I don’t do Maya but in my own world I do this:
[ul]
[li] Get every distinct characteristic of the shot “out onto the hard drive as a separate file.” (Or at least know exactly, distinctly, what they are.) [] Everything falls into one of two categories. Some of those elements are visual-data sources, which “contribute pixels,” while the others are modulators (my term) whose only purpose is to affect something else. (Strictly speaking, these are distinctions, not of “the signal channels themselves,” but of “how they can be applied.”) One produces data; the other consumes it. Fire. Ice. [] The visual data sources, then, are “the pure music.” The modulators, inevitably, are the “static.” [] “Music first, noise last.” On the left side of the screen, each “data source” is lined-up on its own. Then, modulations are attached to it one at a time left-to-right. Even if the same input is piped to more than one of them, each has “only one noise, so-far.” [] Continuing to the right, the streams of data start to combine, leading to the final output(s) on the right side. Each time this happens, all of the “noises” in each input are in-effect multiplied. (But, it also matters less, especially when “very noisy” data is going to be masked-out or otherwise excluded anyway.) [] There are several ways that any input channel can be combined … addition, average, maximum/minimum, and so on. Choose wisely. [] Stick viewers onto every intermediate output and build up the network one step at a time. [*] The “music to noise” rule-of-thumb really helps to clear my thoughts. If you’ve got eighteen or so inputs running around in a shot, there are literally thousands of ways to combine them. Sort them out (“music”, “noise”); keep them on parallel paths as long as you can; pay attention to noise as you combine them.
[/li][/ul]
render passes, order + operation
What I am saying is … “it depends.” You’re going to need to look at your various input-files and what’s most important in terms of what you get out of them, and experiment. But the fundamental nature of some of these transforms … loss and noise … make some combos very “obviously wrong.” Specularity and diffusion, for example. Wire 'em up, first one then the other, and then flip 'em. You’ll see the difference instantly.
Sundailsvc4 : i wouldn’t usually be drawn on a topic like this but your post really annoys me. Some people on this list composite for a living in pipleines where people have spent a lot of time determining how and why multipass rendering is useful for their work. People come to this list with a question about professional practice, and maybe they want to learn the skills and techniques to participate in visual effects production. to this end it is important how and why compositing decisions are made.
Talking about vagaries and nuances which are not really relevant is in itself exactly the kind of ‘noise’ you mention. This is not black magic or composing a symphony, this is a technique used to make achieving a goal simpler and more versatile.
Without being overly rude let me suggest that if your intention is to help people then I suggest you take the time to learn before dispensing advice. If your intention is to inject rambling sentiment in a conversation that was about an existing professional practice then … mission accomplished.
My question is, how are you able to get these render passes out of maya without any problems? Im having problems with render layers and mayas render passes.
In render settings inside the common tab create a name under “File name prefix” the passes will be located in folders under that title. To get the render passes batch render from the “masterlayer” in render layers. Once the render is done ya will get a message in the bottom window that say’s see console. Go through your maya directory or do a search for the name that ya created in the “file name prefix”. You will find the folders and passes there.
Hope this helps…
Good Luck
I guess we all have to wait for Core Render Pass by Mercuito to simplify things for us.
Thanks for all your remarks, they are very valuable. However I’m not sure what you mean by weighted add. It’s multiply. The formula for screen is 1-[(1-A)x(1-B)] = A + B - A x B, so it’s not flawed, you just have to be careful.
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.