Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?
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I finally got an actual title at my job as an architectural illustrator and with that came some freedom to purchase some packages and tools, so im just trying to get some feedback to see what other people prefer....Keep in mind, I primarily use vray for rendering, but I also play with fry and podium.
-Form Fonts: This looks like a great membership but i know that you pay for a year's subscription and I dont know what happens after that...does the library of models that you download disappear or become inactive after your subscription is up...or do you have them to use forever after you download them once?
-I know plenty of texture and clipmap websites, but what does everyone here think is the best buy for useful clipmaps and textures
-Xfrog: ive seen some people use xfrog trees, but are they worth in people's opinions.
any other good stuff that anyone would think of that would be useful is greatly appreciated. Im just kind of putting together a shopping list and want to make sure I get the best buy. Thank you in advance for any help.
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form fonts does seem to have some really cool styles
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I got the European bundles of XFrog trees and they're really nice. You will have some initial work to set them up for SU. If you get the packages you should also get the tuner application to crush down the polygons to a minimum. The trees will still look good. What's also good is that with the DVDs you get all the trees as billboards. Very nice for populating the background, saving polygons by only using 3d trees in front. Last week I finished a model of a huge site which I populated with 4000-5000 trees (thanks to Component Spray). I had left all the billboards with only one face and four edges (meaning, square SU shadows) so even with that many trees the model was manageable.
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If your doing a lot of modelling id say form fonts i definitely worth the money.
I think their policy is that you have to delete all the components you have on your computer, although you dont need to go through all your models and delete them, as thatd would take an unreasonable amount of effort. If you have any more specific questions on this id get in contact with alan fraser (you can find him under the same name on here.) He's pretty involved with form fonts and should be able to answer al your questions.
As for textures, arroway would definitely be a good start. CGtextures also have a subscription service which i imagine would be quite useful for you.
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FormFonts is a subscription service - you can use the components as long as you have a subscription, but once you cancel it, you are suppose to cease using them (even on previous models). Nor may you share them with others - if you share a model with another firm, you'll need to remove the FormFonts components. That is my understanding. I've found the cost to be minimal and well worth it just for the people and cars.
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Xfrog is a nice package but you will spend really a lot of time getting them into SU.
I think Greenworks should provide a collection of trees especially for Sketchup as indeed, polycount is the issue.
Most of the time the bark/branches part of those trees (and not so much the clipmap leaves) is too complex and needs poly reduction.....Off course if SU 7 would like a high poly count more, this would be solved, but there is really no indication that this issue will be adressed in next release.
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While the content from Formfonts is of excellent quality, I am beginning to feel more and more that the recognisable FF content in presentation drawings detract from developing a personal graphic style. When most practices are using the same 3D 'entourage' (man do I hate that word), it contradicts the visual message that the drawing and the design has a unique quality. From this point of view it may be worth considering spending some time developing elements with a 'look and feel' that augments the presentation style of the particular practice or designer. (I know there are many thousands to choose from but they are very recognisable nonetheless.)
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First, thanks for all the info guys. I think I am going to go ahead and push my company to purchase the form fonts membership. I continuously use sites like archive3d and archidom but the poly counts just kill my computer...but thats a whole other stoy cause I think I can get them to purchase a beast for me ...any instight to that would be great (consider i use vray for the most part and do want to do animation)? I do at times feel like a cheater by just dragging and dropping all these models and just rendering them but that is where the industry is at right now. Dont get me wrong, I do plenty of my own modeling because you will never find everything that you want for free, but places like form fonts gives you a quick way to detail a room with little objects that make your scene come to life...i think that is what people miss in a lot of their renderings and that is why they may have a hard time making them look convincing. But in the real world, you just dont have time to model every little detail and to do it as well as a lot of the stuff on FF. But if there is anything else that anyone could suggest for me to look into purchasing...please fill me in. I feel I have a good grasp on what is necessary but I know there is a lot out there that other people know about that I dont. I mean even considering buying a package of HDR images will be necessary so anything from anyone, please. Thanks again though guys.
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For the computer: id say go with a highly clocked dual core CPU (3 GHz or higher, preferably.) 4GB+ of RAM and an 8800gtx. It should be a fairly solid setup that should allow you to work pretty quickly in SU and do other stuff at the same time.
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Go for an nVidia Quadro card if you can. They are true workhorses.
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As long as the boss man is paying, go quad or octo. And get as much ram as you can. Might come in handy. As for FormFonts, they offer a really good service for a reasonable price.
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Remus is correct. If you terminate a FormFonts subscription, then you are required to delete any cache of models you have amassed on your hard-drive or elsewhere. What you don't have to do is reverse-engineer past models containing FF components; just not extract those components for future jobs. After all, you produced those models while "hiring" the FF service so it would be quite unreasonable to expect you to wreck such work.
Incidentally, the thing about not sharing with others goes for any commercial content...both 2D or 3D. If you read the terms of use on any such site, you are allowed personal use of any purchased models for rendering purposes only. Even buying a model outright, as opposed to renting it from FF, does not allow you to pass that model on to anyone else. In fact if you read the EULA on places like Turbosquid, you are not even allowed to redistribute their freebies.
The decision to purchase or subscribe will vary according to need and workflow. The FF subscription gives you immediate access to a choice of thousands of models and textures for about the equivalent of one day's earnings per year. If, on the other hand, you only need a few dozen or a few score models and recycle them for each project, it might make more sense to buy them.
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If you can use a 64bit OS. If current software solutions at your office doesn't allow it, ensure that the hardware is 64bit capable in case you can upgrade later. Working with 3D rendering will quickly eat up your memory, if can go 64 bit then do it. (I'm now talking generally, not for just SketchUp.) The next Photoshop that's to be released soon will finally have 64bit support
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