Effects result + Glare as separate passes

[seandunderdale]

I use the effects result pretty much exclusively in Photoshop since it has the minor grading, filmic tweaks added, white balance etc. The only issue is that the glare and glow is baked into this pass. Ideally Id have a graded result render, and a graded + glow / glow render. Or better yet, the framebuffer grading tools would affect the lens fx pass and that would help too.

The issue I run into, is I love having sun and light pings, headlight glows etc on the render, but the retoucher needs to be able to remove at will. Since these are baked into the effects result, what I often have to do is render in the framebuffer manually, turn off lens fx, hit save image, turn on lens fx, hit save image, render next layer. This is not ideal when needing to render overnight.

So to sum up, itd be great to have an effects result with and without lens fx, but also have lens fx pass be affected by framebuffer grading tools. If I make a sizeable change to the image in the framebuffer, it can change the look of the lens fx massively in the effects result. I need my pass to look the same.

[seandunderdale]

Itd be great to know if any of these issues will be addressed going forward, otherwise I may need to revert back to the old framebuffer to get the functionality. Is there a reason why having passes and the glare element cant be affected by framebuffer tools? Also, why the effects result isnt saved without lens fx added on top as an option? Kind of frustrating I cant get the end result I need, just broken out in a slightly different way. I like what I get in the framebuffer, but I dont have a way to get those parts out separated.

[intercard]

Hello !!

Yes !! I miss an option for the lens Effects and the Denoiser. So that they do not appear in the Final Result but yes as independent images or render elements.

For example an option within the Layer Lens Effects:

Hidden from Final Image.
or
Hidden from Effects Result.

We get the render element of the Glare but not applied to the final render.... or if this can be achieved without using exr images, using jpg ... as it would be good to know what the workflow would be to achieve it.

Thanks and Hugs !!

[XavBo]

Hello !!

Yes !! I miss an option for the lens Effects and the Denoiser. So that they do not appear in the Final Result but yes as independent images or render elements.

For example an option within the Layer Lens Effects:

Hidden from Final Image.
or
Hidden from Effects Result.

We get the render element of the Glare but not applied to the final render.... or if this can be achieved without using exr images, using jpg ... as it would be good to know what the workflow would be to achieve it.

Thanks and Hugs !!

Correct !
There is a Glare pass build for the Bloom + Flare efects if you export the images as a multiple .exr file.
Well this can be exported as many ways.
Since I use only 16 bit .exr Files is the way I do.

Or from the vR FB you can export a single channel. Just choose the "Glare" channel and then you have your Bloom + Flare effect in a separate image.

[seandunderdale]

Yeh this isnt really a fix for me.

I hand the effects result pass over as a png to the retoucher. It has tonemapping and some vfb grading baked in. If I want to have lens fx at all, I have to turn it on, and also bake that into my effects result, which isnt ideal. I cant hand the rgb beauty over to the retoucher since it has no tonemapping baked in and no vfb grading applied. Also, the glare / lens fx pass has no tonemapping or grading applied, so it actually looks nothing like the lens fx on my render.

I basically need an effects result with and without lens fx. Or I need an effects result without lens fx, but I need a lens fx pass to be tonemapped and affected by the vfb grading layers.

Im not rendering one layer at a time and manually saving out images since that isnt practical overnight, and Im not reloading each beauty back into the VFB to manually add lens fx back on and save out each layer since thats a whole extra step and time consuming when you have many high res layers. An ideal workflow would give me what I see in the framebuffer as a flat image, but also the option to break those parts out.

[XavBo]

Yeh .......

Im not rendering one layer at a time and manually saving out images since that isnt practical overnight, and Im not reloading each beauty back into the VFB to manually add lens fx back on and save out each layer since thats

OUTCH !
That is not good.
I will make a video for you how to solve this.

Are you using Nuke too ?
This will help you a lot !

[seandunderdale]

Not using Nuke. Id be rendering full linear and have no issues if I was in Nuke. Retouchers are using Photoshop an everything is comped in 8bit.

[XavBo]

Perfect I will show you how to bring everything out and in 8 bit with Photoshop
Just give a bit of time since Im doing an important job.

Cheers!

[seandunderdale]

What Im testing now is turning off lens fx on my beauty renders, so my effects result have tonemapping, and vfb grading, but no baked in lens fx. Then doing a seperate render of the car with a gloss coat override, and blacking out the hdri except for the sun. This result gives me tonemapped lens fx on black which can be added back into my effects result in photoshop. Its an extra render for every layer that needs lens fx but should render fast since its 95% black.

My only issue with this method is I cant set overrides for lensFX turning on and off (Or can I? I dont know how) I need to set it to off for my beauties, and on for my lensFX override passes, then I can still render using batch render.

This system works quite well (Apart from the turning on / off lens fx) because I also find my lens fx can look very different at high resolution shots. (15k pixels ) If Im testing a shot at 4k and everything looks good, those lens fx settings dont translate well to high res. So I need to spend ages at 15k dialing in the right settings to get it to look like the 4k version which is often tricky. If theyre rendered on black as a separate pass, I dont need to re-render the beauty with huge baked in lens fx ( like I need to do tonight for that very reason)