Maxwell Render

I am pretty torn in my workflow with Maxwell. For a few reasons I have been really trying to use Studio since firing up Maxwell again, but I really am finding it difficult and it really slows down my workflow at times. Studio is a bit too limited for me, but worse than that: it forces a big jump-off point in the pipeline that is not easily reversible (I lose all the advantages of procedural workflows in Max, for example).

Is there any way, or are there any plans, to create a more robust workflow for moving scenes from Studio *back* to Max? I'd love to be able to fine-tune my light and materials there etc, but when necessary I'd like to just re-export the scene to Max and have all my camera changes etc come back with me. Ideally we could just flow back and forth at will.

Can this be implemented at all?

/b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com

There are no short term plans to do that. Studio is meant as a tool for scene set-up for those platforms which aren't flexible enough to integrate all of Maxwell's functionality. In the case of Max, we'd rather work on making the integration better than spend time importing data back from Studio (which opens a fresh can of worms).

Are you going through Studio because of missing or cumbersome functionality in the plug-in? Maybe we can fix that instead.

I would actually much prefer just staying in Max - so that would be the ideal solution for sure. The one major thing that pushed me into Studio recently was working with HDR Light Studio - I like the interactivity with Fire. Other than that I find two things with the camera very useful: auto-focus and the exposure lock. The second one is relatively minor, but it's something that I use a lot.

Only the HDR thing is really make or break in terms of *having* to use Studio.

/b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com

forgot: the ability to zoom around in the Fire window is pretty useful too. I use that function quite a bit to check out materials and lighting stuff without compromising my camera lock-in.


b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com

Another consideration:

The ActiveShade version of Fire tends to lock up a lot for me. Changing camera parameters will often do it (e.g focal length) but also geo changes and even camera moves can do it. It almost always restarts okay by hitting the ActiveShade render button again (rexport and start/stop do not seem to help at all).

I find it's just more stable in Studio so I can play a lot more freely.

b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com

Just to quickly add my (noob) voice to the conversation here...

I actually prefer the Studio interface. It seems to be best practice to do most Maxwell setup in your host 3D package, but after using Maxwell for C4D, SW, and 3DS Max, I still can't shake the preference for Studio.

So I just wanted to vocalize to NL that there are still some of us who appreciate continued development/refinement of Studio. Cheers!

Some of us who bought Maxwell from beta, only had a MAX plugin to work with... I think this is still the best thing to do...
I am not very happy with FIRE window in Max (activeshade) but it is not very important.

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I won't sign it, if it is not a piece of art.. So far, I haven't done any...
Revit Architecture 2012, Max Design 2012, AutoCAD 2012, Moi3d, Maxwell, Octane ... and many working hours

I agree, JTB; I just meant that personally I prefer Studio so I would hate to see it sort of become abandoned.

In the meantime I have to get better at the Max plugin like you all!

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Matthew Spencer | Jeff Koons Studio

I still struggle with stuff in Max that Studio makes easy. The FIRE interactivity is actually quite important for me. I spend a considerable amount of time working on details of materials, and the ability to zoom in and out with FIRE in Studio is huge. Activeshade does not give that, the perspective viewports are not useful as the focus always goes out when trying to zoom in, so in Max you are stuck with cloning your camera and shifting it around.

That's way more painful/slow, and causes a lot of crashes for me.

Studio is much more stable for that kind of work, at least for now. It would really be ideal to be able to read an MXS back into Max then it wouldn't matter which workflow you preferred.

/b

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com

b, you can set your perspective settings to match active shot cam through render settings. from within active shade you can better navigate and focus in perspective by using "z" command which will focus on active object..... try?

Hey Tom -
Thanks, I am using those functions now, but there are two things that are different:

1) camera focus: I can recenter the object with z but when I zoom in to check detail I generally lose sharpness. Like this:



to this:



2) In Studio I can shift around and zoom in Fire but maintain my camera position and perspective - which is often essential for positioning of lights etc. With the perspective view I just can't do that - I have to clone the camera and then try and use focal length and offsets etc.

Thanks for the thoughts anyway

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Brett Simms
http://www.heavyartillery.com