Next Level uses its science research to improve its artistic toolset.
Maxwell Render from Next Limit adds new support for spotlight control and volumetrics in its latest update.
Key new features in the 3.1 update include:
- Fully controllable new emitters workflow in spotlights
- Extra sampling feature allows distribution of different sampling level values in different parts of the image
- OpenVDB format supported for volumetric rendering.
- 360º Animation tool in Studio to create turntable and time-lapse animations in Studio in just one click
- Camera sensor models, reproducing the color response of many real-world camera models.
- Hide to Camera in Shadow Channel, to get high-quality full shadows for compositing, avoiding the 1 pixel border around the shadow without the need to launch an extra channel for the full shadow.
What do we think?
It is amazing that so many rendering vendors still exist. Perhaps it is because every computer science student interested in graphics has written a rendering engine before graduation. As long as artists are involved, there will never be just one way to render an image or animation. Next Limit works at the intersection of art and science, building not only Maxwell Render but also a computational fluid dynamics solver (XFlow) and a high-end flow simulation tool (Real Flow). Such a combination of technologies gives the Madrid-based developer an advantage as it improves a technology for one product then modifies it for use in the others.
