rendering furniture piece by piece

[nelpiper]

Hi guys. I run into this problem. I want to render an interior scene with lots of furniture. I want to render the pieces separately. For example, I want to render the sofa on its own, the cussions on their own, etc. I was think about hiding what I don't want to appear but the lighting is going to be wrong.

So, how to render things separately the correct way?

Thanks

Edited November 1, 2008 by nelpiper
wrong title

[Rick Eloy]

Have you tried assigning different object ID's to each piece and use Render Elements to separate them?

[Alex York]

if you're using mental ray, use the "render subset of scene" shader.

[nelpiper]

Thanks guys. I'll try those.

Thank you.

[nelpiper]

The render subset of scene is very cool Alex. I'm using mental ray.

I need help on this. Is there a way to make an object not visible to camera on render time but still affect shadows (like a shadow tracing the non visible object)?

Thanks.

[Alex York]

yeh it's fantastic. make use of not calc full scene for FG checkbox. can save a lot of rendering if not required.

 

yep you just need to disable the object's visibility propery. select object > right click > properties > uncheck visible to camera.

 

note also that the visibility value (from 0 to 1) is boolean ONLY in mentalray (i.e. 0 or 1, but nothing in between). so you can't animate visibility this way. to do that use a material that fades in and out or other methods (that's often the easiest).

[nelpiper]

Which elements (shadows, reflections, refractions, etc) would you need to render to be able to composit a final image or animation?

Thanks.

[Alex York]

you'll need to be a tad more specific

 

you often need only the beauty pass. but sometimes 20 passes can be an asset. depends on the scene you're rendering and the control you need in post.

[nelpiper]

Ok. Let me be more specific Alex.

I want to render the objects in a scene in differenr passes. For example, render trees in a pass, the grass in another pass, the house in another one and so forth. Of course, all that without corrupting the light solution. Is that achieved with the render subset of scene shader?

Thanks again.

[Alex York]

yep RSOS is exactly what you need.

 

the RSOC is essentially a "beauty pass" for specific objects. so compositing is very very straightforward. (just make sure you get things in the right order, but that's visually very obvious usually).

 

all you do is select the objects you want to render in the pass, add them to the list, render. make a dupe of the shader in ME, change the contents of the list and re-render. you'll end up with lots of RSOC shaders in your ME, each of which acts as a "pass" so you can re-use them later on.

[nelpiper]

Thanks Alex.

You stopped my heart attacks and headaches!

[Alex York]

no worries glad i could help!

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

So, is there a way to add multiple object to the Object List at one time? Right now I have to click Add, the click the object, then click Add again, then click the object. If I could add all of the objects at once, that would be more time efficient.

[Alex York]

yep just add as many as you want in one go. (ctrl or shift select when the list pops up)

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

yep just add as many as you want in one go. (ctrl or shift select when the list pops up)

 

That isn't working for me either. Even if I hold down shift or ctrl, the Add still deactivates after ever object selection.

[Alex York]

workflow:

 

1) render setup > rendering > camera effects

2) lens shader > render subset of scene

3) drop instance of this shader into material editor

4) click Add

5) press H to bring up object selection

6) select what you want (using ctrl, shift, dragging across multiples etc)

 

enjoy

[Alex York]

note also that selection sets, groups and layers can be used to speed things up by selecting a whole load of custom objects BEFORE you hit add (if you do this they will all be automatically selected when you hit Add).

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

workflow:

 

5) press H to bring up object selection

 

 

Bingo. Thanks. I was trying to hold ctrl, and select the objects in the viewport window. That doesn't work, or it works, but will only allow you to select 1 object before Add deactivates. Using the selection dilaog, it allows me to add multiple.