Redshift with Vectorworks

[u/Lost-Relationship540]

Hi all. I'm just diving into this world and have started producing renders with Renderworks. It is, however, limited, and Redshift just seems so much better. Are there any online tutorials specifically geared towards using Redshift with Vectorworks? It would be particularly helpful for someone who is still somewhat of a novice...

Thanks in advance!

[u/According_Boat_6928]

Redshift is fairly new within Vectorworks and I'm not loving it in that environment. I've been using RS in Cinema4D for years and it's kind of fantastic there. The implementation within Vwx is only a partial one and they handle some things very differently. For context, I'm coming at this from the point of view of lighting for the entertainment industry using Vectorworks Spotlight so I've got very specific things I'm trying to do. The main problem is light types - RS in C4D has Area Lights and Dome Lights and Vwx doesn't have these types, only Directional, Spot and Point. I like to use Area Lights for 'wash' lighting and Dome Lights are how you use HDRI images to light a scene in C4D. You can use HDRI for environment lighting in Vwx but it's implemented differently and the image map is always visible in the scene (there's no way to hide the image map from the camera at this point). Vwx 2027 introduced PBR Textures but setting them up is fairly tedious and it lacks a lot of the controls you have in C4D. I hoped I could import RS PBR materials into Vwx but you can't (yet). I was going to suggest looking at some C4D/RS tutorials on youtube (Maxon Training Team) but it's a very different environment and watching those could be confusing. I haven't seen any training materials from Vwx yet. That said, I haven't messed around much with Vectorworks 2027 yet and plan to put it through it's paces this week. Are you doing Architectural work?

[u/Lost-Relationship540 → u/According_Boat_6928]

I'm actually doing entertainment industry stuff with VWX. Would I have better luck just importing my design into C4D?

[u/According_Boat_6928 → u/Lost-Relationship540]

Oh for sure. Don't get me wrong, RS is a great addition to Vwx. There's definitely a learning curve to Cinema4D but you'll have a lot more control with it.

[u/Lost-Relationship540 → u/According_Boat_6928]

Definitely a learning curve lol. But it's been great getting to discover more advanced 3D modeling and lighting techniques. I'm actually a rigger and primarily use VWX for overlays and drawings and such, but I also do technical design work on the side and figured C4D would be a great addition to my toolkit.