[simmsimaging]

Hi -
New to the list though I've been lurking for a while and reading through the back posts like a madman. Thanks to *everyone* who has contributed to the forum - a lot of great help in there.

In any case - I wanted to share my first solid Maxwell render with the crowd since I leaned heavily on your posts in order to figure out how to do almost all of it!

I'm pretty new to 3D (been working in it for about 5 months now) but I strictly focus on lighting and texturing, my associate is the modeller. This is one of my first actually "finished" pieces, and since I did it in Maxwell I thought I'd see what you all think. It has had some post work in Photoshop and was done with Max9.

I haven't figured out how to attach a shot here, so I posted them on my site. Any c&c welcome.



I also tried out the new Zoomify feature in Photoshop CS3 so if anyone wants to see it in full-res:

http://www.simmsimaging.com/FTCan/FT_Can_Maxwell.html


Thanks,

Brett

[mverta]

Nice opener, Brett. I don't know if this is "it" yet, but it's in there! Just a bit more experience with Maxwell, and I'll bet you'll find that other 5% easy. Your sensibilities are already solid!

Welcome!


_Mike

[Thomas An.]

Welcome to the forum
The images are very well done. (they are actually quite impressive) !

Excellent studio setup, production grade lighting, and overall very pleasing.

[NicoR44]

Indeed looking GREAT Brett!!

And welcome to the forum

[glebe digital]

Well I wish my first Maxwell image was as good as that...........nice job!

[sandykoufax]

Very nice work and welcome.

[Hervé]

very nice setting... welcome !

[zent]]

Nice Work, Love the water effects.

[KurtS]

excellent work:

(My first Maxwell rendering was just a black square with some grains in one corner...)

[ivox3]

Very nice Brett ...... and nice portfolio. ...looks like Maxwell might come in handy.

[simmsimaging]

Thank you for the replies and welcomes.

_Mike: Thanks for the input, but could you elaborate on your comment a bit? I'm curious: is that 5% you see missing in terms of aesthetics or realism? I know it's probably a bit too "clean" for reality, but since I do retouching/compositing for ad work I am trying to match retouched hero shots rather than pure photography. I'd appreciate your thoughts so I can further refine my work - I have a LONG way to go yet!

KurtS and glebe digital: Don't get me wrong, this isn't my first render in Maxwell either - my first 20 or so we're just fuzzy grainy blurs till I figured out how to focus the camera in Max This is just the first one I actually finished off and considered presentable.

Again - thanks to all for your feedback.

b

[GM5]

Brett,

It's all been said before but here goes... welcome to the forum, nice render, and very cool portfolio

Getting picky here - you might want to blur the hard edge of the table and (this is probably just me) add some drops to the surface the can is sitting on.

-Greg

[tom]

Hi Brett,

Very nice work!
Did you render the drops with Maxwell Render as well?
I wonder how much you added to the raw render.

Best regards,
tom

[simmsimaging]

Hi -
Thanks again for the further welcomes and comments!

Greg: Thanks for the feedback, I'll have another look at softening up the back edge. I hummed and hawed about putting some water on the surface . You can see where I netted out, but I still waver on it. I kind of like keeping the focus tight on the product, but I may try it that way at some point.

Tom: Yep, water drops were done with Maxwell as well (basic glass material adjusted for water IOR for the actual drops, and a bump map on a glossy layer for the micro-sweat). I played around for quite a while trying to get the right feel/lighting for those and ended up doing it in two passes. I did one beauty pass and one with a shiny black material in the exact same light setup to give me a specular pass to bring up the highlights on the water drops a bit more.

I have posted the two raw renders I used here for you to look at:

http://www.simmsimaging.com/FTCan/FT_Ma ... ender1.jpg

http://www.simmsimaging.com/FTCan/FT_Ma ... ender2.jpg

I would have liked to have made the can more metallic feeling in Maxwell but after messing round for many hours (mostly did this with the demo version) I gave up since I knew I could take it the rest of the way in Photoshop (which was really just colour/contrast adjusting for the most part))

Any tips on how to get something closer to the final material in Maxwell? I had a tough time getting the right anodized metal sort of look. I can post my MXM file if you want to look at that.

Thanks!

b

[DrMerman]

Excellent first image, mate! And thanks for sharing your method, it's always useful to hear how other people use the same software you use yourself

Cheers,
Dr Merman