Exploring my possibilities of different rendering methods for the project I'm currently working on I decided to try OpenEXR. I just chose OpenEXR in the render settings and turned on the buffers Alpha, Light Buffer (Single), Depth and Post Effects.
Now when I render it takes only 3 seconds per pass (normally 3 minutes) and the image is black. When opening the EXR image all I see is black layers.
So I figured I must be doing something wrong. I tried switching some buffers off and on but that did not change anything. When I switched back to JPEG render that did not work anymore either. But that renders blue (camera background color) in stead of black.
After this I deleted the Bloom post effect from the camera and noticed that when I do this an item called "Camera Color" is added to the camera where the shortcut to the post effect was. Thinking that might be what's causing the black and blue renders I deleted this. After doing this the JPEG renders to black as well.

Maybe it was just JPEG I thought and tried Targa. And voila, it renders like it should again. Switching to JPEG, and that works again too. But how am I supposed to get this OpenEXR format working? The technical reference does not say much on the subject. I should have been using A:M much more the past 1.5 year but have been to busy programming... now I notice I'm really missing some things. I have to show some previews of this project to a client tomorrow, then he will decide if I get to do the whole project, or another animator he has also asked. I hope he picks me.

Turn those options off unless specifically needed.

Experimenting with a new format right before a visit with a client could be dangerous.

Also... what program are you using (and planning to use for the client) to view the EXR images?

Have a look at this little video-tutorial I did.

It may help you:
LightBuffers (englisch)
LightBuffers (german)

In the tutorial I am saying that the ProEXR-Plugin is very expensive. Actually today it only costs 99 Dollars (which isnt nothing, but payable).
You will need Adobe Photoshop CS3 or higher to use it or Adobe After Effects CS3 or higher.

The Depth-Buffer is functional too. (as well as the Normal-Buffer)
It is a 32 bit-image, so the dynamic-range is higher than what can be seen on the monitor. With the right leveling it can be seen. In this thread you will find more informations on the subject:
Informations about Depth-Buffer

I plan to do a new tutorial with all the infos of the first one and a few more on the depth- / normal-buffer and the use in AE / Photoshop.
But I dont know when I will be able to do that.

See you
*Fuchur*

Thanks for the info! Turns out I had shadow buffers turned on in the EXR buffer. I'm not sure if I had in on all the time, but now I don't and it works now
I was planning to composite in A:M and export as Targa. It does not work the same as the tutorial video shows. Maybe that was made with an older version? It appears to be a bit buggy. I can view the layer I select until I close the image window, select the layer I want to see and then open the image again. I was quite happy with the result until I realized my sky dome was not in any of the EXR buffers, and the depth buffer is not present. I'll have to play with this a bit more to get more familiar with this.
I can open the EXR image in photoshop CS4, but is there any way to edit the individual buffers in Photoshop? I don't see how to access them and they're not in the channels window.

Maybe I should just render it out in a couple of passes myself right now and look more into this EXR format later.

EDIT: I just tried the ProEXR plugin and that works very well. I'll purchase this.

Here is a tutorial on Compositing and using Light Buffers. I wrote it in 2008, so it was done in either v14 or v15 - can't remember.
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=264769

I did the video-tutorial recently (I think even with version 15.0 (e) Windows-version)...
So everything should work as I did in the video, if you follow precisly...

*Fuchur*

You're right. After some more attempts it appears to be working like you showed in your tut. But it seems to be a bit buggy and does not work well all the time. Sometimes it stops functioning and I have to start a new project or restart A:M to get it working right again. Sometimes when I start a new composite it does not work from the beginning and I have to restart right away. I don't know yet what exact steps are causing this but with some fiddling I was able to get the job done.
I rendered out in EXR after all because it did seem more useful. After two hours rendering I opened the image in A:M composite and noticed it was missing most of the buffers. I thought I must had forgotten to turn something on but it appeard I didn't. I opened it again in A:M and suddenly all buffers where there.

Is anyone else having such issues with OpenEXR? Maybe OpenEXR does not like me LOL

Anyways, I was very happy with the final image and was able to add some nice glow in Photoshop making use of the ambiance buffer (only the lights have ambience turned on). I would like to show the result here, but the client wants to keep it all "classified" for now.

Fuchur and HomeSlice; thanks for the great tutorials!

Okay , I'm a bit late .....

For another project I have written a simple console app , they will split the layers from a exr file into some tga files .
(maybe the poor mans solution , if you don't own photoshop and the proexr plugin, like me :-))
Donwload

Usage
converting a single file

Exrsplit filename.exr

or
converting a batch off files

Exrsplit *.exr

(Can be suffixed also with a path)

The new created targas are suffixed with the layername.
(means filename is "test.exr", it has a layer "Depth" than "Depth_test.tga" is created)

For exr files created from A:M some special handling is integrated .
The depth layer is mapped to the alpha channel.
The normal layer (X,Y,Z) is mapped to the R,G,B channels.

It can be that You need the VC2008 redistributable files (not included), if the program doesn't start .

Thank you great Yoda I will try this app. I'm sure it will be of good use!

Fairly old topic but here is a chance to bump it up and talk a little more about the Open EXR format.
I highly recommend the EXR format for anyone that is compositing images in A:M.


Here's an example extended from Holmes's project file in another topic. What I find particularly useful is how the volumetric lighting and shadows as well as the other elements of the scene can be adjusted on the fly... and of course, animated over time.

Also, For those that don't know this...

EXR images and sequences of EXR images can be stored in A:M's Image Library as shortcuts.
If you try to make a image shortcut to an EXR file however the EXR format will not show up in the files listing (even though the images are in the folder you've opened. You will see the other file formats that A:M uses (BMP, TGA, JPG, PNG etc.)

As this is no doubt a low priority to fix we need an interim workaround that is easy to implement. Luckily we have several:

Use the drop down menu to select "All Files" or enter an asterix (*) into the filename and your EXR files will be available for opening as a shortcut.

We can also drag and drop an EXR file from the file manager of the operating system into the Image tab of our Library.


So... what to do with images in our Libary?

- Create folders full of storyboards and visually organize a project or production.
- Drag and drop EXR files into the Chor as Layers and Rotoscopes.
- Use and alter EXR files outside of A:M's Compositor.

Try it. It's fun.

I am working my way up to exr's... the fastAO has finally turned me on to using PNG's... which I 'think' will do everything an exr will do but without the 'floating point' advanced color depth.

The floating point advanced color depth and light, object and shadow buffers is the real reason to use EXR.
But the fact is PNGs just doesn't work for me nearly as well as EXRs in A:M's Compositor.
The Compositor seems to have been designed with the EXR format in mind.

Of course... compositing with PNGs for use with HTML is a whole other matter as no browsers I know of can support the EXR format.
PNG is the way to go for displaying via webpages.

Brings-up the question... will FastAO work equally well with EXR's as it does with PNGs?

I havent bought Fast AO yet... still working with the demo and saving my beer cans... but I am in 'shock and awe' of what it does to a render...

When you use Fast AO with EXR you can actually change your AO settings after the render and see them in real time!

Here is what I did with fastao & exr