Rendering: multiple layers?

[mouj]

There probably are more elegant ways to do it, but i would say render that object seperately from the rest of the scene, save the image as tiff or tga or whatever lets you include an alpha channel, and in Ps, take that alpha channel and use it on the whole renderered image to seperate object from rest while keeping it's lighting as is.
Won't work for shadows.

mouj

[sbv20]

Right. But i need the shadows..

[Chris Thomas]

first, get THE ONION script from blur beta
get used to it, then assign the objects that you want in
different layers to separate onion layers

use onions alternate texture feature to apply a MATTE SHADOW
material to the layer you want to be rendered separately

Then turn on the alternate material and do a test render. You should get your groundplane and your object should be invisible but still casting a shadow onto the ground plane

Then repeat/invert the procedure for your groundplane layer

couple of things to get comforatble with when doing layers

A. The MATTE SHADOW material
B. Rendering to separate folders
C. if you have comping software try comping the layers yourself
D. Pre-multiplied alpha (look on web for info)

if this seems like a bit of a pain, its is, but, its well worth learning how to do because on complex projetcs this is how things are done (for a number of very good reasons)

[sbv20]

thanks a lot for the excellent response. if that is the only way, then screw it. i'll do it by hand. but thanks for the great info.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.