What's the best software for 3D renders? I only know of two, so if anyone knows of more, please start a poll.

[Sorry I realized its in the wrong thread]

for rendering it has to be vray, a plugin for max. unfortunately it costs about 700usd so blah... theres another one called final render which is spose to be pretty good too and only 95 usd.

note: they are RENDERERS not 3d modelling programs

Well the best overall 3d program is 3d studio max in my opinion. Some people like to use terragen or things like that for their renders. Depends on the type of person you are and how much you can spend. Personally i have 3d studio max, as it comes very handy.

terragen is for landscapes only, as is bryce i think. maya is primarily used for charachter modelling i think. and "noobs" tend to choose c4d for abstract renders. max is by far the most powerful though.

no... maya and max are equal... they have been batteling for a while.. but maya is set to start winning when 2 new rendering products come out at some point...
lightwave is less used but is fairly close
and cinema is the hobbyist program that poeple newly coming into the area use.
character moddeling is roughly equally done for all 3 with zbrush being an added thing to the end quite allot (basic mesh in on of the programs then zbrush it to add more detail)
also bryce isnt just for landscapes although i havent seen much other than landscapes or abstract done with it...
+cinema 4d has got 1 major advantege... bodypaint, it is pretty much the leader in painting in 3d.. there are some others around but bodypaint is sold more than c4d

sorry shivvy but im gonna have to disagree with some of your points there. in my humble opinion lightwave does not even touch max in terms of popularity and usability. i know maya is a very powerful piece of software but ive never used it it but ive seen alot of work done with it and they are mostly charachters. saying that alot of charachter modelling is done in max too though.

spot on with the c4d comment though, i dont really rate it for doing work on a professional level, theres just something about it. more of a hobbyists software, used properly it can produce some nice results though, like youve shown us

bryce isnt just for landscapes but alot of people who pick it up do infact use it soley for that (including me sometimes).

i dont know much about it, but with bodypaint, i dont think you can really compare it with 3rd party renderers like brazil and vray, the results produced with them are just stunning, and photoshop is the ultimate touchup tool

nice to hear someone elses opinions though

anyone else?

ps max all the way im not bias i swear

thats the one... brazil is being used with maya...
bodypaint is really good... it isnt a render tool it is a paint tool.. i use it to paint on the testures then i go over them in paintshop as i know where everything is...
i never said lightwave was as powerful... i said it wasnt used as much..
i meant it was fairly close in how much it is used..

i hope i remembered everyting...

EDIT:
1 more thing... since you are obviously reading this...
where if your gun.. i havent even seen a cue yet
check le compo 2

nah i wouldnt say lightwave is used as much as max, i dont even think the maya community is as big either. but heh.

i think brazil has compatibility with a few pieces of 3d software but ive only ever seen the max one.

ummmm, my gun huh, lol, ive not had a chance to do anything yet but i might start on sunday. i doubt it though cus i have alot on at the moment. we shall see

you got any wips' yet?

they are in the topic..

Maya and Max are by far the most powerful modelling programs and both of which include versions of Mental Ray. Mental Ray is some very powerful rendering software, and considering it comes free with 3d programs it is very easy to obtain.

Mental Ray is powerful to a point, but beyond mental ray there are other rendering programs such as Vray, FinalRender, Maxwell Render, Brazil and others. Of these the best (in my opinion) is FinalRender. If you stop by at the FinalRender website you will see that they offer many different things for both max and maya. Brazil is also a very good renderer, but for everything Brazil lacks FinalRender makes up for.

Maya is an all purpose 3d app and it is most widely used by large video game and movie industries because it is the most powerful, but also the most expensive. Next up is 3ds max which is also used by many professional companies, but also used by many people at home which is why it seems like there is a larger max community.

oooh... you sound like you know what you are talking about... have you got any models or things?

Yea I have a few models somewhere I'll upload some pics sometime

What about Swift3D by Erain. I own have not done a whole lot with it but is easy to use and renders in many dif. formats.
http://www.erain.com/
Is worth a look.

Hello,

I was searching online and noticed this discussion of yours, you guys sound like you know alot about these rendering programs. Can any of you specify what programs are the best for CGI/3D rendering for print product?

I appreciate any feedback.

yes my friend when it comes to great rendering output, v ray is the one dependable renderer. it has the best algorithm to calculate light and the best thing is that you can actually simulate a whole scene with light without placing those default lights. the gathering of light by v ray is great.

- thanks!
Venom
Creativeporta

Mentalray at current version is very fast [ if ur budget allowes use renderman]