rendering transparent geometry without backfaces

[ryang]

Hello,

Can you render separate passes and play with them in composite.

1- Specular
2- Fill (rendered solid)
3- Shadow
4- Reflection
5- Matte

This will give you the ability to make the Fill transparent in composite. You can also tweak the other layers for more subtle shadows or reflections etc.

Creating more layers can take up time and disk space but can save you time if you have to make changes on the fly for clients.

I've used this method in the past with Houdini and received desired results.

If you haven't done any compositing before, this may not be helpful. If so, sorry I couldn't be more help.

[Tad]

I would like to know this too,
seems like I keep running into things like this in Maya,
and the answer is always "do it in post"
course maybe i'm just not looking hard enough.

[ryang]

Tad,

I currently do not have Maya running at my home but,...

Transparency and opacity are two separate controls are they not? You've probably already tried this but, can you turn your transparency off and manipulate only the opacity of the shading group. I remember not having much luck with this in older versions of maya but maybe opacity controls (opacity gain?) are easier or actually work now. Maybe I'm just slow or hadn't played with it enough.

I know the "Fix it in post" answer gets old but sometimes it's the best solution when time is against you.

Best of luck amigo,

Ryan

[Jhonus]

Not only is post quicker, but you often get better results.

So what is wrong with doing it in post??

[ryang]

Kruger,

I don't believe their is anything wrong with fixing it in post. That was my first suggestion. I'm just trying to think of another method to remedy the issue. It can't hurt to try and find an in-package solution.

I appologize if there was any confusion.

[Tad]

Well, post is only quicker because there is no other
way to do it so far. If there was a 'show backfaces/dont show backfaces' option(like there should be) then THAT would by far be the quickest way.
Not everyone loves comping!
although I'm not going to badmouth it, because it's definetely
the way to go for many/most things.

I just tend to believe that geometry related, or simple things
should definetely be in the software

[ryang]

In a perfect world my friend.

Good Luck.

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