Formz - Maxwell Tutorials

[markdz]

Hello all.

I've been a formz user for a long time. I am tasked to bump up our renderings for some of our special clients to blow their socks off. I've been given access to Maxwell Render for the next 2 weeks. I've downloaded and followed instructions carefully to set up my formz/maxwell. I tested an existing project last night and all i got was blackness after 11hrs. I decided to draw a simple box and all i got was crash after crash. Either i'm doing something wrong (simple clicking the maxwell in the rendering options and using the default settings) or something is wrong w/ the install / plugin.

 

after a few restarts of the system, i was able to start another rendering and its still a black image and no preview. i have 8 hrs to go but i feel something is wrong.

 

Any help or guidance is welcome for this newbie in maxwell.

 

Markdzn

[markdz]

update. i messed around for the last few hours. i deleted all lights. added maxwell light. Dome or something. i was able to see it in FIRE. i than added 2 more cone lights, and played w/ material. iFIRE gave an error and to view the log? where would i find that? maxwell wouldn't work after this. sometimes crashed. i checked w/ object doctor, and proceeded to delete a few bad eggs. same result.

 

[Smarttec]

Mark,

 

Lets see... what version of Maxwell are you using, the current version is 3.2 and what version of formZ PRO are you using v8.5.0.2 (9709) The latest plugin for Maxwell will have a screen come up in formZ requesting you to view the Maxwell Training videos - did that work? Oh and what OS are you working?

Rob

[pylon]

Hi Markdzn,

 

From within formZ, you can access the Maxwell Render Suite documentation by selecting Extensions > Maxwell Render > Maxwell Documentation ( http://support.nextlimit.com/display/mxdocsv3/Maxwell+Render+V3+Documentation )

The plugin specific documentation can be accessed by Extensions > Maxwell Render > Plugin Documentation ( http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810280 )

 

Installation instructions: http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810281

(Perhaps there was a issue)

 

Quickstart, so you get a sense of the minimum requirements for generating a Maxwell scene: http://support.nextlimit.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16810282

 

The Maxwell Fundamentals Videos that Rob mentioned: http://www.maxwellrender.com/fundamentals/

(This should show up when you first launch Maxwell, assuming that it is installed properly).

 

Some great tutorial videos by Evan Troxel. Some of these were made for AutoDesSys's Bonzai3d, but the workflow is still applicable:

Exterior Lighting: http://getmethod.com/blog/2011/9/27/maxwell-render-for-bonzai3d-exterior-lighting-rendering.html

Materials: http://getmethod.com/blog/2011/5/26/maxwell-render-for-bonzai3d-working-with-materials.html

Many More Videos:  http://getmethod.com/maxwell-render/

 

If you can reproduce a crash with a  file, please send it, along with any dependencies, such as MXMs, HDRIs, bitmap textures, IES, etc. to the address show in the thumbnail:

Use Dropbox or equivalent if the total zip package size is greater than 10MB.

 

Also, please run the command "Extensions> Maxwell Render> Forum" and post the resulting text here, so we can test on a system equivalent to yours.

We will investigate why this might be happening.