MaxwellRender17Mayau150 PDF

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help
doc v.1.1
1/34

The Maxwell for Maya plugin has been created with the intention of providing an optimum
integration of Maxwell Render with the versions 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5 releases of Maya for Windows 32
and 64 and Mac systems.
Here you will find an assortment of topics relating to the actual use of the plugin, as well as
descriptions of the parameters and interfaces which it exposes.
Installation
User Interface Help
Scene Settings
Maxwell Camera Properties
Maxwell Objects Properties
Maxwell Render Options
Generic Settings
Sky Settings
Layers Settings
Channels Settings
Environment Settings
Plug-in Options
Maxwell Materials
MXM Browser
Material wizard
Controls
Material Node
Emitter layer
BSDF Layer
Rendering
FAQ
What does 'There is no MAXWELL_ROOT environment variable on this machine' mean?
Why aren't my Emitters working?
Why do projections show up as 'locked' when I open my MXS in Maxwell Studio?
I've pressed 'Render' but no application is showing up.

doc v.1.1
2/34
Installation
The installation of Maya plugin is a very easy and straightforward process.
Installation on Windows
Once you download and decompress the zip file, you have to double click on the exe file. This will
lead you to the plugin installation program and a new window will appear, as shown in the figure
below.
Click on Next and the installation program will automatically choose the path where Maya is
installed, detecting the installed version as well.
By clicking Next button the installation progress continue and lets you choose which features of
Maxwell Maya plug-in you want to install.

doc v.1.1
3/34
Complete the Maxwell Render Maya plug-in installation by clicking Install button.
Finally open Maya and load the plugin from Plugin Manager Panel.

doc v.1.1
4/34
User Interface Help

The user interface for the Maxwell for Maya plugin consists of several panels and buttons:
Maxwell Preferences
Maxwell Object Properties Tab
Maxwell Camera Properties Tab
Maxwell Plug-in Options
Maxwell Export
Maxwell Materia Shading Groupl
Maxwell Render Globals
The plugin has been designed to offer a comfortable workflow for Maya users, including tabs that
follow the logical way to work with Maxwell Render (environment, camera, materials...).
Maxwell Preferences
You can find this panel in Windows > Rendering Editor > Maxwell > Maxwell settings.
General :
Verbose export: when this is on, the plug-in will issue a warning in the Script Editor window
for every non-fatal problem it encounters in the scene. These problems include missing
textures, degenerate triangles, objects without materials etc. Printing the warnings can take
a long time, so they can be turned off by unchecking this option. If "verbose export" is off
and the plug-in encounters problems it will print a single warning at the end of the export
process: "Warnings were issued during the scene export process. Turn on verbose export

doc v.1.1
5/34
and check the script editor window for details, or run render diagnostics."
Bring rendered image: Check this to bring the rendered image into the Render view window,
then you could save into the buffer to compare with others renders.
Browser Default dir: The default directory for the material browser can be specified here.
Update Notification: The plugin includes an automatic update notification that will pop up once
before rendering if you are connected to the internet and there is a new version of the plugin.
This pop up also allows you to see the list of changes or to download the latest version by clicking on
the correspondent area.
There is also a tick box to avoid the notification from popping up for the new version.
Swatch rendering :
Enables/disable swatch rendering: Checking this you can activate the rendered preview
image for Maxwell Materials shading groups.
Note: The rendered images only will be visible in the Material tab From Multilister
and Hypershade.
Sampling level: controls the quality of the preview render.
Render time: the maximum time (in seconds) the user wishes to allow for rendering material
previews.
Resolution: the size of the preview image.
Preview Scene: Select the scene used for rendering material previews.
Maxwell Objects Properties

Maxwell plugin accepts all type of geometry coming from Maya and will take into account
transformations and deformations as well.
Maxwell Object Properties are located in tab Maxwell Render tab when open Attribute editor.

doc v.1.1
6/34
Hidden From Camera: The object will not appear in the image rendered but their shadows.
Hidden to Secondary Rays: Reflected or refracted objects are hidden (seen in enough
specular materials or with low roughness, like a vampire in a mirror).
Hidden to GI: Means the object will render but will not affect lighting.
Unaffected by Z Clip: If this option is selected, the object won't be cut by zClip planes.
Maxwell Camera Properties

How Cameras Work
Maxwell Render uses a camera model that differs from Maya's camera model. Maxwell Render
simulates a real camera with the associated lens set, diaphragm, etc. In this sense, Maxwell camera
has got specific parameters that are reached through the plugin, however there is still some
information from the Maya camera model that is useful to fully define the way the camera will
behave in Maxwell Render.

doc v.1.1
7/34
Camera properties
Find the Maxwell Camera Properties tab opening the Attribute Editor from any camera.
As we said, these parameters are specific to Maxwell, but there are other camera parameters that
must be taken into account and that belongs to the Maya Camera Properties panel.
Focal Length: distance from the lens to the film.
Z-Clip Planes: Define the Z-Clip by the Far Clipping Plane and Near Clipping Plane.
Auto Render Clip Planes: Disable clip planes when it's on.
Near Clipping Plane: The near-plane ZClipping distance (must be less than Far Clipping Plane)
Far Clipping Plane: The far-plane ZClipping distance (must be greater than Near Clipping
Plane)

doc v.1.1
8/34
Exposure Mode:
o Manual: The shutter speed and fstop are passed to Maxwell exactly as entered by
the user
o Shutter priority: The shutter speed is used as is, and the fstop is computed to arrive
at the provided EV number. This allows the user to vary the shutter speed without
changing the exposure, e.g. when adjusting the motion blur amount
o Aperture priority: the fstop number is used as is, and the shutter speed is computed
to arrive at the EV number. This allows changing the depth of field without affecting
the exposure.
Exposure Value (EV): The EV (Exposure Value) is a common way of combining shutter speed
and fstop into a single number to obtain a measure of the exposure.
Exposure values for ISO 100 for various lighting conditions
Lighting Condition
EV100
Daylight
Light sand or snow in full or slightly hazy
16
sunlight (distinct shadows)a
Typical scene in full or slightly hazy sunlight
15
Typical scene in hazy sunlight (soft shadows)
14
Typical scene, cloudy bright (no shadows)
13
Typical scene, heavy overcast
12
Areas in open shade, clear sunlight
12
Outdoor, Natural light
Rainbows
Clear sky background
15
Cloudy sky background
14
Sunsets and skylines
Just before sunset
1214
At sunset
12
Just after sunset
911
The Moon,c altitude > 40
Full
15
Gibbous
14
Quarter
13
Crescent
12
Moonlight, Moon altitude > 40
Full
3 to 2
Gibbous
4
Quarter
6
Aurora borealis and australis

Bright
4 to 3
6 to 5
Medium
Outdoor, Artificial Light
Neon and other bright signs
Night sports
Fires and burning buildings
Bright street scenes
Night street scenes and window displays
Night vehicle traffic
Fairs and amusement parks
Christmas tree lights
Buildings, monuments, and fountains
Distant views of lighted buildings
Indoor, Artificial Light
Galleries
Sports events, stage shows, and the like
Circuses, floodlit
Ice shows, floodlit
Offices and work areas
Home interiors
Christmas tree lights
910
9
9
8
78
5
7
45
35
2
811
89
8
9
78
57
45
F-Stop: controls the aperture of the lens.

Film ISO: the film's light- sensitivity, higher ISO is more sensitive.
Note: With day normal light and Film ISO 100 the values would be:
F-Stop
2.8
5.6
11
16
22
Shutter Speed
1000
500
250
125
50
25
10

doc v.1.1
9/34
11
8
5,6
1/500
16
11
8
1/250
22
16
11
1/100
22
16
1/50
22
1/25
1/2000
1/1000
1/500
1/250
1/100
1/50
1/25
1/10
Light color buildings

Landscape with dark first plane
Light streets and squares
People in the light
1/1000
1/500
1/250
1/100
1/50
1/25
1/10
1/5
1/500
1/250
1/100
1/50
1/25
1/10
1/5
1/2
dark streets and squares

Dark buildings
People in the shade
Light wood
People under thin foliages tree
Dark wood
People under thick foliages tree
People in a room next to a light window
People in a room next to a dark window
Light interiors
Dark Interiors
Churches
1/250
1/100
1/50
1/25
1/10
1/5
1/2
1/100
1/50
1/25
1/10
1/5
1/2
1/50
1/25
1/10
1/5
1/2
1/25
1/10
1/5
4
1/10
1/5
1/2
8
1/5
1/2
1
16
1/2
1
2
32
1
2
4
60
2
4
8
120
4
8
16
240
8
16
32
480
F-Stop
Shuters speed with ISO 100

4
5,6
8
2,8
4
5,6
2,8
4
1/4000 1/2000 1/1000
Shutter Speed
Sun
Partially cloudily
Cloudily
Clouds
Snowed landscape
On the beach
On the mountain
Open view
Horizon view
Landscape with first plane
Shutter Speed: specified 1/n of a second.

Use Rotary Shutter: Rotary shutter simulation for movie camera motion blur. The plug-in
replaces the camera shutter speed with a value derived from the rotary shutter angle and
then adjusts the ISO film speed to arrive back to the same exposure as with the initial
shutter speed / ISO settings. This is far more intuitive for users than to let them compute the
shutter speed from the shutter angle and then adjust the film speed to weird values.Shutter
Angle / Exposure time.
Manual Focus Distance: Change Focus Distance manually.

Focus Distance: distance from the camera location to the camera target.
doc v.1.1
10/34
Diaphragm Type: Controls the shape of the 'bokeh' effect seen in out-of-focus highlights.
Diaphragm Angle: The angle of blades in 'Polygonal' cameras.
Diaphragm Type: The number of blades of 'Polygonal' cameras.
Shutter Speed, ISO and Shutter Angle
Shutter Speed and ISO of the Maxwell Camera Properties panel are used if Motion Blur is off on the
Maxwel Render Globals, otherwise Maya's shutter angle is used.
The ISO is then adjusted to obtain the same exposure as you would get with the Maxwell shutter
speed and ISO values. This means that you can play around with the shutter angle to get the motion
blur to look right without affecting your exposure.
Shift Lens

doc v.1.1
11/34
The aspect ratio and film offset settings are in the "Film Back" rollup in the camera attribute editor.
Maya has two more attributes that influence framing when the resolution aspect ratio doesn't
match the film aspect ratio: "Fit Resolution Gate" and "Film Fit Offset". Maxwell doesn't support
these attributes so users should always match their film aspect to their resolution. For instance, if
you are rendering in CCIR PAL/Quantel PAL you will get a Device aspect Ratio of 1.333,revising the
Film Back camera parameters we can see that Film Aspect Ratio is 1.50 or other depending on the
Film Gate used so you must to adjust manually your Film Aspect Ratio to 1.333.
Maxwell Render Globals

General Settings
General Settings tab provides control over the various parameters available to control the actual
rendering process:
Render Options
Render Time: sets the minimum time to be reached before stopping the render. The
maximum number of minutes the render will be allowed to continue. When rendering a
single frame, it is advisable to set this value to a much higher number than necessary, to
ensure that the render is not stopped prior to its being perceived as completed.
Sampling Level: sets the minimum sampling level to be reached before stopping the render.
When the render attains the Sampling Level specified here, processing will stop. Setting

doc v.1.1
12/34
Sampling Level to very high values (>25) when rendering single frames ensures that the
render will not be terminated before an acceptable quality level has been reached.
Threads: the number of threads to allocate for the mxcl.exe process. Setting this value to 0
will cause mxcl.exe to auto-detect the available number of processors, and use them all for
the rendering process.
Global Scale: Multiplier for the scene scale.
Attenuation Scale: The attenuation values for all the materials in the scene will be multiplied
by this number when they are exported.
This is useful if you have a scene that's not modelled to scale, but the transparent materials
are already set up so that they look right. If you use the global scale to fix DOF issues (for
example) you will break the transparent materials; the attenuation scale can then be used to
fix those materials by setting it to the same value as the global scale.
Enable motion blur: Enables/disables motion blur motion blur amount is controlled by
Maya's camera Shutter Angle.
Use Instancing: When is off this option, the instances are exported as cloned objects. When
on are exported as Maxwell instances, this is good to save memory. Particle instanced
objects can now be exported as independent objects or as instances.
Multilight: You can activate this option to render multiple results in one image (see the
manual to now more)
Export Static Fly-By: "Export static fly-by" only processes the geometry once in an animation
and updates just the camera position for subsequent frames. This speeds up the export
rocess if you have an animated camera navigating around completely static geometry. It of
course doesn't affect rendering times in any way.
Low priority: Enable this if you want to work at your computer during rendering.
Use Fast Exporter: uses some features in the Maya 8 and above API that allow geometry to
be processed much faster. This can lower export times as much as 5 times, but it consumes
more memory per object so it could cause problems if you have an object with millions of
polygons. If that's the case the export fails and unchecking this box can fix the failure. Many
objects with relatively few polygons are not an issue, only very large individual objects affect
this.
Additional MXCL Flags: Add extra flags in this text box , i.e. vignetting:0 or -v:0 to rid off the
vigneting.
Tone Mapping
Gamma: Controls the output gamma of the rendered image.

Burn: Controls how fast the image is over-exposed.

doc v.1.1
13/34
Environment
The Environment Settings tab provides access to settings related to type of lighting used in the
Scene.
Active Viewport Preview: This button is a new feature that allows you to visualize the environment
settings in the viewport. Just set your viewport in shade mode and you will see the final color of the
environment Physical Sky.
Sky Options
Generic Settings page provides control over the various parameters available to control the actual
rendering process:
Sky Type: Select from Sky Dome, Physical or None

Load: Load a preset for Physical sky.
Save: Save your presets for physical sky.
Physical Sky
Maxwell provides a realistic simulation of the sky. When using this mode, it is possible to enable or
disable the Sun, as well as adjust the sky's Turbidity, Water, and Ozone values.

doc v.1.1
14/34
Atmosphere
o Ozone: The amount of ozone gas in the atmosphere. The default value is 0.4
o Water: The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. It is measured in centimeters,
in the same way as ozone.
o Turbidity Coefficient: Defines the concentration and amount of particles in the
atmosphere. A value of 0 means a perfectly clear sky (in which case the next three
parameters wont have any effect). 0.01 is a good value for low turbidity, e.g. a sky
with very few aerosols in it so that it will appear almost clear. 0.04 is a good medium
value and 0.1 is a high value.
Default settings (0.04)

doc v.1.1
Turbidity 0.65, Scatt. Asymmetry 0.7
Turbidity 0.65, Scatt. Asymmetry -0.7
15/34
Raising the Turbidity Coefficient in sunset situations will darken the sky. Remember that
you can also raise the ISO of the camera in these cases, which can produce interesting
effects:
Default settings (0.04)
Turbidity 0.18, ISO 150
Turbidity 0.18, ISO 1000
o Wavelength Exponent: Defines the average size of the particles in the atmosphere.
The particle size influences which wavelengths of light are absorbed and which are
scattered. Higher values than the default will at first increase the saturation of the
sky, then gradually turning green and then orange:
Wavelength Ex. 1.2 (default)
Wavelength Ex. 10
Wavelength Ex. 30
o Aerosol reflectance(%): Refers to the albedo of the aerosols, or the rate of energy
scattered and absorbed by the aerosols.
o Scattering Asymmetry: This factor controls the anisotropy of the particles, that is, in which
direction most of the light will be scattered. Positive values will produce a halo effect
around the sun, brightening the area around it:
Scattering Asymmetry 0.7 (default)

doc v.1.1
Scattering Asymmetry 0
16/34
o Enable Sun: Enables/disables the Sun during rendering (Physical Sky & Image Based)
Sun
o Temperature(K): Temperature of the suns spectral radiation. The default value of
5777 is the most common value measured outside the Earths atmosphere.
o Power: A multiplier that controls the amount of light emitted from the sun. Higher
values than the default 1 will make the sun emit more light, lower values will emit
less.
o Planet Reflectance (%): Controls the percentage of light reflected from the planet
surface back into the atmosphere.
o Sun direction
Compute from Geographical location: You can manually set the geographical
data.
Track Object: You can use an object from the scene to set the position or
direction of the sun light, for instance a directional light.
o Track Object: The object used to track the sun.
o Track Selected Object: Use the selected object from the scene.
Tips for working with the Physical Sky:
Bear in mind that the atmosphere parameters influence each other. For example, if you raise the
Turbidity Coefficient (more particles in the atmosphere), the Wavelength Exponent, Reflectance
and Scattering Asymmetry parameters will then have a greater influence on the look of the sky as
they are affecting a larger amount of particles.
To keep the horizon from turning too bright, lower the Planet Reflectance and decrease the
Scattering Asymmetry.
Maxwell Studio and some of the plug-ins can interactively show an accurate OpenGL view of the
current sky coloration and brightness. In Studio, press the K key to activate/deactivate the Sky
Preview. This OpenGL view also takes into account the cameras F-stop, ISO and Shutter Speed
settings.
The scene illumination and coloring change depending on what sky settings you use. If you raise
the ozone level, which makes the sky scatter more blue light, your entire scene will have a bluer
illumination.
Because the Maxwell camera has a fixed white balance of 6500K, you can save your render as HDR
and then white balance your image in an image editing application that can handle HDR files.
Geographical Location
o Longitude and Latitude: Choose the longitude and latitude
o Day of Month, month: Sets the date.
o Hour, minute, second: Sets time of day
o GMT Offset: offset for the current coordinates
o Ground Rotation: Sets an offset rotation on the ground without any modification in
the actual world coordinates.

doc v.1.1
17/34
Sky Dome
In this mode, the Scene will be globally illuminated using an RGB-specified color, and a user-specified
intensity value.
Color: Sets the Sky Dome colour.

Intensity (Lumens): Sets the Sky Dome lighting intensity in lumens.
Image Based
In this mode, Environmental lighting is provided by either a Maxwell MXI (.mxi) image, or an HDR
image. Four separate layers (Background, Illumination, Reflection, and Refraction) are provided, and
different maps may be used in all of them, if so desired. Individual layers may be enabled or
disabled as well. The user may choose to use Physical Sky, Sky Dome, or no Environmental lighting in
disabled layers.
Please note that changes made to one channel will not be made to the others as well. Also note that
the Sun is also able to be enabled and rendered when using an Image Based Environment.

doc v.1.1
18/34
Image Based
To use Image Based Environment: Activate the use of HDRI files.
Env Preview Chan: Change the visualization in the viewport for Background, Reflection, Refraction or
Illumination files.
Background
Use Image Based Environment: Enable/disable light by IBL.
Use layer: Enables/disables this layer.
Texture: Sets the path to an MXI or HDR image to use in this channel.
Intensity: Sets the intensity of this layer's map.
Scale U: Scales this layer's map in the U direction
Scale V: Scales this layer's map in the V direction
Offset U: Moves this layer's map origin in the U direction
Offset V: Moves this layer's map origin in the V direction
Reflection, Refraction and illumination
Same as background: Enables/disables using the same map as Background so you can
control the parameters from Background tab.
Render Channels
The Render Channels tab contains options to control which types of output will be generated while
rendering:
Color: Enables/disables rendering the Colour channel.

Alpha: Enables/disables rendering the Alpha channel. Alpha channels are not embedded in
file formats so will be rendered apart in single files with a prefix call alpha_nameImage.
Material ID: Enables/disables rendering the Material ID channel.
Shadow Pass: Enables/disables rendering the Shadow channel.
Object ID: Enables/disables rendering the Object ID channel.
Depth: Enables/disables rendering the Z-Buffer channel.
Z range start: Sets the Z-Buffer near distance.
Z range end: Sets the Z-Buffer far distance.

doc v.1.1
19/34
Layers Settings
Specifies which of the different light interactions should be included or excluded from the
calculation.
Direct Lighting: Enables/disables the Direct render layer

Indirect Lighting: Enables/disables the Indirect render layer
Direct. Ref. Caustics: Enables/disables the Direct Reflection render layer
Direct Rfr. Caustics: Enables/disables the Direct Refraction render layer
Indirect. Ref. Caustics: Enables/disables the Indirect Reflection render layer
Indirect Rfr. Caustics: Enables/disables the Indirect Refraction render layer
SimuLens
Allows you to control the lens diffraction, lens scattering, and vignetting effects of the Maxwell
SimuLens system.

doc v.1.1
20/34
Diffraction: Enables Simulense effects.

Aperture map: The shape of the diaphragm will model the pattern of light that reaches the film.
Obstacle Map: Water drops, eyelashes, dirt, etc on the camera lens will also cause diffraction effects.
Diffraction intensity: Controls diffraction/glare intensity.
Diffraction Frequency: Controls the frequency of coloring in diffraction effect. Higher values will
make the patterns denser.
Scattering: Enable Scattering
Scattering value: Commonly known as bloom and occurs when the light is scattered inside the lens
before reaching the film.
Vignetting: Enable Vignetting.
Vignetting value: Vignetting is an artifact which darkens the image through the edges due to camera
optics, now you can partially or completely remove it by dragging the slider from 1000 to 0.
Maxwell Materials
Support for Maya native materials
Automatic translation of Maya native shaders:
o Lambert
o Phong
o PhongE
o Blinn
o Anisotropic
o Layered
Automatic translation of Mental Ray shaders:
o Car paint
o Dielectric

doc v.1.1
21/34
How native Maya materials are translated to Maxwell?

Lambert
One Layer
Note: m.r. means Maxwell rollup
Lambertian Layer
Maya parameters
Maxwell parameters
Settings
roughness %
roughness
100
color
reflectance 0
fresnel/m.r.
reflectance 90
transparency
transmittance
absorption distance /m.r.
absorption distance
100 cm by default
index of refraction
Nd
1 by default
abbe number/m.r.
abbe number
dispersion/m.r.
dispersion
bump texture
bump texture
white by default
Blinn (as metal in Maxwell)
Two Layers
Shiny Layer
Diffuse Layer
Maya parameters
Maxwell parameters
Maxwell parameters
absorption
absorption
dispersion/m.r.
dispersion
dispersion
abbe number/m.r.
abbe number
abbe number
reflectivity
layer weight
color
reflectance 0
reflectance 0
color
reflectance 90
reflectance 90
fresnel/m.r. (if "use fresnel" its

on)
transparency
transmittance
roughness %/m.r.
roughness
anisotropy%/m.r.
anisotropy
bump texture
bump texture
Shiny layer nd/m.r.
Nd
reflectance 90
90 by default
bump texture
20 by default
index of refraction
reflectivity
Nd
1 by default
weight
20 by default
weight
reflectivity
Phong (as plastic in Maxwell)
Two Layers
Glossy Layer
Diffuse Layer
Maya parameters
Maxwell parameters
Maxwell parameters
No exist
blending mode
absorption
absorption
dispersion/m.r.
dispersion
dispersion
abbe number/m.r.
abbe number
abbe number
reflectivity
layer weight
color
reflectance 0
fresnel/m.r. (if "use fresnel" its

doc v.1.1
Settings
Settings
additive
reflectance 0
reflectance 90
white by default
22/34
on)
transparency
transmittance
roughness %/m.r.
roughness
bump texture
bump texture
Glossy layer nd/m.r.
Nd
90 by default
bump texture
2,5 by default
index of refraction
reflectivity
Nd
1 by default
weight
20 by default
reflectivity
weight
100 by default
Anisotropic
One Layer
Reflectance Layer
Maya parameters
Maxwell parameters
color
reflectance 0
transparency
transmittance
fresnel/m.r.
reflectance 90
white by default
absorption
100 by default
abbe number/m.r.
abbe number
roughness %/m.r.
roughness
angle
aniso angle
anisotropy%/m.r.
anisotropy
75 by default
index of refraction
Nd
1 by default
bump texture
bump texture
Mental Rays car paint
Three Layers
Note: m.r. means Maxwell

rollup
Maya parameters
Rough Layer
base_color
Maxwell
parameters
reflection 0
edge_color
reflection 90
lit_color
Settings
Glossy/Coating
Layer
Maxwell parameters
Shiny Layer
Maxwell parameters
Settings
reflection 0
reflection 90
reflection 90
reflection 0
All others parameters are taken exactly from that Maxwell Car Paint material.
Mental Rays dielectric
One Layer
Note: m.r. means Maxwell

rollup
Maya parameters
Reflectance Layer
col
transmittance
col (inverted)
reflection 0
abbe number
abbe number
fresnel color /m.r.
reflection 90
dispersion /m.r.
dispersion
absorption distance
roughness % /m.r.
roughness
Ior
Nd

doc v.1.1
Maxwell parameters
Settings
23/34
The native shaders can be converted into equivalent Maxwell materials using the shader
type drop-down in the Attribute Editor.
We have overridden Maya's default behavior for that operation, so that the Maya shaders
are converted using the same presets as those used "behind the scene" during scene export.
Bump connections are also translated. We take the "bump strength" value from the "bump
depth" attribute of bump2d nodes and we support normal mapping in the Maya versions
where it is implemented (from 7.0 and up).
Maya file texture nodes are correctly translated when encountered. We take into account all
their attributes that have a Maxwell correspondent: invert, tiling factor and offset. We use

doc v.1.1
24/34
Maya's internal logic for locating a texture file from its relative path, so Maxwell will always
use the same texture files as the Maya software render would.
Custom attributes added to the native Maya nodes give the user some control on the
translated materials:

doc v.1.1
25/34
Use Separate Fresnel: If it's enabled, the color specified by the user in the Maxwell
tab Fresnel Color is used for reflection 90 instead, like an override value.
To find out more about these parameters have a look in de BSDF section.
Maxwell Material node.
Create Maxwell Materials within the Render Node Panel.
Maxwell Material Attribute Editor

When we create a Maxwell material, a MXM node is created similar to a Lambert Maya node. We
can see eight principal buttons:
Wizard
Brose Library
Import .mxm
Export .mxm
Add Layer
Add emitter
Add displacement

doc v.1.1
26/34
Update preview
The lower part of the Maxwell Material Attribute editor shows parameters which apply on a
Material-wide basis, such as Dispersion, Blending Mode, Matte and Matte Shadows.
Texture repeat scale U/V: Select the values for texture tile repeating in all file nodes used in
the shader node.
Wizard
The Material Wizard is provided to assist in the task of creating Maxwell Materials. The Material
Wizard creates several materials as shown above using a minimum number of inputs.

doc v.1.1
27/34
You can convert your materials to SubSurfaceScattering materials using next wizards.
To know more about these type of materials go to
MXM Browser
The MXM Browser can be accessed by clicking on the "Browse Library" button on the Maxwell
Material Shader interface. It provides access to Maxwell MXM files located in the file system
showing a preview of them:

doc v.1.1
28/34
The MXM list simply shows the MXM contents of whichever folder it is currently set to view in Path
parameter.
The Up and will let you choose the folder you want to browse in, being Home the material database
of the installation folder. Select the material by clicking on it. Scroll Down and up will let you
navigate through the entire chosen folder.
Import/Export .mxm
Import and export specific materials located in explicit folders locations, a windows explorer pop up
will appear.
Add Layer
A new BSDF will be added to the pile of layers.
Add Emitter
Emitter properties will be added to the pile of layers. This button change to Remove emitter when a
emitter has been added.
Add Displacement
Displacement properties will be added to the layers. This button change to Remove displ. when a
displacement has been added.
Texture: Load texture to displace

Absolute Height: checking Absolute Height allows you to set the Height in centimeters and
it will always displace to this given value regardless of object dimensions.
Height: This parameter sets the maximum allowed displacement distance.

doc v.1.1
29/34
Offset: This parameter allows you to specify which grey level in the texture should represent
zero displacement.
Adaptative precision: The adaptive option locks the precision value to the given texture
detail (at half pixel accuracy) which has the advantage of always creating the most detailed
displacement that a given texture can provide.
Precission: Precision defines surface accuracy, ability and respond to detail independent of
texture resolution.
Smooting: Similar to the objects smoothing angle setting, this parameter controls whether
the displaced surface should render smoothly (continuous shading) or render facetted.
Update preview
Previews will no longer be rendered, instead of this a button to manually update the preview image
automatically.
Maxwell Material Layers

Materials are built from BSDF, Coating, SubSurface, Emitter layers. Adding and removing these layers
is accomplished by clicking on the appropriate buttons above the Materials Components bin.
Add Coating: Add the Coating parameters to the BSDF layer.

Remove layer: Delete completely the actual layer even Coatings and SSS.
Layer name: Order your layers with intuitive names.
Layer weight: In a Maxwell Material, BSDF layers are combined by their Weight values, or
alternatively, by using a Weight Texture. A Weight Texture is generally a black & white (24bit RGB)
bitmap defining areas of the BSDF that are meant to be visible (white areas), or invisible (black
areas). A blend of grey may be used to define gradient blends between different BSDF layers. If no
Weight Texture is specified, the simple Weight value is used.
Surface Type: Select either BSDF or SSS.

doc v.1.1
30/34
BSDF
The BSDF layer controls provide access to the values which define the behaviour of an individual
Maxwell BSDF component (layer).
Reflectance 0/90: Select the material colour.

Transmittance: The colour of the light which passes through an object.
Attenuation distance: Specify how far the light can move through the object before losing
half of its energy.
Nd: Index of Refraction.
Abbe: Controls the amount of dispersion.
Use IOR File: Check this if you want to use a specific .r2 data file.
Use IOR Full Data: Check this if you want to use a specific and complex .ior data file.
Surfaces properties
Roughness: Controls the diffuse of the material (0 is a perfect mirror)

Anisotropy: Anisotropy strength.
Bump Strength: Bump height.
Bump Texture: Load an image map.
Use Bump Texture As Normal Map: If you have loaded an image normal map check this box.
Flip RGB: Invert independent channels of the normal map.

doc v.1.1
31/34
Coating
New Coating layers are created by clicking on the 'Add Coating' button. Coatings may be removed
by clicking the on the 'Remove coating" button.
Coating Name:Changes the name of a coating layer.
Thickness (nm): Use a simple scalar Thickness value to specify the theoretical thickness of
the Coating. To avoid heavier interference colours, use higher values for Thickness.
Thickness Range Min/Max: The Minimum and Maximum values correspond to the dark/light
areas of the Texture used.
Mapped Thickness: Uses a Texture to regulate the thickness of the coating.
Reflectance: Reflectance in Maxwell Coating layers may be defined in terms of RGB colour
values for the 0 and 90 parameters. Reflectance 0 defines the colour which will be reflected
from the more direct viewing angles. Reflectance 90 defines the colour reflected from
glancing viewing angles.
Nd: Index of Refraction
Abbe: Controls the amount of dispersion
Fresnel-IOR: Custom IOR Mode uses a Coating's Reflectance 0 and Reflectance 90
parameters combined with the Nd and Abbe parameters to define the overall reflective
response. Complex IOR Mode uses an IOR (.ior) file to define all Reflectance parameters.
R2 IOR Mode uses an R2 (.r2) file to define a custom Fresnel curve for the Coating.
Sub Surface Scattering
The Subsurface editor panel provides access to the values which define the behaviour of a Maxwell
Subsurface layer. Each BSDF layer can have specific SSS properties.

doc v.1.1
32/34
Nd: Similar to the Nd of the BSDF, it controls the index of refraction and Fresnel of the
material and thus controls how reflective the surface will become. It also controls the
diffusion of light inside the volume.
Scattering: This parameter defines which dominant color of the light spectrum should be
scattered inside the object.
Scattering Color
Absorption Coef: This parameter acts as a multiplier for the inverse color set in the
transmittance parameter. The inverse color of the transmittance parameter will be absorbed
faster.
Sca/Abs=10
Sca/Abs=20
Sca/Abs=40
Sca/Abs=80
Sca/Abs=160
Transmittance: Similar to the transmittance color in the BSDF, this option specifies which
dominant color of the light spectrum should be transmitted inside the object and which
inverse ranges of the light spectrum will be absorbed faster
Asymmetry: Defining the dominant direction of the scattering, this parameter can go from -1
to 1
General Info
Reflectance
Reflectance in Maxwell BSDF layers may be defined in terms of RGB colour values for the 0 and 90
parameters, or may be defined by specifying colour Textures for the channels. Reflectance 0 could
be generally referred to as the diffuse colour of the layer, being the colour that will be reflected from
the more direct viewing angles. Reflectance 90 could be referred to as the specular colour, being
the colour that will be reflected at glancing angles. In general, plasticized materials will exhibit a
pure white [255, 255, 255] Reflectance 90 colour, while metallic will exhibit varying degrees of selfcoloured specular reflection.
Transmittance
Transmittance in Maxwell BSDF layers is used to define how light is, or is not, allowed to pass into
and through the object. Black [0, 0, 0,] Transmittance defines a completely opaque material, while
white [255, 255, 255] defines one which all light is allowed to pass through. If light is allowed to pass
into the object, then the Attenuation Distance parameter will control the depth to which light is able
to reach beyond the object's surface. The Attenuation Unit parameter defines the scale with which
the Attenuation Distance parameter is applied.
There is an extra control for Attenuation on the Render Options panel, for controlling the general
scale of attenuation.

doc v.1.1
33/34
Fresnel-IOR
A Maxwell BSDF simulates reflective fall-off effects using a realistic Fresnel reflection model. What
this means in practice can be observed in semi-diffuse real-world materials, where a direct angle of
view will yield no defined specular reflection, and a glancing angle of view will reflect the
environment. In the case of reflection, the Nd parameter controls the rate at which this transition
may be observed, with low values causing low frontal reflection, and high values causing high frontal
reflection.
In the case of a transmissive (dielectric) material, the results of this phenomenon affect how much
light will actually be allowed to enter the object from various angles of incidence. Low Nd values
(<2.0) minimize frontal reflection, yielding transparent dielectric materials, while higher Nd values
will cause the object to reject ever-increasing amounts of light, even to the point of effectively
reflecting all light from all angles.
The Abbe parameter controls how much dispersion occurs in a transmissive BSDF when Dispersion is
enabled. Render time is adversely affected when low Abbe values are used, due to the complex
computational cost of these calculations.
Custom IOR Mode uses a BSDF's Reflectance 0, Reflectance 90, and Transmittance parameters (or
Textures), combined with the Nd and Abbe parameters to define the overall
Reflectance/Transmittance of a given BSDF layer.
Complex IOR Mode uses an IOR (.ior) file to define all Reflectance/Transmittance parameters. While
computationally intensive, Complex IOR materials offer the most accurate simulation possible.
R2 IOR Mode uses an R2 (.r2) file to define a custom fresnel curve for the BSDF.
Surface Properties
The Roughness parameter defines how smooth a BSDF layer is, using values from 0 (perfectlysmooth), to 100 (perfectly-Lambertian). A perfectly-Lambertian surface is one that reflects light
evenly in all directions, that is, a perfectly-diffuse surface. A Texture may also be used to define
Roughness, where white areas would correspond to high Roughness values, and black areas to low
Roughness. In this case, the Roughness value is used to clamp the upper range (white) Roughness
areas defined by the Texture.
The Anisotropy parameter defines a surface that reflects light in a directional manner, as with a
brushed metal. A Texture may be employed to control the distribution of this effect.
The Angle (Anisotropy Angle) parameter defines at which angle the directional effects of the
Anisotropy parameter occur. A Texture may be employed to control how this angle is defined.
The Bump parameter works only in conjunction with the use of a Bump Texture. Using values from 100.0 to 100.0, it produces bumping effects across the surface of the object. When using a Texture,
black areas correspond to low, or negative, areas, while white areas correspond to high, or positive
Bump values.

doc v.1.1
34/34
A Bump map may also use a normal map. Use Normal Map button should be enabled and you can
control the normal mapping with the other three buttons available (self explanatory): Flip X, Flip Y
and Wide Z.
The Coating editor panel provides access to the values which define the behaviour of a coating:
Emitter layer
The Emitter editor panel provides access to the values which define the behaviour of a Maxwell
Emitter:
Emitter
In Maxwell there are no light nodes, lights are built with objects. New emitter layers are created by
clicking on the Add Emitter button. Emitter layers may be removed by clicking on the Remove
button. Only one emitter layer is allowed per material.
Load preset: Select one preset on the list.

Emitter Type: An Emitter may operate in one of 3 modes, or Emitter types:
Colour and Luminance
Temperature of Emission
MXI Texture

doc v.1.1
35/34
Colour and Luminance

In Colour and Luminance mode, the colour of the Emitter may be specified using either an RGB color,
or a Correlated Colour value. A Colour and Luminance Emitter may specify power either using Watts
and Efficacy values, or in lumens, lumens/m^2, candelas, or candelas/m^2.
Temperature of Emission
Use the Emission Temperature control to set the temperature of the Emitter surface.
MXI Texture
An Emitter using the MXI Texture type may use a Maxwell MXI (.mxi) file, or an HDR image file, to
define the Emitter's output.
Hardware Texturing
Emitter MXI textures can be previewed in the viewport by selecting "Emitter MXI" in the "Textured
channel" drop-down
Rendering
Rendering stills and animations
To render stills simply select the renderer in Render >Render using > Maxwell or in render globals
options then press Render>Render Current frame or the icon. Maya plugin provides with the
possibility to render animations as other renders.

doc v.1.1
36/34
You can do it with the batch rendering function where each frame is exported to a temporary MXS
file and rendered by the MXCL app, when finish this file is deleted. You can see the process in the
Script editor.
Other ways is exporting the sequence to mxs files and then render them with MXCL application. To
export MXS files go to File>Export all/Export Selection.
Use active camera: Check the box (by default) if you want to export the active camera in
Maya viewport.
Camera to use: Select a camera from the list, which contains the cameras used in the scene.
Animation: Check this box to export a file sequence from an animation. Select the range of
frames in Render Globals in Common Tab and extension. Use always a padding to use the
Network Rendering option from Maxwell.
Protect geometry: If it is enabled prevents saving meshes as OBJ from Studio.

doc v.1.1
37/34
If you have a render farm have a look to the Maxwell render manual to know more about
Networking Render.
You can use the command line option too, to know more about command line options, open a
console and write render r Maxwell help.
Maxwell specific options:
-rt float
Per-frame render time in minutes
-sl int
Maximum sampling level
-nt float
Number of threads (0=use all CPUs)
-ml boolean
Use multilight
-cao boolean
Export static fly-by
-low boolean
Start in low priority
-fge boolean
Use fast geometry exporter
-cmd string
Additional MXCL flags
-rc boolean
Output color
-ac boolean
Output alpha
-oac boolean
Output opaque
-mc boolean
Output material ID
-shc boolean
Output shadow pass
-oc boolean
Output object ID
-dc boolean
Output depth
-zmn float
Min depth value
-zmx float
Max depth value
-dl boolean
Do direct layer
-il boolean
Do indirect layer
-dcl boolean
Do direct caustic reflection layer
-dcr boolean
Do direct caustic refraction layer
-icl boolean
Do indirect caustic reflection layer
-icr boolean
Do indirect caustic refraction layer

doc v.1.1
38/34
Geometry export
Supported geometry types:
o Polygonal meshes
o NURBS surfaces
o SubD
NURBS surfaces are tessellated using the "advanced tessellation" options in Maya. In order
to see the rendering tessellation you need to check "display render tessellation" and "enable
advanced tessellation" on the NURBS object. The ModeU and ModeV attributes are ignored,
internally we always use the equivalent of "Per span # of Isoparms". We are always
enforcing this tessellation mode because in order for motion blur to work, we need to have
constant tessellation between frames.
Fast; exploits the new Maya8 geometry API, so it's up to 5 times faster on Maya8 than in
previous versions
Supports per-face material assignment
Fetches instanced geometry only once from Maya and writes it multiple times. This avoids
calling the expensive geometry retrieval functions more times than needed, and paves the
way for when Maxwell will support instancing.
Only exports visible objects and their materials; hidden objects have virtually no impact on
the export time.

doc v.1.1
39/34
FAQ Index:
ERROR: "Parent attribute was not found"
The error "Parent attribute was not found" means the plug-in could not add the "Fresnel color"
custom attribute on the native Maya material nodes.
The user won't be able to control the Fresnel colour attribute on native Maya materials, but the rest
of the functionality will be unaffected.
This error is because of a Maya bug. We've only seen this bug with Maya 7 running on XP 64, which
is not a supported combination, because Maya 7 has many problems when running under a 64-bit
OS. The only version of Maya that can be used with 64-bit XP is Maya 8. The 32-bit Maya 8 has some
minor problems, but it's usable. The 64-bit Maya 8 is the ideal choice for XP 64.
ERROR: When I hit render I always get the message: Error: Cannot export scene to file
C:\DOCUME~1\davidy\LOCALS~1\Temp\mxs82A.tmp
1) Check if you have Maxwell Render installed.
2) If you have it installed, check if you have next environment variable in your system with your path,
something similar to this, MAXWELL_ROOT = C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\ Going to Start
menu press RMB in My Computer > Properties. In the dialogue box Advanced tab click on
Environment variables check it on the two lists. If you dont have this variable created, you had to
create manually. If the problem persists uninstall Maxwell Render and reinstall it again.
Everything looks blurry on my images
You need to work in real scale, but if you havent do it , for instance, increase global scale to 10 in
Render Globals. Have a look to the workflow area in our website to see the videos.
MXCL crash when rendering Motion Blur is activated in Maya.
Check your scene; it is possible you have objects containing vertexes in the same world space. Search
for objects that not contain uv maps or assigned materials. If you have "verbose export" on in the
preferences, the plug-in will issue a warning if it finds faces with 0 area (which means it also catches
coincident vertices). The warning is something like this:
// Warning: Mesh 'pCubeShape1' contained 2 invalid faces; they were skipped. //

doc v.1.1
40/34

MaxwellRender17Mayau150 PDF

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

MaxwellRender17Mayau150 PDF

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

User Interface Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell Objects Properties

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell Camera Properties

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Aurora borealis and australis

F-Stop: controls the aperture of the lens.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Light color buildings

dark streets and squares

Shuters speed with ISO 100

Shutter Speed: specified 1/n of a second.

Manual Focus Distance: Change Focus Distance manually.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell Render Globals

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Gamma: Controls the output gamma of the rendered image.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Sky Type: Select from Sky Dome, Physical or None

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Default settings (0.04)

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Turbidity 0.65, Scatt. Asymmetry 0.7

Turbidity 0.65, Scatt. Asymmetry -0.7

Default settings (0.04)

Turbidity 0.18, ISO 150

Turbidity 0.18, ISO 1000

Wavelength Ex. 1.2 (default)

Scattering Asymmetry 0.7 (default)

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Color: Sets the Sky Dome colour.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Color: Enables/disables rendering the Colour channel.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Direct Lighting: Enables/disables the Direct render layer

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Diffraction: Enables Simulense effects.

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

How native Maya materials are translated to Maxwell?

Note: m.r. means Maxwell rollup

absorption distance /m.r.

Blinn (as metal in Maxwell)

Note: m.r. means Maxwell rollup

absorption distance /m.r.

fresnel/m.r. (if "use fresnel" its

Shiny layer nd/m.r.

Note: m.r. means Maxwell rollup

absorption distance /m.r.

fresnel/m.r. (if "use fresnel" its

Maxwell for Maya :: Plug-in Help

Glossy layer nd/m.r.

Note: m.r. means Maxwell rollup

absorption distance /m.r.

Mental Rays car paint

Note: m.r. means Maxwell

Note: m.r. means Maxwell