Des

Thanks for that setz, I didn't know it existed.

I had a look on the oldest installed version I have (6.7.3) and can't find it in modelling or draft mode so if it existed it must have been a script although I never had it. The current plugin place is LAB (and ¢hris £und of course!) You might just have to do some bisecting to get what you want setz.. Des

I just thought I'd post my experience with the Maxwell V5 Cloud rendering option. I went to render on the Rebus renderfarm but they don't support Maxwell 5 yet (they said a few more weeks), so I tried out the cloud render option straight from FormZ and I have to say I'm very impressed so far. In the Display Options in FZ, select the Maxwell tab as normal > choose Cloud Render in the "Launch Application" drop down and hit render. The mxnetwork app is then launched, where you just have to log in and name your project. Your file is automatically prepared and uploaded and starts rendering after that. The great thing is that your render can be previewed after about SL 7 or 8 and can be stopped at any time to be downloaded thereafter. This takes out the guesswork compared to other rendering farms where an SL or cost limit is set beforehand. While it is not quite as fast (during the rendering stage, but nearly) as some of the other farms, it is way more friendly to use and is integrated into FormZ very well. No more time preparing a project for upload. If you're on Maxwell V5, give it a go. Des

Glad you got it solved Bo. 👏 Get your moneys worth I always say! I'm on a 7 year old iMac and a 12 year old MacPro (which is still motoring along nicely).

I'm not having problems selecting objects or their faces when behind other objects in wireframe. I typically use autopick in conjunction with the command key and/or shift. In autopick with command key, select the first edge of the face you want and then the second edge so it knows what face to select. I think having selection preview on is imperative when using autopick, otherwise how do you know what it's going to select?

ouch 😬

Bo, you should have a look at Evan Troxel's excellent videos for Maxwell with FormZ, they are old but the process is exactly the same. Here's one: Emitter Lights in Maxwell

Yes, the "mxed.app" is for the materials as in the video earlier. The "maxwell.app" is the actual renderer. There is a video shown earlier for Studio but you don't seem to have that installed. Also, you need to check your FormZ plugins folder for the MaxwellZ plugin. If you go to the FormZ Pro folder in Applications >Plugins, there should be the Maxwell folder with the plugin. Then you can access Maxwell straight from FormZ and will give access to lights, rendering options, Fire etc. All can be invoked from within Fz.

Hi Bo, Do you have Maxwell Render fully installed along with the MaxwellZ plugin?

Just to add to my last post; Keep all you settings for the camera and emitters to real world settings. For example in interiors, a typical camera setting would be say fstop 2.8, ISO 400 and exteriors fstop 10, ISO 100. By switching on the MultiLight option, you can have fun altering the individual lights on the fly after the render is complete so I typically supply at least a day time and night shot from the same render. If your render is too dark for interiors then add more lights or ramp them up or change the camera settings. I forgot to mention that there are also an Ambient field, and soft box light etc. as well to help with providing more light in an interior space. Basically the more lights the less noise. So I generally add "window emitters" to my openings pointing inwards on a layer. They are great to speed things up and add another element of control for interior renders. Des

Hi Bo/John, There are different kinds of lights in Maxwell as per other packages. For outdoor sun/ambient lights there are Sky Dome, Physical Sky, IBL. You just need to tell FormZ in the Light parameters dialog which type the light is in the Type drop down menu. Other light types such as spots/cones created in your scene in Fz can be automatically converted by switching on "Export Point and Cone Lights" in the Maxwell Display Options under the Translation tab. But I like to create geometry for those and using an emitter material editable in Maxwell MXED. There you will find light types "Area, IES & Spot" where you can play with the settings. You need to go through the maxwell manual setup for this but it's fairly quick to set up and there's fantastic control using Maxwell Fire or MultiLight. I've attached a scene setup (simple interior screen for products or furniture). You only have to drop in you model, say a table for example. When creating the geometry (a simple square surface), make sure the normals are pointing in the direction you want it to shine. The size of the emitters affects the shadow softness. Des Studio.zip

😀 Interesting

I find Vizpark to be great. I've only ever used the Maxwell versions of the models but they have Vray versions as well. Des

It all depends on the lens/camera used. There are FOV (Field Of View) calculators available on line which allow you to input the sensor size etc. to get the angle. But I prefer to align the views manually using known reference points. It's very important to set your Image Options to the same aspect ratio to the original photo. I usually make a copy of the original photo (6000x4000) and reduce it to say 2400x1600 before importing as a background image in Fz, it's quicker to load etc. and I can resize later before I go to render. Take this example below of an older project; I knew the position I took the shot and was able to draw a circle on the plan. Draw on a reference layer with known features, go to perspective view and use Edit cone of Vision to point and adjust the camera lining up the known features and plan, sometimes the spin needs adjusting as well. As a check you can see the focal comes out at 28.33mm with an angle of 64.86º. If I open the original photo and check its EXIF data the focal length is 18mm but remember that each lens used has a "multiplier" number. Mine just happens to be 1.6, so multiply the exif data focal length by 1.6 and you get 28.8 which is not far off at all considering the farther away the centre of interest there is a slight bend in the angle. Also consider your camera height (eye level), if you have the level of the ground level great but it usually needs adjusting as well. So going back to the Match View tool, I only use it as a starting point for some projects where I have modelled a certain amount of existing features accurately (not usually though) so I have points to snap to when lining it up. It can be hit and miss though.

I just tried it with all of your settings with no problems at all. How are you selecting the edges? FormZ v9.0.4.2 on 2013 iMac running Catalina 24GB ram

I usually use a 50mm lens with no zoom which gives a cone of vision of about 63º. I also mark my position of the camera on a map and set the camera from there. I also use google earth to grab an overview (or an imported location plan with features) and model in "anchors" (extruded objects) where known features are in the photo, that way I can just point the camera in the right direction, and fine adjust the angles and direction as needed. I find match view works best when more advance existing structures are modelled but that is not always the case, although it's great for matching aerial views as a starting point.

Very cool indeed! Well done 👏

Thanks for posting this Chris. It's the type of modelling I would have thought to be the best method for an accurate model. It'd be nice to be able to convert a nurbs model like this to a Quad Mesh afterwards the same way it can be done from a Sud-D object.

Thanks Chris, I'm looking forward to the other two videos. One thing, the video resolution is really low at 360p so it's hard to see any detail. Des

That's excellent Chris, thanks for taking the time to do this and for posting it. Yes, I'd love to see your workflow so when you have time, post your method. The first thing I did when I downloaded your model was to do a sub-division swap to see the frame. Cheers, Des

Thanks for posting that Chris, the sub-D method gives better results, the geometry just looks better. When I tried the other splines/nurbs method, I had initially wanted to do a sub-D of 1/8 of the revolve created from the swept splines but couldn't spend more time on it so used nurbs in the end. If I get time later I'll try to do a combination of the two maybe. Just wondering if anyone has an actual classic coke bottle at hand that they could measure accurately and post the sizes here? I think the exercise here is to be able to model it accurately so we'll need measurements. I'd be interested to see this exercise develop to a conclusion of the nicest (not necessarily the quickest) method.

CokeBottleAttempt01v8.zip

There are some here who are very good with sub-Ds (you know who you are!) and I'm sure they could come up with a workflow for those. However, I made my first attempt using splines and nurbs, here is the result so far. It needs more playing around with the splines (see the indents) but it shows that this approach works fine and produces a nice smooth surface. I made two splines, one for the indent, duplicated it and edited it for the bumps. Multi rotated them within 45º (using 45 as I'm thinking 8 sectors in a coke bottle?). Nurbs lofted them (selection order is important), rotate duplicated 7 times and stitched them together. CokeBottleAttempt01.zip

I think this is a good discussion and I'm interested how other people would approach this. I remember doing a large Fanta bottle many years ago but it was less detailed than the coke bottle. It was created using similar process described above (revolve, booleans, rounding etc.). One thing I am sure of is that any splines to be used initially must be good quality (not imported) and good information of the object (decent photos). When taking photos of an object for reference and tracing I usually use a zoom lens and take from really far back and zoomed in to reduce the perspective (narrow cone of vision). Otherwise I think FormZ could produce a beautiful model using the tools available. Clean modelling is what interests me without breaking the bank regarding poly count, preferably smooth geometry for adjustment. Watching with interest and if I find time I'll jump in as well.. Des

So good! Thanks for sharing 👏