Everything related to Maxwell Render and General Stuff that doesn't fit in other categories
By Mike Amos 20191210201225
#399112
OK, not my first rodeo but, I do want to do this properly. I need some pdf essentials guides for the program and have had my fill of going from link to link to pointless link that does not tell me what I need to know simply and in common use language. Am I shooting at the crab nebula and hoping to get it in a pint pot? Seriously this program needs a much simpler learning curve.
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By Nasok
#399115
Dude the Help portal is pretty .. helpful :)
Which software are you using Maxwell Render with. As workflow might differ depending on whether it is a Maxwell Studio or a plugin (and host application for the plugin)

For instance - I'm using it with Maya (as a plugin) .. here I did a few videos (mainly basics)

Part 1 - basic workflow on working with textures (building material from PBR texture)

Part 2 - Camera settings / Image Based Lighting

Part 3 - Setting up Light panels - render settings.

Although the main principles are the same - UI will be different depending on whether you're in studio or in any other DCC software plugin.

Cheers,
Tim.
#399121
Thanks, Dude, they are not much help to me thanks.

Perhaps it is the old bugger syndrome but I find these video's to be less than useless. Horses for courses. As for the knowledge base, it goes round the houses with overly flowery language leading me up the garden path. I did mention pdf in the title because it is a written format for the most part. I get that you like the video's and that is your prerogative.

I like more simple methods to begin with.
#399127
Right, first off I made a huge mistake which compounded my problem, I am sorry for that error leading me to be more irritated than need be with the software and complain more than I perhaps I would. I scaled the model I was rendering which made the lights impossible to use. Obviously when they are 1,00th of the size they needed to be. Falling foul of sketchup falling over now which is a pain in the grass but that is life too. I still want more easily found and laid out tuts.
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By choo-chee
#399144
if I remember there was a simple guide in the manual itself, from the days of maxwell 1 or 2...
there are a few things to check:
* scale of model, materials, lights, camera - think real world and make sure it matches, don't use the global scale it's for lazy ppl and will cause mis-scaling with imports etc
* read a bit about photography as simply copying shutter iso etc. values sometimes is the simplest way to get good results quick
* I use maya for arch viz. adjust camera ratio to match render resolution proportions
* don't intersect emitters as it will cause noise
* don't use full white materials (rgb 255 255 255) but a bit less (say 230 230 230) as full white doesn't exist and it will cause noise
* same for too much with coatings or multi layered materials - too much (which is not found in the real world) will be too much noise
* emitters are better as single polygon if possible if you wanna render faster
that's most of what I remember :)
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By Nasok
#399152
choo-chee wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:23 pm
if I remember there was a simple guide in the manual itself, from the days of maxwell 1 or 2...
there are a few things to check:
* scale of model, materials, lights, camera - think real world and make sure it matches, don't use the global scale it's for lazy ppl and will cause mis-scaling with imports etc
* read a bit about photography as simply copying shutter iso etc. values sometimes is the simplest way to get good results quick
* I use maya for arch viz. adjust camera ratio to match render resolution proportions
* don't intersect emitters as it will cause noise
* don't use full white materials (rgb 255 255 255) but a bit less (say 230 230 230) as full white doesn't exist and it will cause noise
* same for too much with coatings or multi layered materials - too much (which is not found in the real world) will be too much noise
* emitters are better as single polygon if possible if you wanna render faster
that's most of what I remember :)
Great classic tips .. but that's not PDF 😜 - he needs it in PDF specifically 🤷‍♀️
I believe the primary principles of rendering / scene handling stayed the same since first versions. So the global rules (like scene scale, camera setting, emitter size / value, materials brightness, etc) they apply no matter of which version you're using.

I would still say that this - https://nextlimitsupport.atlassian.net/ ... !spacehome - is so far the most convenient place to find answers.
It has detailed stuff and also some basics ...
and looks like "Maxwell's approach to Rendering" is what he needs .. but those are in video form 😬 so ..

🙌🏼
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By Mark Bell
#399154
Hi Mike,

I agree with what you've written. Maxwell used to include a PDF download of the manual but now it's all online with "endless" links. Being able to download a PDF of everything would be the best option to search and quickly re-reference. I also find it easier to read from a PDF than online.
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By Forester
#399212
First, any and all of the pages for the Maxwell Render documentation can be downloaded as *.pdf's. Sharing your desire for a set of *.pdf's that I could keep on my computer for reference purposes, I simply downloaded all of them and keep them in a directory on my computer. To download any of the pages, navigate to the page you want, and then look for the three dots making up an ellipsis on the upper right hand corner of the page. Click on those dots to open a little menu of options. You'll find that one of the options is "Export to PDF." When the page is exporting, it opens onto another page showing the progress of the export. After it is complete, you have a download option. Then when your download is complete, arrow back to the original page and the document index. Go to the next page and repeat.

To make yourself a complete written doc, just start with the first page of the topic you want, and export each of the pages, downloading and saving them into some directory called "MR User Guide" or whatever title you fancy. The exported *.pdf's are good quality, complete with all the pictures and formatted appropriately.

Second, there is an old course here (https://www.lynda.com/Maxwell-Renderer- ... 780-2.html) on what is now Linkedin, but what was lynda.com. Costs some money to access. I think this is the "simple basics" you're looking for.

This old course covers Maxwell Version 2, I believe and it covers all of the program. But the worthwhile thing about this course is that it presents a very systematic and comprehensive explanation of Maxwell Materials. And, while it relies on a set of videos and downloadable supplementary materials, it includes a full written transcript for every video in text file form. The individual videos in the set also are downloadable, so you can keep them on your machine for reference.

This old course does an excellent job of covering the parameters and settings for the Materials Editor (was called the "Materials Assistant" in those days). The part dealing with Maxwell materials gives a lot of examples, and shows what the basic of the materials look like with different settings. This is pretty old, but good foundation material. Once worked through, it would have to be supplemented with the User Guide *.pdf's now available for the current versions of MR - to bring your knowledge up to date with changes and improvements in the materials. Plus many of the current docs are well-written and provide better explanations than some of the older docs.

In the time since this old course, the program has improved, becoming both simpler to use and more powerful. So, if you can obtain and work through this old course, you'll find you have no trouble understanding the most current versions. The only thing I think the old course failed to cover well was the camera. But, the docs for Version 5 now provide both a simple introduction to how any camera works, and then things you need to know for the MR cameras in particular. Again, you can just go to the Maxwell Render documentation, select the section on the camera, and then start exporting each page for this topic as a downloadable *.pdf. Make yourself a nice little printable user guide on the subject.
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By Nasok
#399215
@Forester - that's a great advice. I do see that one needs to make a few extra steps in order to get what he wants - and, personally, I find it being a great exercise. Since that way you can tailor your PDF collection and contents to what you really need and use.

I do agree that in online documentation there are a lot of information. Because - .. well that's the purpose of the documentation and let's be honest Maxwell has a lot of tools and functions, and a lot of flexibility in terms of workflow. So a lot to cover in general.

Honestly, it feels like Maxwell's camera always gets the least attention in pretty much every tutorial / documentation. Ironically majority of the issues people are having because of poor understanding of how it works :) And, well, thanks to other render engines, it is hard for them to keep in mind a strong connection and dependency between camera settings, scene scale and light parameters.
As other engines are more forgiving in this regards.

Btw - Maxwell's blog had a few pretty handy posts with tips and tutorials .. just saying :)

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