n00b question Re: Render elements

[Macker]

Hey guys, I generally only work with stills so whenever I use render elements I save them manually via the VRay frame buffer, but I'm making an animation and need the ZDepth to save out automatically for every frame... I thought I'd set it up properly, but apparently not because I've got the animated frames but no ZDepth passes.

A little help?

[joconnell]

If you save from the vray buffer, the default is to place all of the elements into the one exr file as extra channels. What are you compositing in?

The option you want is "Save separate render channels" in the vray frame buffer rollout, or alternatively turn off the buffer and use the regular max save.

[Macker]

I'll be using After Effects; though I assumed that because photoshop doesn't fully read .exr channel info that after effects wouldn't either? The "save seperate render channels" is probably exactly what I'm looking for.

[joconnell]

After effects can use the 3d channel > Extractor effect to access the elements in an EXR file but it's not very quick so you're better off splitting them out.

[MoonDoggie]

I use the program ProEXR to open multi-layer exr's in photoshop. Works great.