Exciting news for Maxon users as it announces fifty new 4k tiled textures for its Maxon Capsules Collection. Its Surface Imperfections Volume 1 texture library is available for immediate royalty-free use by all Cinema 4D and Maxon One subscribers.
One of the ironies of creating photorealistic virtual worlds is that in order to make an object look more realistic, one often has to make its surface less perfect. Maxon’s new high-definition Surface Imperfections collection offers new textures, designed to bring additional photorealism to artists’ renderings by adding minor pseudorandom imperfections to the surfaces of 3D objects.
Image demonstrates how Surface Imperfections can add to an object’s photorealism
Surface imperfections or ‘grunge maps’ have long been the ‘secret sauce’ of skilled virtualization professionals. By subtly layering imperfections such as dust, fingerprints, and scratches and smudges, artists can make their renders look more natural and realistic.
A few of things one can do with these new high-definition tiled textures
- Bump maps add realistic micro-scratches, for creating subtle impurities in materials like such as paint and plastic.
- Extra detail on windows, monitors, mirrors and other reflective surfaces that require that extra glint of realism.
- Glossiness or anisotropy maps to add realistic surface imperfections to reflective surfaces such as glass, metal and plastic.
- Masks for layered materials and procedural shaders.
- Mix additional plain colors in your materials to break them up and add variation, to emulate natural surface imperfections.
- Overlay glare and lens flare to emulate dirty or smeary lenses.
The grayscale maps in Surface Imperfections collection feature a variety of naturally occurring imperfections, all scanned from real surfaces and carefully tiled so that viewers cannot see the joins.
Building complex textures such as these normally require expensive equipment and specialized techniques. It also requires significant time and skill to make these textures seamlessly tileable. Maxon has circumvented all this hassle by making its new tiled textures available free to all Cinema 4D users. And it has done so without the inconvenience of individual licensing.
The Surface Imperfections Volume 1 texture library was created by David Gruwier and has been licensed by Maxon for immediate royalty-free use by all Cinema 4D and Maxon One subscribers.
Where to get Surface Imperfections
If you already have Cinema 4d, then the Surface Imperfections collection is located in the Cinema 4D Asset Browser, in the Textures/Imperfections category, or by searching for “si-v1”. If you do not have Cinema 4D, then you can find it bundled within Maxon One.
In order to obtain Maxon One, you first need to download and install the Maxon App. The Maxon App provides an intuitive way to install and update all your favorite Maxon application, as well as manage your Maxon licenses. The Maxon App available for Apple macOS, Microsoft Windows, and for many popular GNU/Linux distributions.
- More information about the Maxon app.
About Maxon
Maxon was originally founded in 1986 in Germany by students Harald Egel, Uwe Bärtels and Harald Schneider. In 2000, it became a subsidiary of the Nemetschek Group. Today Maxon produces and develops a wide range of professional-quality software for editors, filmmakers, motion designers and visual effects artists.