PSD Manager (Cebas) allows you to save out both Render Elements and all Object/Material selections into a single Photoshop file in a few clicks - but the problem is that it hasn’t been updated in years and it only supports 16 bit and also doesn’t work with Vray frame buffer. However is still works fine if you don’t mind losing your 32 bit data.
What I need is a workflow that allows me to save out both render elements and whatever object selection sets I need in one pass into a 32 bit file format in Photoshop.
Is there any way or are there any other programs that allow this workflow besides PSD Manager? I am aware of using OpenExr file format for Render Elements into Photoshop but that doesn’t solve the quick selection sets issue.
Maybe future releases of Vray would include a feature like PSD Manager for exporting all Render Elements and object / material selection sets, along with the base render, to .psd file format.
Just had a similar discussion.
The ProEXR plugin will do this.
Save the VFB .vrimg to the .exr extension instead. Make certain your render elements you want are on, and use multimatte for the objID or mtlIDs you specified.
I should add that it’s not going to layer the proper blending modes straight out in PS, but it will put them automatically into layers and into one single file.
Thanks Jujubee - been reading other posts and it does seem like a popular topic recentlly - and this does seem the best workflow for 32bit. Really appreciate the fast response - thanks again!
Be careful rendering straight to EXR for large pictures though. They sometimes get corrupted. Also, exrs converted from vrimgs are better optimized and faster to load I believe.
How many elements you use and which ones depends on how much control you need.
Note the script is made for compositing multiple exr files without the need for ProEXR. I haven’t made a script to simply sort the elements of one big file yet. (though I’ve been planning to for… oh… a year)
So to use it you need to use the feature in the vrimg2exr tool that lets you export each element to a separate exr file.
However compositing is pretty easy so you should be able to just by looking at the example in the post. Just remember to use Linear Workflow
No not yet. The elements have to be in individual EXR files at the moment. Mostly because assembling them manually is too easy to really need a script. I could make it if it’s needed though.
So, the workflow is: Render out as a single vrimg file. use vrimg2exr batch tool to convert using the option to export each element to a separate exr file (rather including them all in one big exr file), Run the Photoshop script and choose the location of the files
If it didn’t take long to make then that would be fantastic - simply because it would be one less step people would need to organize/make (no need for the Photoshop Tools) - especially for animations.
Shimakaze - this was kind of the original reason for the post - if you do alot of compositing all day long then it becomes a big deal to have to complie everything manually - PSD Manager is a render effect - you add it to your scene - a dialogue pops-up - allows you to with one click load all Render Elements as well as “seperated object output” which means alpha channels or selection sets for all objetcs or groups in your scene - for this you select “pick objects” and the pick object dialoge pops-up - select all or choose a few - hit render and it saves all Render Elements you loaded plus “Object Output” to a .psd file and everything is right there on proper blending modes and ready to work with - so no need for that multimatte material workflow either.
Only problem as I have stated is that it doesn’t allow 32bit so when you open the .psd file the layers are 16 bit - however I just did a test comparing exposure settings with these 16 bit layers and a 32bit OpenExr file I opened in another window and when I play around with exposure it seems to behave very similarly so maybe it’s not so much of a huge difference - not sure why…
I have been using this method for years and I would highly prefer stick with PSD Manager workflow becasue I think it saves me literally an hour of work each day - but now the 32 bit dilemma…
Does anyone know of another way to get all Render Elements on proper blending mode layers plus whatever object/material channels you need onto a .psd file composed of 32bit OpenEXR file layers in a few clicks?
pmbdesign: As far as I know there isn’t one. If you don’t notice the difference with 32bit, don’t use it. It’s just a waste of memory and space at that point. Unless PSD Manager uses 16 bit “half float” though the two should be like night and day…
jujubee: Wouldn’t you normally use After Effects or something similar for animations though? Such a script would have to be written for each program separately, and writing one for After Effects is much harder because it has poor EXR support. If you had each element as a separate file it would be easier, but AE sucks at multichannel files.
I just e-mailed the guy who wrote PSD Manager and asked if he’s releasing a 32 bit version (which also might work with Vray Frame Buffer) anytime soon…
DVP - the answer I got back was…“psd-manager just sees the 3ds max frame buffer (it doesn’t matter if you render to OpenEXR in addition or not)”…which I guess means that the max Frame Buffer has to be 32 bit for PSD Manager to be 32 bit…so I guess my next question is does anybody know if Max Frame Buffer will ever be 32 bit or when?
The 3ds Max frame buffer (the RGBA components at any rate) is 32-bit already. For V-Ray, you need to specify an OpenEXR or HDR image as the regular 3ds Max output - in that case, V-Ray will force 3ds Max to create a 32-bit frame buffer.
Note that this is only for the RGBA channels. Any other G-Buffer channels are still 8-bit as always - and PSD manager uses these as far as I remember to separate the objects.
Thanks Vlado - since I have your attention can you tell me if it’s possible to simulate the extremely useful functionality of PSD Manager somehow in Vray - if you never used PSD Manager - once it’s loaded as an effect all you do is use the object picker to select objects or all the objects in your scene and bam - when you save out your file you have a psd file with selection channel for every object in your scene…and of course all the render elements you select are there as well…it’s so useful I cannot work without it but it doesn’t do 32 bit…
