[Cosmasad]

Good morning friends,

Thanks to all of you for your answers this weekend. As we are novices to Maxwell, your patience is appreciated. Some questions about the Rendering output end of the process:

1) If we will want to print out a rendering for presentation to a client, we understand that it is best to set the Color Space to Adobe RGB 98 (right?). To determine the resolution, we would set the Type on Manual and enter the desired output in the Output(w/h) fields. Now, to determine this we printed out a Photo Printing Resolutions table off the internet. It says, for example, that to print out an image tht is 15" wide x 10" high you should set your pixels at 4,536 x 3,024 (at 300 ppi). Our questions are:

a) Is there a limit to how big you an make the output? For example, can you enter 10,000 x 8,000 if we had a printer big enough to print larger prints?
b) Does it take longer (in time) to render an image that is larger? (This may seem obvious, but still want to ask.)

2) If we want to create a rendering that will just be viewed on the computer screen, we understand that we should set the color space to sRGB (right?) and we want the image to be as big as possible -- for example, we have a 27" monitor and would like the image to fill the screen when we choose Full View -- what resolution should we choose? Viewing an image on a screen should be 72 ppi (right?) therefore, it would take less resolution (fewer pixels) to generate a bigger image. Our question is --

a) How do we determine how many pixels we want to make it if we want the image of the render to fill the screen?
b) Once we do this if we choose Full Screen in the View pull-down menu then we won't see any black around the image right?

3) Once a rendering is completed, is it possible to restart it and "raise the bar higher" by raising the SL and/or time. Can you resume a rendering after it has been completed? Even if you've closed the file, quit Maxwell etc. To do this do you choose File/ Open MXI or MXS in the Core Application and what's the difference?

Thank you, all. We really appreciate the guidance.

Cosmas Demetriou

[macray]

to point 2:
render it in the native resolution of the screen and use a program that shows it fullscreen (Irfanview, Press Enter... Windows Picture Viewer in Slideshow mode...)

Why don't you give it a try? didn't you ever use a graphics or render program?

3:
MXI is the image including all information to the point in Maxwell format (all channels, Multilight if used ...)
MXS is the scene file in Maxwell format that Maxwell is using.

Check out the manual in the Maxwell install folder.

[Half Life]

1) If we will want to print out a rendering for presentation to a client, we understand that it is best to set the Color Space to Adobe RGB 98 (right?). To determine the resolution, we would set the Type on Manual and enter the desired output in the Output(w/h) fields. Now, to determine this we printed out a Photo Printing Resolutions table off the internet. It says, for example, that to print out an image tht is 15" wide x 10" high you should set your pixels at 4,536 x 3,024 (at 300 ppi). Our questions are:

a) Is there a limit to how big you an make the output? For example, can you enter 10,000 x 8,000 if we had a printer big enough to print larger prints?
b) Does it take longer (in time) to render an image that is larger? (This may seem obvious, but still want to ask.)

a) the only limit would be on how much RAM you have installed.
b) yes.

2) If we want to create a rendering that will just be viewed on the computer screen, we understand that we should set the color space to sRGB (right?) and we want the image to be as big as possible -- for example, we have a 27" monitor and would like the image to fill the screen when we choose Full View -- what resolution should we choose? Viewing an image on a screen should be 72 ppi (right?) therefore, it would take less resolution (fewer pixels) to generate a bigger image. Our question is --

a) How do we determine how many pixels we want to make it if we want the image of the render to fill the screen?
b) Once we do this if we choose Full Screen in the View pull-down menu then we won't see any black around the image right?

a) this will depend entirely on the aspect ratio and resolution settings of the destination monitor -- since you will not be able to know these in most cases it's best to just set a size that seems appropriate to you.
b) see answer to "a".

3) Once a rendering is completed, is it possible to restart it and "raise the bar higher" by raising the SL and/or time. Can you resume a rendering after it has been completed? Even if you've closed the file, quit Maxwell etc. To do this do you choose File/ Open MXI or MXS in the Core Application and what's the difference?

Resume MXI in the Core Render App.

Also you do not need to set the colorspace before rendering -- you can render once and save that file out in several different colorspaces by opening the MXI and setting the colorspace in the Core Render App and saving a separate image output for each colorspace.

Best,
Jason.

[Cosmasad]

Hi Jason,

Good to hear from you again. Your videos have been so helpful.

Your answer to "how big you an make the output? For example, can you enter 10,000 x 8,000 if we had a printer big enough to print larger prints?" was "it depends on how much RAM you have installed". I have 8 mb or RAM. What does that tell me? Is there a mathematical formula that will tell me how big a rendering I can produce or is more of a rule-of-thumb?

Thank you.

Cosmas Demetriou

[Half Life]

I'm sure there is math for it (as there is for everything in Maxwell) but I don't know how to calculate it because it would have to take into account various RAM-eating factors:

1) Polygon Count of the Geometry (using instances helps here).
2) File size of all the texture maps in your Maxwell Materials.
3) If you are using Multi-light (and which type) and how many emitters.
4) Additional Render Channels enabled.
5) If you are using displacement based materials.
6) Motion Blur effects.
7) How much of that 8 GB is actually available to Maxwell at render time (how much is the system and other running processes consuming)

I'm sure there are other variables but those are just some of the issues you have to balance to render very large files.

My best advice is to try and if it doesn't run cut back on one of the above options until it does.

Best,
Jason.

[Richard]

Hi Jason,

Good to hear from you again. Your videos have been so helpful.

Your answer to "how big you an make the output? For example, can you enter 10,000 x 8,000 if we had a printer big enough to print larger prints?" was "it depends on how much RAM you have installed". I have 8 mb or RAM. What does that tell me? Is there a mathematical formula that will tell me how big a rendering I can produce or is more of a rule-of-thumb?

Thank you.

Cosmas Demetriou

Mate 10,000 x 8000 is a BIG image, it is almost 3 feet wide at 300dpi - check firstly the resolution limits of the plotter or large format printer? And consider upscaling the image with PhotoShop later! Mate an image that size will really eat up some time and unless you have some beafy hardware we could really be talking "SOME TIME!!".

[JamesColeman]

One thing to consider is that higher resolutions will not necessarily require an SL as high as lower resolution images. I routinely make A3 resolution images (4961 x 3508) and sometimes they only need to go to SL10 because the limiting factor of quality becomes the printer, not the image. For the record, they will typically use about 2GB of memory.

[Bubbaloo]

My advice is, always render final quality renders at high resolution (as high as your hardware can handle), then downsize as needed.