MAXWELL RENDER PLUG-IN FOR AFTER EFFECTS PLUGIN MANUAL VERSION 2.1

Transcription

1 MAXWELL RENDER PLUG-IN FOR AFTER EFFECTS PLUGIN MANUAL VERSION 2.1

2 2 The Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects allow us to read a MXI file/sequence and access to all the data buffers that the MXIs contains, such as light buffers, alpha, object id, material id, shadows, etc. Nubeo International Ltd. - It is important to note that in order to get independent access to adjust each individual emitter, the render must be launched with Multilight feature on. Color Multilight is not needed. 1 CONSTANT REFINEMENT An interesting feature in Maxwell Render is the constant refinement approach of the render, which allows the post-production process to start while the render process is still going on, working in parallel and saving an extraordinary amount of time. You can load your MXI render or sequence at a poor level of quality (in example, at SL=4) and start the post-production process at this moment, while the render process keeps going on. When you want to update the footage in After Effects to the last sampling level saved, replace the footage with itself (right-click on the footage, and select Replace Footage --> File... ). This allows the post-production and rendering process to work in parallel, creating a highly optimized workflow that saves a great amount of time.

3 3 2 INSTALLING THE PLUG-IN Muddville : New Holland Bees - Download the plug-in installer for your particular platform from the Download Area and run it. The plug-in is compatible with After Effects CS3, CS4 and CS5. There are plug-ins available for Windows and Mac OSX. If you are a Maxwell Render license holder, then please access the Download Area through the Customer Gateway to download the plug-in. If you are not a license holder, then please download a free demo version of the plug-in at by filling out the application form. Windows: Run the installer. The installer should locate your After Effects installation automatically. If not, browse the location(s) where After Effects was installed. Usually: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files or C:\Program Files (x86)\adobe\adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files. Mac OSX: Unpack the files. Copy the MXI.plugin to the After Effects format plug-ins directory: Usually: /Applications/After Effects CS5/Support files/plug-ins/format and the mximixer.plugin file to the After Effects effect plug-ins directory. Usually: /Applications/After Effects CS5/Support files/plug-ins/effects). uu Remember that you should have writing permissions and Administrator privileges to install the plug-ins.

4 4 3 USING THE PLUG-IN Cartoon Network : Push the button - The plug-in comes with two components: the MXI Reader and the MXI Extractor. The MXI Reader The Maxwell Render image file reader for After Effects allows you to load MXI files or sequences as an After Effect footage into a 8/16/32 bpc projects. Simply import the MXI file(s) as you do with any other files in After Effects. That way you can work with the render buffer of the MXIs like any other image format. It is not interesting. The power of the MXI format is in the amount of information that the file have. To access that information we need an additional component: the MXI extractor. The MXI Extractor We can access all the MXI buffers using the MXI extractor. It is an effect plug-in, so first add your MXI footage into a comp, and then apply the MXI Extractor effect to the layer. Then, you can extract the buffer you want. Extracting the environment light from a MXI

5 5 The Channel parameter allows you to select the buffer, and the Light parameter indicates the light buffer you want to use. Using the Light parameter only makes sense when you select Light or Shadow in the Channel parameter. Creating comps from a MXI footage The easy way to work with all the buffers is creating a folder containing all the data. Select the MXI footage in the project panel, and go to File --> Create Maxwell MXI Comps. That action creates a folder in the project panel with the MXI footage name. Inside we can have 4 elements: A comp named All layers containing all the buffers that the MXI have. A folder named Comps containing all the buffers that the MXI have separated. A comp named Multilight containing all the light buffers in linear dodge mode. Furthermore, the Exposure effect is applied to each light buffer to adjust the intensities easy. A comp named Multishadow containing all the shadow buffers. Extracting the light 1 from a MXI Channels available on the MXI files: Render buffer. Lights buffer (If Multilight was enabled). Alpha buffer. Object ID buffer. Material ID buffer. Shadow. Motion. Roughness. Z buffer. Fresnel buffer. A Multilight comp. Note that the layers are blended in linear dodge mode

6 6 4 MORE TRAINING RESOURCES Justin Goode Paolo Velcich You can view the After Effects plug-in video-tutorial at: You can download a MXI sequence at: You can download a sample MXI at:

7 Copyright 2010 Next Limit SL Maxwell Render is a registered trademark of Next Limit SL All trademarks included in this catalogue belong to their respective owners All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied.