Multipass Rendering

[anthony113]

How do I set up multipass rendering for MentalRay in Maya? Thanks!

[DigitallyInsane]

right above your layers change DISPLAY to RENDER.
Then Create different layers for different objects you want to render seperately. (name them so you know what's what)
assign those objects to their specific layers you just created.
go to Render globals and under the Mental Ray tab scroll down and open RENDER LAYERS/PASS CONTROL.
Click on ENABLE RENDER LAYERS.
if you want shadow/spec/beauty passes seperately also then click on Enable GLOBAL PASSES as well.

if you want the renders go to seperate directories make sure you turn on OUTPUT TO SUBDIRECTORIES.


it's very straight forward. you'll figure it out

after you batch render, everything gets rendered in different passes.


Let me know if u need anything else.


M

[anthony113]

so say i only have one object in my scene but i need several passes of it. i should assign that object to a single render layer and then configure the mentalray settings? btw nice work on the vfx challenge.

[DigitallyInsane]

yup! that'd work.

Thanks, I did that in 2 hours; that's why it looks so bad.
I might do this month's challenge as well. That's if I get to go home from work.

[anthony113]

hey i just checked in maya and there isnt anything called Render Layers/Pass Control under the mental ray tab.. hmm.. if it helps, im using maya 7

[DigitallyInsane]

Ooops! The whole render-layer thingi is changed in maya 7.0.
I'm gonna play with it a bit and let you know shortly.

Thanks for asking by the way. I'm gonna learn somehting new today!

[DigitallyInsane]

k here we go: It's got soooooo much easier:

1. Above layers change DISPLAY to RENDER
2. you can create a new layer in 2 ways: a.create an empty layer (the first icon with a yellow thingi and a plane) or b.select an object and then create a new layer (this would assign the selected object to your new layer[the second icon with the blue sphere])
3. after having your objects assigned to their own layers you get 3 small icons in front of the layer. first one is a sphere which will take you to the object's shader in hypershade. the second icon is a flag which will take you to Render Layer Options and if you scroll down you get to choose what passes you want for that object (beauty, shadow and ... )
the 3rd icon will take you to Render globals.

and when you batch render everything goes in seperate directories.

It might sound really confusing but if u do a quick test with bunch of primitive objects you'll see how easy it is.

Hope this helps....

M

[Avalon]

Hi,
another way...there's a really good output shader for MR called Ctrl.Buffers by francescaluce. It allows you to save all the buffers in one render pass, have a look here http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=209991
I've used quite a lot reacently and really saves you rendertime and gives you the flexability in post! :)

btw. Congrats DigitallyInsane! Really nice shot you did for vfx challange!
Cheers,
/Chris