better renderings

[carpalmer]

curious to know what rendering software Vectorworks users turn to for higher end renderings (ie: like the ones you see in the architecture magazines - soft shadows, depth of field, etc, etc...) also for blob shapes modeling. Anyone on 3D VIZ, Maxwell? What's the feedback?

Most interested in modelling in Vectorworks and exporting to another software.

Thanks

Carpalmer

[grant_PD]

What about Renderworks makes you unhappy? The reason I ask is that there is always a trade off in results to process. When I'm in a super crunch I just don't have the time to port back and forth between rendering/modeling programs, and so have tried to find workarounds for VW's sub prime rendering capabilities.

Shadow mapping will give you soft shadows, and you can get them softer in Photoshop. Depth of field is also achievable in Photoshop MUCH quicker than rendering it.

[jeffroyer]

grant,

can you elaborate on the depth of field technique with photoshop?

[islandmon]

Agreed ... bits & pieces of various renderings can be compiled in Photoshop to produce good effects.

Simply using various Layer overlay effects on a single Lo-res image works great:

http://www.fractalnet.org/gallery2/v/FRACTAL/FRT_Xao042207.jpg.html

[grant_PD]

If you're doing final output as a 2d file (ie. NOT a vrml model, animation, etc) then you're creating an image. There is no faster or better way to manipulate images than through photoshop. By combining their adavanced masking capabilities with color correction and filtering, one can take an average render and do some pretty amazing things with it. Lighting effects, depth of field, atmospherics... if you peruse some websites of photo retouching, you'll see that these are all effects created in the "post" phase of photography now. In fact, a good friend of mine who works in the field tells me that most photographers these days are instructed to shoot the subject "medium" (meaning nothing dramatic, everything in focus, even lighting) so that the retouchers can have more freedom to create looks.

Depth of field, as I understand it, is a by product of the lens of a camera. What we percieve to be depth of field is a successive loss of focus (blurring) starting at a certain distance away from the viewer.

[jeffroyer]

thanks Grant. I have a photog friend that I think I can lean on for some free training!