Maya has some nice features bit the nodal texturing system gets on my tits. I switched Max straight back to menu systems when the introduced it.
It is great for complex materials but a pain for working quickly.

It is the renderers that hold programmes back.
Vray has become pretty dominant now, there are a few others to but if software isn't supported by the major players then they just can't become pro tools.

The massive studios often write their own renderers but then their versions of max, maya etc are pretty far removed from the out of the box versions anyway.

At the end of the day, if you want a job in 3D then the easiest way is to learn an Autodesk bit of software. That being said it is all largely the same principles, switching from Max to C4D took about a week of getting used to it.

That looks like an immense headache from a starter perspective but i'm sure they suit sculpting after some time with it hugely - 3 grand isnt awful for high tech modelling gear anyways

Interesting to and fro about software, ive been all max for 13-14 years and ive grown to hate it but cant get my head into anything nice, like heady i wish id learnt with maya as those two were the contenders at the time (maybe softimage also).

I've been looking hard at Modo now and even watched some training on it, and trying to force myself into Zbrushes UI more and more. Despite Zbrush being sometimes incomprehensible to a beginner its approach to UI does make sense, completely customisable, very friendly for the initiated and some of its tools are now so unique and so useful it's becoming outright indispensible particularly for videogames - dynamesh and remesh to name but two features that make just about anything do-able and get round most of the traditional difficulties found with sculpting apps. Mudbox, however, is gaining ground there too with some very inviting features for painting, but then if you want painting you could look at Mari.. it goes on forever.

Not to even start on the newer straight-up videogame-centric texturing tools like Substance Designer/Painter and Quixel Suite that are without doubt remarkable and gamechanging pieces of software.

And there's headus for the UVW work and wotnot.

I suppose i'll find myself using a proper personal collection the more i get back into the art side after being more generalist and light on everything for so long, mainly excited at getting something made that i can go at with Quixel atm for game use, just need to justify whatever i make as going towards a larger goal, as there's a pile of evermotion scenes i need to process into Unity-friendly things for that larger goal

CGPersia is a lovely place, and its sister site CGPeers.com should without doubt be investigated at the turn of the the month as that's usually when it takes new people on...

I have had it up to here with Cinema 4D.
Fucking fed up with its shite render engine and mental layout of everything.

Going Maya to Max was a challenge but getting anything working in C4D is a nightmare. Even with Vray it is shit.
Nothing makes sense. 8 days on the thing and my wrist/index finger are totally fucked from the excessive menus.
Can't wait for this project to be over. A solid 5 weeks back using max up next.

I've not seen much want for it in pro scenarios but in education it is very popular, for obvious reasons.
Long term it will gain traction I think. It is good software but always a bit behind the curve by its nature.
Half the work I do could easily be done in Blender, I just know 3ds better so stick to that.
Plus Auto desk have a very, very loose attitude to piracy.
Auto desk know they make enough off big, western studios and let the smaller or Eastern piracy slide.

Have been using Vray for years now so PBR workflow is fairly standard, although how deep I get into it depends a lot on the project.

I try not to get too hung up on getting every setting spot on for every material. Generally just focus on reflection glossiness, refraction IOR etc. I think the hardest thing with PBR is the fact it uses real world units, so you might change one parameter by increments of single units, another by 100ths of a unit and a third by thousands of units.
The advantage for myself, especially in architectural work, is I can be given real world data such as the Kelvin of a light bulb that's actually specified.

I've just switched from Vray being my primary engine to using redshift which is a gpu powered engine. I love it, getting basically the same results as vray but much faster. This last project I have been using iiradiance point Cloud rendering for animation as well, which is considerably faster than just using brute force.

Sounds good, I would go along if I was you.
Which studio is it? (if you don't mind saying)

Cheers man
Yeah I have spotted their open things before on Linkedin but have always had plans (lol more like over running deadlines) when they are on.

Excellent.
It can always be a bit daunting but if you treat it as a goal there are steps along the way.
30 seconds does make sense I guess, that is how long TV adverts are, it's enough to reject someone on.

I find what they do interesting but those big places aren't really for me.
The senior from my first job ended up working there for a bit and left to freelance instead, he was of the same mind set as me, prefer owning smaller projects, but it's each to their own.

Not quite finished yet, and it may remain that way, but wondered what some of you think of this:



For the record, it's a girl (toddler).

All crits' welcome, trying to get them in before I can sum up the courage to show the parents.

Anything specific you want us to look at? Textures, modelling, lighting?

Looks good to me though generally. I think my only criticism would be that the proportions of the face look older than a toddler, and the hair looks too thick for a toddler but I could be off on that.

I like the grain but that might just be the test render so understand of the final version is going to be noiseless.

Not quite sure what you're trying to achieve beyond abject horror.

For the parents.

Liveinadive wrote:

I guess you are using a subsurface scattering shader?

 

Kinda'... It's a composite material with a small touch of SSS in it. I could muck around with it a little more, but I think it's time put a fork in this piece.

Unlikely wrote:

Not quite sure what you're trying to achieve beyond abject horror.

See, that's my suspicion...

Technically, it's reasonable. As a piece of art though, it's a little unnerving. Even though it's far from the best example of the uncanny valley.

Good exercise for learning the whole PBR thing though.

Thanks for the comments. :]

Left click now innit