3ds max Vray Batch Render with multiple moving cams, output in EXR 32 to comp it in NUKE

[Faheem Khan]

Hello Everyone,
Looking for an answer from a PRO USER of 3Ds Max 2021 and Vray (6.10.08)
I have this scene with 5 cameras, want to render animations. Setting primary engine to Brute force and 2nd engine to Light cache.
Pre-calculated LC for each moving camera.
Now I want to do batch rendering with their respective LC selected, and output required in EXR 32-bit so I could comp it easily in NUKE using cryptomatte.
If I do the rendering in Targa, else I will have to render wire, Zdpeth, AO passes separately for each camera, this was an old method of doing it, which takes ages to get final output.
Please suggest how to do it, is it even possible to do it in 3ds max ?
Thanks

Edited January 24 by Faheem Khan

[James Vella]

If you are using Brute force then don't pre calculate the light cache, that's for Irradiance. Its also the old way of doing it, yes it speeds up the render time but its quite a complex setup, brute force/light cache - render and you will get good animation output as long as the samples are high enough.

16 bit half-float is more than enough for animation, much smaller files and a very large range of depth. No need for 32bit unless you are doing some heavy depth work, even then you can just use other techniques such as deep-compositing. 

Setup your Render Elements as per usual then in the vfb save options select add render elements, then add the ones you want for the exr file.

[Faheem Khan]

Hi James,
Thanks for responding.
I am still stuck,
I renders a single frame with settings as attached.
When I open that single EXR file in nuke, it showing no crypto, as you can see that element along with other elements were added.
Can you please check what mistake I am doing. It would be a great help
Thanks
 

[James Vella]

I personally prefer to render each element as its own exr image, they are still the size of the total exr as a single (combined) but more work to manage within your composite. For example you need to shuffle the channels to get the output before you use it. Heres a video explaining the method if thats the route you want to take:

 

In my experience Node/Nuke compositing is good if you intend on setting up pipelines. What I mean by this is that you create a 'recipe' which will be used throughout many projects/animations that will be setup in the same way, always consistent IDs, depths, naming, etc. Once you do this you can pipe everything through and get consistent results, LUTs, whatever. 

But if you work on the fly, and things change a lot between each animation/project then its not worth the hassle, render the elements you want separately as EXR files and comp the ones you need in, leave the ones you don't need for that project out etc.

Nodes have their purpose, they are basically visual ways of programming so as long as things are consistent then its highly beneficial, if you work as a TD (Technical Director) then yes its worth it. If you work as an artist then traditional methods can be faster in that case, timeline editing or layer style (after effects workflow).

I've worked as a TD for a film productions and when I work in archviz studios or on my own projects, there's no way I would use nodes unless I absolutely have to. If you are doing it because you think its necessary, its not. If you are doing it because you need to, then set aside some time to setup a proper pipeline and make sure its rock solid.

Edited January 25 by James Vella

[Faheem Khan]

Thank you so much
I think for me the best way is to render elements separately to have more control.
My every project is different.  That was really helpful to have more clarity.
Thanks again

[James Vella]

Best of luck

[Ushavilash]

It sounds great that you get your solution best of luck.

[Tom Bussey]

Bit late to this but I believe Cryptomatte needs to be saved in a 32bit multichannel EXR to work, you do that through the Vray raw image output path, If you want to save disk space you can compress the other channel to 16bit with this