Hey sorry guys, I made a bit of a mistake in this video by not showing how to save the passes out. Essentially you DON'T want to do the compositing in your 3D scene but rather render your 3D directly to "OpenEXR Multi Layer" format (in the output settings). If you're not using Cryptomatte then you can set it to "Float (Half)" Then you would do your compositing in another scene or blender file and bring your render in to the comp using Image nodes rather than the Render Layer nodes. The Image nodes will have all the same pass outputs as long as you render OpenEXR MultiLayer from your 3D scene. I will do another video to explain but I'm not going to get a chance until next week.
Thanks for clarifying that! I've done that mistake in the past and my initial render got rendered twice (first from the main file output and then from the file output in the compositor)
alright, if you could now tell me which node I use to add in the shadow layer then everything's perfect and just a little side question: is it possible to use the denoise node on just the shadow layer or will that break things? because I made a teddy bear with hair particles and the shadow's are a bit too noisy in my opinion but when I add the denoise node to the whole image it treats all the hair like noise and blurs it to the point where I could have just used a flat surface. then I remembered you had this tutorial about render passes so I figured I might ask you about it
@@pierregagne1998 hello brother I have a question if you can help me, I want to save the passes in exr file or multiple png files which contains direct difuse glossy z depth and id or mask object ... How to save passes to do the compositing on after effect ?
@@imad3d536 Use Cryptomatte to output OpenEXR Multilayer with the Cycles render engine. "ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ml1Kic4VopA.html". Then in the Passes, just enable everything (Direct, Indirect, Color) and check all the tick boxes you need. It is going to give you a bigger file size but everything will be included. For Cryptomatte setup, enable "Object", "Material" and "Asset" and leave the "Cryptomatte Levels" untouched. Press "CTRL + F12" to render the animation(s) after you made a specific folder location for the frames output. To save time install "www.exr-io.com/". See the tutorials here "www.exr-io.com/learning/" to output your sequence of frames without getting a huge cobweb in the Blender's Compositor tab. I haven't figured out yet how to get the Subsurface Scattering to work with Cryptomatte, but my guess is that you need to assign a texture in the shading network in Blender. Just enable RGBA if you decide to use PNG instead of Multilayers Open EXR files. Finally, open the images sequences in After Effects or in Blender's Compositor if you prefer. There is a course on www.chocofur.com "Interior Visualization Blender 2.80 Course" (Check Learning resources). It is worth every penny since it is an invaluable tool to have everything tied together in a structured fashion instead of scurrying around RU-vid. Let me know if that helped! Happy Blendering !
This is a very informative video. I would be interested in a follow-up video about saving each pass as image files and how to put them together in programs like Gimp, Photoshop and After Effects.
It would be great if you shot a video about shader nodes and working with them, because there are few videos on RU-vid that explain how to work with them, how to compose them correctly. Or explain all the mix shader modes. Thank you for your awesome content!
Mind blown. I'm more of a modeler but I've been meaning to get into rendering a bit deeper. Your tutorial has really opened my eyes to Render Passes...Thanks!
Thank you for putting this up, especially pointing out the hotkeys and basic mouse gestures to do the small stuff in the node editor. As a blender noob here, I appreciate those comments.
First video I’m seeing of yours. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Good explanation abd great example of how to make changes and what the gotchas might be. I’ll be following.
Thanks so much for the straight forward explanation and demonstration of purpose. I've been looking at the render passes section for years wondering what to really use it for and just ignoring it.
Hey Dylan, thanks for the great content! I think one of the biggest things I struggle with is UV's. I worked through your moving image video and thought it was awesome, but if you could produce a video that takes a thorough look at UV's and projection methods, I know I would appreciate it!
This was a fantastic video thank you so much. I always had trouble with fog glow on emission objects but now with the emission pass I'll be able to hone in on my craft. Cheers mate!
Thanks! The old Object Index and Material Index passes don't support anti-aliasing or motion blur and have essentially been replaced by cryptomatte. I wouldn't be surprised if they are removed from a future version of Blender.
Awesome video. Would like to see your thoughts on how to export/save the passes to disk and then reload them into compositor from separate files. As it stands, those passes would only be in memory right after a render. Or am I missing something?
If you set your render output to OpenEXR Multilayer then the passes get saved into that. At the moment separating them out into separate files is a bit of a pain (you need to use the "File Output" node in the compositor and hook them all up) But I'm working on making that process A LOT easier.
If you export a multiexr with those options checked it should include all those ones directly, isn't it? oh, and thanks for all your tuts... and for not using annoying music, sound effects and colorfull presentations... just information :)
Yeah if you set the output to multi layer exr then you will get all the passes in the file. You would then do your comping in a separate scene or blend file or some other software.
16:40 that color adjustment only works because the original color is white. If it's another color, the multiplication between the original and the new color gives undesired results, how can it be made so that it works with other colors? Edit: found a way: first multiply by 0 (change the rgb to black, instead of the desired color) and then add that output with the desired color. Both operations use the Cryptomate as the fac.
Hey Dylan - Great Tut. When you close a blender file and re-open, the passes are gone. Can you save them (preferably in the .blend) so that you always have the passes and cryptos for when the client wants that pink ball :)
i know i can use the z pass in compositing to defocus grease pencil objects to get depth of field. could i use these passes to somehow get grease pencil objects to reflect? like a cartoon character swimming in reflective water? i have not found a way to do this yet but would really love to
Theres a custom build with them in but they don't support splitting the light pass into diffuse/glossy etc yet. I'm guessing the patch should make it into 2.82 or 83
One q about the render layer node and the crypto input sockets, why did you connect all 3 of them? I believe you only need one and still can select several objects with the dropper. Is there a reason why you have all 3 going into the crypto-node? Why is there more than one coming from one render layer node? (I guess on the crypto node it's for several view layers going into it at the same time?) You can remove the inputs from the crypto-node you don't need, I'm not sure you can reduce the output sockets from the render layer outputnode (but you can increase them in the render settings I think?), I can't find an explanation for the standard number of sockets/inputs there?
Yeah you can turn down the "levels" in the cryptomatte pass settings to get less output channels and then remove the channels from the node. I don't think you can just leave them unconnected but I could be wrong. Reducing the amount of channels will mean less accuracy which could affect not only how many objects/materials etc you can create separate mattes for but also (I think) matte edge quality. So if you only have a couple of objects without motion blur etc you might be able to get away with it.
Interesting video, although some of the manoeuvres look counterproductive. Why would you want to change the colour of the ball and NOT also change the colour of the light reflected etc. Wouldn't this guarantee an unnatural look? That's why I was mystified why you bothered with the cryptomatte, when this Mix node seemed to have done the job. Maybe this will become clear when I try these things out myself!
In the compositor you can connect a File Output node to the pass outputs on the Render Layers node and then save them out to png or something for photoshop. For after effects you can try using the multi layer exr output. I've added some info to a pinned comment at the top.
hi sit. I am rendering in blender. but if I get render n open exr format it saves in slandered color format. but in render setting I have set it to Filmic. that why my render in viewport and render output is coming defiant,
do you have anything done in after effects with the image sequence? why does it have to be all done inside of blender? and you say the word "here" way too much... I got lost at halfway sorry and I've been doing multi-pass for more than 20 years...
I mean who cares about Blender's internal Compositor? The whole point is being able to bring those layers into PS and work with them. And that is often really hard or impossible with passes like Shadow Catcher.
Basically, you replicate the same process by dividing your rendering in 3 main fields; Foreground, Middle ground and Background. For very large scene, you can do a moving matte painting like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lieZXLCc4xw.html
@@Wzxxx Lol yeah whenever I see people saying cycles is slow, I feel like going on a Grandpa Simpson rant... "You don't know how good you got it.. back in my day.." etc
Hey guys, hope you enjoy my latest tutorial. This was a request from a friend who's learning Blender and he couldn't find much info on render passes. Is there anything you're struggling with in Blender that you haven't been able to find much info on? Let me know in the comments and and I'll look into doing a video about it.
The animation tools, especially the NLA editor and how to blend one animation into another like and idle into a walk into a run, and some kind of controller, controlling drivers to make it all work
One thing you didn’t mention that’s super important is that to save passes to a file you have to use OpenEXR multilayer, otherwise all the pass info will be lost as soon as you close Blender.
Hey Dylan, really good tutorial - thank you! I'm still struggling with the comping of those passes in Fusion. Unfortunately I can't recreate the look of the beauty pass and apparently the alpha channel seems to get lost during export (channel is ticked in blender and in fusion as alpha selected, but in fusion it's simply black). Sorry for this somewhat vague question. Maybe you got some tips on hand :)
I really appreciate this tutorial especially for the part when you mix passes with cryptomatte node! Hope I didn't duplicate anybody's comment. Just two tips: 1. You can save this setup in your startup file so that you don't have to repeat all these steps each time you do a project for a client, or save it in a file and append it (after enabling all the passes you need in the settings). 2. If your render takes 3 days to complete, you can save the output file as an EXR and later edit this file. Or enable the "save temporary render" switch (if I'm not wrong) in render preferences, in order to force blender to save them automatically as .exr: handy with animations...
I will go the Ian Hubert lazy way and simply change the color of the ball inside the material editor. x)))))))) Very good tuts though I have to say. You have clarity in your explanations it's awesome to follow your tuts because of that since you don't just skip over details yet you keep adding side hints which are often overlooked.
Hey Dylan, is it possible to render these passes individually? So that I can remake the final render without the Combined layer, as you can imagine I am asking this to see if I can create a shot with Cycles, break it down in passes and render out an animation.
If you mean render each pass into it's own file rather than all into the multilayer exr then it is possible but a bit annoying to set up. In the compositor you need to connect each pass into a "File Output" node. You can set where each pass is saved in this node
hey great video - was just wondering is there way to render out the normal (digital multicoloured) render pass in layout mode? would like to easily get this effect!
One of the developers was asked about this at the Blender Conference and he was saying because of the way Eevee works splitting out stuff like specular, diffuse etc is not straightforward. I just wish they'd hurry up and add object motion blur!
This is a great video, thank you for sharing. Maybe you can answer a situation I continuously run into. When previewing each of my passes before export, Ambient Occlusion is either true white or true black. It does not appear to have any of the grey values that I really need from an Ambient Occlusion pass. It currently looks more like a mask between objects and world / transparent. This issue does not appear to be associated to the Ambient Occlusion material node; when adding, it has no effects to the Ambient Occlusion pass and only adds to the material itself. The AO pass remains true white / black. What am I doing wrong here?
Is there any reason you would NOT enable render passes? As I understand they don't significantly increase render time. P.S. Brilliant and thoughtful demonstration.
How to connect viewer node to render layers...only connecting to image the viewer panel is visible but moving to below passes makes the viewer panel empty...how to sort this
If I want to use some of these layers within Blender, how do I access the different layers. When I load an Open EXR image to use in a texture, it only shows me the combined layer. Thanks!
At six minutes how are you getting render results in a window with the keep user interface option? For me this makes the rendering happen behind the scenes and it’s impossible to find. Big shortcoming in blender, this is where it becomes a battle. Especially when you get ambiguous drop downs in the image editor with stuff like ‘render result’ or ‘viewer node’ or ‘slot 1’. These sadly are the things no one is able to explain in detail on RU-vid.
I believe this is one of the most informative videos on blender, Thank you for sharing the knowledge, honestly, I didn't figure out till the very end of the video why all of this deconstruction and reconstruction, but the cryptomatt is really worth it... still the benefits are most for videos, images can be fixed in image editors. The only drawback is that mixing to be done but it worth saving the render time and electricity. Thank you.
Just want to say THANK YOU for taking the time to make this video. After watching this, I will always render out passes. So much flexibility for the composite stage.
I've watched a ton of videos on this subject but yours is the first that really showed me how to get control of those damn nodes and all the spaghetti!
