[Thomas An.]

The Maxwell "SIM-Ball"(TM) (Standard Illumination of Materials Ball)
(For Maxwell V1.1)

Hello Maxwell Users,

Enclosed here is a proposed Object (and scene) under careful exposure-calibrated lighting conditions for all Maxwell users.

The objective of this scene is to provide a common ground (a common illumination reference point) for all Maxwell users when presenting their materials.

Up to now, we all used our own custom scenes to test and present our materials here in the forum. However, this practice poses a problem that other users looking at our scenes do not know how a material would look like under calibrated exposure conditions and how it would look next to another material presented from someone else (until we test it by trial and error).

The suggestion is to use the attached scene for showing materials in the forum thus creating a uniform presentation standard (since materials are a very important aspect in Maxwell).

REQUIREMENT FOR UNIFORMITY:
If you choose to use this scene to present your material...
-Please refrain from making custom alterations of the scene and its environment. (No changes in illumination, no changes in camera settings, no changes in gamma or burn .... nothing. The scene must be used *as is* with only your material (applied and multilight must be turned off) ).
-Also, please ensure that all scene texture paths (including the MXI background) are working properly.
-Please doublecheck that the sky options are imported correctly and all four channels of the "sky options" tab are pointing to the "SphericalPanorama.mxi" texture:


MXS file and textures: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ThomasAna ... -Light.zip
Instructions PDF:http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ThomasAna ... tScene.pdf

Sample 1


Sample 2
(Note: The glass sample below is from a previous version of the scene and has different DOF setting. Please do not adjust DOF, use the latest version of the scene as currently provided)


Best Regards,
Thomas

Scene Extraction:

• 7zip is a most powerful compression method beyond zip and rar.
  (WinRar and PowerArchiver will recognize it readily)
  Native 7zip application: http://www.7-zip.org/
  
  For MacUsers:
  --> http://www.edenwaith.com/products/untar/
  http://sixtyfive.xmghosting.com/
  http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19139
  http://homepage.mac.com/krmathis/

For Gallery: If you would like your mayerials to be included in a gallery, please use this thread: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=17496

For suggestions, proposals, and brainstorming on how to improve, or redesign this object in the future ... please use this thread: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 107#167107

Notice:

• Object/Scene (c)08/2006 Thomas Anagnostou All rights reserved.
  The scene and object is for free use only with Maxwell render with the provided MXS file and textures. No reverse engineering for use in other platforms (this effort is a donation for the Maxwell community only).
  
  Credits
  Many thanks to Maxwell users for being willing to adapt this idea of a uniform material library and for their comments and suggestions that help shape how this object evolves.
  Also many thanks to: Atilla Akin (Tom), Mihai Iliuta, Tyrone Marshal, Sheik, Mike Verta, Klaus Busse (Kabe), Markus Groeteke, (from the Maxwelll forum) for their help debugging and refining a number of details about the initial scene.
  Special Thanks to Tom (Atilla Akin) for his speedOpt suggestion.

[sam7]

Great stuff!!!!

Thanks a lot!

[valerio]

Thanks Thomas

[Eric Lagman]

Excellent Idea Thomas. I will definately be using this. Reminds me of a sliced up trailer hitch

[LarsSon]

Great idea Thomas.

But what about different scales? Like rendering ground material and
paper material. First needs atleast 2x2 m object second needs alot
smaller object.

Thanks anyway!


-LarsSon

[Eric Lagman]

Great idea Thomas.

But what about different scales? Like rendering ground material and
paper material. First needs atleast 2x2 m object second needs alot
smaller object.

Thanks anyway!


-LarsSon

True. Another small detail that this scene does not account for is testing frosted materials like they would be made in real life. Example if I have a clear molded part and want a rough finish on outside to give it a "frosted look" only outer surfaces would usually get this. An everday example is some glass bottles in the liquor store. Only the outside of the bottle gets frosted, while the inside is clear. With the sample you give it would have the frosted on the whole object which would give a misleading look. This is very minor. Just wanted to bring it to your attention in case you wanted to adjust your scene to accomodate materials like this. Your efforts are very appreciated. Very thorough and clear. You have a good eye for graphic layout and use of font by the way.

[bbuxton]

Rapid share will not allow me to download & worse floods my browser with pop unders for casinos & other stuff. No thanks.

[JCAddy]

THANK YOU!

[jamsurf]

How is the way to extract the mxs, textures from that archive without
extension ?

Is great , thanks ,

but i cant open .

[Thomas An.]

Hi all,

It is nice to hear you like the scene
Thank you for all comments !

Thomas

[Thomas An.]

Great idea Thomas.

But what about different scales? Like rendering ground material and
paper material. First needs atleast 2x2 m object second needs alot
smaller object.

Thanks anyway!
-LarsSon

Yes, that is an interesting point ! ... and have been thinking about it for a little while.

The other option is for the user to adjust the scale of the texure itself. Do you think that would be preferable instead of providing a multiplicity of scene scales ?

[Thomas An.]

... Example if I have a clear molded part and want a rough finish on outside to give it a "frosted look" only outer surfaces would usually get this.

Hi Eric,

This would imply assignment of two materials on seperate parts of the object. Right ?

Also, due to a limitation of the engine ... the bubbles *must* be a single mesh joined to the shell (it is possible to carefully select their triangles and assign a different material to them), but having multiple material assignments complicates maters.

The thing is that this scene is not mandatory ... its only a suggestion .... so there is nothing stopping you from presenting your materials on your own custom setup .... but ... it would still be handy if we could provide a render using this setup for archiving purposes; so to speak (for uniformity sake).

[Thomas An.]

How is the way to extract the mxs, textures from that archive without
extension ?

Is great , thanks ,

but i cant open .

Hi jamsurf,

Its a 7zip (the best compression that I know). WinRar and PowerArchiver can recognize it with no problem.

The native application is here:
http://www.7-zip.org/

For MacUsers:
http://sixtyfive.xmghosting.com/
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19139
http://homepage.mac.com/krmathis/

[Eric Lagman]

... Example if I have a clear molded part and want a rough finish on outside to give it a "frosted look" only outer surfaces would usually get this.

Hi Eric,

This would imply assignment of two materials on seperate parts of the object. Right ?

Also, due to a limitation of the engine ... the bubbles *must* be a single mesh joined to the shell (it is possible to carefully select their triangles and assign a different material to them), but having multiple material assignments complicates maters.

The thing is that this scene is not mandatory ... its only a suggestion .... so there is nothing stopping you from presenting your materials on your own custom setup .... but ... it would still be handy if we could provide a render using this setup for archiving purposes; so to speak (for uniformity sake).

Yes. It would be two different materials the only difference between the two being the roughness value. For simplicity sake best to leave it as it is like you said with the way you have it ,bubbles and all.

I may give it a try of importing an outer sphere that is split apart in a way to explore such materials though. This could be a hidden group that could be tuned on and off called "dual surface dielectric" maybe? Any chance you could share the previw object parts as your original .3dm or IGES file? No big deal if you can't. The measurements to build around were in your documents. I really like this idea you have going here. Don't want to muck it up and overcomplicate more than it neds to be thogh. The way you have built the scene is very straightforward.

[DrMerman]

Really useful idea Thomas, hopefully it'l catch on However, as I'm using a router, rapidshare doesnt let me download. I dont suppose somebody could email me the scene could they? I'm anxious to try it

Cheers
Dr Merman