That was one of the main things for me. I got fed up paying licensing fees for Max and Corona. So I switched to Blender and using the money to pay for good training courses. It's much easier to learn that way and the community is great with Blender.
Just in case, Corona is a bidirectional path tracer where Cycles is unidirectional. That's one of the reasons why people might like Corona over Cycles for interior shots, but there's an unofficial addon for blender to use corona renderer if you are interested, vray is also developing a version for Blender.
I'm a big fan of Blender, and I've been using it for my Archviz work for two years. However, problems arise when trying to collaborate with other Archviz studios. Here in my country, most Archviz artists use 3ds Max with Corona or V-Ray. Since some of them are often overloaded, they frequently collaborate with other studios to handle the extra work. The workflow goes smoothly if you're on the same page, but not when using different software
Just recently I decided to make the jump from blender to 3ds max to see what all the fuzz is about. To anyone out there thinking to do the same: using max and vray won't make your renders magically better. It's the artist, not the tool! Now that I've tried max I can tell for sure. Also, blender CAN handle big scenes, you just have to be careful and work in a certain way. One last thing: using max/vray or corona won't make you better, but it will make you more employable (although that might change in the future, as more and more archviz artists are moving to blender). Sorry, one more last thing: if you have a hard time with blender's cycles render engine, try octane, I feel it's a good middle ground between cycles and corona or vray.
Totally agree that it’s the artist not the tool! When I say big scenes, I mean it works effortlessly- blended requires a lot of prep and work to render out huge scenes which all equals time at the end
@@oliverhiggins8376 yes I understand, I just wanted to make sure the viewers understand that it can be done in blender, too You're absolutely right though, you can just throw any scene you want at max and it'll handle it well.
V-Ray 7 is coming to Blender. It will change alot of things. Why V-Ray instead of Cycles?: Frame Buffer (Post-prod, Lightmix, History), Cosmos... Imagine Blender with V-Ray, powerful splines, an Edit Poly modifier, a UV Map Modifier...
Great video mate! I didn't know that about 3ds max that it can handle bigger scenes more easily. I'm sure many will argue "Blender can do that too!"...which yes it CAN, but Blender does struggle with bogging down way too easily in my opinion.
here I am learning vray and having my eyes on max-corona and blender. I hope to find a comfortable software to commit to once I've tried them all. Great content btw!
I'm glad you're enjoying the content, hopefully it helps you make your decision! Honestly my two cents is it doesn’t matter too much as long as you’re good at one of the software. Commit to learning one really well and you’ll be sweet. Main thing really is costing when it comes to doing it professionally
you are absolutely correct! Well, I just find them really interesting and curious whether the software is flexible enough to satisfy both architectural and non-architectural work.
Strange... I always hearing about Max better handling large complex scenes, but honestly I can't say that. I requires very careful scene management to be stable and predictable. Recently I've done a relatively large project architecture in Blender and I was pleasantly surprised how well it handled this task. The main problem with Blender in archviz IMO is relatively small amount of asset libraries, compared to Max, and scattering tools - G Scatter is good, but it's still far cry from Forest Pack sadly. And yes - people in the industry are very conservative, and people are lazy in general - I've been using Blender in my daily work for almost 4 years now, and I've been promoting it among my colleagues in the studio, yet I still the only one who uses it.
That’s very true, I’m always impressed with how blender can render insanely complex things. I just feel like 3Ds max flies at it. What was the large project you did?
For anyone here, Is there a way to get a live link between archicad/ revit and blender? Max has a great advantage for me at least where I can link the revit file, add materials, modifiers to it, and then in the revit I have any modification it is a one click to relink the file, and the materials previously assigned are kept. Is there a way to do that in Blender? I've been trying for so long to find it...
As far as I know there’s no way to do this! Which is the biggest issue I have and whenever I work with clients I always say that the model they send through needs to be 100% perfect/finished with zero changes needed so that I won’t need to get another file into the scene and redo all the cleanup
@ I’ve been looking for it for quite sometime and it is exactly the reason I don’t make the switch.. if you ever find a solution let us know, Meanwhile you’ve got a new follower :) Keep up the good work!!
blender 4.3 coming with white balance feature in color management. which is really good for archviz final render. my render come close with the one rendered by corona now
@ I’m still getting it down but I’d love to see a video how you do it or using your artwork also I’ve got say you’re inspired me a lot I recently got back into product design and interior design your awesome can’t wait for the next video
This vid couldn't come at a better time for me. I'm about to recreate a residential CGI of just a single property as I want to convince the developer to use me instead of the architect that created it. He used Sketchup and Ray and it doesn't look amazing. I know I can use Blender and Octane to create something amazing. My only concern is things like vegetation packs, will they work with Octane and how much material conversion will I have to do for shaders etc. But I see all the time this whole 'you have to use Max and Corona' argument. Yes sure if you want a job for a big architectural firm because that's what they'll be using but not as a freelancer.
Hmm do you need to use octane? Could you use just cycles? I’ve used octane quite a bit and the materials are such a pain to set up and use, what is the reason why you want to use it? But yes totally agree, blender is perfect for freelances
Blender with the right set of addons totally blows Max away. But I’m from the games development industry. So most heavy scenes are handled in engine. Hot keys are not much of an issue since you can customise blender with even custom made menus to fit your style
@ that’s a blanket statement.. care to elaborate on that? I can confidently say that Blender even without addons is superior to Max. Much faster workflow, a lot more customisable, far better viewport, procedural tools, ability to create your own tools/midifiers, superior sculpting tools, etc.. Max has terrible cluttered UI with legacy tools that do the same thing as others just worse, a viewport that reflect that of windows 95, still have to convert an object to an editable poly in other to editing to the mesh and it is the most creatively uninspiring workflow/presentation out of any 3D package out there.
@@hectorescobar9450 3Ds Max has superior, more and more mature non destructive workflow with its modifiers, better viewport and UI, more straightforward workflow, more stable and handles scenes especially larger ones better, is very customizable and scripts and add ons dont just break after every update some of which work a decade without breaking, add ons are superior, industry proven and made by professionals in the industry and not some hobbyists in the basement and more. But sure, Blender cultists can continue lying to themselves and others. Most of them are amateurs and hobbyists for a reason while 3ds Max users mostly professionals.
@ again all blanket statements without substance. Max was my primary tool for 7 years. I used it professionally for 6. I use blender now and with addons there is no even comparison sorry to say.. I am able to make what I used to in Max almost over twice as fast and with many more options to tackle a problem. Max has clogged UI, outdated edit poly setups, it’s clunky af, it’s made from old code (hence little meaningful uodates are made) and of course little innovation. Not to mention is terrible for organic modeling and it only excels in the Architecture viz areas due to its solid precision modeling tools. I have seen your stuff before btw.. I would not be calling professionals like myself hobbyists with the kind of portfolio you have
Blender with HardOps and Box Cutter beats 3ds Max, and if you want to improve the UV mapping process in Blender, use the Zen UV addon, and you'll have the best suite for hard surface modeling ever.
No it doesnt, Max in vanilla state alone beats Blender with its dozens of add-ons including Boxcutter and HardOps. But yeah, keep saying that Blender cultist mantra all over the internet.
You already laid out the pros and cons pretty well in your video. But you seem to tend to tilt the balance in favor of Blender. The biggest selling point of Blender is that it is "free" - of course, it has great features and all and i do use it as well, but if it was PAID I'd guarantee you this video would be much different. To counter the free point of Blender, I'd point to 3dsMax being free if you are a student, and if you are a starting up professional you have Max Indie, where you pay a fraction of the price for the full package (Max is not capped in anyway in the indie version). I'd also point that Max ships with Arnold, a production proven render engine that is widely used in the vfx scene and allows you to widen your employability opportunities in industries like advertising/film/TV. I'd also point to the HUGE library of models 3dsMax has. And it is constantly growing, from Evermotion, to Viz People, from 3dsky to Model+Model. 3dsMax is a beast consuming models and there are tons and tons of websites willing to sell models to any needs. And when you are actually in the industry of archviz, especially if you are inside a medium to large company, the cost of the software compared to the speed of output, compatibility, and productivity is easily offset, and Blender stands more as a companion software to deal in very specifics situations rather than substituting 3dsMax. All in all, I'd say it is not Blender who poses a "danger" to take the place of 3dsMax. It is Sketchup. I've seem it's usage jump from "oh, it's a sketchup preview render" to "that is pretty nice, where did you make that render?". Of course, sketchup is a far cry compared to 3dsMax or Blender, but for the low budget, starting of architects, it is just SO easy to use and has decent render engines available (vray), that they will never bother with Blender or 3dsMax if they can help it.
@oliverhiggins8376 thanks for reply ;) I hope you understand that demand creates supply. So I'll give you a simple example: If there is a platform like 3dsky, with almost a million models that are ready to render with one click, without any additional manipulation, this means that these models are used by many, many users! And these models are absolutely all for 3dsmax.
@@Sergij_Vari for sure, but there are also other platforms like blender market which has exclusive high quality assets that may be lower in quantity but still very high quality. Additionally this video is mainly about the tools that are available within blender and its ability to be implemented into an archviz workflow, so there’s more to it than just how many people use other software:) but I get your point!
That was one of the main things for me. I got fed up paying licensing fees for Max and Corona. So I switched to Blender and using the money to pay for good training courses. It's much easier to learn that way and the community is great with Blender.
Exactly! If you can get as good as possible with blender you have so many cost benefits that you can spend and invest elsewhere:)
As interior design student who's trying to improve my visualization skills, this video helped me to decide what software to study. Thanks!!
Glad to hear it helped, good luck with your studies!
Just in case, Corona is a bidirectional path tracer where Cycles is unidirectional. That's one of the reasons why people might like Corona over Cycles for interior shots, but there's an unofficial addon for blender to use corona renderer if you are interested, vray is also developing a version for Blender.
Thanks for sharing that, that's super interesting!
I'm a big fan of Blender, and I've been using it for my Archviz work for two years. However, problems arise when trying to collaborate with other Archviz studios.
Here in my country, most Archviz artists use 3ds Max with Corona or V-Ray. Since some of them are often overloaded, they frequently collaborate with other studios to handle the extra work. The workflow goes smoothly if you're on the same page, but not when using different software
That makes sense, it would be a nightmare trying to merge models from different programs.
Just recently I decided to make the jump from blender to 3ds max to see what all the fuzz is about. To anyone out there thinking to do the same: using max and vray won't make your renders magically better. It's the artist, not the tool! Now that I've tried max I can tell for sure. Also, blender CAN handle big scenes, you just have to be careful and work in a certain way. One last thing: using max/vray or corona won't make you better, but it will make you more employable (although that might change in the future, as more and more archviz artists are moving to blender). Sorry, one more last thing: if you have a hard time with blender's cycles render engine, try octane, I feel it's a good middle ground between cycles and corona or vray.
Totally agree that it’s the artist not the tool! When I say big scenes, I mean it works effortlessly- blended requires a lot of prep and work to render out huge scenes which all equals time at the end
@@oliverhiggins8376 yes I understand, I just wanted to make sure the viewers understand that it can be done in blender, too You're absolutely right though, you can just throw any scene you want at max and it'll handle it well.
Can a tutorial be made to guide how to create and handle really large scenes in blender and that too in a networked environment?
V-Ray 7 is coming to Blender. It will change alot of things.
Why V-Ray instead of Cycles?: Frame Buffer (Post-prod, Lightmix, History), Cosmos...
Imagine Blender with V-Ray, powerful splines, an Edit Poly modifier, a UV Map Modifier...
Would Vray be free with blender? A massive difference is pricing, cycles is free which makes it much more profitable to use as a professional
Thanks! Great review! 3dmax has an indie version that costs 200 a year (depending on your region).
That’s interesting, what is the limitation of the indie one?
You can't make more than 100k per year. All max features included.
Great video mate! I didn't know that about 3ds max that it can handle bigger scenes more easily. I'm sure many will argue "Blender can do that too!"...which yes it CAN, but Blender does struggle with bogging down way too easily in my opinion.
Thanks, yeah Blender can be a bit of a resource hog, especially with big scenes!
Strange, my experience tells me otherwise. IDK, maybe max THAT improved in last few versions...
here I am learning vray and having my eyes on max-corona and blender. I hope to find a comfortable software to commit to once I've tried them all.
Great content btw!
I'm glad you're enjoying the content, hopefully it helps you make your decision! Honestly my two cents is it doesn’t matter too much as long as you’re good at one of the software. Commit to learning one really well and you’ll be sweet. Main thing really is costing when it comes to doing it professionally
you are absolutely correct! Well, I just find them really interesting and curious whether the software is flexible enough to satisfy both architectural and non-architectural work.
Blender is very versatile, probably more than 3DS Max, so I hope that helps a little
Great video. A quit point to note that you can do large scale archviz projects in blender. Bonsai BIM helps.
Great tip! I’ll check this add on out :)
I really wish, that Blender will have much more bigger part of archiviz in next few years!
I’m hoping so too!
Strange... I always hearing about Max better handling large complex scenes, but honestly I can't say that. I requires very careful scene management to be stable and predictable. Recently I've done a relatively large project architecture in Blender and I was pleasantly surprised how well it handled this task. The main problem with Blender in archviz IMO is relatively small amount of asset libraries, compared to Max, and scattering tools - G Scatter is good, but it's still far cry from Forest Pack sadly.
And yes - people in the industry are very conservative, and people are lazy in general - I've been using Blender in my daily work for almost 4 years now, and I've been promoting it among my colleagues in the studio, yet I still the only one who uses it.
That’s very true, I’m always impressed with how blender can render insanely complex things. I just feel like 3Ds max flies at it. What was the large project you did?
For anyone here, Is there a way to get a live link between archicad/ revit and blender? Max has a great advantage for me at least where I can link the revit file, add materials, modifiers to it, and then in the revit I have any modification it is a one click to relink the file, and the materials previously assigned are kept. Is there a way to do that in Blender? I've been trying for so long to find it...
As far as I know there’s no way to do this! Which is the biggest issue I have and whenever I work with clients I always say that the model they send through needs to be 100% perfect/finished with zero changes needed so that I won’t need to get another file into the scene and redo all the cleanup
@ I’ve been looking for it for quite sometime and it is exactly the reason I don’t make the switch..
if you ever find a solution let us know,
Meanwhile you’ve got a new follower :)
Keep up the good work!!
blender 4.3 coming with white balance feature in color management. which is really good for archviz final render. my render come close with the one rendered by corona now
That’s amazing, can’t wait use that feature
Blender completely humbles Maya and 3ds max
It’s an absolute beast at so many things 🔥
One tip bro, try to chapter your videos so the people can skip with ease to the part they are interested in. Good Luck with the channel
That's a great idea, I'll definitely implement that in future videos!
Oliver said community like 10 times.. but it’s true, aside from being an excellent software the community is what really sets it apart for me 👌
It’s true, the community is absolutely incredible!
My workflow ( Zbrush + Max + Houdini ) they are all cracked version 😂
It’s risky doing that professionally though!
My favorite is using blender and unreal engine since now it has mega light for awesome lighting and my computer won’t bog it down
That sounds like a great combination!
@ I’m still getting it down but I’d love to see a video how you do it or using your artwork also I’ve got say you’re inspired me a lot I recently got back into product design and interior design your awesome can’t wait for the next video
This vid couldn't come at a better time for me. I'm about to recreate a residential CGI of just a single property as I want to convince the developer to use me instead of the architect that created it. He used Sketchup and Ray and it doesn't look amazing. I know I can use Blender and Octane to create something amazing. My only concern is things like vegetation packs, will they work with Octane and how much material conversion will I have to do for shaders etc.
But I see all the time this whole 'you have to use Max and Corona' argument. Yes sure if you want a job for a big architectural firm because that's what they'll be using but not as a freelancer.
Hmm do you need to use octane? Could you use just cycles? I’ve used octane quite a bit and the materials are such a pain to set up and use, what is the reason why you want to use it? But yes totally agree, blender is perfect for freelances
Blender with the right set of addons totally blows Max away. But I’m from the games development industry. So most heavy scenes are handled in engine. Hot keys are not much of an issue since you can customise blender with even custom made menus to fit your style
100%
No it doesnt, 3ds Max is still superior even in its vanilla state.
@ that’s a blanket statement.. care to elaborate on that?
I can confidently say that Blender even without addons is superior to Max. Much faster workflow, a lot more customisable, far better viewport, procedural tools, ability to create your own tools/midifiers, superior sculpting tools, etc.. Max has terrible cluttered UI with legacy tools that do the same thing as others just worse, a viewport that reflect that of windows 95, still have to convert an object to an editable poly in other to editing to the mesh and it is the most creatively uninspiring workflow/presentation out of any 3D package out there.
@@hectorescobar9450 3Ds Max has superior, more and more mature non destructive workflow with its modifiers, better viewport and UI, more straightforward workflow, more stable and handles scenes especially larger ones better, is very customizable and scripts and add ons dont just break after every update some of which work a decade without breaking, add ons are superior, industry proven and made by professionals in the industry and not some hobbyists in the basement and more. But sure, Blender cultists can continue lying to themselves and others. Most of them are amateurs and hobbyists for a reason while 3ds Max users mostly professionals.
@ again all blanket statements without substance. Max was my primary tool for 7 years. I used it professionally for 6. I use blender now and with addons there is no even comparison sorry to say.. I am able to make what I used to in Max almost over twice as fast and with many more options to tackle a problem. Max has clogged UI, outdated edit poly setups, it’s clunky af, it’s made from old code (hence little meaningful uodates are made) and of course little innovation. Not to mention is terrible for organic modeling and it only excels in the Architecture viz areas due to its solid precision modeling tools. I have seen your stuff before btw.. I would not be calling professionals like myself hobbyists with the kind of portfolio you have
Blender top
100%
Blender with HardOps and Box Cutter beats 3ds Max, and if you want to improve the UV mapping process in Blender, use the Zen UV addon, and you'll have the best suite for hard surface modeling ever.
100%. Addons make blender crazy powerful
No it doesnt, Max in vanilla state alone beats Blender with its dozens of add-ons including Boxcutter and HardOps. But yeah, keep saying that Blender cultist mantra all over the internet.
Blender because it's free. End of conversation😂
It’s free but it’s also in terms of quality of render it’s equal to other render engines which is crazy
Blender!
Max with the right set of addons totally blows Max away. But I’m from the games development industry. So most heavy scenes are handled in engine
Yeah that’s true
Answer = 3dsMax.
Next question.
My question to you would be why? What are the pros and cons?
You already laid out the pros and cons pretty well in your video. But you seem to tend to tilt the balance in favor of Blender.
The biggest selling point of Blender is that it is "free" - of course, it has great features and all and i do use it as well, but if it was PAID I'd guarantee you this video would be much different.
To counter the free point of Blender, I'd point to 3dsMax being free if you are a student, and if you are a starting up professional you have Max Indie, where you pay a fraction of the price for the full package (Max is not capped in anyway in the indie version).
I'd also point that Max ships with Arnold, a production proven render engine that is widely used in the vfx scene and allows you to widen your employability opportunities in industries like advertising/film/TV.
I'd also point to the HUGE library of models 3dsMax has. And it is constantly growing, from Evermotion, to Viz People, from 3dsky to Model+Model. 3dsMax is a beast consuming models and there are tons and tons of websites willing to sell models to any needs.
And when you are actually in the industry of archviz, especially if you are inside a medium to large company, the cost of the software compared to the speed of output, compatibility, and productivity is easily offset, and Blender stands more as a companion software to deal in very specifics situations rather than substituting 3dsMax.
All in all, I'd say it is not Blender who poses a "danger" to take the place of 3dsMax. It is Sketchup. I've seem it's usage jump from "oh, it's a sketchup preview render" to "that is pretty nice, where did you make that render?". Of course, sketchup is a far cry compared to 3dsMax or Blender, but for the low budget, starting of architects, it is just SO easy to use and has decent render engines available (vray), that they will never bother with Blender or 3dsMax if they can help it.
Of course 3dsmax, because huge base handreds of thousands 3dsMax pre-built, just one click to use
Thanks for commenting! I’m not quite following, would you mind elaborating on that?
@oliverhiggins8376 thanks for reply ;)
I hope you understand that demand creates supply. So I'll give you a simple example: If there is a platform like 3dsky, with almost a million models that are ready to render with one click, without any additional manipulation, this means that these models are used by many, many users! And these models are absolutely all for 3dsmax.
@@Sergij_Vari for sure, but there are also other platforms like blender market which has exclusive high quality assets that may be lower in quantity but still very high quality. Additionally this video is mainly about the tools that are available within blender and its ability to be implemented into an archviz workflow, so there’s more to it than just how many people use other software:) but I get your point!
Autodesk 🤮 blender jest za 0$ plus później dodatki. Jest i jest masa tutoriali jsk się uczyć.
Exactly!