must have for next release!!

[Free Agent_cg]

this is a plugin for Vray in Max called PSD manager, awsome utilty saves out a channel of every material and effect (ie reflection) and saves out the rendering in a Layered PSD file.



come on... u know its possible... do it.

[40th]

Re: must have for next release!!

Super!

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: must have for next release!!

+1000

[dalomar_cg]

Re: must have for next release!!

Are any of you guys using all the channels to fully composite a render???

[Jackson_cg]

Re: must have for next release!!

Are any of you guys using all the channels to fully composite a render???

I tried rendering ALL the VFB channels several times a while back, but it repeatedly caused a total SU crash. I removed some of the suspect ones (normals, sample rate, wire colour, all the "raws" amongst others) and managed to get a big bunch of channels out- so far the only ones I've found really useful are colour, alpha, lighting, Self-Illumination, Z-depth and diffuse. The "Lighting" channel is my top tip for those who always want to adjust shadows in post-processing.

[thomthom]

Re: must have for next release!!

The "Lighting" channel is my top tip for those who always want to adjust shadows in post-processing.

As oppose to the Matte Shadow?

[dalomar_cg]

Re: must have for next release!!

Jackson...are you by any chance using the channels that we say are not supported in the read me file? I don't think it would be in the readme from the last version, but it would be in the initial SR1.5 builds. It wouldn't suprise me if that was causing the the issue.

Thomas...the matte shadow channel should only work with the matte shadow material, which is not currently available.

The reason why I asked the question in the first place is because most of those channels are not islands unto themselves. They are meant to be used in conjunction with the other channels to recreate the final render. Individually, the value of those channels are vary depending on the rendering and what you're looking for. The power of them come when all the necessary channels are used together and you can control just about anything in the final result. To me, that's a "goal" for me is to have the community more interested in full blow compositing.

So although I like the idea of having channels assembled into a photoshop file, I have to ask...what for? If you're reassembling a fully composited render, then I see the value in that because there's much more setup involved and it removes some barriers for doing compositing. A channel here an there seams like a lot of effort for what in essence is saving a few clicks. I'm all for saving you guys some clicks, but part of what I do is weigh the need/desire for a given feature in conjunction with the amount of development effort and priority of other things on the wish list.

From my point of view, this request very much seams like a want rather than a need (which doesn't make it any less valid, but it is something to consider). For us to pick up support for a whole new format (especially one as extensive as Photoshop) would certainly take some effort, and there are some more pressing issues as to features to be developed. For those reasons I would say that this ends up being fairly unlikely to end up in the next full version, but down the road, it is something that I definitely see the value in.

If you guys have more to add in terms of the need for this kind of a feature than please go ahead and explain. Some good responses will certainly influence the potential for this to get moved up the wishlist. Also, I'm really not sure what timetables we're going to have in regards to the next full release. Depending on how other features get developed, that may allow for some development to be done on this.

[thomthom]

Re: must have for next release!!

Thomas...the matte shadow channel should only work with the matte shadow material, which is not currently available.

hmm.. currently it does give an output though. B/W image of all the shadows, anti-aliased.


Personally, I'm not using too many channels for post. For me it's the convenience of getting all the channels into one file automatically. Though, I've not looked too hard into what all the different channels do.

[Free Agent_cg]

Re: must have for next release!!

Dalomar to have a black and white channel of any specified material just seems like a logical step, ive been bleeting about selection masks for a long time, just looking at that .gif screams out why the hell isnt this already implimented, it adds extra control and allows for quick colour changes(oppacity hue ect)for those whiney clients and really streamlines the process of compositing because all the channels are on hand, in max its a life saver however i seem to be managing without it so if it slows down development of VRfSU then...

[dalomar_cg]

Re: must have for next release!!

Thomas...I'm sorry, I was completely wrong about that channel. It appears to be a similar output to the RawShadows channel, yet without being responsive to light intensity/decay.

Agent...I think that per-Material and per-Object channels are quite valuable and are something that I think could find its way into VfSU much quicker than assembling a PS file.

I would certainly imagine it would be possible to put a script together that would assemble the channels in photoshop, so I don't think that your out of luck on this one. A script would also be much less "invasive" than supporting a whole new file format.

[kwistenbiebel1]

Re: must have for next release!!

I think that per-Material and per-Object channels are quite valuable and are something that I think could find its way into VfSU much quicker than assembling a PS file.

That would be a major time saver.
Instead of tweaking material colors to extent in PS before hitting the render button, a quick color toning in post edit using a per-material channel is the way to go..
..especially since Vray hasn't got a built-in color modifier in its material editor (why?). Going back and forth to Photoshop for slight material changes is a hassle while texturing (the Sketchup texture modifier sucks)