
The workflow of 3dsmax would be faster with architecture than Maya because 3ds max works seamlessly with AutoCAD. Get a subscription from Lynda.com and try out the tutorials for both Maya and 3ds max.
Good point, Max7 has good interoperability with all AutoDesk software, including Revit.
The only advantage to Rhino over Max is it's fabricating ability and command line, which if your a CAD user is nicely familiar. All three have NURBS though Rhino and Maya are nurbs based I believe. I've also heard it's fairly easy to switch from rhino to form-z or vice versa, (as a user not files) from a few people who used it back in school. Not sure myself though, can anyone confirm that?
Don't hop on Maya because you think it will give you better renderings instantly, quality of rendering, while it does vary somewhat, is attributal more to the user and the renderer not the program. You can still turn out some crappy rendering using Maya, believe me I know.
remonio's right though, try the demos of all three and see what you think.
this render simulates how light behaves in reality and should be very easy to set up. The only drawback is the render speed, but this will improve when the final version will be availible.
Maxwell is great and has great potential but I wouldn't use it on a production environment yet especially with architectural deadlines. With the GI render engines, Final Render, Brazil, Maxwell and Vray, the easiest learning curve for me was with Vray. There are also a lot of good Vray tutorials online at www.vray.info and www.aversis.be
Before you get into any global illunimation renderers I suggest you learn basic modeling, materials, lighting and scanline rendering with either 3ds max or Viz first. Most of the stuff you learn will be cummulative anyway.
Learning 3ds max or Autodesk Viz over Maya,r FormZ or Rhino could also make you more marketable because more architectural firms use either of them. I'd also suggest having a very good grasp of 3d in AutoCAD and photo editing in Photoshop. I usually have all 3 programs running when I work except when I'm using Maya.
Jul 23, 05 5:04 am ·
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what's your'e favorite rendering program
Opinions Please. I'm debating on which software to get familiar with over the summer; have been using Form-Z for close to a year but I'm eager to pick up Maya. 3ds-max and Rhino have my attention as well but for some reason I want to get started on Maya. Pros, cons, and advice would be much appreciated.
My favorite rendering program is Brazil, followed by Mental-Ray.. Every program you mentioned was a modeler so I'm assuming that's what your really asking. Maya is free to try on the Alias site, why not download it and give it a whirl. The program you use really depends on what you want to do..
We use Brazil and Vray with 3dsmax 7. The shaders of Brazil are great but it just doesn't render as fast as Vray. Of course, nothing beats scanline.
The workflow of 3dsmax would be faster with architecture than Maya because 3ds max works seamlessly with AutoCAD. Get a subscription from Lynda.com and try out the tutorials for both Maya and 3ds max.
Good point, Max7 has good interoperability with all AutoDesk software, including Revit.
The only advantage to Rhino over Max is it's fabricating ability and command line, which if your a CAD user is nicely familiar. All three have NURBS though Rhino and Maya are nurbs based I believe. I've also heard it's fairly easy to switch from rhino to form-z or vice versa, (as a user not files) from a few people who used it back in school. Not sure myself though, can anyone confirm that?
Don't hop on Maya because you think it will give you better renderings instantly, quality of rendering, while it does vary somewhat, is attributal more to the user and the renderer not the program. You can still turn out some crappy rendering using Maya, believe me I know.
remonio's right though, try the demos of all three and see what you think.
checkout
www.maxwellrender.com
and be amazed...
this render simulates how light behaves in reality and should be very easy to set up. The only drawback is the render speed, but this will improve when the final version will be availible.
Maxwell is great and has great potential but I wouldn't use it on a production environment yet especially with architectural deadlines. With the GI render engines, Final Render, Brazil, Maxwell and Vray, the easiest learning curve for me was with Vray. There are also a lot of good Vray tutorials online at www.vray.info and www.aversis.be
Before you get into any global illunimation renderers I suggest you learn basic modeling, materials, lighting and scanline rendering with either 3ds max or Viz first. Most of the stuff you learn will be cummulative anyway.
Learning 3ds max or Autodesk Viz over Maya,r FormZ or Rhino could also make you more marketable because more architectural firms use either of them. I'd also suggest having a very good grasp of 3d in AutoCAD and photo editing in Photoshop. I usually have all 3 programs running when I work except when I'm using Maya.
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