Not-so-Final Quality Renderworks

[Tom W.]

19 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

I am/was primarily a movie animator.

 

Paul I am intrigued to know how you came to use Vectorworks based on the type of thing you do. You are using a tiny fraction of the capability of the programme. There's nothing wrong with that, I'm just interested in the context. Was the choice of 3D modelling software far more limited at the time you started out? Or was there something about the 3D modelling capabilities of VW at the time that set it apart from other software?

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

14 hours ago, frv said:

If your interest is animation

Hi Francois, (I enjoy this conversation and your expertise)

 

Depicting Jet fighter combat is tricky.  It's not like 1917 when the pilots could literally throw rocks at each other.  Today it's 1000 mph and miles apart mostly.  Although I am retired for nearly. 20 years I have continued to do things pro bono that are in the National Interest in Canada.  

In 2018 I put together a team of aviation experts on the legendary AVRO Arrow.  Authors, Air Force General, Aeronautical engineers and a jet engine specialist.  They supplied the expertise, engineering, flight and historical knowledge.  I did all the modelling in Vectorworks except for characters and a few other things in C4D.  All the animation in C4D.  

It is heavy on  pyroclastic and Dynamics.

I only used what came with C4D, no plugins, etc. and iMovie to put it together.  There are twelve episodes that tally close to six hours.

Below is the Trailer to Episode 6.  I was too cheap to buy music, so I am playing the piano on this trailer.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by VIRTUALENVIRONS

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

3 hours ago, Tom W. said:

You are using a tiny fraction of the capability of the programme.

HI Tom

Your statement is correct and I appreciate that you have pointed out that using Vectorworks in its intended hybrid 3D form is a skill level all of its own.  I never really took that into account.

 

My background is mechanical design, but I am also a trained technical/patent illustrator, pen and ink.

 

In 1985 there was little choice for CAD design on the first little square Mac's, but I modelled an  F-16 on one, sent it to Dheil Graphsoft because it was crashing the program.  They called back, explained I was out of RAM, but I never paid for MiniCad or Vectorworks during my career.  They used my work through the years even up to 2017 and last year I wrote tutorials for them. 

By MiniCad 4, they were going Architectural, but still wanted a hand in other 3D areas of engineering and I gave them that. For example, when America first went to Mars, they radar mapped its surface.  The Godard space centre sent me that data to see what we could do with it.  I reconstructed a 3D crater in MiniCad from that data and presented that work in a talk at the 1992 San Francisco MacWorld exposition.

Even before the Vectorworks/CINEMA 4D combination became a thing, I used them together via DXF (~2001).  C4D also supplied free software to me at that time.

From 2001 to 2006 I led three Federally funded Historical restoration projects where a knowledge of Architecture was critical, but wall and roofs were not.  Below is a low res animation (high for the time) of the Grand Trunk Union Railway Station Ottawa Ontario, circa 1932.  I led a team of College students to reconstruct it in 2000.  The movie is nearly a quarter century old.  This is a hybrid, mostly Vectorworks, but the ornate column tops are C4D, but the pocketed ceiling is VW's.

As I have mentioned perhaps too many times, the VW's/C4D combination is amazing.

Anyways, that is how it all started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mjm]

@VIRTUALENVIRONS—Great CV!

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Hi MjM,

How did your show go in Toronto?

[mjm]

@VIRTUALENVIRONS—For my team and me: spectacularly well. Simple, quick and easy, gorgeous.

Yay 

 

 That team at NBoC did a tremendous job. Grateful.

Edited December 5, 2023 by mjm

[frv]

Just a little movie to show at what speed C4D and Corona (CPU render engine) renders in the C4D preview window. Imagine that Redshift which is a GPU renderengine should even be much faster and imagine than what the speed is in VW. 

The movie is downsampled to reduce file size. Actual size is about a quarter of a 5k monitor.

[line-weight]

One thing it demonstrates is that it's easier to reposition a piece of furniture in a 3d view in a rendering application, than it is in VW. Hopefully soon we will be able to use the 3d dragger thing to do that.

 

But yes of course that looks a much nicer environment in which to render things than using RW.

 

Having moved the chair, how easy is it to replicate that repositioning back in the VW source file?

[grant_PD]

@line-weight the link only moves in one direction.  So any moves done in c4d must be manually moved in vw.  I've taken to screen grabbing my plans after adjusting everything to c4d camera shots, and bringing in the screen grabs as a tool to re-align things.  The move by points tool makes quick work of this, but it is still another item on the to-do list.  

[frv]

I do all building modelling in VW and all terrain, vegetation and so on in C4D

Updating a building model from VW to C4D is very easy.

I do understand that for those that don't have the workload to provide for the extra costs of having to subscribe to C4D and Corona render it's probably best to get as much done in VW as possible. But its very frustrating to know that all that VW provides in terms of rendering is just an enormous hassle and set back.

If I had to cut back on costs I would go the Unreal Engine route. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzWP6o2cw73moEF7LO_KvA  has great video's/tutorials. He did mostly C4D and moved on to Unreal.

Edited December 5, 2023 by frv

[line-weight]

There was a lot of discussion in this thread about the pros & cons of keeping rendering within VW vs a third party renderer.

 

It's disappointing to see that the direct link with Twinmotion still doesn't really work: