Hello,

I'm thinking of upgrading to a websubscription version of A:M but I need to know if it has a useful feature that I particularly need.

The feature I'm thinking about is the ability to render passes in different layers namely sub-surface scattering and AO layers in different passes and composite it later. Since A:M has a new NLE feature, this is the ability that I assume what A:M would take advantage of.

Is there such a feature in A:M?

Any reply would be apprecietd. Thanks.

This sounds very familar.

Rendering to OpenEXR allows a separate buffer for each light, much like rendering in passes, but you will need compositing software that can read OpenEXR files to make use of them.

I don't think A:M's OpenEXR render includes a separate AO buffer. You'd have to make one manually, which clever people do.

Before OpenEXR people would set up versions of their chors to render just one element in each for compositing later.

I'm not sure what a SSS-only pass would look like. can you show an example?

I suppose you could extract SSS-only by using software like afterEffects to difference a "regular" render and an SSS render. Lotta work though.

If by the AO buffer you mean the white pass, I got this from a simple render with 1 blue light, and IBL and AO on (very badly lit example, so am not keen on posting .exr image ):

Click to view attachment

This is an OpenEXR file, with all the different passes displayed in the composite hierarchy. So instead of 'compositing software' you could render out each pass separately in A:M and put them together again.

but I have not seen an example of just SSS, and have not done SSS myself.

And if you are not familiar with rendering to OpenEXR, it is very simple - you just choose that format instead of tga, and then choose which buffers - light, shadow etc. Then you can bring the rendered .exr file back into A:M and right click it and choose "Build New Composite". You get this wonderful hierarchy where you can tweak each light individually and how much % to put in the render.

I'm not sure how SSS only pass would look either. The only renders from other softwares that I saw was after it was put together and a mention of the SSS being rendered separately.
I was thinking more on the line of post rendering tweaks.



Thanks. What do you mean by white pass? I'm not sure how AO only pass would look like but isn't AO the result of the ambiance being occluded is not white? And is there a complete list what rendering options/elements that can be rendered and/or tweaked in these buffers?

A:M Composite is brilliant at that - you can add heaps of Post Effects as well as changing lighting strength.

Classic Composite Thread with post rendering tweaks:
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15282

I'm not sure of all the buffers - here is a page from the v12 manual on how it works:
http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/v120/composite.htm

Ok thanks a lot.

You could try setting everything that DOESN'T have SSS in your scene to a flat black material and rendering. Then you should have Just the SSS portion on a black background. Should be easy to comp. I'm pretty sure that's what the guy who's doing Pigeon: Impossible did.