Fire!! I Have Created Fire!!

When I first started using Maxwell Render (the photo-realistic rendering suite) I was thrilled to create a space that sort-of resembled a room that you might consider ‘real’, or as close to ‘real’ as virtually possible.

Nowadays, my progress has developed to such an extent that I kinda know my 3D visuals could be considered pretty close to ‘real’ as virtually possible. But there’s always room for improvement, no matter what level you deem yourself. Am I a learner? Probably not. But I’m definitely not advanced; I’m a cautious intermediate. Yea, that sounds about right.

I’ve always wanted to further my knowledge of the various (and quite in-depth) camera settings in Maxwell Render (and there are quite a few).

‘EV what? IOS?? F-stop?? Depth of Field? Focal Distance? WHAT??!! Just tell me how to make stuff blurry when I want it blurry and in focus when I want it in focus. JEEZ!! This was basically my response after I dipped my toe into the murky waters of  Maxwell Render camera settings. I swiftly pulled that proverbial toe out of there, patted it dry, and decided never to go back to that dark side ever again. EVER.

But I have this problem. If I want to do something and I don’t know how; I will consider myself a failure until I crack it.  Or at the very least make a decent attempt at trying to crack it. And that is exactly what I did this weekend.

I rolled up my sleeves. Took a few deep breaths. Did a few neck rolls to loosen up and returned to the dreaded Maxwell Render manual to try and understand all of the mumbo-jumbo re: camera settings.

And I cracked it.

Not only that; I also managed to achieve another ambition: FIRE!!!! Clearly, I haven’t invented fire (Tom Hanks has been there, done that) but I was able to create flames using Maxwell Render. Not a big deal to you. But a HUGE deal to me!! We’ve already established that I have issues; moving on.

We’ve all seen the ‘arty’ photo-shoots where an object is brought into sharp focus whilst the background is out of focus. Well that’s the effect I wanted to create. I don’t know how to do this using my own digital camera but I now know how to do it in Maxwell Render for a scene that doesn’t actually exist. Again, moving on.

So, here it is. Feast your eyes on the good stuff about to follow. I will never fully divulge just how long it took to grasp this concept but either way I’m pretty pleased with myself that I was able to achieve these effects. Whether I’ll be able to do it again is a different story.