[simmsimaging]

Forgot to turn on alpha and MATID for a recent render so I wanted to go back and render just for those. I cannot turn off all lights, but can turn off the main render. Just curious: is it important/necessary to render the masks to the same SL as the final render to get correct anti-aliasing and depth of field matching?

Thanks /b

*EDIT*: I did turn off the main render /reflection render, and in Maxwell I could only see the alpha etc rendering, but it was still rendering the main image - saved out the png and mxi for it. Shouldn't it just render the masks and thus be way faster?

[pipcleo]

i posted this before...seems to be no way to render only an alpha , even with all other channels off, diffuse will still render

[simmsimaging]

Ok, thanks. Do you have any idea about the SL question?

[kami]

I did not notice much difference for the masks, once a certain SL is reached (SL12 seems pretty fine). Above that I don't think it makes any noticable difference.

[eric nixon]

In the past one of the ID's, Mat or Object only needed exactly sl6, I think they might both only need sl6 with the latest release, havent checked yet.

Rendering the alpha seperately is fine for stills work, but you need an extra step with the PS action to embed it properly, but I would let it run to a similar sl to the render, preferably the same. For animations it becomes a pain to go through the export+voxelisation process twice.

[simmsimaging]

@kami - thanks

In the past one of the ID's, Mat or Object only needed exactly sl6, I think they might both only need sl6 with the latest release, havent checked yet.

Rendering the alpha seperately is fine for stills work, but you need an extra step with the PS action to embed it properly, but I would let it run to a similar sl to the render, preferably the same. For animations it becomes a pain to go through the export+voxelisation process twice.

Thanks Eric. I can see that rendering to the same SL is desirable, but it seems to render the full image as well (I can't seem to turn that off?) so it takes a long time to do it for just a set of masks. I was hoping to shortcut that process as much as possible until I MX is able to render *just* masks.

Appreciate the help!
b

[eric nixon]

It doesnt do that here, just renders the alpha or mask?? your a beta tester, try the latest version maybe.. Is this just an issue for the max plug, or are you talking about studio?

[simmsimaging]

It doesnt do that here, just renders the alpha or mask?? your a beta tester, try the latest version maybe.. Is this just an issue for the max plug, or are you talking about studio?

I was trying the latest, and it was via Max. It only seemed to save the alpha when the render was done, but the speed was on par with the full render, and the preview of the MXi showed the full image. I will test it again and verify though.

/b