Version 2.5.9
This version represents a complete re-write of the Maxwell Softimage plugin, adding first of all Maxwell FIRE and material creation directly in Softimage. For these reasons the minimum compatibility requirement is Softimage 2011.
Complete documentation will follow shortly, but to get you started, the plugin adds the following entries to the Softimage UI:
Material:
Maxwell Referenced Material - to load an external MXM as a reference.
Maxwell Layered Material - create a new Maxwell material inside Softimage. The Maxwell material is represented by several nodes inside the Rendertree.
Property:
Maxwell Mesh Attributes - adds a custom attribute to the selected object(s) for controlling: Hide to Camera, Hide to Secondary Rays, Hide to GI, Unaffected by Z Clip:
Viewport dropdown>Custom Displays>Maxwell FIRE:
This will run Maxwell FIRE in a viewport window. After switching it on, further settings will appear at the bottom of the Viewport dropdown to control Quality, Sampling level, Restart, Stop etc.
Render>Maxwell FIRE
This will run Maxwell FIRE in a standalone window.
Explorer>Camera_Root>Camera>MaxwellCameraAttrs
These custom attributes control camera settings such as F-stop, Shutter Speed etc.
Render Tree:
Each Maxwell material component has been broken down to a Render Tree node. The two most important nodes are the Maxwell Layer and Maxwell Layered Material nodes.
Maxwell Layer: This represents a Layer in the MXM, which can hold several BSDFs and Emitter components. Double click this node and click the Add BSDF or Add Emitter to add a BSDF or emitter node to the Maxwell Layer Node.
Maxwell Layered Material: This node holds all the material properties and Layer connections. It is the equivalent of the "Material Properties" in the MXM. Here you can change Global Bump textures, global texture tiling, activate dispersion or shadows for the material etc. From this node you can also click Add Layer to add a new Layer node to the material. The Maxwell Layered Material must always be connected to the Surface output of the Softimage Material node.
Working with textures:
There are two ways to work with texture clips: through the standard Softimage Image node or the custom Maxwell Texture node. This node contains more features specific to Maxwell materials such as Tile Unit: Relative vs Meter, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation controls....
When you connect a Clip to any of the ports that support a texture (ex. Refl 0, Transmittance) an Image node is added automatically. To use the Maxwell Texture node, drag it from the nodes list, connect the Clip to the Filename input on the Maxwell Texture node, and connect this nodes Out port to the texture port of a Maxwell material node (Maxwell BSDF, Maxwell Layer, Maxwell Layered Material):
Note that a Color to Scalar node is added automatically in case you connect the Maxwell Texture node to an input which accepts only black & white textures.
Maxwellzone.com - tutorials, training and other goodies related to Maxwell Render
Youtube Maxwell channel
- By hwolfejr
- By Andreas Hopf