Hello everybody!
As the title already suggests I'm looking for a rendering program. I've looked through quite some yet, but haven't come to a conclusion.
A little bit more information:
- first, I'll use it for Animation and Art, NOT for gaming! that means that I'll use primarily high-poly models
- I model in SketchUp and texture in Kerkythea (from there I can export to .obj)
- I didn't have time to learn Blender, Cinema4D, 3DStudio Max or any other professional modeling program yet, for now I'll stick with SU and Kerky
to avoid confusion, this is what I can get up with as of yet with these programs:
http://imageshack.com/a/img30/3420/zzrq.jpg
- Must be able to rigg models and animate/move them inside the program (as neither SU nor Kerky can make animation paths, etc.)
- lights and stuff should be changeable as well (like changing a light source over the course of an animation, for change of day and such)
- adjustable render settings (unlike VUE that takes by far too long for what I'm looking for)
- no size limitation for renders
- optional: addition of vfx like smoke, dust, water ...
- and it should be affordable (I'm still only a student

)
I primarily render spaceships, terrain/landscape and architecture/cities
No character animation
I hope it is understandable^^
Looking forward to your suggestions!

Cheers
Elias
Replies
than you should do something else and dont try to make 3D art...
I think you misunderstand, I already make 3D art, by using SU and Kerkythea, but now I wanna go deeper into animating
Here have an example of what I did:
http://lorddoomhammer.deviantart.com/art/Imminent-departure-376030580
But to clear things up more: I just don't want to start a different approach for modeling and texturing at the moment.
My focus here is to find a new program for rendering and animating - of course I will learn that aspects anew
I always thought that Blender, Maya, Max and co are for modeling and texturing, but needed an external rendering program (just like I use Kerkythea for SketchUP)?
I'll look into Blender and see if that's what I need
Another program that came across me was DAZ Studio, which I know is primarily for characters, but focuses on the rendering and animating aspect of 3D work. Any experience with that?
I haven't used DAZ, but from what I know of it, my guess is blender will suit you better.
If you want to do some more advanced things, then im not sure there are any shortcuts
rigging, vfx, fine granular render settings, unlimited render size etc etc all add up to quite a requirement list that simple one click renderers cant do unfortunately.
since you say affordable, i would say your best bet is probably to have a look at blender.
I also looked at keyshot, but I'm afraid that's too expensive for me
I'll give Blender (another) try, but feel free to suggest more alternatives if something comes to mind!
Download a student copy of 3ds max and download Corona which is currently free and a fully capable renderer. You can import sketch up files into max, that'll give you a starting point and go from there. I can't think of a more suited application combo for you at the price point you would like.
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