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MAXWELL RENDER PLUG-IN FOR AFTER EFFECTS PLUGIN MANUAL VERSION 2.1
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Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects
The Maxwell Render Importer Plug-in | 2
The Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects allow us to read a MXI le/sequence and
access to all the data buffers that the MXIs contains, such as light buffers, alpha, object
id, material id, shadows, etc.
It is important to note that in order to get independent access to adjust each individual
emitter, the render must be launched with Multilight feature on. Color Multilight is not
needed.
1 CONSTANT REFINEMENT
An interesting feature in Maxwell Render is the constant renement 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.
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You can load your MXI render or sequence at a poor level of quality (in example, at SL=4)
and start the post-production process at this moment, while the render process keeps
going on.
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...”).
This allows the post-production and rendering process to work in parallel, creating a highly
optimized workow that saves a great amount of time.
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Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects
The Maxwell Render Importer Plug-in | 3
2 INSTALLING THE PLUG-IN
Download the plug-in installer for your particular platform from the Download Area and
run it. The plug-in is compatible with After Effects CS3, CS4 and CS5. There are plug-ins
available for Windows and Mac OSX. If you are a Maxwell Render license holder, then
please access the Download Area through the Customer Gateway to download the plug-in.
If you are not a license holder, then please download a free demo version of the plug-in
at www.maxwellrender.com by lling out the application form.
• Windows: Run the installer. The installer should locate your After Effects installation
automatically. If not, browse the location(s) where After Effects was installed.
Usually:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files
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or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files.
• MacOSX: Unpack the les. Copy the MXI.plugin to the After Effects format plug-ins
directory:
Usually:
/Applications/After Effects CS5/Support files/Plug-ins/Format
and the mxiMixer.plugin le to the After Effects effect plug-ins directory. Usually:
/Applications/After Effects CS5/Support files/Plug-ins/Effects).
u
Remember that you should have writing permissions and Administrator privileges to
install the plug-ins.
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Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects
The Maxwell Render Importer Plug-in | 4
3 USING THE PLUG-IN
The plug-in comes with two components: the MXIReader and the MXIExtractor.
TheMXIReader
The Maxwell Render image le reader for After Effects allows you to load MXI les or
sequences as an After Effect footage into a 8/16/32 bpc projects. Simply import the MXI
le(s) as you do with any other les in After Effects.
That way you can work with the render buffer of the MXIs like any other image format. It
is not interesting. The power of the MXI format is in the amount of information that the
le have. To access that information we need an additional component: the MXI extractor.
TheMXIExtractor
We can access all the MXI buffers using the MXI extractor. It is an effect plug-in, so rst
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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Extracting the environment light from a MXI
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Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects
The Maxwell Render Importer Plug-in | 5
The “Channel” parameter allows you to select the buffer, and the “Light” parameter
indicates the light buffer you want to use. Using the “Light” parameter only makes sense
when you select “Light” or “Shadow” in the “Channel” parameter.
Extracting the light 1 from a MXI
Channels available on the MXI les:
• Render buffer.
• Lights buffer (If Multilight was enabled).
• Alpha buffer.
• Object ID buffer.
• Material ID buffer.
• Shadow.
• Motion.
• Roughness.
• Z buffer.
• Fresnel buffer.
CreatingcompsfromaMXIfootage
The easy way to work with all the buffers is creating a folder containing all the data.
Select the MXI footage in the project panel, and go to “Composition --> Create Maxwell
MXI Comps”. That action creates a folder in the project panel with the MXI footage name.
Inside we can have 4 elements:
• A comp named “All layers” containing all the buffers that the MXI have.
• A folder named “Comps” containing all the buffers that the MXI have separated.
• A comp named “Multilight” containing all the light buffers in “linear dodge” mode.
Furthermore, the “Exposure” effect is applied to each light buffer to adjust the
intensities easy.
• A comp named “Multishadow” containing all the shadow buffers.
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A Multilight comp. Note that the layers are blended in “linear dodge” mode
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4 MORE TRAINING RESOURCES
You can view the After Effects plug-in video-tutorial at:
http://think.maxwellrender.com/rst10steps.php?id=342
You can download a MXI sequence at:
http://think.maxwellrender.com/rst10steps.php?id=343
You can download a sample MXI at:
http://think.maxwellrender.com/cms/tutorial.php?id=345
Maxwell Render plug-in for After Effects
The Maxwell Render Importer Plug-in | 6
Justin Goode Paolo Velcich
© Next Limit Technologies 2010
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© Copyright 2010 Next Limit SL
Maxwell Render is a registered trademark of Next Limit SL
All trademarks included in this catalogue belong to their respective owners
All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned and
no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise,
arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately
comply with information supplied.
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