Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie 2022.7 released
Originally posted on 4 February 2022. Scroll down for news of the 2022.7 updates.
RandomControl has updated Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie, its new physically based GPU renderers for industrial designers and entertainment artists.
The 2022.1 update improves workflow when merging 3D models into scenes, and adds support for hair when importing characters in FBX or OBJ format. Studio users get an updated version of the Rhino bridge plugin.
Physically based render engines balancing ease of use and modern GPU rendering features
Developed by Arion renderer creator RandomControl and launched in 2019, Maverick Studio is a streamlined new renderer aimed at product and automotive visualisation.
It provides a drag-and-drop workflow for assigning PBR materials, and for setting up lighting and a render camera, plus a physically accurate full-spectral render engine with built-in denoising.
The software is CUDA-based, and supports modern GPU rendering features like out-of-core rendering.
It was later joined by Maverick Indie, a lower-priced edition aimed at entertainment work, which lacks support for CAD file formats, plus features like NURBS and cross-section rendering.
New in both editions: improvements to merge workflows and hair import
In both editions, the 2022.1 update adds new options when merging 3D models into a scene.
Users can now choose whether to skip or import duplicated assets, and whether to preserve or overwrite any changes that have been made to a model inside Maverick when importing a new version.
The functionality powers new workflows for editing a model simultaneously inside Maverick and an external DCC application, with users able to pull in new geometry but leave materials, lighting and cameras intact.
The video at the top of the story shows the process when editing a model inside ZBrush.
Other changes include support for curves, including hair, when importing models in FBX or OBJ format, including support for ZBrush’s FiberMesh curve guides when importing ZBrush sculpts as OBJ files.
Maverick Studio 2022.1 only: updates to the Rhino-to-Maverick plugin
Maverick Studio users get a new version of the software’s Rhino integration plugin.
The plugin now updates bidirectionally, meaning that deleting an object inside Rhino also deletes it from the scene inside Maverick Studio;. Translation of Rhino materials has also been improved.
Updated 27 April 2022: Maverick Indie 2022.2 and Maverick Studio 2022.2 are out. The updates introduce a new cloning system, making it easier to create and manage clones of objects or groups of objects.
Changes include the option to make a clone’s dependencies, like materials, unique to that clone, rather than shared with the source object; and to create linear and radial arrays of clones by [Shift]-dragging.
Other new features include the option to overlay composition guides, ranging from a rule-of-thirds grid to the golden spiral, on interactive renders; and a new Target Object, which can be used to set the centre of rotation for turntable animations, or to set the pivot point when manipulating 3D objects.
Maverick Studio users also get a new ZW3D importer and improvements to the STEP/IGES importer.
Updated 29 May 2022: Maverick Indie 2022.4 and Maverick Studio 2022.4 are out.
The releases further update interactive preview rendering, adding a canvas overlay system (shown above: it enables move, selection and other tools to work outside the preview frame) and a floor composition guide.
Other changes include support for 3D LUTs in .cube format.
Updated 26 October 2022: Maverick Indie 2022.5 and Maverick Studio 2022.5 are out.
The updates provide support for Micro-Patch Displacement Mapping (MPDM), a replacement for the old brute force displacement system that uses “nearly zero memory”, with calculations performed at render time.
The Glare and Bloom lens effects have also been updated, with new temperature and diffraction ringing controls, and new control map slots including lens dirt, iris aperture and glare diffraction pattern.
Updated 18 November 2022: Maverick Indie 2022.6 and Maverick Studio 2022.6 are out.
Studio users get MultiClone, a new modifier for arranging objects in linear or radial lattices. Instances of the source object are generated at render time, and take up no GPU memory.
Both editions get improvements to the Scatter modifer, including support for angle steps when randomising the rotation of scattered objects.
Updated 23 November 2022: Maverick Indie 2022.7 and Maverick Studio 2022.7 are out.
The updates add new features for creating motion-graphics-style effects, including new options to the Scatter node for creating regular arrays of objects rather than random distributions.
For colouring the arrays, a new Remap node makes it possible to use the existing gradient_color node to colorise greyscale input maps, while the gradient_color node itself gets an editable gradient curve.
You can see examples of the types of effects achievable in the video above.
Pricing and system requirements
Maverick Indie and Maverick Studio are available for 64-bit Windows only. Both are CUDA-based, and require a RTX-compatible Nvidia GPU. You can see a feature comparison table for the two editions here.
Perpetual licences of Maverick Indie cost €249.99 (around $252); rental starts at €19.99/month ($20/month). Perpetual licences of Maverick Studio cost €499.99 ($503); rental starts at €39.99/month ($40/month).
Read an overview of the new features in Maverick Indie and Studio on the RandomControl blog