Please help-Rendering questions

[Anonymous]

People,
1.Can someone tell me with certainty which rendering application to use along with ArchiCAD besides Art-Lantis which is OK but I hate to pay for the extra shaders?
3D Studio?
VIZ 4?
2.I have ADT 2004 that comes bundled with an application called VIZ Render.The results when rendering ADT 2004 projects is very satisfactory to me so I was wondering whether I could somehow use VIZ Render for my renderings since it has quite a lot of materials pre-installed plus the fact that it can exchange materials with ADT 2004.The thing is that it can only open .drf extensions and can 'merge' .3ds/max. SInce it is bundled with ADT when I want to render a drawing I 'link' it to VIZ Render from within ADT.I tried to save a building as .3ds from ArchiCAD,then opened it in ADT 2004 and then linked it to VIZ Render but I didn't have much control over the objects.Anyone with a better idea?
3. Let's suppose I create 2 doors in ArchiCAD.To these doors I assign different materials to each one(eg. Wood Pine and Wood Oak).If I use VIZ 4 or 3D Studio will I be able to change each door's material seperately even if they are on the same ArchiCAD layer?
Do these apps (3D Studio and VIZ 4) have materials' libraries pre-installed?
4. Is there a way to find Art-Lantis Shaders somewhere on the net or create my own?

[stefan]

(chris, I tried to PM you, but got an error - so I write it here)

chris_pap wrote:
Stefan,
I occasionally use ADT 2004 which comes bundled with VIZ Render.I am not sure about how similar VIZ Render is with VIZ 4 or 3D Studio Max.
The thing I like about VIZ Render is that I can add materials from ADT and also I can create my own materials based on pallettes (bricks,rocks,earth,etc.). Plus the fact it has ready-made materials like concrete,bricks,metal and stone etc..
Does VIZ 4 or 3D Studio have this ability?Can I create materials?Do they have materials pre-installed that I can use?

VIZ & 3ds max can create materials, but they also have a complete modeller, animation tools, full access to all parameters (which VIZ Render does not have).
In short:
3ds max 6 = everything that is inside VIZ Render, except for the file-linking. This has been availabel for subscription (as it wasn't finished with the release of max6).
VIZ4 = the old version, which is very, very usable, but has a few big limitations: it doesn't read 2004-DWG files. You have to export them to 2000/2000i/2002-files from AutoCAD. ArchiCAD writes these DWG-files just fine. And it doesn't recognise drf-files.
VIZ 2005 will be released today, which adresses the compatibility problems.
And the material library included with VIZ4 or 3ds max 6 is huge. It's everything from VIZ Render plus much more. The only thing VIZ Render has in favor is that it's included free with ADT.

chris_pap wrote:
Do you know of a way to import a building I created in ArchiCAD to VIZ Render? (It only opens .drf extensions) but can "merge" .max extensions as well. If I save my 3D perspective as .3ds from Archicad and import it in ADT 2004,when I try to link it to VIZ Render only the camera and the lights appear. Any tips on that?
Thank you in advance Stefan

Export the ArchiCAD model as DWG (do it from the 3DWindow to have it in 3D and then open in AutoCAD ADT2004 and link to VIZ Render.
When you use 3ds max3/4/5/6 or VIZ3/4/2005 you simply export to 3ds and open in VIZ/max.

Is it more clear now?
Stefan

[Anonymous]

Stefan,

Yes thank you very much..It is clear now that I should get 3D Studio.
What about the Art Lantis Shaders question?And what about question 3?
Thank you in advance

[Djordje]

chris_pap wrote:
Yes thank you very much..It is clear now that I should get 3D Studio.

Cheaper than Art•Lantis shaders? 😉 Your Autodesk dealer must be crazy ...

[stefan]

Djordje wrote:

chris_pap wrote:
Yes thank you very much..It is clear now that I should get 3D Studio.

Cheaper than Art•Lantis shaders? 😉 Your Autodesk dealer must be crazy ...

I don't think so. He'll probably convince you to buy subscription with it and then you are an eternal paying customer.

I never saw the Art*lantis shaders up close, but I can assure you that the amount of available materials in max/VIZ is huge. I would think that Art*lantis would be delivered with a decent set of materials as well. After all, the speed and ease-of-use are unusable if the content is not there to make it look good.

You get what you pay for, in a certain way...

[Anonymous]

I use Cinema 4D XL from maxon.net... It is faster/easier than Max in my opinion...

you can see some results here

my website:
http://www.geocities.com/andronikos916


if you have questions let me know...
cy

[Eduardo Rolon]

I have Viz 4, Artlantis and Cinema 4D. IMHO I would recommend Artlantis and Cinema 4d. You can get them both for the about same price that Viz and then you have one program that you can use for good renderings when you don't have much time (Art) and another for when you need to create something more professional (Cinema). I would not consider buying a program on just the amount of textures it has since I usually create my own and all three lets you create them.
Since you have ADT and it has the "Viz light" version I would just spend some time on learning how to create textures on both. Remember that shaders refer to the mathematics of how the material handles lights, shadows and colors. Artlantis shaders are a collection of predefined materials but they are easy to create with just the basic tools.

[stefan]

I'm not going to make the full pro/contra on Cinema4D versus VIZ/max, but I can assure you that these two applications are both capable "animation suites": they are able to be used for modelling, rendering & animation, whereas Art*lantis is only a rendering application. Hence the big difference in price and the limitations in Art*lantis.

If I would have to buy some rendering tool now, I would probably get Cinema4D 8.5 + the Advanced rendering plugin (together it will be less then $1000). But VIZ 2005 which is released this week, is a good alternative: $2000 (including Mental Ray and a large part of what is inside 3ds max 6). But at this price-level, you can also get Maya 6 Complete or the (new) Softimage XSI 4 Foundation. Both including Mental Ray.

The point is if you want the additional power (and complexity) of a full 3D-animation tool, instead of just a quick and easy rendering solution (which is what Art*lantis is used for).

Choices, choices.

[Anonymous]

What I have just done is copy the materials ADT uses from their folders (BMPs and PNGs) and pasted them in a new folder within the Artlantis Shaders Directory.
So when I want to apply a material Artlantis doesn't have I use the ADT materials.What's your opinion on that?
I must say that the results are pretty satisfactory to me.
Has anyone tried it before?

[Eduardo Rolon]

chris_pap wrote:
...I must say that the results are pretty satisfactory to me...

That is the trick Once you get tired of that solution or it is not satisfactory then you can start the cycle again with another program.