VFB composite

[rjohnson33]

I don't know if this is asking too much of the Vray Frame Buffer but was just thinking it would be really useful if it could develop a quick composite to match the beauty pass based on the relevant render elements (if rendered out).
These elements could then be adjusted post-render with the exposure or curve tools already present in the VFB to get quick feedback on tweaks you might want to make to material settings or just to recreate a preview of some of the adjustments you might wish to make in post-processing using the individual elements.

For instance: You might typically do a test render on a material you're trying to develop and then estimate that it might be closer to what you were after if you increased the contrast in the diffuse whilst increasing reflectivity.
If you could see those changes instantly in the VFB via this instant composite it might save a few iterations of try to re-render to refine the material.
It could also use light select rather than overall lighting to get feedback on direct contribution of individual light sources couldn't it?

I understand you can't replicate all material/lighting/GI effects (as with the limitations of compositing in post anyway) but I think it would help in a fair amount of the development.
I just thought seeing as Vray obviously knows correctly what it's doing with all the elements it would seem like a decent system.
You could even have an option with the Elements to automatically enable rendering of all elements required to create the accurate final composite.

[vlado]

It's certainly crossed our minds, however you can imagine how much resources it will require, which will need to be taken from other tasks. We'll see though...

Best regards,
Vlado

[Donald2B]

Part of me feels like I already have this functionality with PDPlayer / Nuke. When lighting and tweaking things, I almost always bring my shots into Nuke and start playing with them...saves me a LOT of time tweaking materials if I can push them around in Nuke, I move on to more important things. And I don't have to recreate my comp once the final shot is done, just drop in the completed EXR and you are good to go.

I'm sure any decent node based compositor would work and swapping images is incredibly easy.

I would rather the VRay team stay focused on developing VRay and leave the compositing to existing products. IMHO.

[rjohnson33]

Yes, I see your point. I don't use Nuke but have composited in After Effects now and again.

I'm just not immediately comfortable with that software environment so it tends to put me off when I'm just doing small tests.
I suppose you can set up a template to extract similarly named channels out of a switchable EXR and comp then in the same manner each time?
I should probably do some learning in AE rather than asking for new bits of software to be written! Just seemed like a neat concept.

[Donald2B]

I personally avoid AE for any type of compositing, it doesn't work well with multichannel EXRs.

I would look into Nuke, Fusion, or Autodesk Composite (Included with your Max install).

I have a base nuke comp where all of my channels are pulled out and then added back together to create the final render. I also have some preset adjustments already in place so it's super quick to make any changes. All I need to do is connect my EXR into the top node and I'm done. Then I just add adjustments to the areas I want to work with...super easy and fast!

I haven't used fusion or Composite, but they node based, so I am assuming they can do something similar.

[rjohnson33]

Yeah, I do find After Effects frustrating as regards the EXR channel extraction but thought I was my lack of practice with it rather than anything else.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will have to take a look at Autodesk Composite as I seem to remember the other two being quite an investment to purchase.