[mark_melvin]

Hi there. I just bought Maxwell and have done my first render. I still think this could be better - but I am sort of playing right now and am looking for any feedback that may help improve this. I imagine it is mostly materials related - but there could be some lighting issues as well.

Here is the image:



The materials are basically all plastic with various reflection/glossy values. I don't like the way the chrome shafts look. Is there a good way to simulate chrome? Also, all of the bolts/washers/fasteners don't look as good at they could. I'm looking for a galvanized steel or nickel-plated steel type look. I am just using the RC5 plugin - not Studio. My camera settings are:

fstop = 6
shutter = 250
iso = 100

Thanks for any feedback. Maxwell rules! I just need to find a faster machine. This result was after 22 hours rendering (actually it looked only slightly less good at 10 hours), after ~18.8 iterations on my poor laptop.

Mark.

[Tim Ellis]

Hi Mark,

I think it looks good so far, certainly for a first M~R render.

You will have much better results if you open the scene in Studio. You can do this by opening the .mxs file Solidworks created from within M~R Studio.

There are many material presets which will solve some of your initial material issues, you can just drag and drop the new ones onto the relevant mesh.

If you want to use any texture maps, apply UV's in Solidworks and assign a plastic material with a diffuse/reflectance colour map. When you export this in an mxs file and open it with Studio, you will retain the uv mapping, then load up the relevant texture maps into the reflectance/bump etc slots within Studio's material editor.

You can of course carry on using the plugin and Solidworks, but you will have much more control over materials from inside Studio.


Hope this helps,

Tim.

[mark_melvin]

Thanks for the advice, Tim.

Yeah - I tried messing around in Studio but I couldn't get the material previews to work properly so I wasn't able to see how the parameters affected the outcome. That is the main thing - being able to figure out how bump versus roughness (etc.) affects what a material looks like. I just need to get a faster machine, I think. I'm going to borrow a *much* faster computer and see what the difference is, and then possibly do all my render work on there.

Mark.

[juan]

Hi Mark,

Good first render!

Please let me know your issues with the material preview. In you right click the material preview frame you can set the options to adjust the quality. If you need more quality but your machine is not faster you can try decreasing the preview scale. 50% is enough for most of the people.

Welcome here

Juan

[John Layne]

Hi Mark,

Welcome to Maxwell.

I've just started rendering that test assembly you sent me, it should be baked in few hours I'll post here when finished.

Texture mapping in SolidWorks is pretty lame and will remain so for at least untill SolidWorks 2009 (my best guess). Applying textures in Studio aren't that great at the moment either, but at least Next Limit are working to improve texturing before V1.

My current work flow, is to create the MXI file in SolidWorks without creating any materials then open in Studio and apply materials, textures, emittors and new cameras etc.

If you look for posts by Juan you will see it is possible to maintain reasonable links to the orginal SolidWorks model

[eezydo]

Hi Mark,

i am not an expert at rendering myself, but my experience with metals so far is that you need something to be reflekted ( mirrored ) on metals to make them look real.
putting that plough (if thats wat it is ) on an asphalt surface for example,
would give those shafts a dark lower portion. If you position a black plane
somewhere left of the camera you might get some dark lines on the threading conected to those springs.
Did you use plastic shader for the metals as well ?
- if so ,I would try a metal like Aluminum.

Hope it helps !

Leo

[John Layne]

Hi Mark

My test below, created in studio.

If you want copies of materials or the mxs file let me know.

[mark_melvin]

@juan
I'll let you know if I have any issues with Studio materials. Could be I was just not doing it right...

@leo
Thanks for the pointers. I'll try them out soon!

@John
Thanks a lot for the info as well, and the test render of that other model I sent you when evaluating my options. I'd be very interested in any materials you have created, just for my own reference. You have my old email, but you can also email me at mark dot melvin at gmail dot com.

The bit on the workflow is interesting. That is one of the big reasons I was using the plugin. I was reading this forum, but hadn't seen any convincing posts on the ability to go back and forth between the two without massive issues when something was changed in the model. I figured it would take some trial and error to see exactly how it worked - and I just don't have the time right now. I need to get some renders out for some brochures ASAP! There is a post that talks about this, but it references an older plugin/release candidate. Still useful however.

Mark.

[jjs]

Mark

The images below have used a different ltechnique - they use a single emitter - and the 'snow' as you see from the MXS file is actually a standard maxwell frostie material

The Single emitter illuminates the whote scene - I thnk John has used a Sky but he can confirm or correct.

And John has used a more convincing Powder coat setting for the roughness of the yellow.

Chrome - In the old days with marker pens - chrome was simulated by reflecting the sky and horizon in the part and so any reflective silver metal will do as long as there is something to reflect in it - in this case the snow plough and some skey will probably be enough to fool the eye into 'believing' its chrome.

As you noticed about the times - the first ten hours usually does it and then its just for those who are perfectionists

TTFN

Jonathan

[mark_melvin]

Hi Juan,

I've spent a good deal of time in Studio over the last couple days and managed to figure ou the material editor a little more, as well as get my preview working. I decreased it to 50% and that helped. Thanks for the info.

I still can't figure out textures at all. I have a feeling they are very powerful, but to be honest I am getting quite good results without them. I need to spend some more time playing around to figure them out, I think...

Thanks again,
Mark.