[andrebaros]

Once you taste the power, you just can't go back.

I had a deadline yesterday which came out of the blue. Afternoon meeting, "hand renderings by X look awful, please do them on the computer ASAP". But an exterior with a lot of trees can't be set up and rendered in 4 hours in Maxwell so I used Mental Ray, and it's just SOOO disappointing. Everyone was wondering why it didn't look as good as my usual work (which usually takes a day or two) and I had to RE-Render, just to adjust exposure, how primitive.

I know that MR has it's merits, but Maxwell really spoils you.

[JCAddy]

I fell into this for a while then I got a request to do an animation! DOh!

I had forgotten alot about the other renderers out there so I started learning Mental Ray again. Actually, I use Mental Ray about 70% of the time now. I only use Maxwell when a client requests a realistic static image.

[knurrebusk]

Keep MR for good times in future.
Like Vue Xstream/Revit/Inventor, or better pray.

If they fail new stars will shine on the sky.

A bit limited by moneysuckers, but we need them.

[Bubbaloo]

Mental ray is my emergency backup.
I have to use it every once in a while to refresh myself.
So many settings!

[def4d]

same here, when i had to use one of the biased renderers, it was awfull
I immediatly felt the complicated side of them again...

[rivoli]

I had to RE-Render, just to adjust exposure, how primitive.

I know tone mapping and multilight in maxwell are incredibly cool (especially multilight), but just to be fair, you really don't have to re render an image only to adjust exposure. not if you output to any hdr format that is.

[JTB]

Let's face it....Once a Maxwell user, always a Maxwell user....

[Bubbaloo]

Let's face it....Once a Maxwell user, always a Maxwell user....

So far this is true for me!
The only time I use other renderers is when Maxwell's limitations force me to...

[JTB]

So far this is true for me!
The only time I use other renderers is when Maxwell's limitations force me to...

An example?

[dilbert]

I love Maxwell, but all of the major renderers can produce astounding images. One look inside "3D World" each month in the gallery section will show you the diversity of modeling software and renderers that people are using for their art. It's dangerous to get too attached to a single workflow, as situations like you describe will always happen, and you need your quality of product to remain constant for the customer. Mental Ray is easily capable of producing an image that 99% of your clients won't think is any "worse" than what Maxwell can produce. But, like you say, it is no way near as simple as Maxwell to use.

One good exercise for practice is to render the same scene in both Maxwell and Mental Ray, and try to match the images. Then, start to make notes of the settings in Mental Ray that get you close to Maxwell, so in the future you can quickly set up the scene for rendering in Mental Ray if needed.

[Bubbaloo]

So far this is true for me!
The only time I use other renderers is when Maxwell's limitations force me to...

An example?

Animation?
Arch-vis walk throughs to be exact!

[Bubbaloo]

all of the major renderers can produce astounding images.

Couldn't agree more!
I have seen photoreal renders from most major renderers.
It's just much easier to achieve with Maxwell.

[dilbert]

An example?

Probably the best example is Next Limit's own product Real Flow. You can't render Real Flow animations in Maxwell as a standalone renderer which is crazy to me. So in that case you are forced to use a competitors renderer to do the job.

[Bubbaloo]

So far this is true for me!
The only time I use other renderers is when Maxwell's limitations force me to...

An example?

Animation?
Arch-vis walk throughs to be exact!

Toon shaders.
Sketch type renders.
Volume lights...

[Jeff Tamagini]

yeah i am stuck using mental ray for about 90% of my stuff...A, because of fast turnaround unexpected deadlines, and B, my office doesnt own maxwell I do and they wont pay me extra to use my own software. The good part is the new mental ray engine 3.6 that comes in max 2008 is actually easy to use