Render package options?

Macker

I'd go for a minimum of 8GB ram, which should provide a stable and relatively futureproof platform on which to work. Processor I suppose depends on whether or not you're overclocking - but when it comes to rendering, it's all about brute force number crunching so the more powerful, the better.

solo

I would seriously suggest Thea render especially with the new Thea4SU about to be released you get a studio based renderer and a fully integrated version which is as easy to use as Podium yet has many more options, can run biased and unbiased as well as *GPU, has a robust material editor, supports animation, will support proxy's so even though you work in SU Thea studio will carry the brunt of heavy polygons in the background. Then there is the price, by far the best value for money based on what you get.

Here is a recent render setup to show how easy it is: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=48940&hilit=barn

*GPU engine still in beta at moment.

jason_maranto

Maxwell Render could be a really nice fit for your needs -- it handles exterior shots excellently and setup time is minimal. You can opt to work inside Sketchup exclusively if you like (via the Standalone plugin), however I would recommend you go with the full Render Suite... the reason being the plugin is the same in the sense you can work exclusively within Sketchup still, but if you determine you need more power you can always go outside SketchUp to do what you need.

There are plenty of tutorials starting with these: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC6E0E0B6921A94E5

I have also made a huge library of free ready-made Sketchup materials that auto-convert to Maxwell materials at rendertime, including the entire line of Arroway textures (you need to own the textures for these to work).

Best,
Jason.

Stinkie

Not great renders by any stretch of the imagination -didn't have the time. If I were to spend a few hours on these, I'm sure I could make them look rather good.

Vray was mentioned. Decent option, I'd say -though you wouldn't be able to add high poly trees, as you can in either Maxwell or Thea. Its speed/quality ratio is impressive, though. Of course, the learning curve is fairly steep. Lynda.com has a tutorial for VfSU.

Edit: I agree with Solo on Thea, btw. Great value for its price.

alton rev A#1 2012-11-29 15214400000.jpg

toynlet

@unknownuser said:

Not great renders by any stretch of the imagination -didn't have the time. If I were to spend a few hours on these, I'm sure I could make them look rather good.

Vray was mentioned. Decent option, I'd say -though you wouldn't be able to add high poly trees, as you can in either Maxwell or Thea. Its speed/quality ratio is impressive, though. Of course, the learning curve is fairly steep. Lynda.com has a tutorial for VfSU.

Edit: I agree with Solo on Thea, btw. Great value for its price.

TomDC

Thankyou for taking the time to do that! Much appreciated.

Thankyou to everyone for their input. Lots of research to complete and even more learning!

Anymore suggestions / comments are welcome.
Steve

pilou

You have also the new Octane Render who can interest you but NVidia Graphic card needing!

jason_maranto

@solo said:

Then there is the price, by far the best value for money based on what you get.

I think this can be a bit misleading -- it is a good value, but if you take Maxwell for comparison you can see that Thea is not the best value. The full Render Suite of Maxwell comes with all plugins for free (and offers many that Thea does not like Photoshop, Nuke, and After Effects... 17 in all) -- it also offers 5 free render nodes.

If you add up all the price of all plugins Thea offers, and the render node difference, Thea comes out to be more expensive -- and you could easily make the argument that you get less for your money (depending on your needs).

Each engine has it's strengths and weaknesses (which can be listed on and on) but "value" is definitely in the eye of the beholder, and depends entirely on your needs.

Best,
Jason.

Stinkie

@toynlet said:

Anymore suggestions / comments are welcome.

Don't buy hastily. Try extensively first.

BTW, and out of mere curiosity, do you have any images by your '3rd party' you could show us? If you can't -no worries.

@ Jason: one could argue that with Thea, you only pay for the plugins you actually need.

jason_maranto

Certainly true, but working in a large company having access to all of the Maxwell plugins can be useful -- with just one license you can have several people working in several different applications at the same time (via the plugins)... some doing scene setup (SketchUp, 3DSMax, etc.), others doing postwork (Photoshop, Nuke, After Effects). And with the 5 render nodes you could have as many as 6 scenes rendering at a time... as far as I can see the only thing the license is tied to is the computer(s) doing the actual rendering.

My point wasn't so much that Thea was a bad value, just that "value" is a subjective idea.

But yes, testing and research is the only way to know what might be your best fit.

Best,
Jason.

toynlet

@jason_maranto said:

Certainly true, but working in a large company having access to all of the Maxwell plugins can be useful -- with just one license you can have several people working in several different applications at the same time (via the plugins)... some doing scene setup (SketchUp, 3DSMax, etc.), others doing postwork (Photoshop, Nuke, After Effects). And with the 5 render nodes you could have as many as 6 scenes rendering at a time... as far as I can see the only thing the license is tied to is the computer(s) doing the actual rendering.

My point wasn't so much that Thea was a bad value, just that "value" is a subjective idea.

But yes, testing and research is the only way to know what might be your best fit.

Best,
Jason.

Forgive me, Render nodes?
Would I be correct in thinking these are seperate PC's linked together to render multiple scenes or a scene in a shorter time?

jason_maranto

Render nodes can be installed on all your machines in a network, the main machine with the license could be considered one render node by itself (meaning it can render) but it could also be the manager of the other networked computers.

Essentially you can render up to how many licenses you may have (in this instance 1+5) -- this can be used to render 6 different scenes or render 1 scene 6 times faster... or any combination you like.

This is particularly valuable in a large company setting because these renders can be queued up to render overnight while the staff is not using the machines for any other purpose.

A clarification of my last post -- The plugins may not be intended to be usable over several computers, that is just my experience. Meaning I have one license and use both my computers to work. While one machine is rendering I am on the other setting up scenes (SketchUp or otherwise)... It works very well for me.

Best,
Jason.

Stinkie

@jason_maranto said:

My point wasn't so much that Thea was a bad value, just that "value" is a subjective idea.

I know. And I agree.

solo

As Jason above mentions render nodes are a great asset for large rendering jobs, animations etc, Thea offers three nodes as a basic package as well as options to install full suite on two machines. My workflow is pretty simple if I am working on one large project and need to render I will use all 4 machines in a network setup to get the job done fast, if it's a single scene I just farm it off to one machine and keep working on a new project using my main rig. I have also started using Dropbox as a great trick instead of using the internal nodes I just pack my scene and paste into dropbox, open it up on another machine and hit render, thus I can close it on main machine and start next project.

solo

Just took a look at the example you posted, firstly I'd work on the materials, getting better quality seamless materials will help when rendering, I pretty much left your model as is, just added pavement and road and some tree proxy's, used HDRI lighting and background, 5 minutes setup and 10 minutes render, all within SU (not studio) no post processing.

pbacot

Pete,

That's impressive Pete. (of course these are YOUR times ) Is this with the Thea "soon to be released" plugin? I can't wait.

Did you modify the window material?

Peter

Al Hart

@toynlet said:

Hi Guys

Apologise if this is posted in the wrong section but I thought asking people who use different packages and regularly produce high quality photorealistic renders would be the best to ask for a bit of advice!
Steve

There are some sample SketchUp renderings, from various rendering packages, on this site:

Sample Models and Renderings | SketchUp Rendering

Examples of SketchUp rendering from different plugins and tips to get started.

SketchUp Rendering | Rendering (sketchuprendering.com)

I think my main observation of them is that all the packages can product good renderings one the user spends a little time learning how t set things up.