NOVEDGE blog

Interview with James Coleman: "What started as a result of not being able to move more than a few meters a day has ended being in a very strong position teaching one of the most powerful 3D/CAD render engines in the world."

I discovered James Coleman's work on Twitter and invited him to talk about being a student in England and becoming a certified instructor of Maxwell Render. Little did I know James had needed all his determination to study and work while battling a rare disease.

Novedge: Tell us about yourself and what you do.

James Coleman: I am a student of product design, currently in my last year at the University of Brighton. I also teach fellow students at the University and I have my own YouTube channel with tutorials on Maxwell Render.

 

I studied physics, electronics and maths (pure & mechanics) at college when I was 17, and chose to study mechanical engineering in university. Then something happened that would, for better or worse, shape the rest of my education forever. In 2007 it was discovered that I had a condition called chronic hypersensitivity that affects 300,000 in the UK, and the root cause is still unknown, as is a cure. The recovery period is approximately half the patient's age, in other words, I still have 5 years of recovery ahead of me, but at least I now have a diagnosis and I am receiving treatment.

Once I found out about my condition, I started to use my spare time to make 3D models of spaceships in SketchUp and decided to change my course to Product Design Bsc.

Novedge: How did you get into teaching? 

James Coleman: Whilst in my second year, my renders kept garnering attention, and I started showing groups of students how I made them. Then I setup some lectures in the afternoon. The first was hugely successful and I became the official Maxwell Render Mentor at the University of Brighton Center for Design Technology. When Next Limit announced their certification program I signed up immediately!

In the summer of 2012, I set up my Youtube channel and started recording basic tutorials, things like resolution and focal length, with the occasional overview of certain setup techniques. I also upload tutorials based on the questions my students asked me most frequently.

Then one day I was looking for inspiration for a new tutorial and I saw that VizPeople had released a free model of a DeLorean DMC12, which has always been one of my favourite cars. By coincidence, Maground had also recently released a free HDRI set with environment and backplates on hdri4u.com. I decided to strike while the iron was hot, and I made a series of tutorials involving setting up the model and then rendering it in a variety of different environments. The DeLorean Series got the attention of cadjunkie.com, which I was already a fan of. I ended up producing 10 free and 6 premium tutorials for them, Studio Lighting Techniques In Maxwell Render. The series went on to great acclaim, and like the DeLorean tutorial, continues to be one of the most popular videos on my channel.

 

Currently I am working on the tutorial series’ Maxwell Render Hot Tips and What Not To Render. There’s currently a new video in each playlist every week and there will be until April.

Novedge: Your university didn't have instructors to teach you how to render using Maxwell Render. How did you learn?

James Coleman: I learned by doing: I spent my time using the program, looking for answers in online forums and  watching online tutorials. 

Novedge: What software do you use? 

James Coleman: I started out with SketchUp all those years ago for one very simple reason: it was free. I can’t remember exactly where I first heard about it, but I do remember using it with friends and learning from each other. It was also really helpful that SketchUp didn’t have high system requirements, the interface and the “sketchy” style made it approachable, and although it was designed for architecture, we used it for whatever we liked.

After I became frustrated with the limited modeling tools in SketchUp, I started searching for a more advanced alternatives. 3ds Max has a huge reputation on the web, but is only available on Windows, and I use a Mac. I heard about Cinema 4D and downloaded the demo. I loved it’s interface and I understood the basics almost immediately. The tutorials available online were extensive and it wasn’t difficult to find an answer to a problem. I decided to keep it and I’ve never regretted it. I still use it today when making quick drafts, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone starting out in product design, but plenty of other students on my course use it for animations, and for times when they need to make a model quickly and easily. 3ds Max is also popular with Windows users as an alternative to CAD centric software.

The CAD software we use at the university is less a matter of choice and more a matter of logic. SolidWorks is practically a requirement on CVs at the moment. Rhino is also available. When I started the course, I found Rhino to be more similar to Cinema 4D and hence I preferred it at the time. But now that I’ve used both for years, I always open SolidWorks before Rhino when I need to make a prototype, even for models with complex curves.

When I first became interested in photorealistic rendering, V-Ray was very appealing to me, but once I actually had V-Ray for Cinema 4D, I realized that I didn’t want to spend a lot of time adjusting settings, I wanted to spend more time designing and modeling. A few internet searches later and I found Maxwell Render. When I first tried it, it was still version 1, and it won me over in terms of ease of use and quality. One of the first images I ever made showed the model casting a shadow on the floor, when the only lighting in the scene was an HDRI. I’d never seen that before and it was enough to make a lasting impression. I dabbled between Cinema 4D’s own render engine, V-Ray and Maxwell Render for a while, but when Maxwell Render 2 was released I didn’t look back. For me it still delivers fantastic results, whether the image is complicated or simple, very easily. 

And something I wish someone had told me when I started: whenever you see a render that really impresses you, 10-25% of all the work that went into making that image came from Photoshop, which is why it is also another vital tool in my arsenal of software. Alien Skin Exposure is a plug-in for Photoshop that I couldn’t work without, it mimics the effect of certain types of photographic film, but with a lot more control and subtlety than Instagram.

Novedge: What is a recent project that you worked on?


James Coleman: The most surprising thing about my product design course is that we focus on teaching communication, technology, professionalism, history, etc. It’s a doctrine that actually I agree with. Not just because it follows Dieter Rams’ principles, but also because we have the rest of our lives to design, so we might as well use the time now to make sure we know how to do it right, and then later on we can be eccentric if we like. Very often in product design, designers can get too caught up in the aesthetics of a product and forget about ergonomics, engineering, or any other topic. That’s not what’s taught in Brighton, and that's what makes it stand out from other, more “arts” based courses.

One project I enjoyed was making a “Revolutionary” product, with the tag-line of “It doesn’t look like a “X”, but it does what a “X” does”. I was inspired by one of my favorite ideas in product design, “the new application of an existing technology”, and because we were so pressured to design something that would be completely revolutionary, I decided to include some technologies that were theoretically possible but not available yet. I based the project on audio loudspeakers, because the technology in them hasn’t really changed for nearly 150 years, they’re still as electrodynamic as they were when they were first invented. The end result is the Levitating Superconducting Speakers concept. 

After starting to use Maxwell Render 2, one of my projects was to identify a product which exhibited evolutionary design, and to continue that design onto its next generation. For my project I chose the Kodak Brownie, despite being out of production since the 1970’s, its design when it was discontinued was very similar to when it was originally conceived at the beginning of the century. Kodak would often make special edition cameras for major events and I immediately themed the project around the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. The project was small and it only took a few weeks to complete, but it went on to be featured on Yanko Design, and after that it was very popular on the web, I still see the occasional tweet about it! I put the amount of public interest in the project down to the quality of the renders. I approached Kodak to see if they would be interested in taking the project further, and although they weren’t interested at the time, they invited me to contact them about employment upon my graduation.

Novedge: What innovations do you see in your field (now or in the future)?


James Coleman: I think predicting the future has never really involved specific technologies, but instead looking at habits, lifestyles and routines, and then the technology is left to catch up. Touch screen technology, for example, was mostly a gimmick that had little real world value, until you could touch simultaneously in more than one place at once, and it was applied to a mobile phone. In hindsight it seems obvious that that’s how it should be used. So predicting specific technologies that will be developed, find a niche, and become cheap enough to be in common use, is much more difficult than imagining overall work flows and customs. My Levitating Speakers involved several different technologies that are not commonplace yet, or do not exist at all, including superdiamagnetic levitation, wireless power transfer, and flexible screens. It is certain that these technologies will develop over time, in fact when the project was completed, wireless speakers were still revolutionary, but now AirPlay is commonplace. The question is, will there be a benefit to having Levitating Speakers?

3D printing has got a lot of press lately regarding its potential. I agree that one day we may have 3D printers in every home, and in one end you would put waste, and then products, food and other luxuries will come tumbling out of the other. I think that one day, we will have “Star Trek” style replicators, powered by electricity which will probably come from fusion reactors. But not within my lifetime. At the moment, 3D printing and rapid prototyping often seem limited to making spare components when objects break. Even then they have to come from 3D files made by a professional. Consumers will want to be able to print complete objects, like kettles, laptops or phones. Even though 3D printers which are capable of making multi-coloured objects, and printing multiple components connected together have existed for some time, as someone who has worked with 3D printers for many years, I think we still have some way to go. But when we are there, they will change the world in ways which no one has yet imagined, and copyright and piracy laws will once again be brought into question.

In my particular area of interest (medical design), there are plenty of issues which are commonplace and well known. Drug resistant infections, obesity related complications, and aging population are the three problems which I expect to encounter in my design career. In much less than a century, certain bacteria have evolved to become almost immune to many typical antibiotics. If this trend continues, product design will have to play a major role in increasing the hygiene of hospital environments. Anti-microbial materials such as copper are already seeing a comeback, and although cloth bedsheets interwoven with silver (again for its anti-microbial properties) is a hugely expensive concept at present, if it becomes cheaper than treating patients, it will become a reality. 

Despite being prepared for these trends, I don’t think there is anything that can or will prepare me for the problem of ageing population. There are practical, medical, and ethical issues where product design will be called upon to help. These issues are nothing new, but will be exaggerated in the future. With higher demand, and larger markets, products specifically for the elderly will become more commonplace, and inclusive design will have more influence over everyone. This effect is visible now, for example with non-step access to buildings being a legal requirement, and this trend shows no sign of stopping.

Novedge: What are your plans after graduation?

James Coleman: My ideal job would be a product designer at a company specializing in the medical industry. My overall impression of the purpose of product design is to make our lives more efficient, where is that more important than when well being, potentially lives, are at stake? Medical staff are often overworked and underpaid, and then they have to use equipment made by the lowest bidder. Then this equipment will not be updated unless it breaks or is recalled (the standard that dictates the design of an IV drip stand is nearly 50 years old, and has never been updated). And with humans living longer and getting fatter, the market is just going to get bigger (some pun intended).

My family is a big reason I feel this way. Three generations have in some way or another worked in the medical industry. I’m not brave enough to be on the front line like they are, but I wouldn’t mind sitting back at a comfortable distance and making the equipment that they use everyday a little bit more efficient. 

Most of all, though, I’m going to recover from the condition that has practically dictated my life for the past 5 years. It’ll take another 5 years to be completely rid of it, but I’m looking forward to being able to walk to places without running the risk of being housebound the next day. I’m looking forward to working to improve the services that have served me for so long.

Novedge RealFlow Webinar: Q&A with Gustavo Sanchez

Did you enjoy last week's webinar on RealFlow? We ran out of time to answer all your questions, so the team behind RealFlow answered all the remaining questions by email.

Q: Will there be a plugin for Luxology modo 601? Or will it be Alembic interchange?

A: We will be using Alembic as the interchange data format between Modo and RealFlow from now on.

Q: Will RF2013 Learning Edition support the use of external plugins?

A: The limitations for the 2013 Learning Edition will be pretty much the same as with the existing Learning Edition license for RealFlow 2012, which already allows the use of external plug-ins. Please contact us if you are having any issues with your current LE license and the external plug-ins.

Q: What about GPU?

A: The Hybrido 2 base solver, hy-flip, will have the ability to make use of the GPU, as long as it is openCL 1.1 compatible. To find out more about what are we doing on the GPU, here is a link to the presentation that Angel Tena gave at the nVidia booth last Siggraph.

Q: Is it possible to develop a plugin for RF?

A: If the question is whether anyone can develop 3rd party plugins, the answer is yes. There is a C++ SDK that allows for that.

Q: Will the 3rd party plugins (e.g the ones from WET WORK) work for 2013? The Plugins are expensive compared to their size..:)

A: The makers of any third party plugins will simply have to recompile those in order to be able to load them in the RF2013 version. We do not set the prices for these plugins.

Q: I have a one year student license for RealFlow 2012 (from the cgsociety workshop), can I upgrade the license to use 2013 instead?

A: Yes, we’ll have an upgrade available for $170. All RealFlow Learning Edition licenses bought within 2 months of the release of v2013 will be upgraded to v2013 for free. By the way, your RealFlow Learning Edition license is permanent – we removed the time restrictions!  

Q: Can we beta test the new RealFlow 2013?

A: We haven't hit beta yet. We’ll be getting there in the next few weeks (Jan 2013). At the moment, there are no plans to have a public beta period, but do feel free to get in touch to make your case and we will see what can be done 

Q: How do you tile RealWave with Hybrido - in Maya or inside RealFlow itself?

A: What RealWave and Hybrido share are the Statistical Spectrum waves, and the ability to export tileable displacement maps. One can use RealWave to get a faster look&feel, and then copy the parameters to the Hybrido displacement. In Maya, you will simply need to make sure that the area you want to cover is made of tiles, and use the displacement texture from Hybrido to displace the Hybrido mesh, as well as the surrounding areas.

Q: How does Realflow 2013 Hybrido compare to the standard of Naiad sims?

A: That will be for users of both products to decide. We believe that our hy-flip, the implementation of the flip solver for Hybrido 2 base simulations, is really good.

Q: Is the simulation flow multithreaded? If so, and Python also comes with 2013 I can definitely see the benefit of using the flow instead of Python. If Python does also come with 2013, has there been any work done to improve Python's speed and various bugs?

A: Regarding multithreading and nodes in the simulation graphs, any node that performs RealFlow internal operations that are multithreaded is multithreaded by definition.
Most of the nodes that perform array operations are multithreaded internally, and you will also be able to create multithreaded heterogeneous compounds using the Kernel node inside them.

Python itself is not getting any updates on this RealFlow version. Although Python will certainly still have its place inside RF, we believe that simulation and batch graphs will allow for greater flexibility with less effort.

Q: Please show step by step how to render a realistic Hybrido water material.

A: This will be pretty straightforward once you start using Maxwell Render inside RealFlow 2013. With Maxwell, the artist really does have the control.

Q: Any plans for a python base job manager/ submitter?

A: We currently have a Python implementation that we can share. Please send us an email if you are interested.

Q: Will Hybrido 2 have viscosity that can be changed over time?

A: Hybrido 2 won't have a viscosity model in this release. It will be implemented in a later release.

Q: Will you have a mental ray renderer inside RealFlow 2013?

A: No. We strongly believe that Maxwell Render is the way to go for fluid/particle rendering, and that is why we are implementing this Maxwell Render integration for previews inside RealFlow 2013.

 

And that's it! Leave your comment below and thank you for joining us for this latest installment of our Webinar Series.

If you have questions about purchasing a RealFlow license, please contact Bob Thayer at Novedge.

To contact the Next Limit Technologies/RealFlow team, you can use the customer gateway - or for non-customers, you can find a contact form here.

 

Q&A with Mihai Iliuta: Studio Lighting Techniques Using Maxwell Render

Last week's webinar on Maxwell Render was a great success! Thank you to all who attended the session live. So many of you had questions, that even going over our usual one hour limit wasn't enough. Mihai Iliuta kindly agreed to answer all the remaining questions on our blog.

Q: If I stopped a rendering, how can I later continue the rendering?

A: This was answered in the webinar, at 1:13:20. For more info see also our docs at: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/How+to+resume+a+render

Q: Can Maxwell handle UV-islands in the materials?

A: Maxwell gets whatever UVs the main application gives it, it can also handle multiple UV sets and materials per object. Q: Maxwell works based on cores, does it need necessarily any video card?

Q: You might mention that the PC has specifications that you currently have? Q: What is your hardware configuration? Q: Can you talk about a good hardware set up for Maxwell- ram/cpu/video card etc?

A: Maxwell only uses the CPU(s) so the faster the CPU the faster the render. My config is an i7 2600K so really a middle range machine by today's standards. Please see our Benchwell site (http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/benchwell) where our users have benchmarked their computers to get an idea of what computer to buy. You can also run this benchmark test on your computer by opening Maxwell.exe (not Studio) and going to "Tools>Run Benchwell".

Q: Do you use any special material inside of the modeled reflectors ? Q: Do you use for a diffuser SSS -Material ?

A: I just set the inside of it to pure black because if it was white you would get more light bouncing in there which would slow down the rendering a bit and the light probably wouldn't be as focused. But it's not super important. A diffuser with SSS is probably overkill although it would work (use thinSSS and a single sided plane for faster renders in this case), so an HDR emitter or simply reflecting light off of a white solid plane would be sufficient.

Q: Hi, many thanks for the tutorial. Can you roughly say how much increasing resolution affects render time, as the coffee machine was only 700 by 700 pix?

A: If you double the resolution you quadruple the number of pixels so it will take 4X longer to render. This is the same for all renderers though.

Q: How can we achieve Chromatic Aberration?

A: There is a switch in the material editor to turn this on for transparent materials. It does add to the render time though so use it if you really want a material that shows this. If it's a high grade (pure) glass, they usually have almost unnoticeable aberration. More info: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/Transmissive+Properties

Q: Does the camera model choice affect the image besides proportion, is there any difference using a Canon or a Nikon?

A: Choosing a camera make changes the sensor width/height - which in turn affects what the "real" focal length of a lens is. We added this functionality for easier matching a render with a photo for compositing purposes, so you simply enter the real sensor width/height of the camera that took the photo, then you enter the focal length of the lens and the render and photo will match up. Other than this, camera make won't have any influence on render quality or look.

Q: Do you try to capture the gridded cells of a gridded soft box? Or do you always sink your large soft box into a single box cell as you did today?

A: It depends on how focused you want the light to be. You could of course model a grid and you'll get a bit more focused light. The nice thing in Maxwell is because it's so precise, you can take any real photography technique and use it in Maxwell.

Q: If I don't want monochromatic gray/white light, but I like HDR image emitters, how do I introduce color temperature to my HDR?

A: Just add some color to the gradient, it will work just as fine. The important thing when working with 32bit high dynamic range is the 32bit RGB value of the color picker. Try to stay within 0 - 1.0 when picking a range of colors. If you go higher when drawing the bright gradient you will get a too strong central light source. Depends on the look you want of course.

Q: Can you use the null point trick in Maxwell studio?

A: No, there is no constraint functionality in Maxwell Studio. In most modeling applications though there is. For example even Solidworks has "Mates" with which you should be able to achieve the same thing.

Q: Any tips specific for jewelry?

A: Some tips are mentioned at the end, at 1:06:05

Q: When you do studio lighting do you turn the sky off?

A: Unless you want to mimic taking studio photos in bright daylight (which wouldn't make sense), the sky is off. The sky is a MUCH stronger light source than studio lights, but you could for example block the light from the physical sky a bit to better mix it with studio lighting.

Q: How do you prefer to show lighting from within building windows in shooting an exterior night scene for showcasing architectural work?

A: I found that it works really well to take photos of lit windows at night, then turn them into HDR emitters either by saving the cropped photo in PS as 32b HDR/EXR or turning it into an MXI using Maxwell (File>Open Image, then File>Save as MXI). Then load them into an emitter material. They will emit light based on the colors in the photo so it creates a very realistic effect. Q: How do you get a soft reflex on the bottle's front? You had a hard reflex in the demo, but a soft one in your real rendering?

A: If by soft you mean it was semi transparent, I just lowered the intensity of the emitter. You could also get a soft edged effect by replacing the emitter with just a white reflector surface which will catch the light coming from the background but not be illuminated equally so it will create a faded reflection effect.

Q: Will the multi light feature work in Photoshop when you import Maxwell's native render into Photoshop?

A: Yes, when you open an MXI with our Photoshop plug-in, each light will be in its separate layer. The layers though are not ready to be used as Multilight, and we have a PS action which you apply to each layer to get the same functionality. More info here: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/PS+action

Q: What was the Maxwell light type you used when generating your custom lights?

A: I used either Lumens (instead of the default watts/efficacy), or "Image based" emitters which allow me to load a high dynamic range image format (HDR/EXR/MXI) which will emit light.

Q: I always have problems with adjusting DOF. Do you have any tips for this?

A: This is affected first of all by the aperture of the lens (fStop) and to a certain degree by the focal length of the lens. More info here: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/Camera I also really suggest to look into some basic photography information that covers this. What you learn from that is directly applicable in Maxwell.

Q: Can you do a simple interior scene with lightning from ""outside""... Q: What is the quick scene setup for interior scenes with ""Meshlights"" from ""outside""? That I don't need thousands of watts to lightning the room...

A: Change the exposure of the camera until it looks good. fStop, ISO, Shutter speed all affect the exposure of the camera: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/Camera

Q: Is there a repository for hdri image light maps?

A: No, not at the moment. But it takes just a few minutes to create them in PS.

Q: How to create that flat color image again?

A: This starts at 0:19:35

Q: Terrific seminar! Any tips on "filmback" setting in Studio?

A: This is only really useful for easier matching of your render with a photo. Just enter the sensor width/height of your camera, or choose one of the camera makers presets.

Q: Can you clarify the relationship between surface subdivs and light intensity?

A: Subdivisions of the emitting surface doesn't affect light intensity, it's just that if you use a one million polygon emitter surface, it will render a bit slower than a 1 polygon plane emitter.

Q: Do you typically find it helpful to post process with multi light layers or more trouble than it's worth?

A: Yes it can be very useful, especially with clients that aren't sure what look they want. Being able to change each light in post is a great time saver.

Q: Object ID / Material ID masks are noisy at the edges if you choose the magic wand - how can I avoid this noise and get a clean mask?

A: You shouldn't get noise if the objID/MatID are sufficiently clean. Remember that these channels also take into account the DOF blurring of your main render, otherwise they would be a bit useless. So in these areas you have to let the render until they are cleaner, if you get noisy edges.

Q: Which SL level should I have? I also read that the color for those Masks should be full RGB ( full red full blue,..) colors to get pixel true masks. Is that right ?

A: Most renders will look pretty much clean by SL 18, especially exterior renders. Interiors will take longer, and SL of 20 might be needed. I very rarely go over SL 20. Moreover, there's no point in getting too obsessed if there is a tiny bit of noise left. Even digital photos taken at ISO 100 will have a bit of noise. With a pure RGB color for the objID/matID you will get a better selection in PS and you can change these colors per object or per material from the material settings or the object properties. Where these are depends on your plugin. All the plugin docs can be found here: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/Plug-ins

Q: What is faster to render on Maxwell - emitters or image based lighting?

A: It's not a clear case and depends more on the type of scene you have. For example many highly reflective, slightly rough objects which cause a lot of light bounces. In general though, if the HDR has a lot of big even lighting, it will render faster. But the same is true if you use a large emitter that lights your object from many directions.

Q: I would like to ask about glass and liquid interaction. What is the correct setup for faces of meshes? I mean, liquid mesh should be scaled down, so there will be small air gap between glass and liquid? Q: Hi Mihai, would be nice to see a correct setup for rendering liquids in glass in Maxwell, in the forum are three different setups, but which one is the right one? Q: How did you simulate the liquid inside the bottle?

A: See image below. The important thing is that the normals of the liquid are pointing outwards. Leave also a small gap between the liquid and the glass at the top.
Q: HDRI Studio vs. physical studio light. Any rendertime differences? Q: Is there any different in image quality using Maxwell emitter vs HDR image ( from HDR light studio)?

A: It's not a clear answer but in general, the lighting from an HDR is more even and so it lights the object from many directions, which can decrease render time. The main advantage of HDR Light Studio is in the scene setup time - you can very quickly set up the lighting very precisely plus each time you move a light in the virtual HDR sphere, you don't have to wait for Maxwell to re-export and re-voxelize the scene which happens when you move real emitter geometry in your scene. There is no image quality difference per say - but when using HDR lighting remember that all your lightsources are really at the same distance from your subject, so you can't really use the light falloff law (as mentioned in the webinar) to your advantage.

Q: How would you best render with the ""camera"" UNDER water looking out towards the surface of the water? Q: Would that be the normals facing the camera in the bubble when taking image from inside water?

A: The main thing is that you need to tell Maxwell it's already inside water. So you need to place the camera perhaps inside an "airbubble" and this way there will be some refraction difference when rays go from air>water and water>air. Try placing the camera inside a sphere to which you apply a transparent material with an ND lower than water (so below 1.33). I would think the best way is to model this bubble with a real small thickness, in which case the normals won't matter.

Q: Can you use the object or material ID to influence the reflections of the material such as the red reflections? Or is this something that would have to be done in PS? Q: When you changed the hue saturation of the coffee machine, the reflection did not change. It seems there was no way to change the relection.

A: You can't adjust reflections with those channels. You do have other channels such as Roughness and Fresnel which can be useful but it's not possible to completely separate diffuse from reflections in one render. You would have to do two renders - one with the render options set the Type to "Diffuse", the other set to "Reflections". But it's impossible to always get a complete separate because for semi rough surfaces, what is really diffuse and what is really "reflection". For Maxwell, as in reality, all light is really "reflected" light. It's just a matter of how diffusely or specularly that light is reflected that gives..."reflections".

Q: Is it better to use a roughness of 1 or to use a bumpmap for the roughness?

A: "Better" or "worse" depends entirely on the look you want. In some materials you can actually see the individual bumps if you get in close, so in that case a bump map or normal map would work well. In others, they look a bit diffuse and the bumps are really tiny even when close up so roughness would just be more convenient in this case.

Q: Do you have any advice on working with IES files with Maxwell emitters.

A: Apply the IES emitters to a small sphere (around 5cm) - this is the best way to mimic how the IES profile was actually created from a real light source (they put light sensors in a spherical shape around the light source to measure its strength and shape). More info: http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/IES+emitters

Q: What does lock exposure mean?

A: It means you lock the exposure to a certain value, even if you change for example the fStop, which affects BOTH the depth of field and the exposure. There are three camera parameters that affect the exposure: fStop, Shutter speed, ISO. So for example if you want to render really small objects in focus, you need to increase the fStop to get a wider depth of field but this will also change the exposure. Instead, lock the exposure, change the fStop and Maxwell will automatically change the Shutter speed to compensate for the loss if light reaching the "sensor", because of the increased fStop.

 

An Interview with Brian Looney, Architectural Rendering Artist

Brian Looney started off as an entry level drafter straight out of technical school and now he is a professional architectural rendering expert. Brian learned the major rendering tools in the field, working with architects and clients at McFarland Davies Architects, in Tulsa, OK. When Next Limit Technologies new Maxwell Render was released, Brian tried the new product, liked it, and immediately integrated it into his production processes. In order to learn more about his experience with Maxwell Render and how Brian is using this tool I asked him for an interview.

Brian, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your professional activities at McFarland Davies Architects?

I was blown away by the quality of these (Maxwell Render) renderings!

My name is Brian Looney and I have been an AutoCAD technician for eight years with McFarland Davis Architects (previously Davies Architects). Eight years ago I and a friend decided to take a drafting class at a local tech school and it turned out to be a life changing decision. I started on AutoCAD R14, learning the basics of CAD and construction documents. Continuing on up through AutoCAD 2004, I started to tinker with AutoCAD's 3D capabilities. After doing some research, I and some of the other drafters I work with decided to try and push for our company to upgrade to Architectural Desktop with it's modeling capabilities and specialized architectural features. With ADT (Autodesk Architectural Desktop), I began using the Viz Render plug in to create simple arch viz renderings for client presentations and construction doc cover sheets. I soon realized that to take my renderings to the next level, we needed to upgrade to better rendering software. 3ds Max 8 and its Mental Ray engine seemed very capable of highly realistic architectural renderings. I created many successful renderings with 3ds Max8/9 and mental ray for McFarland Davies. Then one day I stumbled upon some gorgeous photorealistic renders on a 3D website that were made with a new program called Maxwell Render. I was blown away by the quality of these renderings! After trying the demo, and presenting some renders to our owners, we decided that to take our renderings for clients to the next level, and to achieve certain goals that we had set for our company, that this was the right software for us. So for over a year now, I have devoted myself to learning the intricacies of Maxwell Render and the Maxwell material system. So I would say right now, about 60% of my time is spent in AutoCAD Architecture 2008 and 40% with 3ds Max 9 and Maxwell Render.

Can you describe for us your creative process starting from the original AutoCAD design to the final rendering?

Maxwell materials can produce very realistic results if done correctly

It really depends on what phase the project is in. Most of the time I am involved with initial design concepts, which means that I will be working from the architect's sketches rather than CAD files. In these situations, I will do all of my modeling in 3ds Max 9. If, however, the client requires a visualization towards the end of a project, I will try and utilize the cad files as much as possible, depending on the quality of the cad model (sometimes the model is not fully 3D if the project is a renovation of an existing structure), All of the usable geometry is imported into 3ds Max where the rest of the scene will be created (trees, cars, people and landscape). I do all of this and render a few camera angles out for review, using only basic matte colors. When the camera angles and construction of the scene is approved, I then start on texturing the model. For Maxwell Render, this is the most important part, and it's main strength. Maxwell materials can produce very realistic results if done correctly. After the model is textured, I'll do some quick test renders for review, and then let the full high resolution rendering "cook" overnight.

3ds Max offers a good rendering engine (Mental Ray). What motivates you to also use Maxwell Render?

before I started using Maxwell, I had been spending a considerable amount of time tweaking render settings and rendering and re-rendering tests over and over

3ds Max 9 has an excellent built in renderer in mental ray. The Arch+Design materials are excellent for creating architectural visualizations. Also, occasionally I will use the "ink and paint" shader to create "sketchy" quick renders. However, before I started using Maxwell, I had been spending a considerable amount of time with mental ray tweaking render settings and rendering and re-rendering tests over and over. This was not an efficient use of my time. Animations must still be done with Mental Ray, for it's rendering speed. That is Maxwell's limitation for me right now. The ultra-realistic results that can be achieved with Maxwell are a trade-off in terms of it's relatively slow rendering speed, ruling out animations for us with our demanding deadlines.

Maxwell Render, being based on simulation of light, is intrinsically slower than the traditional rendering tools. Despite the evident beauty of the images generated by Maxwell, what else justifies the additional time spent to generate an image?

(with Maxwell Render) the amount of geometry in the scene has little effect on rendering times

There are many benefits that, to me, outweigh the relatively slow rendering in Maxwell. First, the process of rendering is completely different than other engines such as Mental Ray. Other engines render small sections of the total image, slowly filling in the render until it is "complete". With Maxwell Render, the engine renders the whole image all at once, with the image starting off grainy and gradually clearing over time. Therefore, the longer you let it render, the clearer the image becomes. Also, you can set the time limit of the render or you can manually stop it when you think it is ready. Another very impressive feature is Maxwell's Multilight. With Multilight enabled, you have a slider for each light in the scene that can be adjusted in real time while your image is rendering. No more having to adjust lights, test render, adjust, test render... This feature alone was worth the purchase of this software. It is absolutely invaluable in arch viz interior scenes. Plus, Maxwell lights are material based. You create a piece of geometry in your modeling program and apply an emitter material to it to create a light. Maxwell includes many preset light materials which are physically accurate such as 65 watt incandescent, 40 watt fluorescent, and so on. Another benefit is Maxwell's ability to handle complex and heavy geometry. I have noticed that the amount of geometry in the scene has little effect on rendering times. Resolution and refracting glass materials have the biggest effect on rendering time, in my experience. Although, in my work, I will mainly use the AGS (architectural glass system) material to decrease rendering time. This material has the reflectivity and transparency of glass, but without the calculation heavy refractions. There are many more features that I could get into that make Maxwell stand out, but this interview would get very long and technical!

Creating a rendering of an architectural model, where do you draw the line between your artistic and aesthetic sensitivity and your technical skill?

The render doesn't necessarily need to be technically correct

Very good question! I am not the one who usually draws that line, my employer is! Haha. There are a few things I have learned to remember when producing a rendering for a client. The render doesn't necessarily need to be technically correct. In fact, sometimes a technically correct, perfectly depicted, photo-realistic architectural rendering can scare a client into thinking that the design is complete and unchangeable, especially during the early phases of design. You want to find that balance between realistic and conceptual while producing a warm and inviting eye-pleasing design concept. Now, when the project is close to complete, the client may request a more finished render. This is when the rendering will be allowed to be technically correct and all the small details of the structure can be shown because they have all been decided on and will not change.

Can you share with us a time when the quality of the rendering really made a difference with a clear impact at the business level?

Most clients are not able to look at floor plans and elevations and visualize what it is they are actually looking at

All the time! Most clients are not able to look at floor plans and elevations and visualize what it is they are actually looking at. A lot of the time, they need renderings from a human perspective to see the beauty of the design that they are investing their money in. I have never seen a client look at a floor plan and say "Wow". I think, though, that the most important area of rendering presentation is in the marketing aspect. If your company is fighting for a project, and you bring beautiful renderings of your ideas and even previous projects, and the other guys are bringing hand sketches and scribblings, you really set your company apart from the others. Clients will also be impressed with a company that has and utilizes the latest tools and technology to get the job done quicker, and more efficiently.

Based on your experience, what would you recommend to an architect or a designer that wants or need to start creating rendered images?

plan on investing quite a bit of time learning the modeling program

I think it starts with the right software and the right training. Do your research on the various modeling programs, most of them have demo's that can be downloaded and tried for a limited time. Find out what others in your field are using. Choose one that you feel comfortable with. Plan on investing quite a bit of time learning the modeling program. Enroll in training programs that are tailored to your type of specialty. When I first started with 3ds Max, I took several courses at a local tech center, bought a few books, and worked through many tutorials included with the software. You will need to get comfortable with the basics of rendering in your 3d application. When you're comfortable with modeling and rendering in your 3d software, you may decide, like I did, that a separate renderer can fill your needs better and give you better results. Whatever you decide, if you are passionate about creating digital art, and you keep up with technology and what others are doing in your field, it will be a fulfilling and fruitful career. Good luck!

I would like to thank Brian Looney for taking the time to do this interview. A special thanks also to Nicole van der Burg of Next Limit Technologies for putting me in contact with Brian. If you have any questions for Brian or for Novedge, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

Update: a gallery of Brian's rendering images is available on Maxwell Render forum (free registration required).

An Interview with Victor Gonzalez, CEO of Next Limit Technologies (Maxwell Render)

Victor Gonzalez is the CEO of Next Limit Technologies, a Spanish company known for the the famous Maxwell Render, a sophisticated rendering software based strictly on physical equations of light transport. After a long phase of beta testing, Maxwell Render enjoyed instant success upon its recent release. In order to know more about the company and the people behind this success, I invited Victor to participate in the following interview:

Victor, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?

I was fascinated with the fantastic CG scenes in those old movies like Tron

I am 35 years old, and I am a graduate in Naval Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain). From when I was very young, Computer Graphics was my main hobby, and I spent most of my time learning about programming rather then playing games (well I did that too!). I was always fascinated with the fantastic CG scenes in all those old movies like ‘Tron’. In 1997 I met my business partner, Ignacio Vargas, while working in a fluid simulation project in the university, and we soon decided to found Next Limit with the objective to create innovative simulation tools for the CG industry. Today, after 10 years of intensive work, we are proud to manage an excellent team of engineers and creatives that are continuously working on cutting-edge technologies.

How much do Spain and Europe influence your company and your products? How would Maxwell Render be different if it were made in the Silicon Valley?
Considering the global market today, there are no big differences. Nowadays a company can be located anywhere, and they can still do serious business using the networking resources and clever marketing strategies. Usually the problems are focused in recruitment (it is more difficult to find skilled programmers in Spain than in Silicon Valley) and finding investors for the “strange” concepts that we develop. We are still a non-typical company in Spain, mostly focused on R&D, and that’s not very attractive for traditional investment. However, in terms of pure technology, our people only need a computer and time. From this point of view, being outside the main, crowded street helps them to focus on the serious work.

The gallery of images generated with Maxwell Render is very impressive. There are other rendering systems on the market but none with quite an impressive collection of beautiful pictures. Is it because of better algorithms or because of a better user interface that makes the render engine fully accessible to the users?

we decided to slowly cook a very powerful unbiased render without adding any artificial tricks

The key is the rendering algorithm and how all the pieces fit together. Throwing all the ingredients together in one big soup, like other rendering systems like to do, would not be enough. We decided, from the very beginning, to slowly cook a very powerful unbiased render without adding any artificial tricks that could reduce its correctness. The algorithm is able to track efficiently all the light paths, interact with the physical materials and combine them in the optical sensor. This whole process has been developed through the years by very rigorous people that would not restrict such scientific development in favor of a fast trick. The results are definitive, the quality of the render is amazing even for us still today. Keeping the maximum quality is our goal and we will keep on working on improvements without losing this vision.

In a market where companies are charging for every bit of software your company is giving away all the plug-ins included with Maxwell Render (plug-ins are used to connect Maxwell with several modeling systems such as Rhino 4.0, form-Z, 3ds Max, Maya, solidThinking, LightWave, Cinema 4D, etc.). How do you find this beneficial?
The marketing strategy that we developed at the beginning consisted of a free release of plug-ins, keeping a licensing scheme only for the rendering engine. This has been a good strategy keeping in mind that many people use different 3D platforms in their working pipeline, especially in the CAD sector where they use a CAD platform for designing and a 3D platform for rendering. A render that can be shared across platforms is beneficial in these areas and this remains one of the main strategies of Maxwell Render. Therefore we decided to let the users play with Maxwell Render in all the different ways (either connected to different 3D applications or as a standalone through Maxwell Studio).

What is the future of rendering? Will it ever become a fully interactive real-time technology?

people want to interact with a rendering system in a more straightforward human way.

As I said before, our main goal is to maintain quality leadership. Reaching a fully interactive real-time technology will happen sooner or later, but we will not take shortcuts here. Trying to reach real-time very soon is a mistake, in our opinion. It will happen when it happens. On the other hand there are features that are strongly demanded, and these are mostly related to the human interface. People want to interact with a rendering system in a more straightforward ‘human’ way. However, today it is still a place for experts. Providing ways to capture real existing materials and send them to the rendering system is still an unexplored area too. We are watching all these areas for current and future researching trends.

Are you planning to release more products to serve the community of digital artists and 3D producers?
Of course. The goal of Next Limit is to keep a constant innovation profile. We will continue to explore new ideas and algorithms in the simulation area for various fields and markets. Today we provide several physical simulation products for the film industry and other AEC sectors. These are only a subset of all the ideas that we are actively researching and that we will hopefully bring to light in a near future.

I would like to thank Victor Gonzalez for taking the time to speak with me today. If you have any questions for Victor or for Novedge, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini