Creating Motion Blur Effects with Maxwell Render: A Detailed Guide

Creating Motion Blur Effects with Maxwell Render: A Detailed Guide

Maxwell Render offers a powerful and flexible platform for creating stunningly realistic animations. One of the tools it offers is the ability to add motion blur to animations. This guide will provide a detailed exploration of how to create the motion blur effect with Maxwell Render, using the animation of product Cea Design's "Two Fan" as an example.

3D Model in Maxwell

To achieve a photo-realistic result, you need to focus on setting the materials and applying the textures correctly. This is critical in a render like this, where the metal component is primary. You must carefully set parameters such as anisotropy, global bump, and roughness to achieve high photorealism.

Material Setting

For the metal element of the upper cover, a starting material was created by loading the chromium.ior file from the Maxwell library. This ensures realistic values for the "BSDF Properties", preventing the risk of incorrect parameter settings. Next, in the "Surface Properties" section, the "Roughness" value was set to medium-low, as the material is a metal that is not completely shiny. An intermediate value of "Anisotropy" was set to obtain a brushing effect.

UV Mapping on Maxwell Studio

For the carbon material, the challenge was to correctly adjust the scaling of the texture on the various facets of the modeling. This was achieved by assigning materials by selecting the "Triangles", thereby creating a "Multimaterial" material. A dedicated material was created for each direction, duly scaled and oriented as needed.

Scene Creation

The scene setting consists of three emitters. Two of them are applied to planes, and the other one, in the background, simulates a neon created by a cylindrical base.

Camera Setting

Once the scene is set, the camera settings come into play. In the chosen shot, it is important to define the type of "lens", depending on whether you want a completely in-focus image or one with a "depth of field" effect. A classic "thin lens" was used in this case. The camera target was placed on the object using the viewfinder, and an "f-stop at 3.000" was set to achieve a very narrow focus.

Creating the Animation

The next step was to isolate the objects to be rotated, group them together, then select them in the animation settings as a rotation object. The object's gumball had to be centered in the precise center of rotation. The "Transform Object / Pivot" button was used to move the pivot precisely.

Animation Setting

The animation settings were then set up to manage the blur effect in the fan's rotation. The "Animation" command was selected from the top bar, and "Animate object" was chosen in the screen that opened. Then, "ROTATION", the name of the group set earlier, was selected. A "90°" rotation angle and "Y-axis" as the rotation axis were set. The rotation was set to "Clockwise", and the "Motion Blur" was enabled.

Motion Blur Setting in Maxwell Render

Finally, the degree of motion effect for the animation had to be decided. This was achieved by setting the number of "frames" for the object to perform the "90°" rotation. The greater the number of frames, the less blurry the effect will be, and vice versa. The focus values were kept with the “Camera target” setting; the "Render after export" and "On this computer" options were selected to start the rendering calculation once the exporting .mxs files.

This guide has been created to help you understand and apply the process of creating a motion blur effect using Maxwell Render. For more information about the newest and most advanced design software technology, please contact our sales team at NOVEDGE.