[Hillmeister]

Is it possible to embed all the desired (checked) channels into the MXI for use in Photoshop or After Effects and create only a JPEG-image of the beauty-render for viewing in Bridge or Windows Explorer?

Now when I select Embed and choose .JPG for Image, I get all the extra channels written to .PNG's (or whatever I choose), not handy when it comes to animation, but this was expected by reading the manual.
When I select .TIF or .EXR I don't get the extra files, but the created files don't contain layers and it shows al the layers merged? (even by choosing the same bit-depths)

Now we are very happy to see the channels get embed in the MXI's and we are probably good with using MXI in the pipeline. MXI's show up in explorer (if Maxwell is on the station), but a lightweight representation (JPG) of the beauty-render would be nice (automaticly created).

The question arises if MXI's get refreshed in After Effects when using Progressive Render?

I might be asking some weird questions here, I'm quiet new to compositing

Any insights are welcome

[Mihai]

When I select .TIF or .EXR I don't get the extra files, but the created files don't contain layers and it shows al the layers merged? (even by choosing the same bit-depths)

I think this is because PS and AE can't read the layers in EXR files and you need a plugin for that:
http://www.fnordware.com/ProEXR/

They are actually embedded by Maxwell into the EXR so with that plugin you should be fine.

I would suggest using EXR with embedded layers, as AE can preview them much more quickly than MXI files. I'm not sure how fast Nuke is with reading MXI files, but AE is pretty slow. Especially if working in full HD.

The updating with a progressive render can be done pretty easily, even when using EXR files. Just right click on the imported sequence in the Project window and choose reload footage. I don't think it can be done automatically.

[Hillmeister]

Thanks for the quick reply Mihai, we are gonna look into it!