MAXWELL RENDER 2.5 USER MANUAL “Maxwell Render’s groundbreaking lighting and shading technology enables our artists to produce better work in less time. Creating shaders with tools based on real-world physics frees our creative process from investing in techniques to fake natural light response. Next Limit also provides the most extensive and qualitative free material library we’re aware of. We created and rendered CG elements for all shots in the Vinamilk commercial at doubleresolution in one day.
1 INTRODUCTION 5 CAMERAS 1.01 What is Maxwell Render? Page 5 1.02 Why Maxwell Render? Page 5 1.03 Complete features list Page 6 2 THE MAXWELL RENDER REALITY 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 Lighting in Maxwell Render Environment Page 8 Interactive workflow Page 8 Cameras Page 8 Materials Page 8 Learning curve Page 9 Page 7 3 USING MAXWELL RENDER 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.
12 MAXWELL STUDIO 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 16 APPENDIX III. COMMAND LINE COMMANDS Interface Page 95 The Interactive Preview Page 102 Objects List, Instances List and Objects Parameters Page 103 Cameras. Camera Parameters Page 109 Materials Editor, Material List and Material Browser Page 114 Render Options panel Page 118 Environment panel Page 118 Textures List, Texture Picker and Color Picker Page 118 Console and History Panels Page 119 17 APPENDIX IV.
© Next Limit Technologies 2010
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 1. Introduction | 5 1 INTRODUCTION 1.01 What is Maxwell Render? Maxwell Render™ is a rendering engine based on the mathematical equations governing light transport, meaning that all elements, such as emitters, materials and cameras, are derived from physically accurate models. Maxwell Render is unbiased, so no tricks are used to calculate the lighting solution in every pixel of a scene; the result will always be a correct solution, as it would be in the real world.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 1. Introduction | graphics terminology, not reality. For example, the settings of the Maxwell Render camera work and adjust just like the settings of a real camera and the strength of the lights in your scene is based on real-world units. Because of this, it is straightforward to create and render scenes, and set-up times are extremely low compared to other renderers.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapeter 2. The Maxwell Render Reality. Understanding Maxwell’s Approach to rendering | 7 2 THE MAXWELL REALITY. UNDERSTANDING MAXWELL’S APPROACH TO RENDERING While Maxwell Render is uncomplicated and straightforward, it does make use of some concepts and functions that may be new or different to you. They account for Maxwell Render’s superb quality and realism.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapeter 2. The Maxwell Render Reality. Understanding Maxwell’s Approach to rendering | 8 2.02 Environment 2.04 Cameras Maxwell Render provides a complete Physical Sky system with a sophisticated atmosphere model that reproduces skylight conditions at different hours, dates, and locations. The Physical Sky system is a simple way to obtain extremely accurate lighting in your scenes. Cameras in Maxwell Render™ operate completely different from those in other render engines.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapeter 2. The Maxwell Render Reality. Understanding Maxwell’s Approach to rendering | mimic many surfaces that are composed of different materials one over another. Maxwell materials are based on physical properties and therefore very easy to use once understood properly.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | 10 3 USING MAXWELL RENDER Maxwell Render™ provides two alternative workflows: 1. 2. Through plug-ins. This method allows you to use Maxwell Render with your favorite 3D/ CAD package, through one of the freely available plug-ins. The Plug-ins create a .MXS (Maxwell scene file) which is then sent to Maxwell Render. This is the recommended workflow. Through Studio.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | Platform Version 3dS Max 7 (with Maxwell Fire) Win32 Win64 Mac OSX Linux Platform Version SolidWorks 2007 (s.p. 3.1) (with Maxwell Fire) 8 2009 2008 2010 2009 2011 ArchiCAD 2011 Autodesk VIZ 06 8.5 Form•Z 6.1 and up (6.7 recommended) SketchUp 6 8 Modo 2010 302 401 2011 8.x 9.x * 3ds Max 2010 and 2011 plug-in is valid for 3ds Max Design too. (9.3 UB) Maxwell Render plug-in is available Cinema4D R9.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | a. Downloading and/or updating the plug-in Depending on the specific host application, some plug-ins provide the user with automatic updates. If you need to manually update your plug-in or if you are a new user and need to download it, you can do so through our customer download area. The link to the customer download area is provided in your license email, sent to you when you first purchased the software. b.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | plug-in available for your application, you can still make use of Studio by importing a scene or geometry, and making further adjustments to your materials/ cameras/ lights. Or you can merge different .MXS files together into one scene. 3.03 Maxwell Fire: Fast Interactive Rendering Maxwell Fire is an interactive tool which provides instant results while setting up a scene. You can preview scene lighting and materials in seconds.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | does not require a special Maxwell scene file to work. Maxwell Fire is a free update for existing users of Maxwell Render 2.5 or above and will be free inside Maxwell Render for new clients. Educational Users also benefit Maxwell Fire will also be included as a free update to Educational versions of Maxwell Render v2: anybody holding educational licenses of Maxwell Render 2 will get full functionality of Maxwell Fire.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | 3.07 Installing Maxwell Render Windows Run the installation file and follow the installation procedure. The Maxwell Render V2 executable files will be added to the system path. Two user environment variables named MAXWELL2_ROOT and MAXWELL2_MATERIALS_ DATABASE pointing to the installation folder will be added. If these variables do not exist or are not created properly, the application will fail.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 3. Using Maxwell Render | 3.09 Minimum system requirements The minimum system requirements for Maxwell Render are as follows: Windows (32 and 64) • Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 • 2 GHz Intel® Pentium®4 processor, AMD Athlon 64 or better • 1GB RAM minimum. 4 GB of RAM memory is highly recommended • 400 MB available hard disk space for installation • Accelerated OpenGL drivers • 3 button mouse recommended Linux 64 • x86_64 distribution with a 2.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 4. Getting Started | 17 4 GETTING STARTED Now that you know what Maxwell Render is, let’s start using it. To help you take your first steps in Maxwell Render, we have created a series of Getting Started video tutorials, covering the basic concepts and main functions you need to set up and start rendering a scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 5. Cameras | 18 5 CAMERAS uu Note: In order to unify the look of this manual, the screenshots in this chapter were taken from the Studio interface, so they may have a slightly different look or position in other 3D platforms. These are the main parameters you should take into consideration: 5.01 Position F.01 Position • • • • © Next Limit Technologies 2010 Camera Position: X, Y, Z world coordinates of the location of the camera.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 5. Cameras | 5.02 Optics 19 Exposure checkbox, which will allow you to change any of the parameters while keeping the same exposure level. For a deeper explantion of these camera concepts please consult Cameras and Camera Parameters secction. F.01 Optics Film Back • • • • Focal Length (mm): The focal length of the lens. Focal length is a measure of how strong an optical system converges or diverges light.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 5. Cameras | 5.03 Sensor • • • • • Resolution: The horizontal and vertical (width and height) resolution of the image in pixels. Film Back: Camera film/ sensor width in mm. Pixel aspect: Width–height proportion of the pixels. Useful when the rendering output will be displayed on devices which have non-square pixels, such as television sets. ISO: The measure of a photographic film’s sensitivity to light.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 5. Cameras | more pronounced the motion blur will be. However, for animations – when replicating a film camera – the shutter speed is generally fixed to a certain speed, usually 24 frames per second (1/24). Since film cameras cannot control the amount of motion blur by changing the shutter speed, they instead have a rotating disc with an adjustable pie-shaped cut-out on it, which controls how long each frame is exposed.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 6. Lighting with Emitters | 22 6 LIGHTING WITH EMITTERS uu Note: In order to unify the look of this manual, the screenshots in this chapter were taken from the Studio interface, so they may have a slightly different look or position in other 3D platforms. Emitters in Maxwell Render are part of the material system. An emitter material should be applied to the geometry you want to emit light from.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 6. Lighting with Emitters | b. Emitter Materials are defined in a very intuitive way, using real world values like watts or efficacy. Your emitter can be defined in three different ways: • • • Custom: This option allows you to set the Color and the Intensity of your light separately. Color can be set in RBG, HSV or XYZ scales, or correlated to a Kelvin value. Intensity (or Luminance) can be set in a number of different ways (see next section).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 6. Lighting with Emitters | d. e. Luminous Intensity: Candela (cd). Candela is considered the SI unit for luminous intensity; the power of the light emitted in a certain direction. Luminance: Nit (cd/m^2). One “Nit” is one candela per square meter. F.01 Power and efficacy F.02 Luminous power F.04 Luminous intensity F.05 Luminance 24 for the most predictable results it is recommended you apply it on a small sphere.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 6. Lighting with Emitters | 25 6.02 Temperature of Emission You can also use Maxwell.exe to adjust the intensity of the MXI/ HDR/ EXR map using the Intensity slider in the MXI section (found in the Edit panel). The Temperature of Emission can be chosen in Kelvin degrees (ºK). Full Temperature of Emission mode affects not only the color but also the intensity of the emission. A higher temperature will make the emission stronger and bluer.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | 26 7 SETTING UP ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING uu Note: In order to unify the look of this manual, the screenshots in this chapter were taken from the Studio interface, so they may have a slightly different look or position in other 3D platforms. Besides the option to light your scene with emitters, there are four additional Environment lighting options: None, Sky Dome, Physical Sky and IBL (Image Based Lighting). F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | 27 7.02 Sky Dome 7.03 Physical Sky Create a consistent color or gradient dome for lighting your scene. Maxwell Render™ has a sophisticated atmosphere model that reproduces the skylight conditions at different locations/ times/ dates. The atmosphere parameters allow users to customize the look of the sky and the resulting light in the scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | 28 Location and Time: F.01 Localition settings • • • • • • City: List of cities to quickly choose a location. The list is a text file which you can edit to add or delete locations. It can be found in your Maxwell installation folder (cities. txt). Latitude/Longitude: Earth positions to calculate the sky/ sun light direction. Date/Now: Set the date.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | • • • • Sun: Switch direct sunlight on/ off. Sun Temperature: Temperature of the sun’s spectral radiation. The default value of 5777ºK is the most common value measured outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Lowering this value will give the sky and scene illumination a yellow tint, higher values will give the illumination a blue tint.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | 30 the sun (negative values). A value of 0 means that the light is scattered equally in all directions (isotropic value). Positive values will produce a halo effect around the sun, brightening the area around it. Negative Scattering Asymmetry values will have an overall darkening effect on the sky. Avoid setting a higher negative or positive Asymmetry setting than -0.85/ 0.85 as this will result in noisier renders.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 7. Setting up environment lighting | used for IBL should be in the Latitude/ Longitude format (the width should be twice the height). Images in “strobes” or “cross” formats will not work correctly. uu Note: There are several available channels for specifying MXI/ HDR/ EXR maps. This is a powerful feature as it allows the user to have more control over the effects of the environment on the scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | 32 8 SETTING UP THE RENDER OUTPUT uu Note: In order to unify the look of this manual, the screenshots in this chapter were taken from the Studio interface, so they may have a slightly different look or position in other 3D platforms. 8.01 General The Maxwell Render approach to rendering is quite different from that of other rendering engines.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | will stop in 5 minutes. If you are not sure what SL or Render Time to put to reach the desired quality, just put in high numbers for both so that the image keeps rendering. You can then check every once in a while to see if you are pleased with the quality of the image and stop the render anytime. • • • • • • Time (min): Set the maximum render time (in minutes) for the render.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | • • • %time% : the time when the render was launched will be included in the final image file name, in hh.mm format. %temp% : the full path of the temp folder of the OS will be included in the final image file name. %version% : the current engine version will be included in the final image file name. 34 8.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | • • Channels: Allow you to determine whether you want your channels to be exported as independent files (Separate), or embedded as one single file (Embedded) in the formats that allow extra buffers, like exr or tif. The Alpha channel can be embedded in the tga, png, tiff and exr formats. • • • Render: Output the main render image.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | 36 8.06 Tone Mapping 8.07 SimuLens • This section allows you to set the Maxwell SimuLens parameters. Detailed information about these parameters can be found in the core rendering application section in Chapter 9.03.04. Burn: Parameter to control the highlights in a render. Lower burn values will decrease the intensity of the highlights to avoid “burned out” areas in the image.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | • • Refl. Caustics: Render direct reflective caustics, indirect reflective caustics, or both. Direct reflective caustics come from light that bounced off a specular reflective object and created caustic light patterns on any subsequent object. Indirect reflective caustics come from light that bounced off an object, then off a specular reflective object, and then created a caustic light pattern on any subsequent surface. Refr.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | uu Note: If you need to adjust the color of your emitters in your postproduction platform (rather than in Maxwell Render), then you don’t need to launch your render with the Color Multilight mode (which is only involved in the color adjustments inside Maxwell Render).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | 39 9 THE CORE RENDERING APPLICATION The core rendering application in Maxwell Render (previously called MXCL) is the engine which computes your render and shows you the final image. The component is called Maxwell.exe in Windows, Maxwell.app in Mac OSX and Maxwell in Linux. It provides a standalone interface that allows users to load MXS scenes to render, view the rendering progress and adjust render parameters.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | F.01 Maxwell Render UI 9.01.01 Top Menus At the top of the Maxwell UI, you will see the different menus available in The core rendering engine. F.01 Menus panel © Next Limit Technologies 2010 40 File: • Open MXS: Open a MXS file generated from the plug-ins or from Studio. You can then set the render and output options from the Render Options panel and click the Render button to start rendering.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | • • • • F.01 MXI Batch Processing • • Resume MXI: Select a MXI file to resume rendering. After specifying a MXI file, the corresponding MXS file will be loaded in Maxwell Render and rendering will resume automatically from where it left off. Please note that the resume render will not work if you have made any changes in the MXS or if the location of the MXS has changed.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | • • • • • • • F.01 Scripting Window: Open or close the different panels available (Render Options, Edit, Preview, Console, Script, Multilight). Help: Get information about the software version, open the Maxwell manual, or access the THINK! learning website where you can find free tutorials and video tutorials to help you to improve your Maxwell Render skills. 9.01.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | 9.02 The Render Options Tab: setting up the render 43 The following options are specific to the core rendering engine: 9.02.01 Scene The Maxwell Render approach to rendering is quite different from that of other rendering engines. Because of its physically correct behavior and spectral calculations of light, there is no concept of a “finished” render. The render will keep calculating until you stop it.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | • • • • Multilight: Disabled / Intensity / Color enables the different Multilight modes. The options Embedded/Separated allow you to export all emitter results to independent images, or save only the composed image. For more information about Multilight, see chapter 9.04. Cpu Id: This parameter is set back to a random value each time a MXS is opened.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | 9.02.04 Globals • This checkboxes allow you to easily disable/enable the Motion Blur, Displacement and Dispersion calculations on your render, without the need of editing the scene or its materials. 9.02.05 Channels • Channels: Allow you to determine if you want your channels to be exported as independent files (Separate), or embedded in one single file (Embedded) in the formats that allow extra buffers, like exr or tif.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | 46 The icons represent: R: Render channel A: Alpha channel S: Shadow channel M: Material Id channel O: Object Id channel M: Motion vector channel Z: Depth channel R: Roughness channel F: Fresnel channel uu Note: The Color MultiLight feature and the Shadow Channel exportation are incompatible, so if both features are enabled together the render will be stopped and an error message will appear in the Maxwell console. F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | • • • Color Space: Choose your desired color space for the rendered image. Available color spaces are sRGB, Adobe 98, Apple, APL and NTSC. Burn: Parameter to control the highlights in a render. Lower burn values will decrease the intensity of the highlights to avoid “burned out” areas in the image. In most cases this parameter should be left at default. Lowering it too much may produce unnaturallooking images.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | then disable the Simulens again and resume the render. For adding Simulens effects to a range of MXI files after the render is completed, use File>MXI Batch Processing. This tip does not apply to the Devignetting effect which does not use more RAM or calculation time, you can enable it before starting the render • Devignetting: Vignetting is an artifact that darkens an image around the edges due to camera optics.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | The Multilight™ tab has an Emixer, where you can adjust the intensity of the lights and the ISO and shutter speed. Each emitter in the scene is represented by a slider with the name of the emitter, including the Sky (any of the available Sky options) and IBL environment. The Emixer key-framed sequence can also be saved as an .emixer file.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | 9.05 The Right-click Menu Right-click in the Display Render window to get access to the Display Options menu. 50 The Maxwell Render scripting engine is based on ECMA standards (like other popular scripting languages such as Javascript and Actionscript), and provides default compatibility with these standards.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 9. The core rendering application | • • • • • • Load Script File: Load a script file in .ms or .js format and open it in the Script Editor. Script files can be drag and dropped to the Viewer area or to the Script Editor to load them. Save Script File: Save the current script in .ms or .js format. Run Script: Run the script currently open in the Script Editor. Debugger: Open the script Debugger window. Find: Find a word in the script.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 52 10 MAXWELL MATERIALS 10.01 Maxwell Materials Before explaining the material parameters used in the Maxwell material system, it is important to have a basic understanding of what light is, how it interacts with materials and why a material looks shiny, dull, transparent etc. Please review this information as it will make the parameters in the Maxwell material editor much easier to understand.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | A surface which scatters almost all light in a chaotic, diffuse way is called a “lambertian” surface, such as the red ball on the left. Lambertian reflectance means that light falling on a surface is scattered in such a way that the apparent brightness of the surface is the same, regardless of the observer’s angle of view. Or else: the surface’s luminance is the same regardless of angle of view.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | The Fresnel Effect The Fresnel effect is the apparent increase/ decrease of a surfaces reflectance based on viewing angle. For example, if you look at your monitor screen straight on, the monitor glass shows almost no reflection, but if you look at it from an angle almost parallel to the glass, it has become very reflective. The Fresnel effect is dependent on the Nd of the material.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 55 a. Material Components c. BSDF Properties Maxwell Render’s materials are made up of different “components” which are organized into folders. A folder can hold one BSDF (Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function) component and Coating, Emitter and Displacement components. Each folder in the material editor represents a Layer, which are stacked one on top of the other, similar to layers in a 2D image editing application.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 56 e. Subsurface Properties 10.02.02 Edit Menu Parameters to control the subsurface scattering (SSS) properties of a translucent material. The options in the Edit Menu are the same ones that appear when right-clicking in the material components section. 10.02.03 Preview Menu The options in the Preview Menu are the same ones that show up when right-clicking in the material preview section. F.01 Subsurface properties 10.02.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | • 57 Time and Scale of the material preview. These options are also available in the Preferences panel, and they will be used as defaults. Making your own preview scenes: The material preview window can render any MXS. Preview scenes are useful to preview specific scenes or objects. When the Right-click menu is open, all the MXS files available in the preview folder are shown, allowing you to choose the one you need.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | • • • • • • • on, it will shine light on the scene just like a regular emitter. But when the emitter is turned off, it will reveal the glass bulb material. You can apply only one emitter component per layer. Add Coating: Add a new coating to the selected BSDF. You can only add one coating component per BSDF. Add Displacement: Add a displacement component to the current layer.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | • • desired axis. Offset: Select the amount of offset for the X, Y axis. Relative/ Meters: The amount of tiling for a texture can be set in the texture coordinates (Relative), or in real scale in meters (Meters). Maxwell Render will use a 1m x 1m x 1m UV set for the texture when the Meters option is selected, regardless of the actual size of the object and what other UV sets may be applied to the object.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 60 10.03.01 Material properties F.01 Material Properties Click on this row to get an overview of the parameters that can be applied to the whole material. • • • • F.01 The Stacked layer system Global Bump and Normal map: You can specify a global bump/ normal map which will affect the whole material, alongside the bump of each individual BSDF.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 61 way to visualize this effect is thinking of projecting light through several photographic slides. It can be useful to create interesting blends between the textures used in the BSDFs of the different layers and also to create plastics that have a thin shiny coating on the surface that still allows the color of the plastic to show through beneath it. • F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 10.03.03 Specific properties When selecting a material component in the layer tree (a BSDF, a Coating, an Emitter or a Displacement component) its properties will appear in the right area of the Material Editor. These components form the foundation of the Maxwell material system, and they are explained in the following chapters. 10.04 The BSDF The BSDF component is the main component in the Maxwell material system.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | material. Choose a Transmittance color by clicking on the color picker, or specify a texture by clicking on the texture button. The Transmittance color represents the color of the light when it has reached the Attenuation distance (see below). uu Note: Transmittance must be a color other than black for transparency to appear.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | The following images demonstrate this: 64 of an object the higher you set the Roughness (See the Surface Properties chapter for more details on the Roughness parameter). The smoother a surface is (low roughness), the bigger the effect of Nd on the surface will be. You will see the biggest changes to the reflectiveness of the object as you change the Nd, when the surface roughness is low.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 65 You should turn on Force Fresnel when you are working with untextured refl. 0° and refl.90° channels to create more realistic metals or other shiny materials. Force Fresnel will then ensure a correct reflectance across the entire surface, even if you set a very dark refl. 0° color. K From a physical point of view, the index of refraction is not just a plain number.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Abbe 66 no matter the Nd setting of the material. This is normal behavior, but there may be special cases where you would like to control the influence of roughness and still keep the 90° color visible at high roughness.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 67 Surface properties such as roughness, anisotropy and bump can still be changed when using IOR files. Naturally, a BSDF with an IOR file loaded can still be mixed with other “regular” BSDFs to create material variations. • F.01 r2 values 15 0 F.02 r2 values 55 0 IOR Custom This option allows you to set the value of the index of refraction (Nd) manually, as explained above.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 68 use a black and white checker map as a roughness texture, and you set the roughness to 30, then the white parts of the texture will result in 30 roughness while the black parts will represent 0 roughness. If you now change the roughness to 70, the white parts of the texture will result in 70 roughness and the black areas will still represent 0 roughness.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Bump and Normal Mapping This parameter, much like the Roughness parameter, allows you to simulate grooves and imperfections on a surface, but at a much larger scale. For example, you can use a bump/ normal map to simulate wood grain. Keep in mind that Bump/ Normal mapping only simulates these grooves on the surface; it does not actually create the geometry in any way, like Displacement does. Specify a Bump texture and the Bump strength.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Maxwell Render has a highly sophisticated set of parameters designed to simulate both surface and subsurface scattering. You will find Subsurface Properties for each BSDF as a collection of parameters under a collapsible rollout. These parameters are: • • • 70 opaque/ less translucent the medium is. For example, lemonade is more translucent while marble is more opaque. Asymmetry: Asymmetry defines the isotropy of scattering.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Clear / Saturated 71 Cloudy / Desaturated F.05 Effect of increasing Scattering Coef while maintaining Attenuation Lighter / Desaturated F.04 SubSurface Properties panel • • Transmittance: When a ray hits the surface, you need to allow it to enter the medium so it can create subsurface scattering. Set a transmittance color, which defines the color of the rays allowed to enter the medium.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | So even with zero reflectance, roughness has an effect on the diffusion of rays. The rest of the parameters including abbe, r2, anisotropy, angle, and bump are fully compatible with subsurface scattering, allowing you to simulate the corresponding effects at the same time. 1. Step 1.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 4. Step 4. Go back to the transmittance color and the scattering coefficient settings from Step 2. The render will look like Figure 5. Notice that the speculars you set in Step 3 (Figure 4) are added to Figure 3, creating a complete material with its surface and subsurface. You do not always have to follow these same steps.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 74 Additionally, you can add a Coating to the BSDF and the material will turn to a shiny Jade as seen in Figure 7. To avoid color interference in the coating, set it to 5000 nm or higher for a thick result. You can obtain a similar effect without using a coating, simply setting roughness to 0 in the BSDF. Asymmetry = 0.0 + Asymmetry = 0.0 = The example below shows the dramatic changes that result from +0.5 and -0.5 Asymmetry settings. F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | F.08 Asym + 0.5 (scattering) F.09 Asym + 0.5 (final look) F.10 Asym -0.5 (scattering) 75 F.11 Asym -0.5 (final look) Creating a single-sided translucent material F.12 Leaves without SSS F.13 Leaves with Single sided SSS Before starting to create the leaves, it is assumed you already know how to create a translucent material (see above).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 76 As can be seen on the right, the same single texture is normally enough to map all the required slots. It is easy to create suitable versions of the same map by altering the image properties under Texture Controls. Transmittance and Scattering maps are responsible for the final color of the material, while reflectance maps, roughness maps and bump maps are responsible for the speculars on the leaves’ surface.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | SCATTERING 77 THICKNESS BUMP F.16 Backlit single SSS Leaves REFLECTANCE 0 REFLECTANCE 90 10.05 Coatings TRANSMITTANCE ROUGHNESS Coatings are very thin layers that are placed on top of a BSDF. Because coatings are so thin, they produce an effect called thin film interference, which breaks up the light and can cause a rainbow-like pattern. Think for example of spilling a drop of oil on a surface of water.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | on the BSDF component > Add Coating, and then simply hide the BSDF clicking in the visibility column in the layer list to disable it. 10.06 Displacement Contrary to bump/ normal maps, the displacement feature simulates real geometry at render time as if it was actually modeled. This feature is very useful for adding fine detail to a mesh which would otherwise be difficult or impossible to actually model.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | An example of how surface detail is affected by increasing gain for the same texture can be found below: Height: 25cm Offset: 0 Gain: 2.5 Height: 25cm Offset: 0 Gain: 12 Height: 25cm Offset: 0 Gain: 32 79 mainly to “test” your displacement textures first to see how much detail can be obtained from a given texture size.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Appropriate base mesh geometry Objects made of evenly distributed polygons are preferable because they provide better quality. You should avoid base geometry with disproportionate triangles that converge to the same point. In areas with many small, converging triangles you may get artifacts when using displacement. Rendering sharp details To render sharp details, consider turning off texture filtering.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual 81 Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | Remember that during the render, you can display the specific render channels that you’ve requested by hovering over the channel buttons in the render view.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 82 10.08.03 The MXM Gallery and Maxwell Resources The Maxwell Render material gallery, called the MXM Gallery, is an online library with over 3.600 free Maxwell materials available for download. It is an online community where Maxwell Render users share materials for direct use in scenes and projects. The MXM Gallery is part of the Maxwell Resources website at http://resources. maxwellrender.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 10. Maxwell Materials | 83 uu Note: If you are connecting to the internet through a Proxy, you must set the proxy Host Name, Port, Username and Password through Preferences>MXM Gallery. 10.08.05 Material examples In Appendix I you will find practical examples and tips to help you better understand the material parameters and create your own MXMs. We strongly encourage you to take a look and experiment with the material system.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 84 11 THE NETWORK SYSTEM 11.01 The Network System The network rendering system was created to distribute the rendering process among various CPUs to reduce render times. The Maxwell Render network system offers a solid and stable performance and is easy to set up. The network system allows you to: 1. 2. 3. Launch a cooperative render with several machines working together to render the same image.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 85 You can choose to start the Manager, a Render Node or the Monitor on a computer by clicking on the appropriate shortcut (mx_manager, mx_node, mx_monitor). Please note that a computer that runs the Manager and/ or the Monitor can also be used as a Render Node at the same time. The Maxwell network can render across a mixed network of computers running Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 11.04 The Monitor To start the Monitor on any of the computers connected to the network, click on the mx_monitor shortcut. The Monitor interface has several elements: 86 11.04.01 The Menu bar File: • Preferences: This is a Preferences panel. You can choose which TCP port the Monitor should use for the network rendering and you can also specify the maximum number of nodes that should be used for network rendering.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | Window: Choose which panels you want to hide/ display in the UI. Help: You can consult the network section of the Maxwell Manual, or visit our tutorial website via the direct link to THINK! where you can find lots of free (video) tutorials to help you understand the ins and outs of Maxwell Render. 11.04.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 88 11.05 Setting up a render Setting up your own render farm can be done in a few simple steps: 1. F.01 Displaying a render © Next Limit Technologies 2010 Make sure all your computers are properly connected to the network, and check the read/ write permissions on each machine, for example by checking that the currently logged-in user can write a file in the folder you intend to specify as the output folder for network rendering.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 2. Launch the Manager.exe on the computer that is going to run as Manager, and launch RenderNode.exe in the computers that are going to work as nodes. Remember that you can also run a node on the computer that is running the Manager. It can manage the network rendering and also contribute to the rendering process. © Next Limit Technologies 2010 3. 89 Launch the Monitor.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 4. Use the Add button to submit a job. This will open the Add Job Wizard to help you through the process. Select one of the following options. • • • • 5. You can visualize the progress of the network render in the Jobs window in the Monitor. You can stop the process, remove any job, add more jobs to the queue, and display the images that are being computed by the network. 6.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | 91 11.06.01 Merging Manually If the network fails or crashes at some point and the merging of MXI files is not completed (you can check the Monitor nodes and manager for error messages), you can manually merge the cooperative MXI files created during the render process. All the Render Nodes save the current MXI file in their temp folder (accessible through Menu > Open temp folder).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | For example, your texture folder may be c:/mytextures, which is shared. Your computer name is “renderbox1” which is part of the Workgroup named “farm”. Browse from My Network Places> Microsoft Windows Network> farm> renderbox1> my textures. The path for the texture will then be \\renderbox1\mytextures\texture.jpg.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 11. The Network System | This is a tricky hack, and you’ve got to adjust the write and read permissions, and be root to be able to mount the shared folders, but it works and can sometimes be the easiest solution. 11.08 Using a 3rd party job manager with Maxwell Render Maxwell can run as a command line application so it can be controlled from any external process though command line flags. It allows you to connect it to any job manager in an standard way.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 94 12 MAXWELL STUDIO Maxwell Studio is a full, standalone application to render scenes and objects imported from other 3D applications. Maxwell Studio provides the following functionality: • • • • • • • • • • © Next Limit Technologies 2010 Import object files. Set attributes of objects (position, rotation, scale, pivot, smoothing, normals, etc). Apply textures using UV projectors. Apply physical materials and lights.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.01 Interface The Maxwell Studio UI consists of three main parts: The menu bar, the toolbar, and the panels. The toolbar and the panels can be customized and their size, placement and visibility can be changed. 95 12.01.01 Menu bar F.01 Menu Bar • File: Open a scene, save, create a new scene, import and export files, import objects and scenes from the built-in library or export a scene using the “Pack and Go” option.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | • • • Render Viewport: Launch the render (full frame or the desired region) to be rendered directly in the viewport window.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | • 97 Blow Up: render the desired region frame, defined by the Origin and End numeric fields or use the rectangular marquee icon (in the viewport, in the Maxwell application or in the Network depending on the render mode you choose) but render the selected region at the full frame resolution (for rendering detail closeups). F.04 Blow Up Region in Maxwell application • F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.01.02 Toolbar 98 another viewport, you have to chose this option from the Window menu, or press the shortcut key Ctrl+1. (The Ctrl key in Windows corresponds to the Cmd key in Mac OSX, so wherever the Ctrl key is used on a shortcut, Mac users should use the Command key). F.01 The Toolbar The Toolbar in Maxwell Studio displays a selection of the most commonly-used tools, divided into six categories.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 99 Splitting a panel Panels are flexible and can be split horizontally or vertically by dragging and dropping another panel on them. This allows new panels to be added to the layout. This is the usual way to build a new layout. Saving a layout Once you are happy with your custom layout, save it using the Save layout option in the Window menu. The file will be saved as a .stlay file. F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | Quick switching between layouts You can quickly switch between different layouts by using the drop-down list located in the top row of buttons. You can also switch layouts using Window > Layout, choosing from the list of available layouts. Make sure to save your custom layouts in the Maxwell/layouts directory on your computer so that they appear in the list. You need to restart Studio for a newly saved layout to appear in the list.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | not need any decimals at all; others may require 3 or 4 decimals. If you want to move an object in very small increments you can increase the number of decimals. Using the Viewport and Cameras The viewports in Studio are OpenGL® based and display all the scene items (objects, cameras, etc.). You can create as many viewports in a layout as needed. A viewport can be switched to display a 3D/ 2D viewport.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | Display Allows you to hide/show certain info utilities, like scene Info, Sky preview, Grid, Compass, Region and UV Sets. 102 12.02 The Interactive Preview The Viewport Grid The grid visible in the 2D and 3D viewports gives you an indication of how big your objects are. It is recommended to use the grid to check if your objects are the size you intended.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | • • Camera selector: This drop-down lists all the cameras that are available in your scene. Use it to select the camera you want to be rendered in the Interactive Preview. You can freely navigate in the Interactive Preview window with the Studio navigation shortcuts (Alt+LMB to orbit, Alt+MMB to pan and Alt+RMB to zoom) to explore your scene in detail. To revert to the original camera position, select the camera in the Camera selector drop-down.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Assign Material: Apply a material to a selection of one or more objects and/ or groups. Clone: Create clones of your current selection. Instance: Create instances of the current selection. Group: Create a group from a selection of objects. A pop-up will appear allowing you to name the group. Groups can be nested to create hierarchies. Simply drag and drop a group over another group or object.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 2. Appearance • Hidden from Camera: Hide the object from the render view but allow it to contribute to the render calculation (cast shadows, refract etc). • Hidden from Reflections/ Refractions: Reflected or refracted objects are hidden. • Hidden from Global Illumination: The object will render but it will not affect lighting. • Hidden from Z-clip: The object will not be cut by Z-clip planes.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | You can drag and drop a material from the material list onto a triangle group to assign that material to just that triangle group. It is also possible to select a triangle group in the list, and drag and drop a material directly in the viewport. To remove a triangle group, select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | Example (in Linux): gzip -d aberdeen-e.gz mv aberdeen-e aberdeen-e.dem You can download some examples of these files in this link: http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DEM/250/ • Working with USGS SDTS DEM datasets: These datasets come in the form of compressed .tar.gz files. Remove the gzip compression to get a .tar file. Rename the .tar file to have the extension .dem. Import the resulting .dem file into Studio.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | uu Note: Avoid using the numerical inputs to change transform values when you have multiple objects selected, because all objects will then snap to the same value that you are changing in the numeric input. Selection Modes A variety of selection modes is accessible through the icons in the main toolbar or with the keyboard shortcut “T”. By default, the selection mode is set to “Object”. • • • • • 108 12.03.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | Commands available from the “Items” section in the right-click menu: • • Group: Select more than one object and select this option to group the objects. Ungroup: Select one or more objects in the group and use this option to remove the objects from the group. The objects will be placed outside the group, they won’t be deleted from the scene. to the instances in the Instances panel.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 110 Selecting a camera in the Camera List panel will display the properties of that camera in the Camera Parameters panel. Film Back Angle of view (Field of view) Focal Length (Lens size) F.01 Camera concepts By default Maxwell Studio has a standard perspective visualization mode that acts like a camera, but without all the possibilities of a real Maxwell camera.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 111 Press L once to only move the camera target. You will see the text “Editing From” change to “Editing To” at the bottom of the viewport. Press L again to return to the default camera mode where you are only moving the camera. Press L once again to move both the camera target and the camera itself. You are now “Editing From-To”. 12.04.01 The Cameras List panel The Cameras List panel lists all the available cameras in the scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | • • • control the shape of the diaphragm aperture (circular or polygonal), the number of the blades and its angle. Rotary Disk Shutter: Control the Shutter Angle (which controls the proportion of time that the film is exposed to light during each frame interval) and the Frame Rate (number of frames per second). Both concepts are related to the motion blur, or blurred perception of objects in motion.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.04.04 Depth of Field (DOF) Related to the focus concept, Depth of Field is one of the most important concepts in photography. F.01 The camera is pointing to the interest area The focal distance should be the distance from the camera to the object in order to get a perfectly focused image. The near and far planes define the DOF area. Inside the DOF area, all objects are in focus.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.05 Materials Editor, Material List and Material Browser 114 12.05.01 The Material Editor The Material Editor inside Studio has the same capabilities as the Material Editor standalone. It is designed to provide you with full control to create your materials using multiple layers, combinations of different surfaces (BSDFs) inside each layer, add emitter components, displacement, coatings, etc.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 115 12.05.02 The Materials List F.02 The Material List All the materials currently loaded in the scene are listed in the Materials List, including those that are not assigned to any object. If a material has already been previewed in the material editor, a smaller version of the preview thumbnail will appear next to it. If the material has never been previewed, an icon with a N/A text will appear next to it.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.05.03 The Material Browser This panel provides a way to browse the Maxwell materials available on your system. For every MXM file found in the material database, the material browser shows a small preview of the material. Within the Maxwell installation folder there is a material database that you can browse. If you have set a material folder in your Studio preferences (Edit> Preferences> Paths), the Material Browser will open in that folder.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | In the Preferences panel, on the Materials> MXM Gallery section, you must set your MXM Gallery user account (username and password) – which are needed to download materials from the MXM Gallery – and specify the folder where these materials are going to be stored. By ticking the “Download files in project folder” option the materials will be downloaded to the same folder where the MXS file is located.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | 12.06 Render Options panel This panel contains a variety of settings to control the rendering process, such as time, SL and output paths and formats. These controls are described in-depth in Chapter 8. uu Tip: The Browse Folder icons in this section have drag and drop capabilities, allowing you to copy a file’s location simply dragging a folder icon over another. 12.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12. Maxwell Studio | Textures Picker This panel allows you to edit a particular texture, adjusting brightness, contrast and saturation, or change the color of the tiling of the texture on the object. These settings are described in-depth in Chapter 10. 119 12.09 Console and History Panels Console Panel Color Picker This panel allows you to pick a color in RGB, HSV or XYZ formats and is described in-depth in Chapter 10. F.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 12.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 13 Miscellaneous | 121 13 MISCELLANEOUS 13.01 Community and Learning Maxwell Render™ Forum One of the most active and useful learning resources available for Maxwell Render is made up of the users themselves: the Maxwell Render™ forum.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 13 Miscellaneous | If you have a question, a problem, need advice or are looking for comments on your renders, the Maxwell Render forum is the place to be. License holders can get VIP status to obtain full access to the forum and be able to write posts. They just need to register in the forum. Demo users can read the forum and do searches, but they won’t be able to write posts. http://www.maxwellrender.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 13 Miscellaneous | 123 13.02 Optimization methods and Tips 13.03 SDK There are several things you can do to optimize a scene, mostly related to emitters: The Maxwell Render Software Development Kit is included in the Maxwell Render software. The SDK is available for Mac OSX, Win 32, Win 64 and Linux 64.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 14. Appendix I. Materials Examples | 124 14 APPENDIX I. MATERIAL EXAMPLES This guide will assist you to create basic materials and offers tips to help you better understand the parameters discussed in the manual. We strongly encourage you to experiment with the material system, starting with simple one-BSDF materials a. Example 1: Concrete. Diffuse materials Fig.01 concrete1 by hortenIX Fig.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 14. Appendix I. Materials Examples | Use a bump map to add bumps to the surface. Check the Normal map icon if you prefer to use a Normal map. To make the plastic more or less shiny, there are two possible approaches: More concrete examples at the MXM Gallery... 1. b. Example 2: Plastic 2. 125 You can lower the Refl 90° color, and/ or lower the Nd of the second BSDF to make it less shiny.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 14. Appendix I. Materials Examples | 126 c. Example 3: Shiny wooden floor d. Example 4: Mirror The set-up for the plastic material can be copied almost entirely for this particular material. We only need to add a diffuse texture to the first BSDF, and a bump map. The diffuse texture should be added to the first BSDF in the Refl 0° slot. The bump map should also be added to this BSDF with a strength set to two.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 14. Appendix I. Materials Examples | e. Example 5: Common glass To create a common glass material, the Refl 90° color can be left at 255 because this glass will not tint the specular reflections. In addition it will reflect almost light at this viewing angle. Set the Transmittance color to the color you want the glass to be (255, 255, 255 for pure white glass, or 227, 230, 230 if you want to give it a slight green/ blue tint).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 14. Appendix I. Materials Examples | 128 f. Example 6: Clipmaps using layer mask g. Example 7: Multi-layered material Clipmaps are easy to create. Use the layer mask image to make an object visible in some parts and invisible in others. Clipmaps are useful for leaves, decals, perforations in objects, and even to simulate objects using a single-textured plane (people, vegetation, etc).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 15. Appendix II. Progressive rendering workflow | 129 15 APPENDIX II. PROGRESSIVE RENDERING WORKFLOW “Maxwell Render has a really good feature that lets you continue to render a sequence after you have stopped it once. For example, depending on the scene, let’s say that Maxwell Render needs to achieve 20 sampling levels before the image is completely free of grain. Again, as an example, this takes three hours to achieve.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 15. Appendix II. Progressive rendering workflow | 15.01 The Progressive rendering script Maxwell Render now includes some interesting utilities that can improve your workflow allowing you to overlap the rendering and postproduction processes so they take place simultaneously.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 15. Appendix II. Progressive rendering workflow | 15.02 Progressive rendering on the Network You can also use this progressive approach to render your animation sequences on the Network System. This way you get a continuously refining sequence that you can start compositing while simultaneously the whole sequence gets progressively cleaned up during your postproduction time, saving you a lot of time.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 16. Appendix III. Command Line Commands | 132 16 APPENDIXIII.COMMANDLINECOMMANDS AND EXIT CODES F.01 Command line screenshot The core rendering application can be launched either from the command line, from Studio or from the Maxwell Render plug-in from your 3D application. The rendering process can be also controlled using certain command line commands.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 16. Appendix III. Command Line Commands | To launch Maxwell Render via the command line, type “maxwell” in a command line window. Maxwell commands should be listed as shown in the image below (Windows OS). Running Flags Description -curdir:path Set the current directory of the OS. This could be useful for using relative paths for textures and other dependencies. -display -d Open a window that displays the render in progress.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 16. Appendix III. Command Line Commands | 134 Parameters Description Parameters Description -channel: [channel_name], [yes|on|no|off], [depth (8,16,32)], [format] This option establishes the different channels that Maxwell Render™ can export and their format. All the parameters are optional except the first one.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 16. Appendix III. Command Line Commands | 135 Parameters Description Parameters Description -mxi:path When rendering, Maxwell writes a special MXI file that contains information about the rendering process. This file allows the user to resume a previously rendered image. If this command is not used, the MXI will use the same name and path as the MXS scene. -res: WxH -r: WxH Specify the resolution of the render in pixels (W=width, H=height).
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 16. Appendix III. Command Line Commands | Parameters Description -threads: -th: Specify the number of threads (N) that Maxwell Render is allowed to use. Normally this should be equal to the number of CPUs available in the system. By default, N is the number of CPU s found in the system except in cases where hyper threading features are available. uu Note: When N is 0 (-th:0), Maxwell Render™ uses the maximum number of CPU available.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 137 17 APPENDIX IV. SCRIPTING REFERENCES 17.01 Introduction Maxwell Render provides basic scripting capabilities that allow you to make simple scripts and macros to automate common tasks such as launching render batches, converting several MXIs at the same time, etc. All the parameters of the Maxwell Render UI are accessible through scripts.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 138 17.02 References 17.02.01 Maxwell Object • • • • • • • • • • • • • • F.01 Scripting window • • • • • • © Next Limit Technologies 2010 Function: void openImage( string path ); Description: Loads an image to the Maxwell Render GUI. Parameters: path: Path of the image. Read the relevant section of the manual for a full description of supported image formats. Returned Value: Nothing.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • Function: int launchProcess (string execPath, array arguments); Description: Launches a detached process and returns the control immediately, without waiting for the process to finish. Parameters: -string execPath: Absolute path of the executable. -array arguments: list of command line arguments. Returned INT: 0 if the process was started successfully and 1 if not.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 140 • • • • Function: void print( string text ); Description: Prints the given text in the console. Parameters: string text: Text to print Returned Value: Nothing. • • • • • • Function: bool createAbsoluteFolder (string folderPath); Description: Creates a folder using the given absolute path. Parameters: string folderPath: absolute path of the folder to create. Returned Value: Bool: TRUE if the folder is properly created.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • 141 • • Function: string getFileName( string file ); Description: Returns the file name of this path. The name does not include the extension. Parameters: String file: File path Returned Value: String: name of the file. • • • • • • • Function: string getFileNameAndExtension( string file ); Description: Returns the file name of this path. The name includes the extension.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: void refreshAllLights( void ); Description: Refresh all the lights. Parameters: Nothing. Returned Value: Nothing. • • • • Function: double getLightIntensity( int index ); Description: Returns the intensity of the light with the given index. The units of the intensity depend on the emitter type (read getLightEmissionType). Parameters: INT index: Index of the light Returned Value: Double: Intensity.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: bool saveEmixerData ( string path); Description: Saves the current Multilight state in an emixer file (extension “.emixer”). Parameters: String path: Path of the emixer file to save Returned Value: Bool: returns True if the file was saved successfully, False if not. 17.02.04 MXI • • • • Function: double iso( void ); Description: Returns the current ISO value.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: void setIntensity( double value ); Description: Sets the intensity value. Parameters: Double value: New intensity value. Returned Value: Nothing • • • • Function: double diffraction( void ); Description: Returns the current diffraction value. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: Double: diffraction value. • • • • Function: string apertureMap( void ); Description: Returns the current aperture map.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: bool vignettingEnabled( void ); Description: Returns whether vignetting is enabled or disabled. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: Bool: True if vignetting is enabled, False if it is disabled. • • • • Function: void setMxsPath( string path ); Description: Sets the scene path. Parameters: String path: New scene path.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: int time( void ); Description: Returns the maximum render time specified for the current scene in minutes. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: INT: time (in minutes). • • • • Function: void setTime( int value ); Description: Sets the maximum render time for the current scene in minutes. Parameters: INT value: New time value.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 147 • • • • Function: int cpuThreads( void ); Description: Returns the CPU threads for the current scene. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: INT: cpu threads • • • • Function: bool overrideMaterialEnabled( void ); Description: Returns whether the override material flag is enabled or disabled. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: Bool: True if override material is enabled, False if it is disabled.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • • • Function: int getSceneDependenciesCount( void ); Description: Returns the number of dependencies (external files needed for rendering) of the current scene. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: INT: number of files. • • Function: stringlist getSceneDependencies( void ); Description: Returns the paths of all the dependencies (external files needed for rendering) of the current scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 149 • • • • Function: bool motionChannelEnabled( void ); Description: Returns whether the motion channel is enabled or disabled. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: Bool: True if the motion channel is enabled, False if it is disabled. • • • • Function: bool roughnessChannelEnabled( void ); Description: Returns whether the roughness channel is enabled or disabled.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | • • • • Function: int renderChannelType( void ); 0 = DIFFUSE + REFLECTIONS 1 = DIFFUSE 2 = REFLECTIONS Description: Returns the active render type. Parameters: Nothing Returned Value: int: Active render type. • • • • Function: void setRenderChannelType( int type ); Description: Sets the render channel type. Parameters: int type: New render type. Returned Value: Nothing 17.02.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 17.03 Examples 17.03.01 Render queue example // // // // This script gets all the MXS files located in the folder “input” and its children Opens them, changes their SL and resolution and launches each render The output of all the images is stored in the folder “output” The script also shows how to handle render events var inputFolder = “C:\input”; var outputFolder = “C:\output”; var engineVersion = Maxwell.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 152 { var mxsFile = mxsList[i]; var imagePath = outputFolder + “\” + FileManager.getFileName( mxsFile ) + “.png”; Maxwell.print( “rendering Mxs file: “ + mxsFile ); Maxwell.openMxs( mxsFile ); Scene.setImagePath( imagePath ); Scene.setSamplingLevel( 3 ); Scene.setResX( 256 ); Scene.setResY( 256 ); isRendering = 1; Maxwell.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 153 17.03.02 Multilight example // This script shows how to use the Multilight API through scripting // It opens an MXI file, parses all the lights and changes their intensity to 500 Watts Maxwell.openMxi( “C:\multilight_test.mxi” ); var nLights = Multilight.getLightsCount(); for( var i = 0; i < nLights; i++ ) { if( Multilight.isLightMuted( i ) == false ) { Multilight.setLightEmissionType( i, 0 ); // Custom emitter Multilight.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 17.03.03 Scene dependencies explample // This script reads a scene and copies all its dependencies to another location var mxsPath = “C:\scene.mxs”; Maxwell.openMxs( mxsPath ); var nDeps = Scene.getSceneDependenciesCount(); var deps = Scene.getSceneDependencies(); var i; var targetFolder = “C:\input” for( i = 0; i < nDeps; i++ ) { var currentDep = deps[i]; var target = targetFolder + “\” + FileManager.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 17.03.04 Render events example // This script shows how to register render events within a script var mxsPath = “C:\test_scene.mxs”; var imagePath = “C:\test_render.png”; Maxwell.print( “rendering Mxs file: “ + mxsPath ); Maxwell.openMxs( mxsPath ); Scene.setSamplingLevel( 5 ); Scene.setResX( 256 ); Scene.setResY( 256 ); Scene.setImagePath( imagePath ); RenderEvents[“renderFinished()”].
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | { Maxwell.print( “Script Info: Render Error: “ + err ); } function warningHappened(warning) { Maxwell.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | 17.03.05 Progressive render for Animations // This script renders all the MXS files located in the input folder but instead of rendering them sequentially until each one reaches the final SL, it renders them incrementally.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 17. Appendix IV. Scripting References | break; } } } currentSL += slStep; } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// function renderScene() { var mxsFile = mxsList[i]; var imagePath = outputFolder + “\” + FileManager.getFileName( mxsFile ) + “.png”; var mxiPath = outputFolder + “\” + FileManager.getFileName( mxsFile ) + “.mxi”; Maxwell.print( “rendering Mxs file: “ + mxsFile ); Maxwell.openMxs( mxsFile ); Scene.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 18. Appendix V. Glossary | 159 18 APPENDIX V. GLOSSARY Abbe: Abbe is related to dispersion - the effect seen when a beam of light passes through a prism and is split up into different wavelengths of light. Abbe controls the amount of dispersion: the higher the Abbe number, the narrower the dispersion will be. If you set the Abbe number really high, the dispersion will disappear completely.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 18. Appendix V. Glossary | 160 Attenuation distance: Attenuation is the reduction in amplitude and intensity of a signal. As light travels through a material, it loses energy. The Attenuation distance parameter in Maxwell Render allows you to specify how far light can move through an object before losing half its energy.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 18. Appendix V. Glossary | Fresnel Effect: The apparent increase/ decrease of a surface’s reflectance based on viewing angle. The Fresnel effect is dependent on the IOR of the material. The higher the IOR, the more reflective a material becomes at all angles. This means the Fresnel effect diminishes because the material becomes equally reflective at all angles. The effect has been named after the French physicist who described it.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 18. Appendix V. Glossary | powerful allowing you to produce many different lighting combinations from just one render. MXCL: Refers to the Maxwell render engine, which is command line controllable. Users can connect to MXCL via one of the supported plug-ins or through Studio. MXED: Stands for “Maxwell Material Editor”. It is a standalone material editor within the Maxwell Render software, with powerful, layered, physical materials and a material browser.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Chapter 18. Appendix V. Glossary | SL: Stands for Sampling Level. In Maxwell Render, this value controls the quality of the render. The higher the sampling level reached, the more accurate the image. Specular: Specular reflection is the perfect, mirror-like reflection of light from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction is reflected into a single outgoing reflection, for example with a mirror. Specular reflection is the opposite of diffuse reflection.
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Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Credits | 165 19 CREDITS © Next Limit Technologies 2010 • studioClip Markus Otto Meindbender Images page: 1 • Benjamin Brosdau, Pure | www.purerender.com Images page: 4 • Paolo Velcich | www.korumdesign.com Images page: 5 • Justin Goode Images page: 7 • Hyltom, Design Studio | http://hyltom.blogspot.com | info@sideshowmedia.de Images page: 10 • PIXUS IG | http//www.pixus.fr Images page: 17 • PIXUS IG | http//www.pixus.
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual Credits | • The Scope Digital Studio | www.the-scope.net Images page: 39 • Paolo Brian Looney | brianlooney@cox.net Images page: 52 • Simulacrum | www.simulacrum.de Images page: 84 • Nubeo International Ltd Images page: 94 • Abed Sabeh | http://photobucket.com/sabkarim Images page: 120 • The Scope Digital Studio | www.the-scope.net Images page: 121 • Stack! Studios | www.stack-studios.
© Copyright 2010 Next Limit SL Maxwell Render & RealFlow a registered trademark of Next Limit SL All trademarks included in this catalogue belong to their respective owners All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication.
