Maxwell Render is a rendering engine that accepts models and scenes created in 3D or CAD applications. Several of these applications are directly supported through a Maxwell Render plug-in; others can be used in conjunction with Maxwell Render by importing the geometry into Maxwell Studio, a component of the software.

Simplify your work

• Use the same rendering technology across many 3D and CAD applications, sharing the same materials and textures.
• Standardize the process of creating high quality images through unique rendering product used by everyone in your office.
• Reduce time and cost of learning different rendering tools with different quality results.




image by Markus Otto

Improve your speed

• Eliminate the costly trial-and-error tweaking of other rendering products to achieve the desired quality.
• Get full-image previews of your scene interactively using Maxwell Fire.
• Reduce dramatically the time spent in lighting and materials set up. People time is the most expensive investment!




image by Kentaro Kaneko

Make it easier

• Don't spend time understanding strange concepts like "number of photons", in Maxwell all settings are natural real-world concepts.
• Experience the ease of use of a technology based on reality. Pick a light, set the wattage and that's all.
• Apply your photography knowledge naturally, or even learn photography with Maxwell Render™. It's the same!




image by Stack! Studios

New in Version 2.7

• NEW! Grass generator which allows you to quickly create grass on a selected piece of geometry
• NEW! MXI/MXS compression: File sizes 4x smaller with the new compression system for MXI files, especially when using additional render channels
• NEW! A new 3d vectorial displacement type for RealFlow displacement

New in Version 2.6

• NEW! Hair rendering: Introducing a new procedural primitive for rendering hair- compatible with the most popular hair systems (Shave & Haircut, Maya Hair, Max Hair, Ornatrix, Cinema Hair).
• NEW! Particle rendering: New procedural primitive for particles- compatible with the most popular particle systems (RealFlow particles, Maya particles, 3dsMax).
• NEW!Support for Vector displacement.
• NEW!Much faster motion blur.
• NEW! Referenced MXS files: It is now possible to load references of MXS files in your main scene file, which are added only at render time, dramatically reducing export times especially for animations, and reducing scene transfer times when network rendering.
• NEW!Support for referenced materials has been added.
• NEW! Scripting: Maxwell Render SDK now includes a standalone python editor and scripting examples.
• IMPROVED! Displacement: A new, faster displacement algorithm
• IMPROVED! Big improvements in image processing, filtering and aliasing which enhances overall quality of the render.
• NEW! Advanced integration with RealFlow- allowing you to handle RealFlow output and generate particles and meshes in render time.
• NEW! Customer support centre for everything from tutorials and tips, to scenes and scripts

Grass

The Maxwell Render grass generator allows you to quickly create grass on a selected piece of geometry. Designed to offer maximum control over the look of the grass from impeccable detail on close up shots to fast-rendering further away from the camera. Compatible with Maxwell Studio and almost all supported plugins.

Based On Reality

Reality means predictable, reliable first-time results. With Maxwell Render, you can focus your valuable time and energy on creating your vision, not struggling with obscure computer graphics terminology and tweaking parameters.

"Real-Time" Scene Preview

Maxwell Fire gives you immediate feedback in the renderer for adjustments to lighting, materials and camera settings. And unlike other interactive style renderers, Maxwell Fire is compatible with ALL Maxwell materials and features.

Multilight™: Adjust Lights in Real Time

The highly acclaimed Multilight™ feature removes the need to re-render an image when light changes are required. Multilight™ allows you to change the intensities of lights and scene emitters during and after the rendering process, so you can tweak the lighting set up over and over, saving out as many images of the same scene as you like-all from just a single render.

Materials Made Easy

The Maxwell Material system is intuitive and easy to use, consisting of components that can be stacked much the same as the layers in an image editing program. Maxwell Materials are based on real optical properties, creating unrivalled realism. And you have free access to over 3500 ready to use materials online.

Advanced Ray Tracing Technology

The advanced ray tracing technology which forms the core of Maxwell Render's engine is so powerful that it is capable of simulating light exactly as it is in the real world. No tricks. Just real world physics. Which is why Maxwell Render is the benchmark in render quality.

Memory Saving Instances

Instances are a great way to save memory when rendering. With 10,000 instances of 1 object, Maxwell Render™ will consume the same amount of memory at render time as if it was rendering only the 1 object. Instances are great for creating vegetation, bricks, furniture or any other extensively repeated geometry in your scene.

Accuracy

Be confident that your simulations truly reflect reality. Maxwell Render's incredible lighting accuracy means that your materials will look the way they are supposed to, and every detail of your textures and models will play a part in bringing your render to life.

Fast Scene Setup

Computer time is less important and far less expensive than human time. The entire Maxwell Render™ approach (real world camera, emitter and material parameters) is geared up to save you time on your projects by giving you accurate, predictable results. Don't spend your valuable time endlessly tweaking dozens of parameters, just set your scene with simple Maxwell settings- and move on to your next project!

Realistic Camera Model

The camera in Maxwell Render™ has all the parameters you would expect in a real camera - f-Stop, Focal Length, Shutter speed, ISO, film size, diaphragm blades. This means that DOF, bokeh and the exposure match your live footage- making the compositing stage far quicker and simpler.

Powerful Compositing

We offer plugins for Nuke, After Effects and Photoshop which can load Maxwell Renders high dynamic range format (MXI). In addition to from the main render, this format also supports a number of different render channels such as Z-buffer, Alpha, Normals, Position, Motion vectors, Shadows... and working directly with the MXI format in your compositing also means you have access to the Multilight feature, allowing you to re-light your scenes in real time, directly in your compositing application.

Flexible Pipeline Integration

Pipeline support has vastly improved with the release of Maxwell Render™ 2.6, which now has a Python SDK with online documentation. With Python you have access to almost all the features of Maxwell Render, allowing you to write custom tools such as extracting certain channels from an MXI sequence, rendering a turn-table animation of all your scene assets for easy referencing, create materials on the fly, network render management and much much more.

Accurate 3D Motion Blur

Maxwell Render's accurate 3D motion blur can now handle unlimited sub-steps, and can be set for both a still camera to mimic long exposure effects such as trails of light, and a film camera to show the motion blur effect of fast moving objects. The amount of motion blur is directly controlled from the camera, by either the shutter speed or the rotary shutter angle.

Hair / Fur Rendering

Maxwell Render's hair rendering tool is compatible with many of the most popular hair systems (Maya shave and Haircut, Maya hair, Max hair, Cinema hair, or Ornatrix). Hair systems are automatically converted to the Maxwell Hair primitive which is highly optimized in terms of memory consumption and speed, and of course, offers totally unrivalled quality. The hair primitive has actual thickness so any Maxwell material can be applied to it, including transparent, refractive materials.

Perfect Particles

Particles from Maya, 3dsMax, Houdini and Softimage can be rendered directly with Maxwell Render's dedicated particle primitive to which you can apply any Maxwell material.

Displacement

The displacement feature in Maxwell Render™ is both flexible and powerful - it offers two methods for displacement: on the fly and pretessellated. With on-the-fly displacement you can have virtually unlimited displacement detail with no extra ram usage, while pretessellated offers the benefit of speed together with the possibility to render vector displacements.

Down to Earth and Physically Correct

The physical sky system in Maxwell Render™ uses a novel approach, offering a wide range of real-life, physically correct variables to control the look of the sky and lighting in your scene. You can control your position on Earth (location and time), the sun's aspect, and the atmospheric conditions.

Maximum Authenticity

Maxwell Render's SimuLens™ feature allows you to produce even more realistic, authentic images- simulate glare effects by setting the shape of the camera diaphragm, or add obstacles in the lens such as dust, water drops or fingerprints.

Networking

Maxwell Render's powerful networking capabilities are multi-platform, allowing for a mixture of Windows, OSX and Linux in the same network. You can set Maxwell Render™ to render one image using all of your computers, or set each computer to render one animation frame. Complete control and flexibility.

RealFlow™ Integration

Maxwell Render™ is compatible "out of the box" with Next Limit's RealFlow™ software, giving RealFlow™ users the option to use Maxwell Render™ as their render engine of choice. Render your RealFlow™ particles directly with Maxwell Render™, meshing the point cloud at render time.

• State-of-the-art render engine (Windows, Mac, Linux, 32 and 64 bits support).
• Seamless integration in more than 15 CAD/3D and post-production platforms - FREE access to all the [plugins].
• Maxwell Studio: sophisticated standalone scene editor with a full 3D environment- to compose, edit and render Maxwell scenes. An alternative workflow to the plugins.
• Material Editor: standalone material editor and browser to create and edit physically correct materials.
• Network tools: a complete set of network tools (manager, monitor, nodes) to distribute rendering tasks across multiple computers in a single or multi-platform network.
• Scripting editor: Python-based scripting editor with example scripts to create and edit Maxwell scenes.
• Digital Library: full digital catalog of more than 4,000 Maxwell materials to choose from.
• Free technical support from the Maxwell Render team via email.
• Perpetual license and free software and plugin updates within the same major version.