In what render should I invest time (or money)?

NunoB20

Hello there, 

(once again ^^' ) I'm very new to the 3d world so please cut me some slack because this is probably an obvious subject.

I've been looking around several places but usually, the discussion is either old enough that I never even heard of the renderers they're talking about or it is about one renderer in specific so here it goes what I have in mind.

I know that there are real-time and Offline renderers and I understand the difference. I am mainly concerned about game art and not VFX and from what I have heard some people say it is better to learn and use a real-time renderer like Marmoset, but others say it doesn't matter.

I currently use Maya to learn and so I have access to Arnold, but I have heard it is way too complex and that there are renderers that do the same and are way simpler (Keyshot is a name that keeps showing up). I also use Substance Painter which comes with Iray, but for some reason, I never saw anyone in artStation using Iray to render portfolio pieces which makes me think that it is not that good.

If anyone could explain to me the overall picture of the rendering world like why are some used more then others (for example all materials in artStation are rendered in Marmoset, but scenes sometimes come from Unreal itself or maybe Arnold/ V-Ray... ) and which one should I use, it would help me out so much.

(thank you!!!)

Alex_J

if you applying for games jobs it only going to help to know unreal and/or unity.

the learning curve for the offline renders is a little higher so unless you have a need I wouldn't bother. They are pretty cool to mess with, especialyl if you get used to real time renderers, but you can easily spend an entire day just messing with a single shader and not understand half of it.

The game engines and toolbag all make use of PBR shaders, so swapping from one to the other isn't hard. I highly recommend you get Toolbag for the baker anyway, so if you like to do renders in it as well that's cool. But if your potential employer is using unity or unreal, obviously it makes sense to dsiplay your content using that engine. They all work basically the same so its not like a huge decision to make.

In general, to make your props/characters look good in the realtime engines, you use an HDRI skybox and crank up the reflection resolution, shadow resolution, and GI lighting as high as it will go. Then just use artist eye and fundamentals to make the lighting work with what you've got. Marmoset has tons of really great tutorials on their website for that sort of thing.

oglu

If you are in Maya go with Arnold. All those big render engine following the same rules. And most GPU version of them use the same tech behind from nvidia. So learn one and you know them all. 

gnoop

I would say Octane or Red Shift .   If  you plan to do  backgrounds and complex textures.   There is still a number of things that are much easier to render in offline render  than do it in Substance Designer.      

Even hi res to low  backing.   Most gamey  bakers just doesn't let you  bake something  truly complex