Losing vray sky when opening .exr file in photoshop

[heni30]

Hi,

 

I'm rendering in Max/Vray and I get an image with a nice sky using vray sun and vray sky

with a manual skymap.

 

I save as an .exr file but when I open the image in Photoshop the sky is gone; the rendered part of the file ends at the roof line. Is there a setting I can change to get the sky to come into Photoshop along with the rest of the image?

 

Thanks..........

[BrianKitts]

Any version of photoshop after CS2 automatically applies a transparency to the alpha channel when opening an EXR. Easiest fix is to replace the file format plugin with the old version from CS2.

 

Just replace the OpenEXR file you find in......

 

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats

 

.....with the file in the attached ZIP.

 

 

Your other option is to buy the ProEXR plugin for photoshop. Great for bringing in EXR's with multiple render elements from Vray, but also nice because it gives you a pop-up asking how you want the alpha channel applied to the image versus just bringing the image in unchanged with the alpha appearing on a seperate layer.

 

(only downside is it doesn't work with the 64bit version)

 

http://www.fnordware.com/ProEXR/

Edited October 17, 2010 by BrianKitts

[heni30]

Brian,

 

Thanks for the quick response! I owe you one. Now my Krogers (supermarket like Safeway in CA) will have a magnificent sky. Still have to finish putting in the right colors and materials.

[ScottDeW]

I find this to be a very annoying feature, especially when saving out passes such as Zdepth in .exr. In Max2010, when you save out a .exr file, there is a drop down in the settings that says "RGBA" be default. If you switch this to "RGB", it won't save the alpha in the .exr. So just make sure you save out an Alpha pass on its own to be applied in Photoshop as a mask.