The Maxwell Render plug-in for After effects improves the connection between Maxwell Render and one of the most used post-production platforms: After EffectsEffects allows you to import MXI files (Maxwell Renders image format) into AE. The Maxwell Image file format is a rich container where large amounts of render data is stored. Each light buffer, alpha channel, Z-buffer and so on can be loaded from an MXI to an After Effects comp set. All channels generated by Maxwell Render can be loaded with After Effects from a single MXI file/sequence, like any other layered image format. One of the main advantages of the MXI format is that it stores all channels in 32 bits, so you can work using full range color always. In case that cases where the user doesn't need 32 bits of color, the plugin is able to retrieve all channels in 16 and 8 bits tooas well, maximizing the compatibility with the pipelines and plug-ins.
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 (for example, at SL 4) and start the post-production process at this moment, while the render process keeps going oncontinues. 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...”).
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The plug-in comes with two components: the MXI Reader and the MXI Extractor.
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 This way you can work with the render buffer of the MXIs like any other image format. It is not interesting. The In order to utilize the full power of the MXI format is in the amount of information that the
file have. To access that information and access all of the information the file format stores we need an additional component: the MXI extractor.
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.
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