VFB auto save animation not working and workflow

[RwVision]

Hi,

How am I supposed to render out an animation, with all VFB corrections and effects?

First thing is that VFB does not save each animation frame in history - it only saves the last frame, when rendering stops.
Second is, how we can render out and save an animation, with VFB effects to simple .png?

Have an animation project waiting to be produced, and I'm stuck. Saving each frame separately is just pointless.

[EDIT] Just tested Vray Output system and it does save all layers in .png.
But it would be really nice to make VFB automatically save each frame in history and make it manageable to save multiple frames.

Still, we are limited to editing and saving whole animation at once. We also lack the insight of all frames rendering times like in c4d's picture viewer.

Thanks
Rafal

[shaio]

Hi,

[EDIT] Just tested Vray Output system and it does save all layers in .png.
But it would be really nice to make VFB automatically save each frame in history and make it manageable to save multiple frames.
Still, we are limited to editing and saving whole animation at once. We also lack the insight of all frames rendering times like in c4d's picture viewer.

The VFB History was never designed to act like the Cinema 4D Picture Viewer since it is a shared between all the V-Ray integrations and in 3DsMax and Maya for example the History is used differently than in Cinema 4D. The VFB isn't a software like After Effects that will enable you to fully color correct and edit whole animations. I know it acts similarly like the History in the Picture Viewer but their main difference is that the Picture Viewer supports animations and has a timeline while the VFB doesn't (which is the reason why you wont see every frame saved in the history).

It is best to think of the VFB like a separate application that doesn't not have the same expected functionality and act the same as the Cinema 4D Picture Viewer. An animation timeline in the VFB would be an awesome to have feature some day.

I've addressed the history and animation workarounds inside VFB here in this thread as well.

[RwVision]

Thanks Ivan,

So, basically speaking, all VFB features are only fully compatible with 1 still shots? And every major company producing animations just does not care about editing through VFB?

What's the point of VFB then? Every project consist at least of few continuous shots. Loading and saving each corrected frame through VFB is just not possible.

Please correct me if I'm wrong - should we forget then editing final renderings with VFB corrections/lenses, etc?

[shaio]

So, basically speaking, all VFB features are only fully compatible with 1 still shots?

Yes you can edit one file at a time. In the future you will be able to save multiple shots from a different camera in the VFB with the Cinema 4D Takes system.

And every major company producing animations just does not care about editing through VFB?

It depends on what kind of shots and company we're talking about. Most of the post edits for animations are done in 3rd party apps like Nuke, After Effects etc.

What's the point of VFB then?

The current focus of the VFB is to work on the currently loaded/rendered image and the ability to save your LightMix in the image file itself for editing later while saving you time to go and edit everything in Photoshop for example.

Every project consist at least of few continuous shots. Loading and saving each corrected frame through VFB is just not possible.

If you're rendering animation sequence (for example 60 sec. animation) then you definitely need a 3rd party software like Nuke, After Effects, Fusion. If you're rendering a few different shots by using the "Stage" object in Cinema 4D then this is considered an animation and therefore there is no way of editing it in the VFB but loading them one by one. The correct way for this to be done would be via the Cinema 4D Takes system that currently has no support for the VFB.

Please correct me if I'm wrong - should we forget then editing final renderings with VFB corrections/lenses, etc?

If you're rendering a single image then it is advised to use the VFB for this to save time. If you're rendering an animation sequence to save it in a video later then it is best to use 3rd party app to color correct them, so you can preserve the same color corrections and edits for all the frames.

Let me know more about your workflow with image output, so I can better understand and give you a better advice here since for some things above I'm only guessing what exactly we're discussing, and I'm giving answers based on that.

[RwVision]

Thanks Ivan,

Basically, all your assumptions are good and thanks for answering all of these!
(I know they can sound annoying, but it's just searching for answers)

My 2 main workflows are producing:

1. Animations
2. Scene shots or different products shots with static camera. That means rendering frames 0-10 or 0-45, depending on projects growth. I don't use Takes, won't even consider it for smaller projects.

I really got into VFB color correction and bloom/glare effects, but it basically isn't suited for those kind of projects.
I understand, that full length animations are still better to edit in AE / Nuke, but I guess some people would like to transfer the VFB look into their animations.
(mainly thinking of architecture Viz's)

If only VFB could save all loaded frames, all would be good. We can save now .vrimgs through Vray Output, just not edit properly.

Also, why saving each frame automatically is such a problem for VFB? Does other C4D Software, like Corona struggle with this?
Editing animations in VFB would be such a powerful tool - does CG think about it?

All in all VFB post processing and evolving is great BUT... better forget about it, because when a project needs multiple frames your better off with 3rd party. That is 90% cases here.
It's like all present VFB features are just for show off And I guess, there went A LOT of work in creating and implementing it into Vray.


Maybe I'm exaggerating, but now I know exactly where we stand with this - thanks again for clarifying.

[index]

This is a known subject .. the ideal workflow would be:
Vray5 supports all features for animations and multi-still setups done with takes or with the stage object.
settings like bloom / glare etc can be set by the camera tag, so that it is possible to change them for different shots.
the VFB is a tool to find the right settings and has a button to transfer them to the active camera.
then all these settings work without using the VFB.

but i guess to have vray working exactly the same for all host applications is often more important than what could be possible on a host app.
e.g. vray materials do not use the c4d color/brightness/texture/mix mode/mix strength, even if it is superior and standard in c4d
the need for standardisation in the vray code is understandable ofc... but if it ends up with smallest common denominator...

@RwVision corona has its own file format (cdx or something) which you can save from their vfb, and then edit it later.
it was planned to add auto saving these files for multi still / animations. but i think they also didnt manage, yet.
but.. you can render bloom glare and other things per camera, without their vfb.

[steilvorlage.de]

the VFB is a tool to find the right settings and has a button to transfer them to the active camera.

Where is this magic button?

[index]

Where is this magic button?

Ask Chaosgroup
I was talking of an ideal workflow

[steilvorlage.de]

settings like bloom / glare etc can be set by the camera tag, so that it is possible to change them for different shots.

where can you set that in the vray-cameratag?

[Makushimu]

Or maybe, when working with animations, it would be worth considering the ability to transfer, display VFB effects in Picture Viewer so that it could save the result from VFB ?
I would like to use picture viewer instead of VFB, but any effects, like bloom are only visible in VFB.
Maybe I don't remember well, but isn't Corona so that it combined the functionality of its FB with pictureviewer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKFB...3yVAZ&index=19