The Output tab contains several groups which control how MXS files are written and exported.
Name
This is the name which will be used to generate the various filenames required to write MXS files. This includes the file name of the MXS file, the image-output file, and the MXI file. This should be specified as a name with no extension; the appropriate extensions will be inserted as necessary by the plugin. The Name should therefore also not contain characters which are illegal for use in file paths. If no name is entered here, the plugin will first try to use the Output Name specified in the Preferences page, or else it will try to use the current document name. The image format (the main RGB output) which will be written may be chosen from the drop-down list
Folder
This is the root folder used for the plugin's output. MXS, image, and MXI files will be written to this location. If procedural textures need to be exported, they will be written into a 'textures' folder located inside the one specified here. If no folder is specified here, the plugin will try to use the Output Folder specified in the Preferences page, or else it will try to use the current document location. If it is unable to determine the current document location (for example, when the document has not yet been saved), it will try to use the current directory, which will likely be either the location of C4D itself, or the location it was started from. To open the current output folder, just click the folder button at the right.
Export Options
This group holds parameters which affect how the exported MXS file will be written.
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Disable Maxwell Instances | This option simply disables the export of Maxwell Instance objects on a global basis. |
Auto-generate instances | This option is not related to the Maxwell Instance Object provided by the plugin. Rather, what it does is to automatically identify objects which are candidates for instancing during export. For example, if there are two cubes in the scene, both with the same name and mesh-topology, then only the first will be exported as a mesh – the second will automatically be exported as an instance in the MXS. This is suitable for use with things like emitters, which generate a great number of similarly-named objects, the topology of which is identical between instances, with the only difference being each object's transformation.
Note that use of this option has the potential for producing confusing results. This can happen when geometry is created by a generator, where that geometry effectively has no local transformation. This could include situations such as those where a spline is swept or extruded, with the resulting polygons simply being created in global space. A quick way to check whether this is going to be a problem is to run Current State to Object on the generator; if the generated polygons have no local transformation, they will not work well with instance auto-generation.
Generally speaking, this option should only be used in versions of Cinema prior to R11.5, before Cinema had true instancing. |
Protect MXS | This option determines whether or not Maxwell Studio will allow the meshes in the MXS being written to be exported or not. If this is enabled, the MXS will be 'locked'; that is, third-parties will not be allowed to extract meshes from the MXS via Maxwell Studio, thereby providing a way of providing third-parties with actual MXS files for various purposes while still offering some protection of the intellectual property they contain. |
Pack and Go | When this option is activated, the plugin will scan through all files referenced in the scene (i.e. texture, ior, hdr, etc.) and copy them to the output directory during export. The paths contained in the exported mxs will point to the new copies, rather than the original files. This makes it much easier to transport an entire scene to another location. |
Strict Mode | When this is enabled, while writing an MXS file, the plugin will enable textures which are not able to be found. This will result in error messages being reported by the render engine. It may be useful if you are moving the scene to a different computer and you know the textures will be available on the other machine. |
Check Paths | This button brings up a dialog containing a report which shows all external files referenced by Maxwell materials and objects, indicating which were able to be found, which were not, and which missing files were able to be found using search paths. |
Motion Blur & Animation
This group is only shown when the 'Export Animation' option is enabled. When a Scene is exported with Animation enabled, the plugin will cause the C4D document to be animated, exporting a sequentially-named MXS file for each frame. There are a few parameters which control how the animation export is done.
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Pre-roll Timeline | When this option is enabled, the plugin will animate the document through all frames prior to the one being exported. This can be helpful, as it makes sure that all generators and expressions have been properly run, ensuring a consistent result at the current frame. This is not free (that is, it can take some time to run the document through its frames) so only enable this option when necessary. |
Shutter-based Blur | When enabled, the amount that objects and cameras will be moved along the timeline is figured based on the shutter value of the camera being exported. So for example, given FPS (specified in Cinema Render Settings, not the camera) of 24 and a shutter speed of 1/24, each object will appear to move one frames-worth of movement along the Cinema timeline. Given a shutter of 1 second, the object will appear to move 24 frames, with the movement being centered on the frame being exported. |
Export Animation | This option determines whether or not the plugin will export in single- or multiple-frame mode. The Animation group is not shown in the Scene user-interface unless this option is enabled. |
Camera Motion Blur | Similar to the Object Motion Blur option, this controls whether or not to export Motion Blur information for the camera. |
Object Motion Blur | When this is enabled, the plugin will move objects backward and forward along the timeline in order to figure Motion Blur. When Shutter-based blur is enabled, the amount that objects are moved will be dependent on the shutter value of the camera being used. Otherwise, objects will be moved half of a frame forward and backward, in reference to the frame currently being exported. |
Motion Blur Steps | This number determines how many times the plugin will sample the exposure range for object positions when calculating object motion blur. If, for example, this value is set to 2, then only the starting and ending positions of objects will be written. More positions will cause the motion blur to more closely follow objects which move arbitrarily during the exposure. |
Animation Frame Range | This group is only shown when the 'Export Animation' option is enabled. When a Scene is exported with Animation enabled, the plugin will cause the C4D document to be animated, exporting a sequentially-named MXS file for each frame. There are a few parameters which control how the animation export is done. |
Use Render Settings | This determines whether to use the frame-range and step count set in the active C4D Render Settings, or to use a custom range. |
Step | This parameter controls how many (if any) frames to skip between MXS exports. If this is set to one, all frames will be exported, whereas if it were set to two, one frame on the timeline would be skipped for each one that was exported. If the animation frame range was ten, and the Step size was also set to ten, then only one frame would be exported. |
Render from…to | When the 'Use Cinema Range' option is disabled, these inputs control the range of frames which will be exported. If the 'to' value is less than the 'from' value, the animation will be done in reverse – under these circumstances, Motion Blur will also be figured in reverse, if it is enabled. |
Default Exposure
Most of the parameters for the camera which appears in the exported MXS are taken directly from the C4D camera's physical properties, and certain aspects of C4D's Render Settings. Even so, a C4D camera lacks some features which are integral to the way that Maxwell works; for the most part, these are related to exposure. This group contains parameters which will be used to control the exposure when no actual Maxwell Camera Tag is found at export time. For information on these parameters, please see the Camera Tag.
Render Channels
Options in this group control the various different image outputs which may be rendered by Maxwell Render. 'Render' is the main output image. The other channels are used for compositing in a third-party application like Photoshop – see the main Maxwell Render manual for more details on the various channels.
