How to export Z-depth channel??

[panthon]

Hello!

If you can´t use Combustion or After Effects in order to get the z buffer channel out from the rpf, you can still get it through rendering, effects, add file output, select channel depth (greyscale). Then set an output name, let´s say zbuffer.tga and render. You should get a separate tga file which can be used to add depth of field effects in post!


Cheers!

[dbuchhofer]

Nice one pant.. I'd totally forgotten about that one!

[RSF]

Ok...That works!!
Thanks panthon
Would be nice if this things were working better in vray thought...I can't use vray render window for this to work.
Maybe I have some problem with the installation since I also get the strange yellow z depth channel in the vray VBF.
Thanks again

[RErender]

Just for the recored it is supposed to be a "strange yellow z depth"

[percydaman]

Just for the recored it is supposed to be a "strange yellow z depth"

why do you say that? how useful is it to look at that "strange yellow z depth" image? I understand the information is there, IF you have the proper software to make use of it, but Ive never seen it look like that in other renderers, and just cant understand why it needs to be shown like that. its USELESS....

[RErender]

Just for the recored it is supposed to be a "strange yellow z depth"

why do you say that? how useful is it to look at that "strange yellow z depth" image? I understand the information is there, IF you have the proper software to make use of it, but Ive never seen it look like that in other renderers, and just cant understand why it needs to be shown like that. its USELESS....

Well Vlado has said several time that this is the expected output, I got the feel ing that a few people thought it was a bug. I am not against adding greyscale depth output for V-Ray... Having the correct tools helps too

[percydaman]

Just for the recored it is supposed to be a "strange yellow z depth"

why do you say that? how useful is it to look at that "strange yellow z depth" image? I understand the information is there, IF you have the proper software to make use of it, but Ive never seen it look like that in other renderers, and just cant understand why it needs to be shown like that. its USELESS....

Well Vlado has said several time that this is the expected output, I got the feel ing that a few people thought it was a bug. I am not against adding greyscale depth output for V-Ray... Having the correct tools helps too

hehe I guess expected output is relative, cause it aint what I expected the first time I saw it....

[mike.edel]

right, and if your someone without the ability to open rpf's then what do you do?

for me bobos channel extractor works:
http://www.scriptspot.com/download.asp?ID=267
saves the channels of an rpf file to seperate images
runs in max 5/6

quote from bobos site:

"Based on the code of ChannelSaver, this script lets you extract 12 different optional channels from RLA and RPF to different file formats (TGA,JPG,BMP,TIFF,PNG).
Allows processing of single RLA, RPF, IFL lists containing any RLA and RPF files, and all RLA/RPFs in a single directory. "

cya,

Mike

[jujubee]

With stills, I generally just ran the z-depth output out of the default Max scanline and composited in PS that way.

[s0real]

With stills, I generally just ran the z-depth output out of the default Max scanline and composited in PS that way.

but then you don't get any AA... or am i missing something?

[mike.edel]

aa should not be antialiased at all - it would change the depth values

actually, max does not aa zdepth and can not be forced to do it afaik

cya,

Mike

[Dynedain]

aa should not be antialiased at all - it would change the depth values

actually, max does not aa zdepth and can not be forced to do it afaik

cya,

Mike

Exactly. Antialiasing a black to white edge would make it grey. This would mean that in a Zdepth channel, the edges would seem further away then the rest of the object. This is partially why Vray does a "floating point" Zdepth. To account for this (and the limitation of 255 shades of gray).

[s0real]

i understand that, but if the edges of the z-depth output aren't anitialiased, does that mean it's impossible to acurately comp in a z-depth layer onto an image with AA in post?

[trixian]

Render elements strangely enough lets you render z buffers with AA. No idea what id want with it. Better to render it out at 2x and let the compositing software handle the rest.

[Dynedain]

i understand that, but if the edges of the z-depth output aren't anitialiased, does that mean it's impossible to acurately comp in a z-depth layer onto an image with AA in post?

If you are talking about a regular greyscale zdepth, yes. Your options are to render it twice the size and scale down in post (may or may not work depending on your post app) or to use some kind of format that supports floating point zdepth, like RPF.