Translate Shaded Preview: 6” sphere, 6” cylinder, 6” cube, or 6” plane
Translate Shaded
Selecting this option will instruct the plugin to automatically translate the selected Shaded material into a Maxwell material. The resulting MXM will be embedded into the MXS scene file (i.e., it will not be saved separately) upon rendering.
To understand how the translation is performed, it is useful to first understand how Maxwell materials are defined. We recommend reading the chapter Maxwell Materials before continuing with the section below.
If the Shaded material contains any embedded textures that do not have a valid reference on disk they will be automatically saved as PNG images. (This will be the case if the texture is a swatch generated by another renderer, or if an image file was been moved since it was first linked to the formZ material.)
By design, the Translate Shaded option is as simple as possible; it intentionally hides the complex details of MXM creation from the end user. It has been designed to provide good materials quickly and easily, to meet a demanding production schedule. Translate shaded offers a single control: Material hint, which controls how the Shaded material will be interpreted.
- Material Hint [Realistic Match, Water, Rubber, Anodized Aluminum, etc.]: Guides the plugin when interpreting the simple 'Shaded' material representation.
- Image Maps
- Interpolation: When enabled, Maxwell will interpolate material image maps. When only low-resolution maps are available, enabling interpolation will reduce pixelation within the map. If an alpha (or other) map needs to be tack-sharp, make sure interpolation is disabled.
- Mirror Horz, Mirror Vert: Image maps will be mirrored horizontally and/or vertically, which may reduce obvious map tiling in some cases. Note that textures will not be displayed mirrored in formZ's Shaded display modes.
- Color Map:
- Brightness, etc.: Image controls for the color 'texture' bitmap used in the shaded renderer. For images with RGB values greater that 220, we recommend setting Clamp Max to 220, or reducing brightness by 10%.
- Image Map Interpolation: When enabled, the bitmap will be interpolated, resulting in reduced texture aliasing.
- Map Alpha Channel [Off, Bump, Roughness]: When enabled, will use the color map's alpha channel (if any) to control bump or roughness in the resulting MXM. The slider controls the maximum strength.
- Transparency Map:
- Brightness, etc.: Image controls for the transparency 'texture' bitmap used in the shaded renderer.
- Channel Properties:
- Matte: Makes the material into a matte, which “cuts through" the entire image and reveals the background (IBL or Physical Sky if enabled; black if no environment lighting is used). Useful for compositing purposes.
- Shadow Matte: Enables shadow catcher properties for this material. Objects assigned this material will show shadows cast onto them in the Shadow Channel. The Shadow Channel option in Render Options must also be enabled. See Shadow channel
- Dispersion: Disabled by default for efficiency. See Transmissive Properties
- ID Color: Custom color used to identify this material in the Material Id channel. See MatID - ObjectID channel
- Nested Priority: This material's priority level for nested dielectrics. Useful for correct rendering liquids within glass. See Nested dielectrics.
- Preview: Generates a preview of the material of on the selected formZ preview object (6” sphere, 6” cylinder, 6” cube, or 6” plane).
- Export MXM: Saves the auto-translated MXM to disk, with the option to re-link as a referenced MXM, and continue editing the material in MXED.
With the Shaded "Ambient" parameter kept at the default (100%), make sure to keep the Shaded "Diffuse" parameter to 87% or less, to avoid unrealistically reflective materials which may introduce noise that is difficult to clear.
Matte
The Matte hint is appropriate for matte (flat) wall paint and plaster surfaces, paper. Very efficient. May also be useful in existing projects where the specularity needs to remain as-is for other renderers, but you need a matte appearance in Maxwell.
Matte hints create a single BDSF.
"Matte" Material Hint. Color: 220, 220, 220. The Specular Roughness parameter is not used with this hint.
Fastest
Tuned for speed and simplicity.
Fastest hints create a single BDSF.
"Fastest" Material Hint. Color: 220, 220, 220
Fast
Approximates of many common materials– plastics, semi-gloss paint, simple tile– and renders quickly.
If you need a matte appearance, consider the Matte or Fastest Hints, as they are more efficient.
The Fast hints creates two BDSF on a single layer.
"Fast" Material Hint. Color: 165, 165, 165
Realistic Match
Similar to the Fast Hint, but with somewhat more naturalistic reflections.
Use the Fast hint if it produces an equivalent result, as it will generally clear noise a bit faster.
The Realistic Match hints creates two layers, each with a single BDSF. Layer blending is additive.
"Realistic Match" Material Hint. Color: 165, 165, 165
Industrial Coating
Yields a baked enamel-type finish. Specular Roughness values result in materials like car paint; higher values resemble a powder-coated finish.
Architectural Glass - Normal; Architectural Glass - Clear
These material hints are used for fast-rendering architectural glass. In most cases, they will work well without adjustment. These materials will reflect, but not refract, light. This allows solid volumes to appear as if they were composed of a thin glass shell.
The color parameter controls the tint of the glass. The transparency parameter controls the layer weight.
The Clear variant applies an additional top coat to the glass which may be useful for some applications. Experiment with both types to see which works better for your application.
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Architectural Glass, Normal Technical Summary
- 1 layer
- 1 BDSF
| Shaded Parameter | MXM Mapping |
|---|---|
| Color | Base BSDF Reflectance 0° (attenuated); Base BSDF Reflectance 90° (full color) |
| Ambient Factor | Attenuates Color (not applied to bitmaps; use map adjustment controls) |
| Diffuse Factor | Attenuates Color (not applied to bitmaps; use map adjustment controls) |
| Specular Factor | Not Used |
| Specular Roughness | Base Layer BSDF roughness |
| Specular Color | Not Used |
| Transparency | Top Coat and Base Layer Opacity/Mask multiplier |
Anodized Aluminum
Results in a multi-layer anodized surface. The lower the Specular Roughness, the "shinier" the material.
Aluminum, Copper, Cobalt, Gold, Silver
The metals series creates efficient-rendering metals with minimal effort. The only parameters that need to be adjusted are the color and roughness.
For highly realistic metal materials, referenced MXM files with complex IOR files and bump or roughness maps are recommended.
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Metals Technical Summary
- 1 layer
- 2 BDSFs weighted 60:40
- ND, K, and Reflectance 90° set appropriately for each metal type
| Shaded Parameter | MXM Mapping |
|---|---|
| Color | BSDF Reflectance 0° |
| Ambient Factor | Attenuates Color (not applied to bitmaps; use map adjustment controls) |
| Diffuse Factor | Attenuates Color (not applied to bitmaps; use map adjustment controls) |
| Specular Factor | Not Used |
| Specular Roughness | BSDF 1 roughness; BSDF 2 attenuated (50%) roughness |
| Specular Color | Not Used |
| Transparency | Top Coat and Base Layer Opacity/Mask multiplier |
Water
The water hint will work well without adjustment in most cases. Only the color and transparency parameters affect the material.
The color parameter controls the tint of the water. Note that the attenuation of light (transparency parameter) must be set to a relatively low value for the tint to be apparent.
The transparency parameter controls the attenuation of light though the water. At 1% transparency, half the light will be attenuated after 1 meter; at 100% half the light will be attenuated after 10 meters. If transparency is set to none (or 0) a default attenuation of 10 meters will be used.
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Water Technical Summary
- 1 layer
- 1 BDSF
- ND and K set appropriately for water
- Reflectance 0° and Reflectance 90° set to 0,0,0
- Roughness set to 0
| Shaded Parameter | MXM Mapping |
|---|---|
| Color | BSDF Transmittance |
| Ambient Factor | Not Used |
| Diffuse Factor | Not Used |
| Specular Factor | Not Used |
| Specular Roughness | Not Used |
| Specular Color | Not Used |
| Transparency | Attenuation, mapped 1m - 10m |
Emitter
See formZ | Lighting | Emitter Materials
Wireframe
The Wireframe hint applies a colored line of the specified thickness over object segments. The "background" material for the wireframe is identical to the Realistic Match hint (see above).
There are several presets for this material:
All Edges
Wireframe is applied to all segments in the triangulated object.
Sharp Edges
Wireframe is only applied to all segments between non-planar faces.
Detailed
To achieve custom effects, all underlying controls for the Wireframe procedural texture are exposed. For the full parameters list, see: Wireframe