I’m a newbie in 3d max 9 in terms of “Multipass Rendering”. I’ve seen other 3d software like Softimage do a multipass render and was wondering how to apply it in max 9. Knowing this technique will greatly solve my render time problems and as much help me in composting in terms of manipulating the shadows, intensity of light, alpha, etc.
Thank you in advance!
Hi withinsight and wellcome to CG Talk. 
I don’t know about Softimage but in Max you just go to the render tab and then go to “render elements” there you have all the passes you possibly want (I think).
Yes it will give you great control over your final work and can reduce render times a bit. There are some good tutorials about this on the web.
http://www.3drender.com/light/compositing/index.html
http://www.tahlniran.com/tutorials/afterEffects/ambOcc_forAE/ambOccforAE_tute.htm
Ok I’m in the render tab–>render elements—> then what? As of now I’m doing a fly through animated camera scene with lots of building and glasses on it. I was wondering how can i render all of the glasses seperately. What tab should i choose? There are lots of tab to choose from like vray alpha, vrayraw reflection, object id. etc. I’m really into cirlces right now.
Btw, thank you very much for the link you gave. Its very useful and i could add these to my notes!
If you want to isolate objects, or sets of objects, consider using layers. Either use the built-in layer manager that comes with 3ds max, or try the Onion, its free.
In other words, you set up sets of objects that you want to render as layers, and you hide layers that you don’t want to render, etc.
What’s the built-in layer manager that comes with 3ds max? I’m not familiar with it. And if I hide the layers i do not want to render it would mean that some or lots of unwanted areas will be exposed and i have to mask them all in Composting. It would cause me a lot of effort to do that frame by frame.
The layer manager is in the upper tab next to the align icon I think.
Yes its true, sometimes unwanted areas will be exposed but you can use a trick that I often use.
Go to the material editor and on the “get material” icon select “new” and the choose the “matte/shadow” material and assign the material to the objects that you don’t want to render but also want to hide the objects behind them.
Hope that I’ve helped.
We should really get a re-worked layer manager for max , working along with scene states and multi pass outputs.
Ah, a man can dream 
-the0
Ok I’m in the render tab–>render elements—> then what?
Wrong question. Ask yourself what you need for your compositing.
I suggest always to use a basic set of diffuse, specular, shadow, ambient occlusion and reflection pass.
For Depth of Field manipulation render out a z-depth pass(though I would do this in an extra scene using a distance falloff map).
For lighting corrections it would be handy to acces the lights seperatly, which means you need lighting passes. A normal pass can be usefull for relighting too.
I was wondering how can i render all of the glasses seperately.
To seperate objects if needed, use a matte pass render element and use it to mask out different objects in post.
Wrong question. Ask yourself what you need for your compositing.
—> Sorry, I wasn’t too clear during my inquiry. At that time I was referring on how to render a separated glass reflection in max. I had a problem which tab button in Render Elements I should choose since there are lots of buttons to choose from.
Thank you for the advice and my apologies for not being clear.
BTW, that “matte/shadow” trick did it!
Once more thank you very much for your help!
One problem I’ve run into when sending network renders with X-refs, it will unhide the layers you have chosen to hide, and will render those objects.
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But it would be cool and time saver.