Maxwell Render vs Lightworks vs Artlantis vs ??

[Arcadia]

I am a designer working almost exlusively in residential. I don't have masses of requests for high qaulity photorealistic presentation drawings but would like to get more and try and promote this aspect of my business and I have a job coming up I need to do some images for so now is the time to decide. I have got some good results from Lightworks but its slow - especailly getting the lighting right. What are the advantages/disadvantages for maxwell Render and artlantis? I'm leaning towards artlantis.

How much quicker is artlantis over lightworks?
Is the standard library of shaders/objects that comes with artlantis sufficient or will I need to spend hundreds of dollars to get the extra libraries?
Do the material and textures I have created in Archicad transfer across to artlantis?
Can I place objects in maxwell?


Any tips or help with this decision would be appreciated. I'm yet to download a demo of either program as I don't want to waste my time with the wrong one.

[Anonymous]

Arcadia wrote:
I am a designer working almost exlusively in residential. I don't have masses of requests for high qaulity photorealistic presentation drawings but would like to get more and try and promote this aspect of my business and I have a job coming up I need to do some images for so now is the time to decide. I have got some good results from Lightworks but its slow - especailly getting the lighting right. What are the advantages/disadvantages for maxwell Render and artlantis? I'm leaning towards artlantis.

How much quicker is artlantis over lightworks?

This is not important, cos u must know what u need
But workflow in artlantis is 100 times better then in lightworks (ac is bad for texturing) and it renders faster. When u see great artlantis image, u must know that image was edited in some program like PS.

Is the standard library of shaders/objects that comes with artlantis sufficient or will I need to spend hundreds of dollars to get the extra libraries?

U dont have to spent hunder dollars for textures cos u can use http://www.pixplant.com/
With this software u can create your textures in no time... excelent program

Do the material and textures I have created in Archicad transfer across to artlantis?

Yes, but if u use that textures u will never create higher quaility renders

Can I place objects in maxwell?
Yes u can but my first rule is to finish modeling in MODELING software and to render in rendering software ^^



Any tips or help with this decision would be appreciated. I'm yet to download a demo of either program as I don't want to waste my time with the wrong one.

I start using vray and everybodys says its most complicated render cos it have a lot of adjustments with lighting, shadows etc but i must tell u that is power of vray. U can always put HDRi image and have quility lightning.
I will upload my first test render and this image was rendering for 15 minutes in much bigger resolution then in this post. Only thing is that u cant use this with archciad cos there is not archciad vray addon so other modeler must be used.
I tryed to use sketchup and sketchup is terrible if u have other geometry then cubes. When i imported this model in sketchup it was terrible expirance. i was not able to move and rotate cos sketchup is very bad in complex scenes with lot of poly....So i tryed rhino and rhino was spining this model like it was only 1 little cube.



image attached is created in no time, no post edit in photoshop from me (compltly noob in this software)


I can tell u to try ARTLANTIS. It is fast, time saver, works with archicad, export to PS, have its own shaders, It will be probably best solution for u. Dwight is finishing his book soon, take it !

[Arcadia]

Wow thanks for the detailed response. I wouldn't look at v-ray if it's not compatible with archicad. Nice pic by the way.

[Dwight]

RE: the 'nice' pic.

The bile of envy rises in my throat.

The light is so wonderful.
Unearthly.
I would have to work really hard in Artlantis to create that!

[Anonymous]

I've just been playing around with VRayFORC4D and the results you can get are amazing, as Necko has pointed out. But it does make for a longer workflow, so for most Artlantis or maxwell would be better options.

[Arcadia]

Well I downloaded the trial version of Artlantis and I'm not as impressed as i thought I would be. Sure I would need to use it for longer to get good results out of it but I'm not convinced that they are going to be that much better than the good results I'm getting from Lightworks. While the preview feature is good I find I prefer the archicad working environment and being able to model on the fly as i need to to improve the image I am working on. Given the cost of it and how much money I already spent on software this year i think i will stick to Lightworks.

The attached image is something I did after only about 4 months of using archicad/lightworks. I don't see how Artlantis would be significantly better.

[Dwight]

That is pretty good.

Send me your Archicad Archive model to find out how long it takes to improve on in Artlantis.

PM me to work out the details.

[Dwight]

I sort of lost my steam on this one when I had to recreate the landscape.

Tried one after dusk with five lights and a sun-just-set. About fifteen minutes to set up and ten to render. Sort of an homage to my neighboring Unitarian church having similarities in its design.

[Arcadia]

Thanks for the effort Dwight. This was an interesting excercise from my point of view. I do like what you produced and in some ways there is a bit more realism in your version. I have to admit though I prefer my version There seems to be something 'softer' about artlantis and I quite like the shaper edged/contrasty look of the Lightworks results but that's just me. I'm definetely going to stick with Lightworks at least for the time being.

[TMA_80]

Hi Arcadia!

the only two plugins that work 'inside the box" are :

maxwellrender or shade plugin...as for maxwell here are some comments:

this is really a very good plugin,and the result...(chek the maxwell gallery )

you don't have to quit archicad and use another software, all you do is inside archicad ( set the material there, lighting settings, render directly from archicad....etc) however the downsides are:

1- maxwell renderings will take time, but when you hit render it will open an independent rendering window and you still have the possibility to work in archicad in parallel ( to some extent).

2- using archicad material will display the material texture, using the own maxwell materials (mxm's) will not display the attached textures.

3- some options are missing in the ac plugin ( instancing , viewing hdri's in the ac3d window) , displcement is not well handeled there.

IMHO, it worth looking at it as it is nearest at what you are looking for