...Maya RLA files crash AE...

[beaker]

Use Iff files. AE 5.5 reads iff by default.

[Randolph]

But note that AE (5.5) seems to have some problems with extracting the z-channel of iff files. In other words: it seems that it just ignores them.

BTW I'm not a friend of these built-in not anti aliased z-channels.
I thinks it's always better to render a seperate z-map image using special shaders or plug ins.

[crgowo]

Originally posted by Randolph
But note that AE (5.5) seems to have some problems with extracting the z-channel of iff files. In other words: it seems that it just ignores them.

BTW I'm not a friend of these built-in not anti aliased z-channels.
I thinks it's always better to render a seperate z-map image using special shaders or plug ins.

if you render only zdepth information with a zdepth shader how do you put the beauty and zdepht information back together? or what compositing software do you use so that you can use an antialiased zdepth file and a beauty file together. In other words what software do you use to specify what file(meaning its a seperate file) has the zdepth for a beauty composite. cause i dont think DF or combution support that. i know you can use another files alpha but how do you set zdepth information form another file.

[beaker]

Originally posted by crgowo
if you render only zdepth information with a zdepth shader how do you put the beauty and zdepht information back together? or what compositing software do you use so that you can use an antialiased zdepth file and a beauty file together. In other words what software do you use to specify what file(meaning its a seperate file) has the zdepth for a beauty composite. cause i dont think DF or combution support that. i know you can use another files alpha but how do you set zdepth information form another file.
Shake can do this pretty easily, you can pipe any channel into other channels. I believe nuke can too.

[crgowo]

damn you apple. :) oh well. there is no way i can get access to shake way to much $$$

[dg]

Same prob with Combustion and the problem seems to be in the rla header that is different from the comon one, I think :surprised
But I have used iff, rpf and zpic and he works great with them.

Cheers! :beer:

[crgowo]

but when maya renders out pic files instead of creating zpic for zbuffer it creates an iff with zbuffer. and iff files make combustion REALLY unstable. so still no go. :(

[Randolph]

I know it's a little bit late but:

Originally posted by crgowo
if you render only zdepth information with a zdepth shader how do you put the beauty and zdepht information back together?

I usually go this
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41492&highlight=z+depth

or that way:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4955&highlight=z+depth

[thedude]

Digital Fusion and DFX+ can easily combine a seperate file of z-depth info into a piece of footage. This would be done with the Channel Booleans tool which allows you to mismatch and combine any channels you could possibly need between two clips.

And with certain file formats DF will even automagically load a seperate z-depth clip and use it as z-depth information to make things even easier.

[crgowo]

Originally posted by thedude
Digital Fusion and DFX+ can easily combine a seperate file of z-depth info into a piece of footage. This would be done with the Channel Booleans tool which allows you to mismatch and combine any channels you could possibly need between two clips.

And with certain file formats DF will even automagically load a seperate z-depth clip and use it as z-depth information to make things even easier.
i tested that out and your right you can use another image's Zbuffer info. But what if you render out your zbuffer in the RGBA. like if you apply a zdepth shader to all your objects in the scene and render that image out with no zdepth info. so the actuall image looks like a grey scale zdepth. Is there a way to set it that way.
If not whats the best way to antialias the zdepth channel only since it doesnt get antialiased.

[gmask]

>>>If not whats the best way to antialias the zdepth channel only since it doesnt get antialiased.

Render it double size.. I think that would help..


BTW.. if you are using the zdepth for DOF or Fog then the depth shader route is great but if you want to insert layers behind certain objects in composite it will not allow for that... at least not nearly as easily.

[crgowo]

doh...
you would think thats and obvious answer :) thanks

[beaker]

Originally posted by gmask
>>>If not whats the best way to antialias the zdepth channel only since it doesnt get antialiased.

Render it double size.. I think that would help..


BTW.. if you are using the zdepth for DOF or Fog then the depth shader route is great but if you want to insert layers behind certain objects in composite it will not allow for that... at least not nearly as easily.
No, that doesn't work. Zdepth cannot be antialiased. It is not a raster image in the first place. 3d and compositing apps are just showing you a greyscale representation of floating point data that tells where objects are in the scene at what depth.

[gmask]

Originally posted by beaker
No, that doesn't work. Zdepth cannot be antialiased. It is not a raster image in the first place. 3d and compositing apps are just showing you a greyscale representation of floating point data that tells where objects are in the scene at what depth.

I guess what I was thinking is that perhaps if you render the zdepth at a higher rez and then upscale the image to be effected and precomp it.. perform whatever effect was intended and then downsample the results that it would effectively AA the edges from the zdepth..

If you render a zdepth map at a higher rez it is going to have more detail in it's edges (more floating point data) than one rendered at a lower resolution.. I haven't tested it but I would assume that AE would use all that extra resolution if applied correctly.

But again if you are mainly using the depth info for fog or blur then a rendered depth map useing a shader is probably best.

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