Maxon Adds Archviz Assets to Capsules

Maxon has released another update to Maxon Capsules, the asset library for Maxon One subscribers. Most of the new content is aimed at architectural visualization artists. The library has gained fabrics for interiors, rattan and weave materials, a set of sky HDRIs and rigged door models. In addition, the procedural Constellation Generator by Rocket Lasso has been added for building networks of points and lines, and for woven materials Capsules offers the Weave Spline Generator by the same author.

For a visualization artist this probably means less time spent on the small details without which an interior does not look lived in. Upholstery, wicker furniture and doors are usually assembled from your own prepared pieces or bought in third-party stores, and now part of that content comes with the subscription library.

What archviz gets

The new materials cover typical surfaces of residential and office interiors:

• Fabrics. The collection includes acoustic fleece, linen, canvas and drop cloth, a coarse covering fabric. Fleece may come in handy for sound-absorbing panels, linen and canvas for upholstery and textiles.
• Rattan and weave. The materials come with different weave types and in different colors and suit, for example, wicker furniture and baskets.
• Sky HDRIs by Aixterior. The set is intended for quickly changing the mood of a scene by swapping the environment.
• Rigged doors. The collection contains American and European models. The rig will probably make it possible to use them in animated shots as well.

This is how the company describes the purpose of the doors:

“A collection of rigged American and European door models, perfect for adding realism and a sense of familiarity to architectural visualization shots.”

If the ready-made weave options are not enough, the Weave Spline Generator by Rocket Lasso lets you create your own woven materials without being limited to the patterns from the library.

Capsules also includes vegetation: a library of customizable plants, trees and flowers is available through the Asset Browser in Cinema 4D, with Laubwerk Plant Assets listed among the assets. According to Maxon, the library was developed by a team of landscape architects and biologists. How many species it currently contains and whether it can be bought separately from the subscription is not stated in the published materials.

Constellation and Atom Array

The Constellation Generator connects points with lines and builds a network out of them: by default spheres sit at the points and thin cylinders serve as the links. This is how molecular graphics, plexus effects and abstract network structures are made.

A similar result in Cinema 4D can be achieved with the built-in Atom Array. However, as stated in the Cinema 4D 2027 documentation, Constellation has more settings. Besides geometry points it can take particle positions from particle groups and clone positions. In practice this allows a network to be built directly on a particle cloud or on a distribution of clones.

Constellation is built on nodes as a capsule. Maxon has previously added procedural tools to Capsules, among them Grid Spline, FUI Ring Spline and the Catenary Spline modifier.

40 Substance materials

A separate block was released in partnership with Adobe. These are 40 Adobe Substance materials, from electrical tape to modeling clay. The materials have adjustable parameters, and by changing them you can get various realistic surfaces. The materials are available in the Asset Browser, where assets can be previewed by hovering the cursor over them.

To connect Substance files to Redshift, the Cinema 4D documentation describes the following procedure: enable Redshift in the render settings and run the Create/Support/Substance command in the Material Manager. The asset will then load as a Redshift node material. Cinema 4D's classic renderer also works with Substance files.

How the library is organized

According to Maxon, Capsules contains more than 14,000 assets and presets, and the library is updated monthly. It includes static models, textures and HDRs, parametric objects and ready-made projects with lighting and animation set up. In addition, Maxon is assembling a collection of Scene Nodes assets for the parametric generation of models.

In the Asset Browser assets are downloaded on demand, so there is no need to download the entire library to disk in advance. What has been downloaded is cached locally and is then available immediately. You can search by keywords, and also through AI Search: by text query, by reference image or by the scene in the viewport. When an asset is dragged into the scene, the Place Tool is enabled automatically for precise placement.

Capsules exist not only in Cinema 4D:

• Red Giant provides presets and sprites for effects and color grading, for Maxon One subscribers only.
• Universe contains large libraries of transition and effect presets.
• ZBrush offers brushes, mesh shapes and textures for painting.
• Redshift gets shaders, materials and presets, but so far only through the Cinema 4D library.

Who will find this useful and where the limits are

The biggest winners, apparently, are interior visualization artists who already work in Cinema 4D and Redshift on a Maxon One subscription. It includes Cinema 4D, ZBrush, Redshift, Red Giant, Universe and Autograph, as well as Cineversity and five Team Render nodes. For them the new fabrics, doors and skies come with the plan they have already paid for, at no extra cost.

There are limitations too. Capsules for Redshift are so far available only through the Cinema 4D library, so a Redshift user in another package apparently cannot access them. The sets themselves are tied to the subscription: Maxon does not mention the option of buying them separately, and there are no Maxon One prices in the materials reviewed. Outside a Maxon One subscription the update gives nothing. One more point: on the five Team Render nodes included in the subscription, Redshift renders on the CPU only unless there is a separate Redshift license for each node. For heavy archviz scenes this is worth taking into account when planning deadlines.

Which part of the new Capsules update would you put to work first?

• Fabrics for interiors
• Rattan and weave