About Combustion's RFP & RLA

[thatoneguy]

I never use RPF.

Render layers and GBuffer Builder, are more flexible in my mind. Especially since I don't like single layer DOF passes.

I don't know, it all comes down to the project, most of the time, it's just overkill, and memory waste. I would rather merge together two TGA sequences than have all my data burried inside of some file format, I can't easily extract data from. If I want to use the Zbuffer for brightness, I can't just load it up in a new luminosity overlay. Analyze what data you're going to need in your compositing suite before you start rendering, then settle on what elements you're going to render out. A little planning, will usually yield better results, than just dumping every possible RPF channel from max into combustion.

I'll often discover that maybe by Zbuffer neeeds to be a 16bit grayscale image, while it might be ok for my diffuse pass to be 8 bit, and my reflection layer to be 32bit. RPF doesn't offer this level of flexibility, and maybe you don't need that level of flexibility, that's why you need to plan out our renders before you spend 8 hours rendering something, that isn't what you need.

Alawys remember: "Render Layers/Passes are your friend".

[kreuz]

im_thatoneguy

super portentous! i am really appreciate for your advices,it's really helpful
hmm..it seems quiet flexible to use Render Elements / pass , i will try it
cuz in my pass cases and work experience in animations studio , it's only TGA format
in order to speed up finish the projects , but i thought it's really a rough way. and i thinks
it is not adaptable to my personal creations.
Finally , i considered that render layer/pass is really needed, but
do you conceive RLA or TGA is more medium of makeing composition in your personal creation?

[kreuz]

additional problem
render layers/pass
what layers should be rendered all the time (often) ?

thanks in advance

[Vympel]

Normally you can render a beauty pass with layers like diffuse, reflection, shadows, mattes and others layers, beyond of this you can need other passes to determined effects, like Z-depth para DOF, FOG, Velocity for Motion Blur, UV to image mapping. Some of these maps they require high bit depths to obtain a good precision, others they can be processed with small bit dephts

[schwastika]

how much control do i have when compositing 3d elements. Can i rotate the object around as tho it is in a 3d enviroment. Or is it only the Z-depth and material i can play with only?

[thatoneguy]

Once it's rendered, you can only rotate a 'picture' of the 3d model in 3d space. So it'll be a flat plane. (Maybe in the future we'll get some rad occlusion mapping tech built in.)

I like to render a Beauty (Diffuse, spec, reflection etc..), and alpha 100% of the time. It's a personal preference, but I like my alpha layers also in a seperate file, I'm sure you'd get a wide variety of responses on that subject. You won't however lose any render time when exporting your alpha/zdepth etc as seperate files over using RPF. The data has already been generated for the renderer, so you just lose about .02 seconds as it writes the tga to disk.

Another good plan of attack to determine what you need is to do a single frame. In combustion I'll usually comp a single image. Trying to get it exactly how I want it, re-rendering layers that need adjustment, and rendering out new layers that find I need. Usually at this stage, I render out more than I think I'll need: pixel velocity, Zbuffer, Gbuffer, fog etc... just so that I can work pretty quickly and efficiently. Once I get the comp the way I want it. I do a quick check to see what data I'm actually using in the composite, what I could do without (Could I just use the Zbuffer with a few adjustments as a fog layer), Is that layer actually necessary, could I achieve the same result with less. Once my composite is optimized, I'll go back into the 3d program with a shopping list of everything I'll need rendered out for the final sequence. This way I'm not wasting hours of time rendering out reflection, shadow or diffuse passes that I don't need. Or as is sometimes the case, not having enough storage to keep all of those layers around, once I have 5 or 6 sequences on my storage server.

Often all I need is a beauty/alpha. Occasionally I'll need Z-depth. On really tricky composites I'll usually render out a chrome pass. When I'm integrating with a photgraphic plate, I want a shadow pass and specular pass. If I'm using Depth of Field on a large CG scene, I'll render out foreground, midground and background independently. That's sort of my rule of thumb for render passes.

[kreuz]

wow ,intelligeble
thanks to you so much , nice experience for my creation , helpfully:love:

[Billibong]

Hey,

I've been experimenting with RPF format files from max to combustion, but I don't understand why you'd break up Foreground, mid and background into passes. Are you seperating these objects into there own max layers and freezing/thawing them and rendering them into seperate passes. How do you use them, like a Z-depth matte?
Sorry I'm new to combustion and this is probably a really dense question..

Thanks,
Billibong

[Vympel]

You can isolate the objects inthe scene using material or object ID, but this method normally cause problens in the edges of objects ( no AA).

[thatoneguy]

You break up foreground, mid ground and background if you are going to apply any sort of filter that depends on data behind altered data.

For example you have a telephone pole in the foreground. You want it out of focus. If you blur it in post, even if you are just bluring the foreground pixels, there are no in focus pixels behind the post to remain sharp... and it just sort of looks funky. This will also be true of motion blur. Let's say you have an object flying quickly across the screen... it can apply a motion blur, and blur the object, but if it's all on one layer, there will be no color data behind the blurred out object.

Render Layers are the way to normally do this. Just break up all your objects into either a foreground layer, a midground layer and a background layer (again this is all scene dependent, it would be rediculous to do this in all circumstances.. i.e. only in scenes where something will be blured in one way or another) Then render out each layer seperately. Should only be a couple of clicks.

If you have Max 8, you could create scene states, then use the new batch command. I did this on my last project and it worked really well.

If you want more control over your render layers go download "The Onion" plugin. It was developed by Blur Studios for Max, and greatly expands the functionality of Max's layer system. Another (but not free option) would be Fangorn. Same sort of thing.

[kreuz]

im_thatoneguy

really awesome///:beer:

i have a simple question about software using to ask you , now i am useing "CB"
and , if there is a 100 frame animations pictures (maybe tga format or others)
and normally 1 - 100 preview in CB is run in order , how can i reverse my data
to run as 100 -> 1 ?

Best regard
Kreuz

[inka]

in the footage controls, > Output=> check reverse footage.

[Vympel]

Footage Controls, reverse footage

[kreuz]

thanks upsters:bounce:

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