Just for amusements sake - this is the 3 chairs with those polygons modo tags as 'coplanar' removed.
Kind of a cool image.

Maxwell's forum is for license holders only (you can surf as a guest but not post topics) so I ask this question here, hoping someone can help.

I'm confused about the pricing. There is something called the Price List on Maxwell's site which lists a V2 license at $995. But there's also a Buy Direct from Next Limit button that gives a price of $697. Is there a difference? Why would anyone choose to pay the higher price?

Is the World Cup discount applied to the $995 price or the $697 price?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Edit: I just got a reply from Next Limit. The current price with discount applied is 627 euros. Go Spain!

After reading through some of the posts on this thread I feel that breaking the Gallery section into a Gallery and WIP threads isn't as good an idea as having a separate Gallery section that doesn't have posts.

I'm trying to convince one of my clients to lean more towards SketchUp and Vray rather than going the AutoCAD Architecture route and I'd like to be able to point her to a Gallery of images to make my point. I can send her to the existing Gallery but she doesn't want to read through all sorts of comments, she just wants to see what the software can do for her.

Furthermore, with a separate Gallery, some of the spectacular accomplishments by Solo and others would be around for a much longer period than they are now.

I can do that with modo. There is a Gallery of images that are chosen by the moderators. It's very easy to flip through them to get a sense of what can be accomplished with the software.

Thanks for the quick reply Solo
I find the process of going back and forth between programs to be a real pain in the ...

Not sure if this is the right thread for this but ...

Smoothing questions:
I work in modo which is a subd program so smoothing isn't an issue (see image on the right)
But if I export out of modo as OBJ to go back into SketchUp for Vray or into Thea I have smoothing problems
I can freeze the geometry in modo but at the expense of a much higher poly count and I still get a bit of faceting
I can subdivide up to ridiculous levels and then freeze to overcome the faceting but that's just more of the same problem as above

My questions -
If I were to render the SketchUp image on the left in Vray, is there a way to smooth the object?
And - I'm told there are smoothing controls in Thea but I can't find them - could someone tell me where they are?

Thanks in advance for any info you might have

I voted yes but I also think most forums that have separate WIP and Gallery threads have two sections that are nearly identical. The modo WIP and Gallery are pretty much the same.

This is kind of inevitable. If someone posts something in the Gallery and you think the lighting isn't so great do you not say so? If you do make a comment, then that thread becomes identical to a WIP thread.

Further, someone who is showing work that you think is a 'box with a photograph stuck on the side' might consider it done and show it in the Gallery section. Separating the two sections does nothing to shunt works of a lower quality to one area and works of a higher quality to another.

One way around this is to have a Gallery section that is chosen by the moderators. modo has a WIP and a Gallery in their forums but there's a separate Gallery that is not a part of the forums. Inclusion in that section is determined by Luxology. And it's not a forum, there's no posts just the images.

Really great stuff. I appreciate the way many of these illustrators are looking to the past for stylistic influences.

@unknownuser said:

@arail1 said:

The computer I have shuts down when I try to render something in Octane

And then it smells like burning rubber for the rest of the day. I haven't seen smoke yet but ...

Gave the mouse a nuclear touch.
I promised myself I wouldn't get too much into rendering as most of my work is CAD related, but once you start it's hard to stop.
I really need a new computer. The computer I have shuts down when I try to render something in Octane (it should have a splash screen that says: Who Do You Think You're Kidding?!). This simple scene took a couple of hours in modo.

modo

@unknownuser said:

I like this one.. All Mad scientists movies were in Black & White right?

I didn't want to do any post work but I think the original black and white films had a much greater degree of contrast than this image so maybe I should have brought it into Photoshop to do that. Tonight I'll call up The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and see what it looks like.

@chris fullmer said:

That's a weird world where no one looks where they are walking....

Nah, it's such a happy and well ordered world no one needs to look where they're going.

@unknownuser said:

lol.

Looking around, I see that all employees are attractive young women. All of them.

And the other circumstances of the interview/office/job are relevant why?

@unknownuser said:

It's kinda sad in a way . .. It used to be--Back in my day (he said in a crotchety, crackly old man voice) it used to be:

Knowledge of Architecture and bulding systems
Superior Drawing Skills, Freehand and drafting. . .

Man. .. do I feel old.

I saw a help wanted ad recently that called specifically for hand drafting skills. I had this image of some older guys (I'm an older guy so I can say that) who haven't changed their ways, looking for a new hire with old skills.

I almost answered the ad but then I thought: "Go find the old smudge powder, triangles, Mayline, rapidographs? Naw, I don't really want to go back to that."

Complain all I want about AutoCAD, but it doesn't smudge in the heat.

Okay, I concede your point.

But I'm still intimidated.

@chris fullmer said:

It just doesn't sound all that extreme to me, I guess.
Chris

Extreme?

A required mastery of:

Revit
AutoCAD3D
AutoCAD Architecture
3DS MAX
Photoshop
Tekla
Rhino
Frank Gehry's proprietary 3D platform
CATIA
Bentley Microstation
SketchUp

and I've left out a few.

You would have had to work at several very different offices to acquire that knowledge. I don't think there are a lot of outfits that use both AutoCAD Architecture and Bentley Microstation. And most heavy AutoCAD 3D users hand off their work to someone else to render in 3DS MAX. Throw in Revit and put it all on a resume and it sounds like someone who's been bouncing all over the map from job to job.

And David_H is probably right - it pays $10 an hour.

Are there really people out there who have mastered this many programs?

craigslist | Page Not Found

(newyork.craigslist.org)

@unknownuser said:

@arail1 said:

These are also V Ray?

Yes. Complex app, but its quality/speed ratio is quite impressive. In fact, I'm planning on looking into how well Blender and Vray play along. Vray for SU is only 32 bit, and that's a real drag.

I wish Vray wasn't tied to the parent app. I'd like to be able to come into Vray from either SketchUp or modo, my two main programs. I can see buying Rhino in the future which would mean getting another Vray license. It would be so much more attractive an option if it was stand alone with separate plugins like Thea or Maxwell

These are also V Ray?
The warmth of the light in the first one is quite appealing.

But I think there is a visual confusion between the chair in the immediate foreground and the coffee table in the background. If they could be somehow separated I think the image would be simpler and more direct.

Is this 'paying' work? And that's why it's so different from your usual contributions?