Maxwell Studio

Owned by Next Limit
Last updated: 04 Dec, 2023 by Next Limit
2 min read

 

Introduction

Maxwell Studio is an independent application within the core components of Maxwell Render - a sophisticated scene editor with a full 3D environment, offering an alternative workflow for those Maxwell Render users that work with 3D or CAD applications that we do not currently offer a plug-in for. Rendering in Maxwell Render is available for any 3D platform thanks to Studio. You can export your models in any of the compatible formats, import them in Studio, and there adjust the cameras, assign and edit materials, set up the environment and lighting, and launch the render.

It is also useful as an MXS editing tool - an MXS file generated by any plug-in we currently offer can be imported into Maxwell Studio. For example, if your scene is not rendering as intended, usually the most efficient way of seeing what is wrong is opening the MXS in Maxwell Studio and checking that the scene has been exported by the plug-in (cameras, materials, geometry etc.) as expected.



Supported geometry import formats

Supported geometry import formats

Supported geometry import formats

OBJ

STL

LWO

NFF

XC2

MXS

DXF

3DS

XML

FBX

PLY

DAE

BIN

SD

DEM

ABC

VRSCENE (with material, lights and environment conversion)



Basic workflow

  • Maxwell Studio does not have any modeling tools so you have to first model your scene in another 3D application, then export it to any of the above formats.

  • Import that geometry into Maxwell Studio where you can create, edit and apply materials, set up lights and cameras, and then finally send the scene to render.

  • Additionally, you can also open and edit existing MXS files, either created by Maxwell Studio or any Maxwell plugin.

Functionality

  • Import geometry

  • Set attributes of objects (position, rotation, scale, pivot, smoothing, normals, etc)

  • Apply textures using UV projectors

  • Create, edit and apply materials and lights

  • Visualize the 3D scene in OpenGL viewports

  • Create multiple cameras and adjust their position and parameters

  • Organize the scene objects into hierarchies of groups

  • Set Physical Sky options and see an interactive representation of the Sky settings in the OpenGL viewports

  • Fully customizable layout with the ability to save layouts

  • Libraries of preset geometry, scenes, materials and layouts

  • Fast interactive preview (Maxwell Fire), for interactively rendering your scene and displaying your changes in real time

VRSCENE importer

You can import or drag and drop any .vrscene file from V-Ray; Studio will convert materials, lights and environments.

Not all the material and maps types will be converted though. Studio will do a fair job with the standard VRayMtl, but won't translate other materials like VRayCarPaintMtl, VRayBlendMtl or maps like VRayDirt, at least for the moment.



Download the Maxwell Render Suite keyboard reference chart: Maxwell_shortcuts.pdf



Here you can find different pages about Studio in this documentation: