(musical tone) - V-Ray, (tinkling tones)
or Lumion. They can both help you
create stunning renderings, but their features and
how you integrate them into your SketchUp workflow
are vastly different, which is why it's so hard to
compare them head to head. I always tell people
that the important thing is not trying to figure
out which one is the best, but rather which one is the best for you. So how do you do that? I've come up with a list
of the seven key things you need to consider when
deciding between the two programs and split those into three categories, rendering performance, key differences, and integrating V-Ray and
Lumion into your workflow. Okay, time to figure out whether V-Ray or Lumion is the right program for you. And at the end of this
video, I'll also show you a third option you might not be aware of, but may be a good fit for your situation. Let's start with number one, speed. Let's say you've already created
your 3D model in SketchUp, and now it's time to render. Now, imagine you have
two identical computers, one for rendering with V-Ray, and one for rendering with Lumion. Of course, there are a ton of things you need to get right in each program to achieve a beautiful rendering, from lighting, to materials,
to render settings. And we'll talk about all that in a bit, but for this example, let's
just say that the work is done and you're ready to hit the Render button in both V-Ray and Lumion. So how did they do? Well, the first thing you'll notice, and it's Lumion's big
selling point versus V-Ray, is that Lumion renders the final image much faster than V-Ray. How much faster? Well, it depends on several factors that we'll get into later in the video, but generally we're talking
between 10 to 20 times faster. So why is Lumion so much faster? The reason is that V-Ray and
Lumion approach rendering in two different ways, which
brings us to our next key thing to consider when choosing
between V-Ray and Lumion. Number two, photo realism. Behind the curtain, the
way V-Ray and Lumion actually render the same model
is fundamentally different. And that has an effect on not only the speed of the rendering, but also the photo
realism of the end result. So what is that difference? In tech lingo, V-Ray's
what's called a ray tracer and Lumion is what's called
a rasterized renderer. But what does that mean to you? Well, when you click on the Render button in a ray tracer, like V-Ray, the software is actually
calculating the trajectory of every ray of light in the scene and how it bounces around your model. It's an intensive calculation
that can take a while for your machine to compute. But Ray tracing allows you to
achieve the highest quality or most photo realistic result because it's in effect
mimicking real-world lighting, which means you get fully
accurate shadows, reflections, and refracted light in
your final rendering. A rasterized render like Lumion is able to produce faster results
by taking some shortcuts, meaning it's approximating
what many elements in the rendering should look like, but isn't accurately computing things like shadows, bounced
light, or reflections. Often the result is
pretty realistic looking and may be good enough for
the types of renderings you're looking to produce,
but in other situations it will be apparent that
the quality and realism just isn't what you can
get from a ray tracer. A few quick side notes. First, there are things you can do to get your renderings
done faster in V-Ray. We cover a lot of the essentials in Our Getting Started in V-Ray video. But another thing to know is that there's a rendering service from the makers of V-Ray
called Chaos Cloud, which can render your scene for you more quickly than you could
do on your own computer, and then send you back the final result. The service isn't free, but as we'll discuss later in this video, the cost may be worth considering depending on your particular
workflow or project. Second, in V-Ray 5, there's a new feature called V-Ray Vision, which shows
you a real-time render view of your scene as you're
working on it in SketchUp. The quality may be similar
to what you get in Lumion in some scenarios, not as good in others, and definitely not as good
as V-Ray's ray traced result, but it's nice to have the option if you do choose V-Ray for
this quicker type of rendering. Lastly, the makers of
V-Ray are making progress on real-time ray tracing through a product called Chaos Vantage, which
aims to create real-time or instant results like V-Ray Vision, but with true ray tracing photo realism. We're keeping a close eye on this because it could be a real game changer. If you wanna be sure not to miss the scoop on new features like this, be sure to subscribe to our
YouTube channel right now. Okay, so as a quick recap,
the two key considerations when comparing rendering
performance in V-Ray versus Lumion is weighing the trade off
between the speed you get from a rasterized renderer, Lumion, and the photo realism you get
out of a ray tracer, V-Ray. The next things you'll want
to consider when deciding which of the two programs
will best fit your needs are the key differences between the two when it comes to actually
setting up your renderings and building out your model,
starting with number three, the objects in your model. The objects you place in your model are an essential part of
breathing life into your scenes, and the higher the quality
of the objects you use, the more realism you can achieve
with your final renderings. One of the big draws of
Lumion is that it comes with a content library of over
6,000 render-ready objects that you can quickly add to your model, including realistic trees and
plants, objects and furniture, people and animals, vehicles, and more, all with the right materials and settings to render beautifully. Previous to V-Ray 5, there
wasn't a content library included with V-Ray that could compare. It was up to you to download
objects from the 3D warehouse or other similar websites to
use in your SketchUp model, or build the objects yourself, then use V-Ray to configure
the material settings so that they render nicely. But with the latest version of V-Ray 5, you now have access to
Cosmos, a curated 3D library of high quality render-ready models. Similar to Lumion, with just a few clicks, you can now add trees,
plants, furniture, people, and more, directly into
your SketchUp model. They'll import displaying
a low amount of detail to keep your polygon count down and your SketchUp model
lean, but they'll render with the full level of detail
and realistic materials. So if you're comparing the
latest versions of both programs, why is the content
library a key difference? Cosmos is an amazing addition
to the V-Ray platform that shouldn't be understated, but there are a few things
that you should know about that really set Lumion's
content library apart. First, the Lumion content library is several times larger
than the Cosmos library and includes a far more extensive tree and vegetation collection. What's more, with just a few clicks, you can create variations,
randomize placement, and even change their look
to match a particular season. Now don't get me wrong,
it's definitely possible to achieve similar results using V-Ray. You just might need to
familiarize yourself with some more advanced techniques, as well as some SketchUp extensions. And lastly, it's worth noting
that many of Lumion's objects come pre-programmed with
properties for animation, such as moving leaves on
trees or people walking. We'll talk more about
animations later in the video. Of course, you can, and
probably will, also use objects from the 3D warehouse when
building out your SketchUp model, no matter which rendering tool you choose. For example, when you
need a particular product from a particular brand, or you need an object that isn't included in either content library. Just know that you'll have
to edit the material settings in either program to get
them to render nicely. Okay, moving onto the next key difference. Number four, how you
build your environment. Chances are most of your renderings won't be in a white void. So you'll wanna consider how you plan to build out the world and terrain around your model. With Lumion, you've got a
host of tools that allow you to quickly add mountains,
lakes, oceans, and more. But it's important to
note that these tools are just for the Lumion environment. They won't work on any terrain that you imported from SketchUp. So any particular site elements
or exact typography you need you'll need to model in SketchUp before importing into Lumion. Also, remember that
the elements you create only exist in Lumion,
so they won't show up in any plans, elevations, or perspectives you need to show back in SketchUp. But what about building
out your environment when it comes to using V-Ray? Since V-Ray runs within SketchUp, you'll need to use SketchUp sandbox tools or an extension like Artisan to build out everything in your scene, of course, adjusting materials as you go so they render nicely in the end. As with objects, it is possible
to achieve great results for the same types of terrain in V-Ray as you would get from
Lumion's world-building tools. Just know that depending
on what you're going for, it can take a ton of time
and effort to get it right. And for certain scenery, Lumion's tools are a total game changer in terms of time-savings and realism. And don't forget, you also
have the sky to consider. In both V-Ray and Lumion,
you'll be able to achieve a much more realistic
backdrop for your rendering than the default SketchUp sky. Let's talk about how. In Lumion, you pick your sky
from their existing library. You also have the ability
to add and position your own sun, moon, clouds,
contrails, and more. Plus you can even add weather elements, such as rain and snow. In V-Ray, you have the option
of using their default sky or replacing with a more
realistic HDR image. We don't have the time
to cover all the details for how to do that right now, but just know that if
you're using V-Ray 5, there are some available to
you in the Cosmos library, or you can find and download a sky that fits with your scene, import it into SketchUp
and adjust the settings so that it works seamlessly
in your rendering. You won't have the option
for adding contrails or weather elements in V-Ray, so you'd need to add
things like that later in a program like Photoshop. I've added some tips and links
to resources for HDR images in the notes for this video, which you can use to review
everything we're covering today. And you can find a link
to those in the cards. All right, that brings us to the last key difference
between the two programs. Number five, animation. Walk-through and fly-through
animations in SketchUp are an amazing way for
architects and interior designers to showcase their models to clients. And with V-Ray and Lumion, you can take these
animations to the next level. But there are a few key differences between V-Ray and Lumion
when it comes to animation that you need to know about. First, you'll have to weigh the same two rendering
performance considerations that we discussed earlier
with still rendering, speed and photo realism. You'll be able to get
animations faster out of Lumion, but you can achieve higher levels of photo realism with V-Ray. Keep in mind that with an animation, what you're doing is
essentially creating a rendering for every single frame of the video, meaning that if you're using V-Ray and you have a walkthrough animation that's a few seconds long, you could be talking about your computer having to render out dozens,
if not hundreds of images. It can add up fast. This is where a rendering
service like Chaos Cloud, which I mentioned earlier,
can really come in handy and save you a ton of time. Your future self will
definitely thank you. (golf club whizzing) Fore. Thanks. If you're not concerned
with 100% photo realism, you'll be able to get animations
much quicker out of Lumion since it's much less time intensive to create the renderings for each frame. But realism isn't the biggest difference between the two when
it comes to animation. That's because Lumion comes with a host of animation features that really set it apart from V-Ray. The first thing you'll notice with Lumion is that many objects and textures come with pre-programmed
ambient animation, such as the subtle rippling of water, leaves and branches swaying on the trees, and flickering fires. You also have the ability to quickly and easily program objects to animate, such as people, vehicles and more. Plus you can animate effects, such as clouds moving across the sky or weather elements in your scene. And you have the ability to
edit multiple animation clips together with titles and
sound, all within Lumion. With V-Ray, you'd need
to take your animations into another program like
Final Cut or Premiere to edit clips together and add titles. - [Chorus] Aw. - All right, let's move on to
our final comparison category, integrating V-Ray and Lumion
into your SketchUp workflow, and the last two things
you need to consider when deciding between V-Ray and Lumion. Starting with number
six, operating system. Currently Lumion is a PC-only application, but V-Ray is available
for both PC and Mac. But wait, remember the
bonus tip I mentioned about a third option
besides V-Ray and Lumion that might be worth checking out? If you're a Mac user, but you feel like you're
leaning towards Lumion, you should know there's
an alternative to Lumion called Twinmotion that
works on both Mac and PC. Of course, Twinmotion doesn't
have the exact same features as Lumion, but that's a
topic for another video. Still, it's definitely a solid
option worth checking out. Okay, moving on, number seven, price. The last, but certainly not
the least thing to consider between the two options
is, of course, price. In addition to all the time and effort you'll need to put into learning
a new piece of software, there are also the real dollars and cents you'll need to invest. So let's break down the difference. V-Ray for SketchUp is a $350
a year annual subscription, or a perpetual license
is available for $790, with an upgrade cost of $395. Whereas the fully
featured perpetual license of Lumion Pro costs
roughly 3,600 US dollars at the time of publishing this video. Upgrades to the next version
run roughly 1,200 US dollars. There's also a non-pro version of Lumion that's roughly 1,800
for a perpetual license, and around 600 to upgrade
to the next version, which comes with a much
smaller content library and is missing some key materials, like 3D grass and many of
Lumion's glass presets, as well as a handful of other features. I've added a link to the differences between the two in the
notes for this video. It's also worth noting that Twinmotion is $499 for a perpetual license. You'll also wanna consider
the costs of expanding what you can do with V-Ray
using paid SketchUp extensions to fill the gaps in some
of the feature differences that we've gone over in this video, such as Artisan for modeling
the terrain around your model, Scatter for placing large
amounts of render-ready trees, plants, and other nature objects. Laubwork, a high-end library of render-ready trees and plants, and Chaos Cloud rendering
services for faster renderings. And there you have it. Now, you know the key differences
between V-Ray and Lumion. Do me a favor and let me know which one you're leaning towards in the comments below right now. And if you're not sure yet, we'd be happy to help you decide. Head over to this page on our website. Tell us about your situation, and we'll tell you
which rendering software we think is right for you. Once you've made your
choice, I recommend starting by watching one of these two videos. They cover some of the most common things that often trip people up when
they're first getting started in either V-Ray or Lumion. Until next time, happy sketching. (computer beep) (slow, heavy music) (computer beep) (computer beep) (computer beep) (laughs)
