Rendering Programs

[Anonymous]

Hello. I am new to this forum, and have a question. I have been using ArchiCad since June of 07, and with no training have pretty much become fluent in it. My problem is that my Boss has decided we need to do Photo Rendering. I have played with the Lightworks, but can not seem to get the lighting right. Arrrrrgh. Does anyone have any suggestions on:

a.) Training
b.) Other rendering programs / training.

I am positive my boss would send me to a seminar, but which program do you all think s best? Thank you.

[Dwight]

What?

Nobody is interested in photorealism.

These newfangled applications like Maxwell don't make photorealistic images - they are too good to be real. If renderings were novels, then Jorge Luis Borges would be the CG Architect award winner forever.

We all want "lo real maravilloso" -- Magic Realism. We want the application to tweak the truth, making soft silk beauty out of our swine barn.

To this end, an application that lightens, saturates and otherwise texturates is going to win because it covers over modeling weaknesses that photorealism examines in detail.