VRayRenderElements - Saving elements and compositing

[flavrsaver]

One key area of 3D that continues to elude me has to do with rendering out separate passes from a scene and then compositing them back together in a program like After Effects. I've read through several posts on this subject but still have yet to fully grasp how to do this. The tutorial by cpnichols on how to composite a scene has been helpful, so I've used that as a guide, but I can't figure out how to get each of my element passes out of Max.

I set up the passes I want, say the VRayShadows for example and in the VRay Frame Buffer I see those passes being rendered, but they never save to my computer. I've enabled them, specified the path and name and nothing. I know I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure this thing out. If I were doing a still image then I would just save out each pass individually from the Frame Buffer, but I mostly deal with animations so I have to get those passes saved out as sequences or something. I get the main file from the "Render Output" section under "Common Parameters", but no separate files from the Render Elements panel.

Can anyone offer some insight or point me in the right direction on how to go about setting this up properly? I've read the help files but they just show results. I've tried searching through the forum, but honestly...the search feature in here isn't really all that great. I wish when I did a search for "render elements" it would narrow down my results to only posts with both of those words in there rather than returning every post that has the word "render" in it...which believe me is ALOT.

Anyway, I appreciate any help you guys can offer. I'm completely self-taught here and so not only is it a challenge to learn the software, but the methodology behind compositing and 3D is something I'm learning as I go too. I know I should pick up some training DVD's or something on the basics.

[gfa2]

If I read your post right, it sounds like you're not using the Vray frame buffer. Try turning it on, check render to memory frame buffer and check save separate render channels and give your file location there. It'll save all of your passes as separate files with the name of the render element as part of the file name...pretty nice. You won't need to specify a file name under the Common tab's Render Output. You'll probably get a message saying that you are about to render a sequence without specifying a name....just hit OK.