[Ernesto]

Hello you all!

I am working on a scene similar to the competition: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=132
As this one for example:



This is done using an HDRI from the Maground collection, and a back plate of the same collection.
The HDRI is used exclusively as ilumination, and the back plate as background image.
The ground plane is just a plane created in Maya, which projection type is related to the camera, in this way, we can see the texture of the ground directly from the backplate image, but projected in the ground plane, so that shadows of the objects in the scene (as the ball) could be projected in the ground plane.

I could do this successfully, using a simple Maxwell material, that uses the image as texture, without reflections nor bump.
As soon as the Maxwell Material was imported into the scene, I edited it so that it will use the new projection type (camera dependant)
It worked perfectly!

But when I tried to go further, using a complex material with bumps reflections etc everything changed, and I couldn´t make it work.

I used the same steps, only that did the projection thing for each of the textures in the Maxwell material that I had imported into the scene. But Maxwell will not render the scene.
A warning saying that the projections channels were not enough appeared over and over again.
I tried adding lots of projection channels in the ground plane, so that it will be enough, but although I added more channels, the window kept appearing.

I wonder what am I doing wrong...
I asked this same question in the Competition forum, but there were no answers I guess because they answerede only MAXWELL related stuff, but not MAYA related stuff.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
thanks

Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

Could you send me a scene containing just the plane, the material and the textures used in it?

[Ernesto]

Thanks Mihnea Balta, i will prepare a simple scene for testing purposes.
I have just sent two files, the simple material, that I manage to make it work, and the complex, which I cannot make it to work...
Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

Hi,

The problem in your complex scene is that you have 6 different projections in the same material, and the plug-in supports at most 4. On top of that, you also have 8 different UV sets on your ground plane. We'll increase the maximum number of projections for the next build.

It would be much simpler to project UVs from the camera and set all the textures to use the resulting channel, but unfortunately perspective UV projection is unnecessarily difficult in Maya, so it's easier to use projection nodes.

[Ernesto]

I see Mihnea Balta....


You wrote: UV projection is unnecessarily difficult in Maya
I am glad you confirm my feeling. I was starting to think that I was making it too unnecesary complex.

1) Is it possible to set all the 6 projections in the material to use the same UV channel?
That would solve the issue, but i do not know how to do it.

2) Another thing I cannot understand is why, the original Maxwell Material has only 3 image maps, but when imported to Maya they multiply up to 6??? If we could keep the projections number fixed when imported into Maya that would solve the problem too. I wonder why Maya reads double UV projections when importing a Maxwell Material...
Is that reeally necesary? If possible I would keep things simple.

3) Do you suggest me a simplier way?

Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

1) Is it possible to set all the 6 projections in the material to use the same UV channel?
That would solve the issue, but i do not know how to do it.

The next plug-in version will recognize when several projections have the same parameters (like in your case, when they're all from the same camera) and produce a single UV set.

2) Another thing I cannot understand is why, the original Maxwell Material has only 3 image maps, but when imported to Maya they multiply up to 6???

You have 6 textured attributes in the material: reflectance 0 and 90 on one of the BSDFs, roughness on one of the BSDFs, a layer mask and bump on both BSDFs. If the bump textures are the same, you could apply the texture at the material level (the "global bump" attribute) and use only 5 textures, but it still exceeds the maximum of 4 projections which is supported by the current version of the plug-in. Anyway, this will no longer be an issue in the next build, as I mentioned above.

[Ernesto]

Thank you Mihnea Balta!

When you mention that in the next version of the plugin, this will be fixed, you mean next version of:
a) Maxwell Render
b) Maya pluggin

Finnally: when will it be available.

Thanks again

Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

The next version of the plug-in. It's already in testing, so if nothing goes wrong, it should be out on Friday or early next week.

[Ernesto]

good!

E