JRH

Hi, I'm looking at the possibility of working with vectorworks and the vectorworks edition of cinema 4d for film/television previsualization. My interest would be in taking 3d versions of set plans from the art department and adding character blocking, special fx where required, potential camera angles/lense choices/dolly/crane movements, basic lighting. I'm just curious before I commit myself to the learning curve as to what degree this combination is being used in the film/television industry for the purposes I've mentioned. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks John

Hi, Thanks for the detailed and clear response. On the one hand, for some work, I would only be interested in the geometry for previsualization. I'm sure in other situations the ability to import lighting info as well as geometry and to be able to render a photorealistic sequence would be extremely useful. When I posted the original message I wasn't aware of the Vectorworks edition of Cinema cd4. It makes Cinema cd4 a very interesting and exciting possibility, especially if it also will eventually support fbx files. Thanks again John

Hi, I don't use vectorworks. Never heard of it until I saw that the Directors Guild of Canada of which I'm a member is offering a beginners course in it. So I've read a bit and see it's for art department purposes. Here's my question. I'm a director getting into using a programme called Motionbuilder for previsualization. It's a character animation programme that allows me to set up a scene and cover it from different camera angles as it would be done on set. Motionbuilder has the ability to import dxf/obj/3ds files and I've read that vectorworks can export dxf files. So now I'm getting really excited. If I can take the dxf output of an art department's drawings and import it as 3d objects into Motionbuilder then I can set up some incredible previsualizations. I've read the article on how vectorworks was used for Madonna's set and that's what I'm thinking of but by bringing it into Motionbuilder I can add characters and special effects. I wanted to know what the dxf file would be like compared to what it is in vectorworks. Is there an example file I could download from someplace that's a dxf export from vectorworks that I could get hold of and try to import into Motionbuilder? Any comments on other people's experiences if they've tried anything like this would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance. John