I made a decision last year that I was actually very nervous about. Up until the start of last year, Maxwell Render was my go-to rendering software: it was like a long-term partner. Reliable, comfortable and familiar.
I knew I was going to launch new 3D rendering courses this year and that Maxwell Render wasn’t going to be my recommended rendering software for this course. It was just too slow and hadn’t evolved enough in terms of speed to remain competitive. But I was hesitant to change rendering software because of my emotional attachment to Maxwell (it helped jump start my new career) and if I’m honest, I was afraid to change to another rendering application in case I wasn’t able to produce similar results.
As a Maxwell Render Xpert I was provided with the software for free every year and had to sign an agreement confirming what marketing activities I would undertake in return for free access. This prompted me to review my entire situation in terms of rendering software and I made the difficult decision to withdraw as an Xpert and I decided to test a few different rendering applications before making a final decision on which software I was going to transition to. Enscape and V-Ray were the two biggest contenders and even though Enscape is super fast, I felt V-Ray had a better interface.
Anyway, I settled for V-Ray (good decision as two months later SketchUp promoted a big collaboration) and even though it meant a steeper learning curve and more expense for my target market, I was prepared to take some flak for this decision (truth be told, if SU Podium got with the program and evolved much faster, with better realism, I would have given it serious consideration but it is very lacking these days).
I’ve been using V-Ray for around 8 months and have been pretty consistent in my use of it. We didn’t see eye to eye initially (why is lighting always so tricky when learning new rendering applications?!) but I’m finally starting to see some very encouraging results, which is helping me greatly in terms of preparing for the eventual recording of the new 3D course. I just didn’t feel confident teaching others a few months ago but that’s gradually changing.
I thought I’d post a few recent renders that have made me feel quietly confident in relation to my progress with V-Ray. Maxwell Render will always have a special place in my journey and past but V-Ray is definitely my future.
Anita
