Mask & Multipass Toolbox?

Superdog

Does anyone know if this product works with iRAY? I'd like to be able to mask parts of a scene to edit in PS. Also, does it work with animated renders? I did a number of forum searches but couldn't find any info apart from oblique references to this product.

Havos

Superdog said:

Does anyone know if this product works with iRAY? I'd like to be able to mask parts of a scene to edit in PS. Also, does it work with animated renders? I did a number of forum searches but couldn't find any info apart from oblique references to this product.

I have this product, although I have not tried it together with iRay. Since the purpose is to create a black and white mask for use with PS, does it actually matter whether it works in iRay or not?

SnowSultan

I will test it this afternoon, although someone might already know the answer. If anyone knows how important it is to be able to mask 3D renders for postworking, it's me. ;)

SnowSultan

OK, here's what I found after some testing:

* If you don't check "Override OpenGL render default", it will work fine with Iray as the renderer and with Iray materials on your objects. However, this is not recommended for creating masks of objects with transparency (like hair).

* If you do check "Override OpenGL render default" and have Iray set as the renderer with Iray materials it will attempt an odd 'clay' render of the selected area, which is not what you want.

* If you do check "Override OpenGL render default" and have 3Delight set as the renderer, the plugin does not know how to convert Iray shaders, and you will get a totally black render.

The guaranteed way to get it to work is to select all your Iray materials and apply the DAZ Default shader to them before masking.

Hopefully Draagonstorm will see this and possibly update the plugin with the ability to recognize Iray shaders and temporarily convert them to defaults for the masking process.

Superdog

Thanks so much for your replies. Perhaps it isn't necessary to render using iRAY if it's just to create masks. Maybe I could render a mask using Reality and then apply this to a still or animation rendered with iRAY? I'm thinking of using these masks, especially for hair and other wispy things like plants and leaves etc. if I need to composite an animation in Vegas Pro or some other NLE. Also masking might be helpful if I needed to composite an object or a sign behind or on a moving figure or object in a scene. Not sure exactly how I would uses masks instead of alphas to composite but if this products helps compositing in any way I'd give it a try.

SnowSultan

Right, you don't have to render with the Iray renderer to create these masks. If you don't use Iray shaders, the Mask and Multipass Toolbox works just fine and is great for making lots of masks. I usually render my full scene first, then change all the materials back to the default shaders and render the masks.

Superdog

Thanks once again for your help and advice. This seems a very useful tool for compositing so I've bought it along with the Gen4 Pose to .DUF product which I want anyway.

Alien Alloy

SnowSultan said:

 

The guaranteed way to get it to work is to select all your Iray materials and apply the DAZ Default shader to them before masking.

Is there a way to do that quickly or it has to be done by hand for each piece?
I'm having some issues with this forsaken script and the mask comes out just like a 3d model without texture, instead of all white as it should be :(

L'Adair

Alien Alloy said:

SnowSultan said:

 

The guaranteed way to get it to work is to select all your Iray materials and apply the DAZ Default shader to them before masking.

Is there a way to do that quickly or it has to be done by hand for each piece?
I'm having some issues with this forsaken script and the mask comes out just like a 3d model without texture, instead of all white as it should be :(

Select all of the objects in your scene at once time. Open your Surfaces-Editor and select all of the objects listed. (Click on the top one to select it, scroll down to the last object and holding the shift key, click on that last object. Everything should now be selected. Now apply the Daz Default shader.

L'Adair

We frequently want masks for small objects within the scene, but when you want a mask for a full figure, for example, you can get that without too much fuss or this plugin. I just tested this in the 4.11 beta:

• Save the scene.
• In Render Settings->Environment, Switch the Environment Mode to Scene Only
• Turn off Visibility of any light source in the scene, including Mesh Lights. (If you need the mesh in your mask, You can set Emissive Color to black. Or if you're using a color other than white in that channel, setting Luminance to 0 will also "turn off" the light. Either way, the other settings will remain intact, so it's easy to turn things back on.)
• Select the correct camera for the viewport, it you haven't already.
• Render. You can get away with very few iterations, too.
• The resulting render is black on a transparent background.
• Save the result as a PNG to keep the transparent background. (TIFF will save a transparent background, as well, if you prefer.) Both JPG and BMP saved as all black in my test.

If you had to make a lot of changes to get this to work, it may be easier (and faster) to shut down DS without saving, reopen, and reload your scene. (Which is why the first step above is to save the scene.)

This method can work in other Environment modes, but I find Scene Only to be the easiest, as I only have to shut off actual lights in the scene, and don't have to fiddle around with my render settings to remove the lnfluence of the dome or sun/sky.

How you turn the image into a mask will depend on your graphics program. I use Photoshop CS6 and ctrl+click on the Layers Icon to load the mask. I then apply it, (or invert and apply) to whichever layer needs the mask.

I hope this helpful.