Andrew West Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 I have Form.z 8 and I am using the demo version of Maxwell to do a little test. I could use one simple piece of advice from anyone out there. Just how in the world to you access Maxwell Studio or create advanced materials from within Form.z? I can access the stand alone studio. I can access the Maxwell render from within the program. But creating advance materials is just not possible. Wasted hours on this and searched fruitlessly on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 just find MXM's from their library, download, and load them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 I can load a maxwell material from their library into my materials palate. But then what? I can not change it through form.z. I need to access their material manager which I can not seem to find in my program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 I also find that my Maxwell Fire window is blank. Also when I drop a maxwell material with a texture map onto an object the object goes grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 One problem after another. Form.z is supposed to be usable while Maxwell renders out a scene. Not in my case. I need to stop the render to do anything in my model. Did a quick test render in Form.z on three objects with two being transparent. Renderzone completed it in 6 seconds. Maxwell has been working on it for 10 minutes and it is 15% complete. Sorry Pylon. FAIL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Okay. So I have the Fire window working but Maxwell textures do not display in the Form.z window. So it appears that the only way to texture an object with Maxwell materials is to use form.z texture editor and then stare at that little Fire window to see what you might get. Am I missing something here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palarsen Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 You should reed up on the documentation! Maxwell is fantastic, and well integrated in formZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 I have read the documentation. This is all I could find on the form.z plug in: http://www.pylontechnical.com/download/Maxwell_Plugin_for_formZ.pdf My specific problem at the moment is related to the materials. In the documentation it says that I can hit a button to convert my form.z material to an MXM and than take advantage of their material editor. That option seems to have disappeared in the current version of Maxwell. It only gives me the option to Preview the material or Export MXM. When I hit Export it loses the texture map I am trying to use and asks to reload it again. Once done I get the option to use their material editor. However, I get a blank material. I hit preview and a constant error comes up "Data pre process failed. Render cannot continue". So how does one use Form.z materials with the Maxwell material editor "From Within Form.z"? Is this not possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Hi Andrew, The documentation for the current version of Maxwell and the plugin may be accessed from within formZ by selecting Extensions > Maxwell Render > Maxwell Documentation and Extensions > Maxwell Render > Plugin Documentation, respectively. (That PDF is for a previous version, and will be removed.) Also, make sure you have licensed Maxwell (in Demo mode, if you have not purchased it) or you will not be able to save/export. Open the Maxwell Render standalone app, and choose Help > Activate License, if the the lIcense activator does not immediately pop up. It is difficult to understand what you are reporting above, but it may be that you have not licensed Maxwell in demo mode, so perhaps the MXMs are not being written to disk. If you are still having trouble after familiarizing yourself with how Maxwell works in general, please post queries in the Maxwell forum on this website. Include clear, numbered steps to reproduce the issue, and include a simple project that reproduces the issue, so we can help you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etroxel Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I've also done quite a few video tutorials on Maxwell/Bonzai3d/FormZ and it was difficult for me to get started initially as well. I've learned a lot and put what I've learned into the tutorials on this page on my site: http://getmethod.com/maxwell-render/ Start at the bottom and work your way up. Everything that's shown in Bonzai also applies to fZ. I'll also say that if you're simply going for speed (which you had an example for earlier) you'll probably be disappointed. If you are going for realism or instancing or any number of other amazing things Maxwell has to offer, you'll be very happy. That's not to say that once you learn how to use Maxwell properly you'll still get slow renders... it can actually be pretty fast once you know what you're doing. But you have to know what you're getting into before saying that it's a "fail". Obviously many many people have produced some amazing stuff with the Maxwell/FormZ combo. Like any professional software, it takes time and experience to master. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHTOH Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Hello Andrew. I`m sorry you are frustrating with Maxwell and FormZ combo. Would you please tell a little more about your operating system: is it PC or Mac. Seems like you have os specific problem. If it is Mac OS I`d recommend to fix permissions first.Than restart, zap PRAM, prey a little and start over. My typical workflow looks like this: -I create new material and get white one -apply a texture to see it within FormZ window and have an ability to edit with Edit texture tool -than I choose Maxwell in FormZ Material editor window -in Maxwell editor window click "Update" -edit further material within MXED I am terrified to see that I can`t upload anything to forum any more. So here is a link to step by step actions in pictures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Hi Anton, You can post images and files. Just click the More Reply Options bottom at the lower right... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrngr Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Hi Pylon, I followed your direction below for accessing the Maxwell 3 documentation but I am unable to find the PDFs as you mention below. 'The documentation for the current version of Maxwell and the plugin may be accessed from within formZ by selecting Extensions > Maxwell Render > Maxwell Documentation and Extensions > Maxwell Render > Plugin Documentation, respectively.' I will now try the Next Limit Website. Dan S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Does anyone know if the past conflict bug between Maxwell & Renderzone textures been fixed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Hi Dennis, Yes, there was an issue with Maxwell Render causing RenderZone textures to change their Reflection to Plastic, and this will be fixed soon with the next update... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Hi Dan, Please see screen capture: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrngr Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 Hi Pylon, Now I see directly from with in formZ 8 Pro. I thought you mentioned directly from the ADS Website. That is my mistake. Thanks, Dan S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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