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Background Image recognition

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:48 pm
by Factoryhomes
I've only recently got render for Sketchup and am experiancing a flustrating problem. The background style that i have created in Sketchup using a photo of a sky refuses to be recognised by Maxwell when I try to render it. I have attached the render and the sketch up 2d output to show the problem

Image

Image

Thanks

Re: Background Image recognition

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:37 pm
by dariolanza
Hi Factoryholmes,

In which format your background image is?

Keep in mind that Maxwell only accepts images in Exr, Hdr or Mxi to be used as background.

But if you want to use a picture that you have in a different format (i.e. png or jpg), don't worry, you can easily convert it to any of the admitted formats using the Maxwell.exe application itself:

1.- Open Maxwell.exe application

2.- Load your image to be used as background

3.- Save it to MXS format (File>Save MXI As...)

The new MXI file can be easily used in your scene as background (using the IBL Environment options).

Let me know if this answers your question.

Cheers

Dario Lanza

Re: Background Image recognition

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:47 pm
by Factoryhomes
Thanks for the reply
I cant seem to find Maxwell.exe anywhere? :oops:

Re: Background Image recognition

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:58 pm
by JDHill
If you are using the standalone Maxwell for SketchUp plugin, then you don't have Maxwell Render (i.e. maxwell.exe mentioned above, or Maxwell.app on OSX) to do this. In that case, you need some other way to get or create an HDR image for your background -- you would then load this in the plugin by going to Scene Manager > Environment, switching the Type to Image Based, and selecting your HDR image into the Background channel.