render elements and render layers

[djx]

Currently it is difficult to manage the way elements and render layers work together. If I want some elements only on one render layers and some on another I can do this with layer overrides, but it is a bit messy to create the overrides and then afterwards there is no visual indication for which elements are enabled on which render layer. Maybe the enable/disable state of an element could be visually different in the render-elements tab.
Maybe in that tab there could also be a drop-down menu for enabling or disabling elements as layer overrides.

[vlado]

Thanks for the suggestion; will see what can be done about it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Morbid Angel]

something you can do meanwhile is create a global node that has the enable attributes of each of the render element groups. For example lets say you have reflection diffuse and specular, and then normals vector and zdepth. You want to render first three one render layer A, and the second three on render layer B. If you create two attributes in the global node - enable primary pass, enable secondary pass and connect primary pass to reflection diffuse and specular .enable channels and do the same for the secondary, then you can render layer override those two attributes and get the result you want with ease.

[djx]

Thanks Dmitry. Good suggestion. I ended up scripting some of this already, so I can easily enable and disable selected elements and create the overrides, but a little bit of UI enhancement in this area would be even better.

[djx]

I made a few changes to vrayCreateRenderElementsTab.mel (based on the 30 August build for 2011 win x64).

Names in the "Added Render Elements" list now display a prefix, either [+] if enabled and [_] if disabled. Elements can have their enabled/disabled state toggled by double-clicking their names in the list. If toggling the enabled state when the active renderLayer is not the masterLayer, then a layer override is created. When new elements are added, if the active renderLayer is not the masterLayer then the element will be enabled with a layer override on the current renderLayer and disabled on the masterLayer.

I've attached the modified version in case anybody else would find it useful, but if you would prefer me not to do this, please remove it for me.

[jasonhuang1115]

Thanks for sharing this djx. I have a cluster of Render Elements needed to be separated into Render Layers. The script comes in handy just in time.