Workflow and Pipeline

I have been doing some research on what software to use in my pipeline. As a 3d generalist this is a typical (non-animated) workflow:

1 - conception and planning
2 - modelling
3 - texturing and shading
4 - lighting/illumination
5 - rendering
6 - post production

I have been keeping myself somewhat up to date on my favourite CG website - CGSociety. I have found from the featured work posted on the forums that the most successful work uses this pipeline:

Zbrush (modelling)

3ds Max (main 3d application)

Vray (rendering)

This pipeline seems to be the most contemporary and popular.

After some research into what pipeline I will be using I have discovered a newer alternative pipeline that will increase speed and efficiency significantly.

Firstly Zbrush is always best for organic modelling. For non-organic modelling any other application will do although Modo seems to have the leading edge with modelling tools.

Secondly you need an application that will set the scene up with all the models/objects you created in Zbrush. Along with this, this application will usually supply animations and physic simulations. The most popular are:

Maya
3DS Max
Lightwave
Cinema 4D
...and the open source Blender 3D

Finally you need a renderer that deals with the materials and lighting. This is the key alternative factor. There is a new renderer that works external to the main 3d application.

You import the 3d scene from the main 3d application and work with the materials and lighting in real-time rendering. In comparison to Vray which can take hours to render a decent image, Octane renders the same quality of image in minutes. Octane is up to 50 times faster than Vray or any other CPU biased renderers. This means that after you have modelled and set up the scene you can now fully interact with it and always see the final image without having to wait. Here is a video demo:

This example was used on an ok GPU (GTX285) and you still get these results.



I also like this video. This is a turntable animation of a small scene. Each frame took 20 seconds to render.... awesome.



Octane will change the market place in terms of what renderer to use and it will increase sales on Nvidia's GPUs because Octane only works on Nvidia's CUDA enabled cards.

If you are doing something like character development or product or architectural visualization you can go straight from modelling to Octane. The speed of Octane will reduce the need for trial and error rendering because you will see the changed results instantly.

Although the CG industry favours Maya/Max users along with Vray users only the people who have time to work alternatively can discover newer, better and faster workflows. I believe I am one of those people.

Sebastian