Landscape architecture, machine modelling and rendering

jorgebaiaomiguel · 20 Dec 2012, 04:41

HI All,

First of all thank you for all the knowledge advice and resources I have absorbed from this community. My experience with sketchup is pretty recent, I have started about 3 months ago helping my partner modelling her project alongside with the development of ideas and hand drawn sketches.
I decided to go with sketchup because it looked simple and with aid of render plugins the final result is pretty decent. Although I had a bit of trouble generating terrain from CAD reference lines.

Now I have the model finished but not textured, well only the trees bushes etc because its species specific.

And my question is what's your thoughts and advice for a rendering plug-in affordable good and with a good learning curve.

I have looked at su-podium and maxwell tryouts and I was very very impressed with maxwell as I have a background in physics, lighting and broadcast optics and all that stuff so I felt pretty good using it.

the specs for my machine are here

http://valid.canardpc.com/2621744

As for the final product I am expecting to produce photo realistic shots of the model. a walkthrough would be awesome but I don't think Maxwell has that feature.

thanks and merry Xmas