The telecine suite.
Maxwell Studio section.
Tim Ellis 2007
Jump back to modelling section.
Jump back to 3DSMax camera match section.
Jump back to MXI creation section.
Open Maxwell Studio and open the camera match MXS file.
Next 'Import an object to the scene', from the file menu. Locate the standard scale .obj file, we exported from Blender.
Press the T button at the top of the viewport, to change it to a 2D top view.
Using the Object list, select all the imported objects.
Switch the shading mode to wireframe and check the imported objects, are aligned exactly to the MXS objects.
Right click the object list, choose 'Inverse object selection' and delete these MXS objects.
Note:- The MXS objects will have materials assigned to them. .Obj files don't import with materials into Studio.
Object names imported from Blender are resolved as:- Object name_Mesh name_Material name_Texture map name.
The reason we're working this way, is because 3DStudio Max renames .obj objects.
As we wanted to retain Blender's mesh & material names, this is the easiest way to combine the camera match and the scene.
Blender's names are retained so that selection and material assignments, are much easier to do.
In the Sky options, change the Sky type to MXI/HDR map and check screen mapping is activated for the background.
Load the MXI of the reference photo we made earlier, into the background channel.
Adjust the intensity to 1.0000 and uncheck the 'Disable channel' button.
Change the viewport shading mode to wireframe.
With the background displayed through the wireframes, it's possible to tweak object positions to match the photograph correctly.
Note:- The green lines on my background image, were added in Photoshop to show me the dead center of the image. The camera target should be at the cross over point.
We need to match the camera settings to those of the digital camera.
In the Camera options panel, set Film ISO to 200, Shutter to 1/40 & F-Stop to 2.8
Change the render options as follows. Activate multilight and set an MXI & render path.
Note:- You can't use Auto Exposure with Multilight together. MXCL will crash if you try.
Set the Render Threads number to suit your computer.
Use 0, if you're not sure of your maximum limit and Maxwell will automatically allocate the number of threads.
Set the focal distance by switching the viewport to shaded mode.
Right click the viewport with the camera view selected and choose 'Focus to'.
Left click on a surface of the desk top and the DOF display should lose all colour.
Basic material settings.
All the computer screens use this same MXM with a different MXI texture in each case.
Note:- You have to change the preview engine to RS-1 for MXI textures to be rendered in the MXM preview window.
Right click the preview window in the MXED and select 'Set preview options'.
Computer screen MXM breakdown.
Layer 1 - Emitter layer - Texture is a computer screen MXI.
Layer 2 - Base BSDF colour layer - Lambertian.
Layer 3 - Coating layer.
Layer 4 - Main reflections layer.
Layer 5 - Weightmap for fingerprints.
Layer 5 - BSDF layer with texture controlled reflectivity and bump map..
Reflectivity map.
Bump map.
Carpet MXM layer breakdown.
Layer 1 - Weightmap for new carpet.
Layer 1 - New carpet base BSDF colour layer - Lambertian.
r2 file with reflectance colour map and matching normal map.
New carpet texture map.
New carpet normal map.
Layer 2 - Weightmap for worn carpet.
Layer 2 - Worn carpet base BSDF colour layer.
r2 file with reflectance colour map and matching normal map.
Worn carpet texture map.
Worn carpet normal map.
Layer 3 - Weightmap for carpet stains.
Layer 3 - Base BSDF layer for carpet stains.
Layer 3 - Bump map for carpet stains.
Twin layer BSDF MXM breakdown.
All the materials in the scene, except those with colour texture maps, were created in the same method as follows.
I used the eye dropper tool in Photoshop, to get RGB data from the photograph.
This was then applied to the colour swatches in the BSDF layers.
Layer 1 - Weighted base BSDF colour layer - Lambertian.
Layer 2 - Weighted reflective BSDF layer.
UV projectors.
By default any .OBJ object that is imported into Studio, will be assigned a Cubic UV projector.While this is very useful, the projectors usually need rotating.
For example the desk supports had a rotated texture map for the wood.
Note:- Switch the viewport to either 'Textured decal' or 'Textured' to view texture maps in the viewport.
Change one of the Studio windows to the 'Projections Parameter Table'.
Select the object we need to change the projector for, using the Object list.
Now check in the bottom of the Object parameters table and click on the projector name.
The selected projector will now be displayed in the Projector parameters table.
Singularly change the X, Z & Y rotation to 90'. Check in the viewport to see if you've adjusted the correct rotation.
In this case I needed to rotate the Z axis.
Jump back to modelling section.
Jump back to 3DSMax camera match section.
Jump back to MXI creation section.
Tim Ellis. 2007 tim.ellis@emp3d.com