Which render application is fastest to setup?
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@frederik said:
Although I do believe - and agree - that Podium currently is one of the fastest render applications to setup, you also need to remember that it has its limitations when it comes to material creation as well as other limitations, which IMHO doesn't compensate for the easy use and scene setup speed...
kim,
for this to be of any consequence you have to assume you do want to create materials. i for one do not want to waste time doing so. i prefer using the materials available to be able to focus on the architecture.in the end it boils down to how good are the renders generated with X or Y application and how much time are you willing to spend on them.
cheers,
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Edson,
I agree with you... I also prefer spending time on architecture and only use already made material libraries, but to my knowledge Podium doesn't have that many premade material libraries...
Besides, materials are just one of the limitations... I did mention other limitations as well...
(i.e. lack of using HDRI, spherical background images, high poly 3D components, proxies and more...)I'm not trying to downgrade Podium... On the contrary...!!!
I have a high respect for it... The ease of use etc... But in fairness to other render applications, you need to be aware of the limitations as well... -
kim,
i am sorry if i my implied in any way that you were downgrading podium; i know you were not.
podium does not have any material libraries (although it comes with plants and light fixtures libraries), and this is fine. everything is done within sketchup with its own materials or importing better images to use as textures. to my money, podium has all the features i need and with it i can produce exactly what i need within the time frame that i can afford.
the reason i gave up on all the other rendering apps i tried was the need to tweak a lot of variables to reach reasonable results. besides that, i prefer not to export anything --more steps, more trouble-- but to do everything inside SUp.
but again, this is just my opinion.
cheers.
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Maxwell definitely in about 4 or five steps you can render within an hour have reasonable quality architectural renders, but if you want to use materials with maps and things and other features ..multilight etc ...its quite a long learning curve.
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Hi Kim and Edson,
Fairness to both apps, Kerkythea wouldn't come with mat libraries either if the generous users and members of the KT community didn't create and share them (which is, of course, a great thing and this way indeed you can sa that it "comes" with these libraries).
Having said that, I have to admit that I do not render too much nowadays (lack of time - even for modeling) but I use Kerky when I do.
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Thanks for the comments!
My big consern about Podium was the "missing" materiallibrary, that other app. hase. But maeby it's just a matter of practice?
For my use it's not a must that all renders are totaly photorealistic, it's more to help illustrate the architecture/spaces!
On the other hand it's nice to have the opportunity to make really nice pictures, and I know how nice renders some of you guys can make in podium, so I just have to practice. -
hello, so you get to prove that I agree with Podium is probably the fastest engine for SketchUp, but I think it is time we must also take into account the quality, not just the speed, it is my opinion.
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From time to time there are topics like this and the "result" is always the same; it cannot really be decided.
For a rendring guru like Pete or Kwist it's always a kind of "choice" which app to use and which is the most suitable for a particular job. For us, puny, mortal humans it is often enough to learn one or two of them (and the "level" of this learning is always so different) so we cannot really contribute with relevant opinions.
There might be several considerations when choosing from the so many renderers;
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ease of use (for a total newbie at rendering)
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speed of setup the scene / time of rendering
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available tools (like alpha channel support, bump or displacement maps etc).
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"quality" of render indeed - but then also what to render;
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architectural scenes - interior/exterior
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small objects with only shininess (like with hypershot)
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animations etc.
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price
and we could go on with the examples.
So I am looking forward to reading a long topic again guys...
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Gaieus - That's also why I was curious about the setup time!
A lot of tropics about render app. is about time/quality and that I found out by trying (speed)and looking i galleries (quality).But setup time is very important for me, and then the render process can run when I'm going home!
Thanks again!
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Sure I know - thus the topic subject you chose.
This was rather for the others - and just wait till everybody puts down their two cents!
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When I talk to anyone who is thinking about getting into rendering, I always point them towards Podium. I use Vray quite a bit, but in Vray, I end up spending at least an hour doing setup. For every different faceme component in my scene, (which is usually a lot) in Vray, I have to go in and add the clipmap manually. I spend time tweaking reflection and HDRI, as well as messing with textures.
In Podium, it's automatic. Also, as long as you have your bumpmap, or specmap in the same folder as your texture, and it's named properly, all your sketchup materials (non-reflective) are ready to be rendered the second they are applied. Also, with 1.6, Podium has become a lighting fast render engine.
Will Podium outshine Vray or Maxwell in the quality department? No, but it's close enough to justify the time saved in setup and rendering. Especially for someone new to rendering and thin on patience.
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Definitely a good analysis of the issue. I was also glad to see that in Kerkythea, alpha masks can be used for clipmasks which then saved a bunch of time because I didn't have to create them manually when I didn't have them.
Little tweaks in a program like that can inded save time and patience.
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since your question is fastest to set up i will go with Podium definitely. I tried them all.. and another thing the learnbing curve is pretty simple, however noob you are, you can learn it in an hour or two.
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I might have to play devil's advocate w/ the podium crowd. Maybe it's just my workflow but I find having to assign each object (rather than material) a reflectivity to be pretty cumbersome. This wouldn't be so bad if I could just use Select Similar Material to select all my glass, for example, but if you work w/ a lot of groups/components you have have to go inside of those groups/components to select the faces you want to assign reflectivity to.
W/ Maxwell, which I'm using currently I can just tell SU that all the glass should be rendered w/ the Billy Bob's Glass material when Maxwell renders it. I can assign all of my materials to sync up w/ Maxwell materials in about 5 minutes and know that exactly what the material will look like once it's rendered.
Where Podium beats everyone, hands down, I'd say is w/ learning curve. Who can't understand a reflectivity slider? And you can, in fact, get some very good renders from it. But what benefit it has w/ regards to initial learning curve I think is hurt by the fact that there's still a learning curve to figuring out what sort of reflectivity each of your materials should have and what they'll look like when rendered.
I gave up on Indigo since you seem to have to learn everything from forums. Kerky was nice to use. Unfortunately the only rendering I tried crashed and I got Maxwell before I was able to test it out more but I'm sure it's a good program.
-Brodie
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As mentioned, I've also been playing with Artlantis.
I know that the quality can't beat Vray, Maxwell and other big renderapplications, but the setup was fast and I realy like the real-time window where the light and materials can be adjusted until the result is good enough to render.
Artlantis has announced a new version in january where quality is improved and faster rendering.
The attached image is rendered in Artlantis as a test!
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I have been using Bur's Su2Pov3 plugin with success as to quick predictable renders of my Su models. I organize my model and use layers and components to paint similar materials. Su2Pov3 works with Su textures and allows global setup of finishes for colors, textures and glass. In addition you can bump, reflect, etc. Su's materials for rendering. The plugin provides spot, and point lights in addition to Su's sun. On my system use of the plugin is not perfect, and I have been unable to come close to Solo's simple renderings on this site (that may be because of the level of my ability not the renderer), but it is quick, predictable, simple to use, works in Su, and has WOWed my clients. Some models must be exploded prior to rendering, and occasionally the Su2Pov output must be edited to be processed properly in PovRay. The state of Su's ground (per style) is ignored. Perhaps a bit buggy for a neophyte user.
I have tired podium and kerky (didn't like it), and for now am sticking with Su2Pov3. With what I have learned about it since, perhaps the current version of podium is better then the one I evaluated. Maybe I'll try it again some time later.
This is a straight render without any "setup" executed to meet a deadline.
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Ark, Your render is a good working interior presentation for minimum setup. I have problems with interiors. The attached render was my second attempt. It is a detail of a master bathroom. I spent a ton of time with little to show. The render (this actually was the best of several) has the wrong mood, too much noise, and bad accessories. I had to deal with back faces, interior lighting, reflections, and transparency. Didn't use this in the Client presentation. Hope to get better, perhaps the next one. PovRay is a render engine without real time control, but the plugin is setup to produce fast, test renders.
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artlantis is a very good app, very easy to learn and use. its problem is, like others, its price tag.
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