- Thu May 04, 2006 6:13 am
#149712
I'm having very little trouble with the LW plugin. Though, I should add that I'm using the mumblebumbleLWmumblemumble9mumblemumbleBeta.
Here's the workflow I use.
First, I was trained by earlier versions of Maxwell to always use only a single surface per object. Yes. It's not real friendly, but it actually works for me... So I do it.
Second: I add any texture maps that I'm using in the appropriate channels (though I've currently only tried diffuse and bump maps -- the rest I assign with the Maxwell material editor).
Third: I open the Maxwell shader and choose 'Create MXM From Surface'. This should bring up a file requester. Go to the place you want your MXM surface to be saved (I like to put them alongside the objects), input a name for it and hit Save.
Third(addendum): Every now and again this doesn't take and the Maxwell Material editor doesn't show a pathname next to 'Load MXM'. If that happens, I just delete the Maxwell shader from the object, add it again and repeat the 'create from surface'. I've never had it fail twice.
Fourth: I choose 'Edit MXM'. This brings up the Maxwell Material editor. I set the stuff there (bump usually needs some lovin', and things will need to change if you want shiny or glassy or what have you). Once that's done, I just click the close gadget on the window and it asks me to save or discard. I choose Save.
Fifth: I open the Master Plugins and add Maxwell Render (though really, you can do this any time you want). I set the things I want set there -- sometimes sky or environment settings don't 'stick', so I like to tab back and forth to make sure things that should be activated are activated) then I just hit Render Frame (though Render Scene would be needed for animation).
Sixth: Also be sure that you have your camera's DOF set, otherwise your image will be out of focus. (Why the hell doesn't Lightwave have an autofocus system? It's stupid that I have to create a null and add a Rangefinder property and position the null where I want the focus then jot down the distance then plug that distance into the camera properties.)
And that is how I've rendered nearly every picture I've posted from V1.0.