is V-Ray good to start in CG?

[Ricky Monti]

Hey guys, i'm new in CG world and in the forum too, but i think i posted in the right area.

I have some questions, V-Ray is a good renderer to start? I know nothing about light, shading, rendering and that stuff, but many people recommend me to start with the render that comes with Maya (don't know if it is permitted to say the name hehe ) and a render that was used in the Gravity movie.

But seeing that V-Ray 3.0 for Maya being released soon, and many people is telling that is going to be much faster than the older version, i got myself in doubt. I bought a course for V-Ray (it's for 3ds Max, but the Maya guys in that course says that can be applied to Maya aswell, just some things that are different) and digital tutors have some tutorials too. I know that the essentials like lightning and material can be applied in all renderers, but i still have this doubt

Can you give me some advices?

I want to work with matte painting, but now i'm learning the basics like modeling, texturing. (i told this to see if it helps in something for giving me advices)

Will V-Ray 3.0 be released for Maya 2015 now? and do Chaos Group sell single V-Ray student licenses? sorry for posting these newbie questions D:

[joconnell]

Right!

So all of the renderers are converging and becoming similar, generally by other renderers ripping off good features in other renderers. At the minute if you don't know anything about lighting or texturing then it doesn't really matter which renderer you're using as it's more about learning how to place and control lights and create materials and textures. All of the renderers will do some sort of attempt at recreating realistic light and bounce light (global illumination) so while you're just learning you'll be fine with any of them. When you start actually producing work that you want to seriously render, whether it's for test stuff, showreels, short films or other projects then the choice of renderer starts to become a bit more important. Speed and quality differs quite a bit between the three so depending on what type of images you want to make you'll find each of the renderers will have great strengths or weaknesses. If you're looking at mainly doing matte painting stuff, vray has a few advantages over the other two, especially with it's pedigree in the architectural areas - if you're doing scenes with lots of trees and grass, it's damn good for that, and if you're doing buildings or cities then it's got a lot of global illumination features that are fast and high quality. They chaos guys do indeed do student licenses, you'll just have to send them over some details of your college course as proof.

Vray 3's on the way for maya, it's in a public beta at the minute that anyone with a vray dongle can test. A lot of the things in the max version that made vray more friendly to use aren't in there just yet, but chaos are pretty quick at getting features through.

Hope this helps!

[vlado]

The next official beta will have a build for Maya 2015. We do sell student licenses, yes - you can email to vraymaya@chaosgroup.com for more info.

As for whether it is a good place to start, I think so. Of course, many of the concepts are the similar across renderers, but the good thing about V-Ray is that it allows you to experiment and get familiar with different ways to solve problems (f.e. different GI methods). The other alternatives that you mentioned may generally lock you into a few choices only which may not be suitable for all situations.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Ricky Monti]

Thank you guys for the replys.

I'm not in college right now, only studying by myself at home, since here, for vfx, that are no college courses that covers it, only courses that are too expensive that wants more of your money and teach you basic stuff, so i think i'm not eligible for student version, but i'll e-mail them to see what i can do to get one. But, for now, i'll download de Demo version, knowing the render, hypershade, textures, materials and etc..