maxwell render for LW

[essencedesign]

We have used it a bit...found it a bit on the grainy side,,,and alot on the slow side....but I'm sure with proper R&D it could produce some beautiful renders for stills...for production though..I don't think it's there yet.....but sooN )))

[biliousfrog]

the trouble with trying different renderers is that they all work differently (duh:rolleyes: )....what I mean is, that some renderers will be faster if you know how to use them properly. I have no experience with Maxwell but it looks like it can produce some amazing stuff. The secret is knowing what it can/can't do & working with it...this could mean completely changing your workflow to accomodate. I've heard plenty of people say that Maxwell is slow but maybe in time users will become more experienced with it & find the little things that make it fly....maybe it prefers high poly counts over sub-d's, maybe it dislikes double sided geometry, maybe you're (not you personally) using the wrong light for the job.........

many of the renders do seem quite grainy but when comparing them to "real" photo's (remember them?) they don't look out of place, in fact I have been absolutely blown away by some images that I've seen especially dark interior or night shots....the grainyness comes into it's own then.

[yog]

I have Maxwell that I use with 3DS MAX (not tried it with LW yet).
At this early (alpha) stage I would say that it would only be useful for niche markets.

It is very easy to get realistic lighting with Maxwell, but it does take a LONG time to get rid of the grain. There are many interesting things planned for the full version of Maxwell (including speed increases, natch), but at the momment I limit it mainly to architectural work, for which it is very good. Architects apreciate good lighting, whilst at the same time not minding a more styalised look, i.e. quite grainy.

Like all things in 3D, horses for courses.

[otacon]

It is good for architectural work. Also i think its great for product shots. They usually render much faster and its easy to setup good studio lighting. If your doing animation, its not for you.

[Dragon_Lee]

Apologies for bumping an older topic.

But I would like to know what the state of Maxwell for LW is now, especially since it is close to version 1.0....

I can't seem to find any specific "LW renders" done in Maxwell... Been hearing that Maxwell does not fully support the LW object model (triangles only? no dual sided polygons?)

So can anyone supply specific stuff done on LW through the Maxwell plugin?

And what about the render speeds??? last I heard is that rendering an untextured triangled globe on a flat square took 3 minutes to do it properly... (1 min was blurry) is this true???

The shots on the webpage all look amazing, but I wonder if one can do the same architectural renders from the LW plugin...

[otacon]

Have you been to the maxwell forum? Lots of stuff there. Also, maxwellianart.com has a bunch of renders. Heres some stuff ive done using lightwave and maxwell.http://www.maxwellianart.com/links.php?userID=20&offset=0
Theres some other lw users making cool stuff too, just check out the forum.

[adrencg]

This will be a great tool....Lightwave has a HORRIBLE render engine. It stinks right out of the box. Nobody uses it for anything and I've never seen anything done with LW render in film, TV or print. We need a slower, grainier renderer that can cast a shadow in a slightly more realistic way.

Mike

[3DDave]

This will be a great tool....Lightwave has a HORRIBLE render engine. It stinks right out of the box. Nobody uses it for anything and I've never seen anything done with LW render in film, TV or print. We need a slower, grainier renderer that can cast a shadow in a slightly more realistic way.

Mike


That is the most uniformed statement I have ever seen about Lightwave.

[Mike RB]

I think it was sarcasm.

[adrencg]

That is the most uniformed statement I have ever seen about Lightwave.

I'm speakin the truth....

I've been waiting 8 years for some genius to write a renderer to replace the crappy one that comes with LW.

Mike

[mav3rick]

there's nothin like fprime to me :)

[Dragon_Lee]

Have you been to the maxwell forum? Lots of stuff there. Also, maxwellianart.com has a bunch of renders. Heres some stuff ive done using lightwave and maxwell.http://www.maxwellianart.com/links.php?userID=20&offset=0
Theres some other lw users making cool stuff too, just check out the forum.

Maxwell LW forums were locked off for testers only ... (I couldn't register w/o being one)
Hence me asking for some works....

Thanks for the maxwellian link, will check it out..

[coremi]

http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=29834

the aviator use Lightwave for rendering, it looked awesome.

[LOR]

Maxwell has some cool potential and some real pitfalls. Instead of using lighting in LightWave, it uses geometry with light shaders applied. That's really pretty cool because it means you can design custom lights. The problem is, if you make the lights unseen by camera, they no longer illuminate the scene. So you lose one of the major advantages of CG lighting....you can put the light anywhere in the scene and let it illuminate, even in front of the camera. Not with Maxwell. When I contacted the authors, they said it was intentionally designed that way and could not be changed.

I found this very odd.

lor

[LOR]

http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=29834

the aviator use Lightwave for rendering, it looked awesome.

---and Elektra, I,Robot, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, Enterprise, Goodboy!, Garfield, Dead Like Me, Kingdom Hospital, a bunch of NIKE commercials and on and on and on..... Oh and that awesome dancing car-robot commercial...

[esoteric1]

I think LW's renderer is seen as the best? I DO think it is one of the harder one's to get the most out of though. Some people with LW make renders that are WAY better that anything out there... Like the somewhat recent Iguana on a tree render that everyone thought was a picture... I have used other 3d apps and "turn-keyed" out some pretty decent looking renders of some furniture but with LW I am still trying to find that magic combination and its fustrating... Maybe that is what is tainting his prospective on the matter... Cause' that statement does seem like one of the most un-educated things about LW I've heard.

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