- Tue Nov 03, 2015 5:14 pm
#389165
I'm an architect for a very small shop. We just got started working with Sketchup and Maxwell, and printed our first set of in-house-created renderings for a client last week. Up till now, we've used outside firms for the purposes of photo-real imaging of our projects - and that, rarely. Our clients, however, have started to become much more demanding lately, wanting more than napkin sketches or even Sketchup walk-throughs, so we've been forced to drag ourselves out of the 90's and adapt. I've been asked to research costs and advantages/disadvantages of the various options for getting a final rendered image into a client's hands, and I'm interested to hear folks' experiences with this. We will not be rendering out Pixar films, and I seriously doubt we'll need renderings very often, at least not yet; it's hard for me to predict how often we'll need to punch out job with Maxwell - certainly not every day, or even every week.
This has led me to think that on-line rendering services are the way to go, with at least a little umph in-house to accomplish some test-renders. The set-up we have right now is rather inadequate, even for test-renders - the I7 3770/16GB ram W7 machine I use took all weekend to get to SL 21 on a 1080x1920 still image, and we still had fireflies (OK, it was a night-shot...but, 21??)
So, I'd love some input, mainly cost and usability, of the various options:
- upgraded workstation solution (which we would use for AutoCAD in the meantime, as well as test renders)
- stick with our current workstations, use a render farm (cloud-based? On-line? Is there a difference these days? Recommendations as to which?)
- separate off-the-shelf networked render-farm, like a Boxx. (Does this thing have a use when not rendering? Hard sell if not.)
A note on the tech: we're somewhat tech-savvy, but the owners are extremely wary of the costs and pain involved in dealing with new tech; simple and cheapest out-weighs complicated and sexy by a long stretch. I wouldn't consider, for instance, DIY'ing a render-farm, and for us, that seems like overkill.
Thanks!
This has led me to think that on-line rendering services are the way to go, with at least a little umph in-house to accomplish some test-renders. The set-up we have right now is rather inadequate, even for test-renders - the I7 3770/16GB ram W7 machine I use took all weekend to get to SL 21 on a 1080x1920 still image, and we still had fireflies (OK, it was a night-shot...but, 21??)
So, I'd love some input, mainly cost and usability, of the various options:
- upgraded workstation solution (which we would use for AutoCAD in the meantime, as well as test renders)
- stick with our current workstations, use a render farm (cloud-based? On-line? Is there a difference these days? Recommendations as to which?)
- separate off-the-shelf networked render-farm, like a Boxx. (Does this thing have a use when not rendering? Hard sell if not.)
A note on the tech: we're somewhat tech-savvy, but the owners are extremely wary of the costs and pain involved in dealing with new tech; simple and cheapest out-weighs complicated and sexy by a long stretch. I wouldn't consider, for instance, DIY'ing a render-farm, and for us, that seems like overkill.
Thanks!