Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

[steelers05]

I finally got an actual title at my job as an architectural illustrator and with that came some freedom to purchase some packages and tools, so im just trying to get some feedback to see what other people prefer

-Form Fonts: This looks like a great membership but i know that you pay for a year's subscription and I dont know what happens after that...does the library of models that you download disappear or become inactive after your subscription is up...or do you have them to use forever after you download them once?

-I know plenty of texture and clipmap websites, but what does everyone here think is the best buy for useful clipmaps and textures

-Xfrog: ive seen some people use xfrog trees, but are they worth in people's opinions.

any other good stuff that anyone would think of that would be useful is greatly appreciated. Im just kind of putting together a shopping list and want to make sure I get the best buy. Thank you in advance for any help.

[stefanq]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

I don't think you should buy 3d models....I found allot of them for free. You may know this site, but for me , this it's the first place where I search 3d models: http://www.archibase.net/gdl
If you still want to buy models, then I think "e v e r m o t i o n Archmodels" it's one of the best choices.
And for textures, I would choose "Total Textures"
Of course, this it's only my opinion, and it may not be the best. I hope you will receive more advices.
Regards,
Stefan

[Free Agent_cg]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

well done now ur an officail 3d guy! i think i can provide some insite although it contradicts what stefanq said,

for myself and the other 3d guy here (silvershadow) form fonts is a must and scream blue murder when our subscription expires, especially now they are getting quite savy with their models, the thing is its made for sketchup so low poly counts so u can stack ur scene with detail and still have a reasonable and workable file size, with more recent stuff they are leaning towards photoreal while still being low poly, for me its invaluable? sometimes theyre too low poly but i add sub devide and smooth and theyre perfect almost every render ive made have formfonts models in them, why the hell would the models dissapear when ur subscription expires????!!! its data on YOUR harddrive

avoid evermotion (unless you work in MAX or only doing product renders) very high poly and not sketchup friendly but.

archibase/archive3d/3delcious are all the same site providing the same models on the same days all free and suspiciously evermotion imports so no archmodels needed!!!

i find myself wanting a company issued credit card so i can purchase things from www.turbosquid.com also very good, even the free stuff is often good.

[steelers05]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

Thanks for the welcome Freeagent and thank you both for the feedback. I think im gonna end up getting the form fonts package because of the amount of material and the low polys. I use sites like archibase, but they just kill my comp. ( but i think im gonna convince them to purchase me a new beast...any suggestions or insight guys?) Plus it can become a little too much extra work to constantly be importing 3ds models and such. But is there anything else that you guys would suggest to someone like me that is trying to build this up? They said I can get what I want so anything...HRD images, clipmaps, anyhing you can think of that you guys use consitantly? And let me know if i can help either of you two out, or anyone for that matter, cause I may have a few good things that people may not know about.

[Macho3001]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

Hey Free,

Could you provide some help on WHICH xfrog bundle to go in for, I've seen brilliant stuff from you with Xfrog here !

I visited their site but there seems to be an endless list of Plants & Trees bundles from all parts of the world, while at the same time they are offering Xfrog SOFTWARE which procedurally generates trees- do you use this instead, or have you purchased pre-made model bundles... Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I have (from my understanding of it from tips mentioned by you in various threads) shortlisted following as MUST BUYS from Xfrog : -

1. TREES- US or European bundle or as per choice of one's own location;
2. INTERIOR bundle - contains a great number of value added plants & shrubs; AND
3. Xfrog TUNE- to reduce the high poly count.

Could you be kind enough to substantiate/ edit the above... Thanks.

Macho

[Free Agent_cg]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

the European Set is a good set we have them here, but otherwise being in different parts of the world we'd have different needs in vegetation, the US set is also good, i dont remember what the interior bundle had in it but i remember not being interested. im currently sending a request email to the powers that be for the BASIC tree set my favourite the xfrog program was too tricky so we just bought the premade ones

steelers: if u can get a Octo-core (mac) ??? Intel are releasing 8 core processors, but its not too necessary, dont get anything less than a quad core!!!!

[steelers05]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

freeagent: Yeah i am definately pushing for nothing less than a quad core. But as far as vegetation goes, have you ever used the trees from form fonts in your renderings instead of xfrog ones...i wonder how they render with vray ?

[Free Agent_cg]

Re: Form Fonts and Other Downloading Packages?

all the trees in my "been a busy boy" thread were formfonts... its a tad trickier to used formfonts trees as they are very clearly clipmaps on large flat plains, and it take quite a bit of tweaking to give them depth, but i have had some good expierence, but form fonts is more valuable for its amount of models, u can get boats, cars, buildings, poeple (not so good), int objects, anything for any occasion!