Dear Maverick users,
We are currently working on a general improvement of “workflow” features such as:
- The importers.
- The ability to merge external models into the scene, resolving node collisions if needed.
- The ability to continuously update a model created in an external application (e.g., Zbrush).
- And very importantly, the Rhino-to-Maverick bridge plug-in.
The build that we just released a few minutes ago brings major improvements in those areas, and pre-faces a soon-to-come release with more improvements such as cloning and much more comprehensive undo/redo capabilities.
As usual, this build also addresses many other minor issues or wishes reported by our customers on support.
The Rhino-to-Maverick bridge plug-in
Our Rhino-to-Maverick bridge plug-in is a key Maverick component, as it is used by a large portion of our userbase. In this release we’ve made some significant improvements based on the feedback we’ve received.
- Much better material translation between Rhino and Maverick. This encompasses multiple aspects of the translation (layers, PBR materials, etc…). Now we have reached a point where every single scene we try transports materials and base colors correctly.
- Some problematic situations in the past have been completely addressed and fixed. Such as duplicate or empty layers when objects were rearranged in Rhino. Now we have reached a point where the R-to-M synchronization is 1:1 all the way.
- Now deleting objects in Rhino deletes them in Maverick as well.
- We have added options in the Preference panel so you can choose what the RtM plug-in will send to Maverick. You may choose to preserve the camera/object poses, materials, etc… done in Maverick, or overwrite them with the content sent from Rhino. For materials you probably always want to preserve your work in Maverick, but for cameras and object transforms, you may occasionally prefer to position the viewpoint and/or the model in Rhino, depending on what you feel most comfortable with.
See the video below for an updated tour on our Rhino-to-Maverick connection!
Merge and conflicts resolution
Merge allows you to import a model, just like the import button, but with the intention to add the model into the existing scene. You would use merge, for example, to decorate your scene with new objects you create externally, or download from Sketchfab, etc…
On merge, there may be conflicts between what you have in the scene, and what you are merging. Conflicts may happen for a number of reasons. The main situations where conflict resolution is important are:
- When you export your own objects and then import them into a different scene. i.e., as a way to reuse (or even clone) models.
- When you import the same model multiple times.
- When you import a model, then make changes to the model externally, and import again.
In such situations there will be conflicts between incoming nodes and existing nodes, such as materials. Now Maverick allows you to decide what action to take for each family of conflicts;
The options are:
- Just bring a copy of the new nodes into the scene.
- Bring the model but preserve the work you’ve done in Maverick (e.g., materials).
- Bring the model and overwrite the work you’ve done in Maverick.
- Simply skip the conflicting nodes.
This all sounds a bit abstract, despite the problem is genuinely mundane. The video below gives proper examples.
Progressive model update from an external app
Benefitting from all the improvements made in the merge system, now Maverick can seamlessly and progressively update the model you are working on in an external DCC app (such as Zbrush).
The main Maverick toolbar features a button to “Update last import” (there is a generic one, and one specific to Zbrush) that pulls the model again from the hard drive and makes sure that the geometry is updated, preserving all the camera/pose/materials/lighting work you’ve done in Maverick. The Preferences dialog allows you to choose whether you can, precisely, preserve your cameras, xforms and materials in Maverick (which is what you usually want) or not.
The video below goes through the process, which is pretty much one-click!
This is all for now.
Thanks for watching and happy rendering!