Rendering with render pass contribution maps
Creating render pass contribution maps
In this scene (KitchenSinkModel.ma), there is
a render layer, named KitchenSink, with two objects, a sink and
a bowl, and a light. A Phong shader
is applied to the sink and a Lambert shader
is applied to the bowl.
- Select
the bowl and light in your scene view. In the Render
Layer Editor, right-click the layer and select Pass
Contribution Maps > Create Pass Contribution Map and Add Selected.
passContributionMap1 is created. Double-click
it and change its name to Bowl.
- Select
the sink and light in your scene view. In the Render
Layer Editor, right-click the layer and select Pass
Contribution Maps > Create Pass Contribution Map and Add Selected.
Change its name to Sink.
Create render passes for each render pass contribution
map
- Open
the Render Settings window and
select mental ray as your renderer.
- First,
create the render passes for your sink render pass contribution
map. Select the Passes tab and click the New
Pass button
to create new render passes. The Create Render Passes window
appears.
- Multi-select
the following render passes: Diffuse
Without Shadows, Reflection, Specular,
and Shadow. In the Pass
Prefix field, enter Sink. Click the Create
and Close button. The following passes are created: SinkDiffuseNoShadow,
SinkReflection, SinkShadow, SinkSpecular. The passes appear under
the Scene Passes section.
- Create
the render pass for the bowl render pass contribution map. Select the Passes tab
and click the New Pass button
to create a new render pass. The Create Render Passes window
appears. Select the Diffuse render pass and enter
Bowl in the Pass Prefix field, then click Create
and Close. The BowlDiffuse pass appears under the Scene
Passes section.
- Before
you can apply these render passes to each pass contribution map, you
must first make these passes available to the current layer. Use
the arrow buttons to move the passes to the Associated
Passes section.
- Using
the Associated Pass Contribution Map drop-down
list, select the pass contribution map that you want to select render
passes for, for example, Sink.
- Use
the arrow buttons to move the SinkDiffuseNoShadow, SinkReflection, SinkShadow,
and SinkSpecular passes to the Passes Used by Contribution Map section.
- Repeat
this procedure to add the BowlDiffuse pass to the Passes
Used by Contribution Map section for the Bowl pass contribution
map.
- Render
the scene. Your rendered images are saved to the images directory of
your project file as described below.
Creating subfolders and filenames for rendered
images
By default, your rendered images are saved to
the subdirectory <RenderLayer>\<camera>\<RenderPass> under
the images\tmp directory
of your project file. The image file name <scene>.iff is
used for each rendered image.
NoteAll image output from render passes are
saved to the images\tmp directory
of your project file unless you run a batch render. Running a batch
render saves your render passes output to the images directory.
NoteIf you render using the Render
View window, you can also preview your render pass output
by selecting File > Load Render Pass.
You may want to customize the subdirectories
and filenames for the rendered images instead. For example, you
may not want a folder to be created for each layer and camera. Use
the tokens available from the File name prefix attribute
under the File Output section in the
Render Settings: Common tab. and
combine them with separators such as _ or -.
For example, you may want to use the <Scene>_<RenderLayer>_<RenderPass> tags
to create the filenames for your images. In this sample workflow, the
following images are produced:
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_BowlDiffuse.iff
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkDiffuseNoShadow.iff
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkReflection.iff
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkShadow.iff
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkSpecular.iff
- KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_MasterBeauty.iff (This
is the default beauty pass for the layer.)
NoteIf you use the default File
Output directory, Maya creates a MasterBeauty folder
to which it saves the default beauty pass for the layer. If you
customize the File Output directory, a MasterBeauty.iff image is created for
the beauty pass.
Using render pass sets in your scene
If your scene includes many render passes, you
may want to group them into render pass sets. You can create render
pass sets using the Create Render Passes window at
the same time as when you are creating your render passes.
- In
the Create Render Passes window,
select the passes that you want to include in your pass set.
- Enable
the Create Pass Set option. Enter
a Pass Set Name, for example, Illumination.
Click Create Passes.
- The Illumination pass
now appears in the Scene Passes section.
- To
render this pass set for the current layer, use the arrow buttons
to move the render pass set to the Associated Passes section.
- Select
the Illumination pass set and click the Pass Set Relationship
Editor button. The Relationship Editor window
appears and you can see that the Illumination pass is automatically
associated with all the passes that you created simultaneously.
- Render
the scene. By default, the rendered images are saved to <RenderLayer>\<camera>\<RenderPass> under
the images\tmp directory of
your project file.