Render Channel (Framebuffer) Property Editor

A framebuffer defines the output for the channel image. Each image contains different information about the pass such as reflections, ambient and/or diffuse lighting, irradiance, and so on. When you render the pass, you can specify which channels should be output in addition to the full pass. By default a Main render channel is rendered for each pass.

For more information, see Render Channels & Framebuffers [Rendering].

To display:

The Render Manager > (select a pass) > Output
Select a channel row from the Render Channels Output grid and click the Edit... button.

File Output

Enable check box

Activates the channel for rendering.

Render Channel

Specifies the render channel that you are defining.

Output

[filename]

The filename for the frames being rendered. The filename is appended to the Output Directory option specified in the Scene render options. Together a full output path is defined for the rendered sequence.

You can build the filename using Tokens and Templates.

Resolved Path

[path and filename]

A read-only field that displays the fully resolved output path and filename for the render channel.

Output Format

[format drop-down]

Sets the file format for the render channel. This also determines the filename's extension.

Available file formats are:

SOFTIMAGE (.pic) picture
OpenEXR (.exr)
mental ray Map (.map)
Radiance HDR (.hdr)
TIFF (.png) picture
PNG (.png)
Targa (.tga) picture
SGI (.sgi) picture
mental ray Color (.ct)
mental ray Grayscale (.st)
BMP (.bmp)
JPEG (.jpg) with maximum quality
BMP (.bmp) picture
Alias (.alias) picture
Wavefront (.rla) picture
Quantel/Abekas (PAL) (.pal)
Quantel/Abekas (NTSC) (.ntsc)
DDS (Uncompressed) (.dds)
- 8 bits per channel = A8R8G8B8 Unsigned, 32 bits per pixel
- Half float (16 bits per channel)= A16B16G16R16F, 64 bits per pixel
- Float (32 bits per channel) = A32B32G32R32F, 128 bits per pixel

[color channels drop-down]

Specifies which color channels are output. Available color channels are determined by your choice for format.

[bit depth drop-down]

Specifies the output images' bit depth.

The options in this list vary depending on the specified format. Some formats support only 8-bit, other support 8-bit and 16-bit, and still others support 8-bit, 16-bit and Float. One notable exception is the OpenEXR format, which supports "half" (16-bit float), and float.