cs3 and exr

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

anyone play with this yet? ...they extended what you can do in 32 bit format, which i completely expected, including multiple layers and such. however, ..one thing i was not anticipating, exr's now come in with their alpha channel already masked and cleared, kind of like targa files do. maybe this is the way they are supposed to work, maybe cs2 didn't handle them properly. which i am guessing is the case, since there is relatively limited support for 32bit images in cs2.

 

maybe this is part of the pre-multiply?

[andreg]

just received CS3 this week... I can't wait to take a look at that. Was also wondering why the pre-multiplied alpha channel wasn't there in CS2

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i guess i became use to it placing the alpha channel in the alpha channel slot, and leaving my actual image unaffected. i like this because i could keep my sky, or whatever, and still have an alpha to quickly select it with, and adjust how i needed. the same with other objects in my scene. sometimes i would adjust the alpha contribution, to create alpha channels for certain objects. then i would use that alpha channel to modify whatever i needed to in Photoshop.

 

i am thinking i can solve my selections with render elements, but the solution to keeping my sky intact in an image is not as simple as de-selecting pre-multiply alpha. if i de-select pre-multiply alpha, then my edges that are against what would be an alpha do not AA correctly.

 

i think i need to do some trial and error to re-adjust my work flow so i can have the things i need, as well as taking advantage of the advancements cs3 has brought to 32 bit.

[trino]

then my edges that are against what would be an alpha do not AA correctly.

 

is there a way to solve this ?, i have a lot of trouble with it too, changing the background will take bad AA and when the client want s to change that i have to do another render for it.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

is there a way to solve this ?, i have a lot of trouble with it too, changing the background will take bad AA and when the client want s to change that i have to do another render for it.

 

...if you render to EXR, check pre-multiply alpha, and un-check save alpha. this will give you an image exactly the way it looks in the Vray frame buffer, with proper AA, and the background saved in the image.

 

the problem is you won't have any alpha. to create an alpha in addition to this, you will need to save a split render channel under the Vray frame buffer dialog. it will save it as a separate file, but at least you will have it.

 

right now, i am thinking that i am going to abandon the max render output dialog all together, and only use the split render channel output. i am not sure how this is going to react when i start sending jobs to backburner with it.