jemayes31

I work at a landscape architectural firm and we have been trying out 3d modeling, rendering, and animations. So far, we have only used Sketch-up Kerkythea for still images renderings. In my research I narrowed the modeling/rending program field to VIZ and VUE. We are looking to build our models in Autocad and then import it to outside program for rendering to help streamline the process.

To me, it seemed like VIZ works the best with Autocad but VUE had the modeling capabilites to do more organic modeling (ie, plants, topography, and enviroments). I also liked the ability to model and animate elements within the model, like a bird flying or what not.

My question to the general public is which one would you recommend? If you disagree with VIZ and VUE, I am open minded......

Maxer

I own both programs and they both have their strong points but Viz is going to be the more flexible of the two. Vue can do some remarkable things like render out billions of polygons but it has problems with the scale of objects that you import. If you plan on doing animations then you probably have or will have some kind of render farm, if that's so then Viz comes with unlimited render node licenses, Vue only comes with 5 and if you want more you have to purchase them. There are also lots of plugins available for Viz which you can't get with Vue, this will be of great benefit to you when your looking for different trees or people which Vue can't offer.

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jemayes31

Thanks for the recommendations. Do you know if VIZ can animate objects within an models and animations (person walking, plants swaying, ect, ect.)?

I had started researching rendering farms before you mentioned it. What do you recommend? Do you recommend a subscription or buy/make our own?

Also, you mentioned that VIZ has hundreds of plugins and such. Are there any specifically that you recommend for someone doing more exterior natural environments?

Maxer

Viz can do animations but there is a limit to how much you can do, Viz is a striped down version of 3D Studio Max, if you intend on getting into animating people and trees then Max is the program you will need to use. In that respect Vue is very flexible, it was created to do exactly that and it does it very well. Max can also do all of those things but it isn't automatic unless you have a plug-in that facilitates these actions otherwise you will have to manually animate trees and people which is very time consuming and technically difficult to do.

It's difficult to answer your second question; it all depends on how much animation you will be doing and what those animations will be like. If you think you will be doing a lot of animations then it will be cost effective for you to start building a rendering farm, if you only intend on doing one or two short animations per month then using someone else’s rendering farm would probably work out for you.

There are lots of plugins available for Viz and Max from people and trees to cars and other types of render engines. Some plugins that you should find useful would be:
http://www.archvision.com/
http://www.axyz-design.com/
http://www.3dmulticar.com/

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