Hello Tom!
It's a pleasure for me to share these things.
@You : "...So you are familiar wth 3DCoat - did you work with it ?..."
Yes, I'm pretty familiar with 3D-Coat, at least with its main and most important features, but it's not my job.
I'm a software developer (Android java and web app for Android and iOS) but CG, both 2D and 3D, is my main passion for decades.
@You : "...Does 3DCoat have an own render engine or would it be more advisible to bake the texture and render externally ?..."
Well...here things get interesting :)
1) 3D-Coat has a built-in proprietary pseudo PBR renderer.
I said "pseudo" because it's a very streamlined version of a full PBR renderer.
Anyway is more than enough if you don't need photorealistic results.
I use it very often above all because I like to follow a particular workflow.
Many times I create 2D/3D image composition at print-quality resolution, at least A3 300 Dpi (4961x3508 px) and I want to do these things very quickly, spending the shortest possible time, at least in the 3D side.
And for this particular workflow 3D-Coat is almost PERFECT for me!
Usually I do these things :
- I model something in Moi and or Rocket3F/NVIL (two very nice and powerful Poly/SDS modeler)
- I export the model in very high poly mesh
- I import the mesh in 3D-Coat as high poly mesh as a Voxel with high density (many millions of polygons)
- Sometimes i use the "Slice" too to break the part into pieces
- Then I apply some 3D-Coat built-in or custom "Shader"
- Finally I render in the render Room and save the hires PNG along with its alpha channel for further image composition (usually in Affinity Photo with PC or my iPad Pro 12.9 second generation)
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Here's a quick example of a simple image composition (obj modeled in Moi then Voxelized and splitted in 3DC and rendered in 3DC ) :
2) 3D-Coat has also a new "Renderman" render module! (You must download the public free Renderman package)
3) If you prefer a more standard workflow you can use 3D-Coat for its sculpting/texturing/UVing/Retopo features and export a standard UVed obj or ply to use into an external renderer.
I often use the brand new (still in advanced beta) Instant Light. A terrific fast realtime GPU render engine.
But you need a really powerful GPU.
I have an Nvidia Gtx 1080 Ti and it's good.
Many times I also use Blender 2.79 or Thea Render (Cpu+GPU combined together) or even Rhino V5 with its Thea render Plugin.
I hope this is helpful and interesting for you.
My two cents...
Ciao!
Marco (mkdm)
