Posts made by chedda

Ramy i built the whole model with sketchup from flat dwg's. This included the metal structures you requested. I simply made some cylinders and scaled them at the ends making tapers then rotated etc. It was quite simple. Thanks for the comment.

I like this car is it a mustang ? Rendered with Maxwell.

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Thanks frv great tip i'm hooked. Although it is only using one core in 32 bit mode is this a sketchup problem ? I know google have been a little stubborn implementing 64 bit and multi processors i think these rendering plugins would really benefit from it. If they can fix the shadow bug i'm sure high poly, 64 bit and multi processor are do-able ! Brodie what's your opinion ?

Outstanding, i am on my way to Moscow, i will find you and we will drink together and i will learn your secrets muahaha

When you say Maxwell renders a preview is this a scene preview or just in the material pallette ? Great design & render by the way i like the adjustment in one foot to stop the wobble.

Hey Jason i have an account at the maxwell forums but for the life of me i can see no way of posting a new topic. Am i missing something ? Do i have to use my customer gateway id to post ? I had made the registration prior to getting a license for research purposes.

Just drag it to the trash along with it's preference file, there are some apps like appzapper that do this for you.I think windows prefers an uninstaller as it leaves bits & pieces everywhere such as dll and registry bits (doesn't exist in mac)

Adobe layout and UI differs between platforms the mac has a different way of laying out things & methodology even in sketchup.

I think you are interested and have a lot of un answered questions, ultimately you will get a mac perhaps a mini to start, just to quench your inquisitiveness.

I have no need for a laptop but it's pretty un-deniable apple have a great line up also.

I'm sure you have bumped into some experienced CG artists on your travels on the internet who use macs.

Anti virus software eats cpu cycles and scans everything pretty much constantly including email and attachments this is not a snappy experience.

Otherwise how will you know ?

PS you can tell i am pretty much entrenched now and am a stalwart !

I only just got my license Jason, i was lucky enough to get it at a charity auction for Japan's earthquake. It was super of next limit to donate a copy ! These small things make all the difference in my eyes. I helped Japan through the red cross and got a license as well ! The forums, no not yet Jason but i intend too ! That's great news as i do have some basic workflow questions. Forums and communities cannot be underestimated in software choice.

@unknownuser said:

Well, that is a pretty penny.

I'm not sure I understand your backup method. So Time Machine is like an automatic backup software I guess that mirrors all of your data from the SSD to another drive. And if your SSD goes down you can just boot from that other drive? Is that about right?

Out of curiosity, were you willing to spend the extra money for a mac primarily because it's what you're used to using, or did you see some other advantage(s)?

-Brodie

I doubt you can build a dual xeon machine for less with the same specs and included software. Also be aware that it came under the cost of the 3 networked machines used in your benchmarks.

Time Machine is included in mac osx it makes incremental backups at certain time points allowing you to fly back in time to retrieve files or restore to a certain point.It's pretty seamless and works in the background. For double safety i use an external raid 0 array for this . For triple safety and simplicity i also clone my important drives using an app called super duper.Both these methods can be restored from although the super duper method is restoreable & bootable.

My first machine was a sony vaio i kept it for a week before i headbutted the screen through, as it kept telling me the network cable was unplugged. Since then i have never used a windows machine. I know CAD lives on the PC but for me it's just not worth the hassle.I'm lucky in my day job also uses macs (i7 imac's).I know all the short cuts now and my workflow is superfast. The mac pro is silent & beautiful (on the inside too !). There is a whole bunch of advantages IMHO the installation and lack of anti virus being some of many. Networking screensharing & sharing in general is a dream compared. Plus the best thing is never get asked to fix my friends windows machines ! There is really a ton of bonuses IMHO they are all time saving and stress levels are low which is priceless.Is it still true windows machines slow down over time ? Most IT guys rely on windows for a living this is a known fact. If you ask them they will agree that a mac based office needs little to none IT support.There are endless lists of mac advantages available on the web a lot of mac myths have been busted now.I'm sure you can find some non biased articles.I will wait for a quad core mini to come out then i will add them over time as render nodes.

This article is a little dated but still stands true: http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/why-pros-use-mac.htm

In the meantime this guy is a bit extreme but you will get the message lol

http://www.youtube.com/user/millenium12#p/a/u/0/GXz_Xa_b1I0

The 12.08 minutes was the time it took to erase my bootdrive and copy the clone back to it.Then a simple re-start

Yes the price is the catch Brodie well spotted ! I had my old G5 2.0 dual powermac for 7 years so bear that in mind !

The bare machine with ATI Radeon 5870 upgrade from the UK £5,238 (2x6 2.93 xeons)

24 GB 3x8 1333Mhz ECC $699.99 (OWC USA)

60 GB Mercury Extreme Pro SSD $179.99 (OWC USA)

The impending divorce and medical bills however were a hidden cost.

PS i just restored my boot SSD drive from the clone it took 12.08 minutes IT meh !

@designerstuart said:

great renders and a nice design too.
is the design yours?

No unfortunately the design is not mine but the architect who commissioned me. Although as always i took a lot of design decisions while modeling & texturing from a flat dwg file.I also enjoyed working on the building as i appreciated the design it really makes a change from my run of the mill residential work !

Thanks Brodie i see 3m22s i'm guessing that's not bad ? Well for sure IT guys are a weird breed that's a given, i keep a time machine backup & a bootable clone so a dead drive is pretty easy to restore in about 30 mins.

Yeah i'm loving the SSD it is super snappy for booting, launching apps, reading & writing files etc i wouldn't go back now !

Your IT guys are protecting their position by installing fear. Because it has no moving parts it is less prone to failure IMHO with less heat & noise also. Half there time they are replacing dead drives and restoring systems i expect. I work in an office of macs and we have never needed any IT support.

Also i am leading the artlantis benchmark thread at the moment, i shaved off extra seconds by using a ram disk, the new machine is certainly no slouch.

Is there a Maxwell benchmark test i seem to remember benchwell ?

The new machine was pretty quick even for maxwell but i did leave them overnight to clean up at 5000,3000 pixels, the night scene was the only really stubborn one and that needed a couple of days.
The Artlantis community has become a bit stale and i am not feeling any love from the developers. Bugs have been outstanding for too long, plus i have hit the wall with what can be done. I have an appetite for knowledge and self development. The results from maxwell can be stunning and the quality of light is what interests me.
Yes it's Daniel Craig it's my little bond homage.This is Cyprus so it's a little dusty !
I agree with the too interesting people i think next time the more obvious ones could be movement blurred or something to de-focus them.

This was a new client so we were getting to know each other a bit which added to the stress levels. The model, intermediate meetings, test renders and final output was done in 2 weeks.(while working my day job)

Maxwell seems to have a great road map and a dedicated development team so i figure it's a worthwhile investment.

I might also add that sketchup is only enhanced by it's super community, it has been my consistent modeller since day one and is a joy to use.

So here are my first renders with Maxwell Render, i was on deadline but i learn't a lot in the time frame. I would like to have added some displacement to the ivy but i was very pleased with the outcome especially for my first use.Many thanks to Brodie who pointed me in the right direction.I also upgraded my desktop to a 12 core 2,93 mac pro with an owc ssd & 24 gb of ram.I am slowly moving away from artlantis and now i find myself falling back on the powers of sketchup. C&C welcome

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You need a horizon & some entourage otherwise it's a flying in space view. The viewpoint is showing the depth of the balconies i know, but nearly always a standing eye view works nest IMHO.I like the grass, the glass needs work on the balconies. Once you have an entourage and a background image the glass will start to become believable as it shows reflections.

I like the scene although the batman searchlight could be bigger and reflected somewhere in the glazing ! I have never seen the moon in the artlantis heliodon does it exist ? Trying to emulate the moon's lighting could be tricky. How about a bluish white light source from roughly the right area ?

Ok Brodie, this interview is quite compelling:

http://architosh.com/2010/12/exclusive-autocad-mac-return/

That's interesting guys, i think in my case it might make a big difference. I often have multiple files in sketchup open at the same time. For example i often copy out a detail of a model into a new window,cmd C,cmd N (paste in place works fine). Or i can move geometry between open projects. Obviously this slows everything a little especially if you have 10 wrought iron gates from the warehouse open ! I won't get into a mac pc fight right now.There are bonuses on each side for instance i have read 3D studio max works great (more stable) under bootcamp. For now i want to stay in one environment. I believe maxwell is established on the mac while Thea has great prospects. Autodesk have made a lot of movement in the mac os perhaps the holy grail is 3D studio max natively. Building PC's is a no no for me i could never match the inside of a mac pro ! Thanks again Brodie your responses are very usefull.

(ps never buy apple ram or hd's)

Thanks for the great advice Brodie, since your available a couple more questions ! I am used to having libraries of objects that i have created.So i can create individual maxwell files and bring them into Studio after my sketchup imported model ? This file will be locked and have an anchor point or will it be lost in all the geometry ?
I understand your point with 3d studio max, but learning two new softwares looks daunting and expensive ! I work on a mac so i guess i would have to use parallels or bootcamp which i would like to avoid. Sketchup is my first love in 3D, i believe high poly modeling will be added at some point after all the shadow bug got fixed !

I have a nasty suspicion that windows is the most efficient OS for 3D work.

Olishea i will look again at Thea, it uses the GPU for rendering ? Again a windows environment i think ?

This is also the time for a hardware upgrade, i use an imac i7 at work which is ok. However my power mac G5 2.0 desperately needs upgrading in my home studio which i want to use for private work. I upgrade about every 5-6 years so i want this to be a big one ! I am torn between a 12 core mac pro and something like a boxx workstation.

Chedda