Frequently Asked Questions

[Motiva]

WHY IT IS CALLED COLIMO?
It means Color & Light Modulator.


IS COLIMO COMPATIBLE WITH MY WORKFLOW?
Since COLIMO uses 2D data as input (hdr or exr files prefered) is renderer independant! Unfortunatly a special pass of Mental Ray is needed so you will need have it installed too (default on Maya, 3DMax and Softimage). In the future this pass could be replaced by a Thea Render pass so it will be compatible with Sketchup, Blender and Cinema4D too.


SO I NEED TO DO MY RENDERS WITH MENTAL RAY?
No, you only need to do a Mental Ray pass with the provided shader, the renders could be done with any other renderer.


HOW I COULD CREATE MY PROJECTS?
Look at the workflow videos on the Videos & Demo section. Automatic workflow in currently available in 3DMax using the provided script, Softimage and Maya version will be available in the future.


COULD I IMPORT 3D DATA (OBJ, 3DS...)?
No, 3D data is not handled, you only need to work with images.


CAN COLIMO CHANGE THE AMOUNT/GLOSSINESS OF THE REFLECTIONS/REFRACTIONS
Not, sorry at least at this version.


WHAT ARE THE EXACTLY REQUIREMENTS TO USE COLIMO?
Hardware: Shader Model 3.0 compatible videocard.
Software: Last DirectX9 libraries, C++ 2008 runtime and Microsoft Framework .net 3.5


WHY COLIMO IS NOT FREE AS SOAP AND REALCAMERA
COLIMO is a more complex app and we have to pay our bills.


WILL BE THE UPGRADES FREE?
Obviously all the customers that purchase the software in the beta period will have a free upgrade to 1.0 and next releases.


SOME TIME AGO I SAW A VIDEO ABOUT REALTIME MODIFICATION OF RELIEF...
We are working on that, obviously it will be one of the free upgrades.


IS PLANNED A SPECIAL PRICE FOR EDUCATIONAL LICENSES?
No, sorry, we think that is enough cheap even for educational purposes.


CAN I APPLY POSTPRODUCTION TO THE IMAGES BEFORE USING IT AS INPUT IN COLIMO?
Sure, no problem at all.


COLIMO WORKS WITH SEQUENCES (FOR VIDEO)?
Since COLIMO needs n+1 render to work for each frame we don't think this would be too much useful for animations, but if some customers aks for it we'll support it in future versions.


IS THERE A SIZE LIMIT IN THE IMAGES USED
The only limit is the memory available in your videocard.


THERE WILL BE MORE DEMOS?
Yes, but only in COLIMO Compact mode, no a production enabled one. You can test the performance in this kind of demos and learn about the workflow in the videotutorials.

[3DMG]

If I understood correctly, in automatic workflow , you setup your base scene, select your changable objects, set an output and press render , it will then do all the passes I need ?

If so, does this work with all renders ? Maxwell, Fryrender, mental ray etc ? If no , wich renders does automatic workflow support ?

[Alejandro]

Renderers supported for automatic workflow are vray, mental ray and maxwell 1.7. Maxwell 2 is not supported yet. Fryrender never will be supported, since it's completely external to the host application, so we don't have access to material or render properties to change them and launch the renders. Simplifying, if there's access to the render engine from the host application (3dsmax at this moment) it can be added to automatic workflow. If there's no access, manual process must be used.

Regards

[Meian]

cannot find the maxscript for your automatic work-flow... is there a version ready for max 2010 somewhere ?

[Alejandro]

Sorry, I forgot the script. Now it's posted here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=32

[pixie]

Do you plan supporting Indigo?

[Alejandro]

You can use indigo now, but you still need some special passes with mental ray. In a (near) future, the mental ray passes could be replaced with thearender passes.

Regards

[pixie]

The sad fact of life is that I use Cinema4D as modeling tool.