3-D Rendering Advice

The reason autodesk makes Max and Maya is because they bought them. The same way they bought softimage, ecotect etc…..

It doesn’t seem to me to be so much of a compatibility strategy but just becoming the largest modelling conglomerate.

Anyways, my experience is that Max is an awful modeler. But I don’t really think that the Max/Rhino comparison is a good one because they achieve different things. Max is form finding and visualisation. Rhino is for getting work done though it is fun too.

I will say that it seems like people in the rendering industry who have a basis in design tend to do do the modeling outside of max and then import it. Although right now I can only think of Peter Guthrie’s name.

I agree. I’ve found that it’s good to have a little understanding of many programs in this industry. If you want to be a designer, then it’s good to understand all of the techniques available. If you want to specialize, then by all means find the program that works best for you…obviously this is debatable which is superior in it’s own right.

I also believe, as stated by others earlier, that SketchUp is the best way to start out. It is by far the easiest to learn and begin playing around. Some then move on to more difficult to learn, but more powerful programs. Others have gone much more in-depth in SketchUp (Daniel Tal has a great book). SketchUp graphics aren’t nearly as good, unless you start playing with the different rendering engines available (we started a discussion about this a few months ago in the SketchUp forum). For modeling I began with SketchUp and moved onto 3ds Max, but now go back and forth depending on the project, timeline, graphics output, etc.

But Nick put it best in saying to make sure you focus on fundamentals. It’s easy once you start playing with any new technology to get caught up in the bells and whistles and forget about design basics. Many people make this mistake (including myself), so it’s good to constantly remind yourself of your design techniques and goals. But good luck in the search Kelli!