Cgi Tutsplus Com Tutorials Compositing V Ray Render Layers I

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V-RAY
Compositing V-ray
Render Layers in
Photoshop
by Ahmed Fathi 15 Jul 2011 79
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In this tutorial Ahmed Fathi takes a look at how to composite together V-ray
render layers using blending-modes and masks in Photoshop. Once
completed, this process allows you to change or tweak any aspect of your
image in seconds without having to re-render a thing! Ahmed also covers a
few extra post production techniques such as Chromatic Aberration and
Depth Of Field, as well as how to emulate a Cross-processed look.
Republished Tutorial
Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from
throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in July of
2010.
Additional Files/ Plugins:
Download the Project Files for this tutorial
Step 1
As this is a compositing tutorial, not a lighting/rendering tutorial, I'll assume
that you have at least a basic knowledge of V-ray, and that you are able to
render out your own scenes already. We're going jump straight ahead into
setting up the different render elements for the compositing process.
In order to make V-ray render out the different layers, we first have to
enable them in the V-ray Render Elements tab within the Render Settings
window. Once in the tab, we want to enable the following render elements
as shown :
VrayDiffuseFilter
VrayMtlID
VrayObjectID
VrayRawGlobalIllumination
VrayRawLighting
VrayRawShadow
VrayReflection
VrayRefraction
VraySpecular
and VrayZDepth.
Most of these elements dont need much work to get them right, but we
are going to need to take a few steps to set up the VrayMtlID, VrayObjectID
and VrayZDepth layers.
Step 2
We'll start with the VRayZDepth element. The ZDepth layer is a black and
white map that is used to tell Photoshop how far each object in our scene
sits away from the render camera - the further the object is from the
camera, the darker it will appear in the Zdepth layer. Typically the Min value
is used to tell the compositor which objects will be in focus.
In order to correctly setup a Zdepth map, we have to adjust the Min & Max
distances that V-ray should calculate, and therefore what appears as white
(the Min value) and black (the Max value) within our scene. Select the
VRayZDepth item in the elements list. At the bottom you'll see the zdepth
min and zdepth max values we need to adjust.
Step 3
To get a sense of what values you should use for the min and max values,
you should use a tape helper object to measure the distance between the
camera and your closest and furthest objects.
To simplify things, lets say sphere #2 in the image below is the closest
sphere we want to be in focus, whilst Sphere #6 should be slightly out of
focus. We would use two tapes to measure those distances and put them
in as your Min & Max Values.
Step 4
Here's what the VRayZdepth render for this composite looked like after
setting the Min to 20 and Max to 70 meters
Step 5
The VrayMtlID render layer creates an image with a different solid colour
for each material in your scene, and to use it, we need to adjust your
material IDs. In your material editor you will find an icon with the number 0
on it (as shown below.) If you click the 0, a grid of numbers from 0 to 15 will
appear - this is your material ID. Go through your scene and apply a
different number to each material you want to have a different color in your
MtlID element. As we have 16 numbers, we can have 16 different materials
appearing in our MtlID render layer.
Step 6
Here's how your VRayMtlID element would look like after setting up the
ID's for each required material. Your result may have different colors, but
the important thing is that they are separate from one another.
Step 7
VRayObjectID element is just like material IDs element mentioned above,
but it outputs a different colour based on the different objects in your scene
- the Materials are irrelevant to it. To set this up, right click your desired
object, select Object Properties and give each object a different number in
the Object ID field in the G-Buffer section.
Step 8
I only needed to use the VRayObjectID element in order to make selecting
the cars and the surrounding buildings easier in post. Here's how it looks
after rendering.
Step 9
The last element we need to add in is the ambient occlusion layer, but as
you'll remember, this wasn't added to our render elements list in V-ray. We
actually need to render it separately after your initial render has been
completed, but don't worry, there is an easy, fast way to do it!
Apply a VrayLightMtl to your entire scene, and then add a VrayDirt map
into the color channel. You'll then need to go in and tweak the dirt map
settings until you get a good, clean result result. For this scene, I got a nice
looking AO map with a Radius of 2 in my dirt map settings.
Note: if you use a V-ray Physical Camera in your scene, (which I highly
recommend,) you will need to turn off your Exposure and Vignette options
in your camera settings in order to render the AO pass properly.
Step 10
After a couple of trials with the dirt map radius, I ended up with the
following AO element. I also increased the dirt map subdivs from 8 to about
64 which helped to smooth out the final render, and it still rendered out
relatively fast.
Step 11
Just a couple more steps and we'll be ready to fire up Photoshop and start
compositing! But first, how do we get all of these elements out of V-ray?
For starters, there is the obvious way of saving them to file one at a time,
however there are infact two techniques used for saving the different
channels to disk and we'll cover both of them in the next few steps.
The first method is really helpful, especially for those who use a Linear
Workflow, and that is saving all the render elements out into a single .EXR
file. To do that you should first select Enable built-in Frame Bufferfrom the
V-Ray::Frame buffer menu, and then turn on the Render to V-Ray Raw
image file option below. With that done, we can click browse.
Step 12
Browse to the place where you want to save your file, and enter your file
name making sure to add the .EXR extension onto the end of it. Then
select All Files(*.*) as your file type. This will allow you to save your render
as a single .EXR file that contains all your different render layers.
If, however, you try to open your new .EXR file in Photoshop, you will only
see the first render layer. To see the others, you'll need to install a
commercial Photoshop plug-in called ProEXR, and that is why I prefer the
next method!
Note: EXR files burn in any gamma correction as it assumes you'll be using
a linear workflow. If your image appears washed out in Photoshop, go to
Image > Adjustments > Exposure, and set your Gamma to 0.454, which is
the inverse of 2.2 (calculated by dividing 1.0 by 2.2).
Step 13
The second method (my preferred one) is to save all your elements out
manually as .TGA files. I prefer TGAs to JPGs as they are 32-Bit, and can
hold much more color Information than the normal 8-Bit JPG file. Another
bonus is that they support having a built-in alpha channe.
Note: if you have never used the V-Ray Frame Buffer to render out
elements before, you can find all of your elements in the top left drop down
menu that says Diffuse by default.
Step 14
Now that you have finished our 3Ds Max and V-Ray Part, fire up
Photoshop and lets start playing! First a small tip to help you get all of the
different files into layers in one Photoshop document. It is a script built into
Photoshop that will stack your files as layers and arrange them in
alphabetical order. Go to File > Scripts > Load Scripts as Stack, and then
browse for your files, select them all and click Ok. Some people prefer
bringing in the elements one at a time, however I do prefer this method
myself.
Step 15
This is actually your first step in compositing! We'll start by turning off the
visibility on all layers except for the Z-Depth. Select all of the contents of
this layer (Ctrl+A), copy them (Ctrl+C) and then switch to your Channels
tab.
Some people prefer adding a little bit of Gaussian blur to their Z-Depth
before using it, however as most of my clients hate DOF, thinking that it's a
needless loss of detail, I do not do this! In the end it is a matter of personal
preference.
Step 16
Once in the Channels tab, first check to see that your original Alpha layer is
present. If it isn't, open up the Diff.tga file seperately, switch to it's Channels
tab, and drag and drop the Alpha channel from there onto our Z-depth
image - an Alpha1 channel should appear. You can then close the Diff.tga
file.
Now, click the Create New Channel and paste your Zdepth render into it.
You can then switch back to the Layers tab and delete your Z-Depth layer
as we dont need it anymore.
Step 17
To follow along with me in the next few steps, first arrange your layers in
the order shown. The RGB layer at the top of the stack is the raw render,
straight out of V-ray. I've kept it there so that we have something to
compare to at the end.
Step 18
First, duplicate your Diffuse layer by right clicking it and choosing the
Duplicate option, and then move the copy under your RawLight layer as
shown.
Step 19
Turn on visibility for your Diffuse layer and your RawGI layer. Set your Raw
GI blending mode to Multiply.
Step 20
Next hold down the Alt key and click between you RawGI layer and your
Diffuse layer (the cursor will change into this two circles and an arrow icon
when you're in the correct place). This little bent arrow that appears
indicates that this layer (RawGI) is only affecting the Diffuse layer. This is
called a clipping mask, and you can find out more about it using a simple
online search. There are tons of tutorials out there!
Step 21
Using the same technique that you learned in the last two steps. Enable
visibility for both Diffuse Copy and RawLight. Set the blending mode for
the RawLight Layer to Multiply then use it to only affect Diffuse Copy
layer (Alt+click between the two layers).
Step 22
For the sake of better organization, group both the Diffuse & RawGI layers
into a group, and the Diffuse Copy & RawLight layers into a different group.
To create a group you can click on the small folder icon at the bottom right
of your layers (I should say sorry for people who actually know all this basic
stuff. I am just trying not to let anything pass by for beginners too!)
Step 23
Change the blending mode the of Diffuse + Raw Light Group to Linear
dodge (Add). This adds the information contained in this group to the
information contained in the group below. The image should start
looking more natural now.
Step 24
At this point things look much better, but you may be asking yourself -
why is my glass black? Well, most of the glass information in the final
render is contained in the reflection and refraction passes, and we havent
composed them just yet.
So, enable visibility for your Reflection Layer and set it's blending mode to
Linear Dodge (Add) and see the difference. One of the main benefits of
having a composite like this is that, for example, on this reflection layer you
can paint/paste in any reflection you want to appear in the windows.
Note: I should explain a little bit what linear Dodge (Add) blending mode
does. It adds the color information of the pixels to each other. We know that
for example Pure White is 255 and Pure Black is 0. So adding pure black
adds 0 whilst adding pure white adds 255. Therefore, pure black (0) + pure
white (255) = Pure white (255), Mid grey (125) + Mid grey (125) = White
(250) and so on. That is why when you use this mode you no longer see
any of your black, because its a zero-value color.
Step 25
To illustrate how easy it is to edit any of your elements (color correct it,
adjust exposure, etc) I will assume that I now want to change the reddish
color of my stone texture. If we hadn't used this multi-pass compositing
method, we would have two options:
1. Adjust the texture itself in Photoshop and then re-render, perhaps
completing a dozen test renders before you were satisfied with the
result, and could render a HQ render. This obviously takes a lot of
time and patience!
2. Using selection tools in Photoshop, we could select the texture and
apply the desired corrections to it. The first problem with this is that
selection is really a very tedious job, and when you come to add color
corrections, you'll be affecting all of the image - your shadows and
highlights will look odd and overall things won't look that good.
Step 26
Well, remember that element called MtlID that we rendered out? It is time
to enable that layer. The only use for this layer is to create MUCH faster
selections with only a couple of mouse clicks. Using this layer we will easily
select our stone texture in no time at all.
Step 27
With the layer selected, go to Select > Color Range. Then use the eye
dropper tool to sample the magenta color on our materials layer that
represents the ID of the stone texture. With that done, press OK and you
have your selection.
Step 28
Now turn off the visibility of your MtlID layer. Then while keeping that
selection active, add an Exposure adjustment layer. This will create the
adjustment layer and automatically add a mask so that it only affects your
Stone. It doesnt matter where you have this layer now, we will move it
later on.
Step 29
In the Exposure adjustment layer's settings, set your Exposure to +0.80 to
brighten it up a bit.
Step 30
As we want this layer to affect our diffuse only, you will have to place it right
above the Diffuse layer (remember that one inside the group?) Move it into
position as shown and remember to Alt-click between the layers to make it
only affect your Diffuse channels.
Just as a side note; whether you add it to your Diffuse layer or your
Diffuse Copy Layer shouldnt make a difference at all. Some
corrections might require you to place them on both Diffuse layers though,
and its just a matter of trial and errors until till you fully understand it all.
Step 31
Take your Refraction layer one step down so that it sits right above your
Reflection layer. Enable both and set their blending modes to Linear Dodge
(Add). I've added another Exposure adjustment, with the Exposure value
set to +0.80, to my Refraction layer as I wanted it to appear a little brighter.
Note: Editing the Refraction layer is one of the best ways to adjust the tint
of clear glass in interior renders.
Step 32
Enable your Specular layer and once again change its blending mode to
Linear Dodge (Add).
Step 33
Duplicate your Specular layer (Ctrl+J) - notice it still has Linear dodge
(Add) as its blending mode - and then with the copy selected, goto Filter >
Blur > Gaussian blur.
Step 34
Set your Gaussian Blur Radius to around 2.5 pixels and press OK. Set your
layer Opacity to around 65%. This should help create a specular bloom
effect around your specular highlights.
Note: These values are not constant numbers as they depend on your
resolution, and of course your taste. Just dont over-do it!
Step 35
Enable your RawShadow Layer and invert it (Ctrl + I).
Step 36
You might be surprised that your shadows are bluish but this is in fact
normal, they always are during the day because V-ray's GI has a bright
blue sky. Set your RawShadow layer's blending mode to Multiply and it's
Opacity to around 20%.
Step 37
This step is not a must but I like enhancing my shadows a bit as it gives the
image a bit more contrast. Add a Color Balance adjustment layer,
making it only affect the RawShadow layer, and with the Tones value set to
Shadows, give your shadows a reddish tint. Set the opacity for this
adjustment layer down to around 20%, although again, this is just a matter
of personal preference.
In other scenes when I find my shadows a little too sharp for my taste, I
add a small radius Gaussian blur filter to the shadow layer, which helps
smooth out those hard edged shadows a lot.
Step 38
Now enable your Ambient Occlusion layer. Set its blending mode to
Multiply and its Opacity to around 10%. Ambient Occlusion shouldn't be
too obvious in your final render, as it just helps you enhance the look of the
little details in your final image.
Step 39
At this point, we are pretty much done with the compositing! To sum it all up
here's a simple equation that I used until I memorised the different
blending modes. If you follow it through, you'll see it exactly matches what
we've done in this tutorial!
Step 40
The only thing missing now is a sky with a few clouds, and that's what we
are going to add next. You can also use a bluish gradient or, if you prefer,
you can cut out the V-ray sky from your original render and paste it behind
this image. To do any of these things however, we first need to access our
alpha information.
Go to the Channels pane and Ctrl-click on your main alpha channel's
thumbnail. This will make an automatic selection of your image ignoring
any transparent pieces so that we can easily add in a background image.
Step 41
Invert your selection (Ctrl + Shift + I) so that we only have the sky
background selected.
In my original render I used a cyan-ish gradient with some stock clouds.
However as I dont have the rights to redistribute those we will have to
find another image. Using Google images search the words sky field or
clouds field or something similar. Set your search options to Large Images
only so you get high resolution pictures only. I found this one on the first
page.
Step 42
Save the image and open it in Photoshop. Select all of its contents (Ctrl +
A), copy them (Ctrl + C), and as we still have that selection we made using
our alpha, use Photoshop's command Paste Into (Ctrl + Shift + V)
command. This should automatically add a mask to our new sky layer.
Rename this new layer something like Sky BG
.
Note: In Photoshop CS5 this shortcut changed to (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V).
Step 43
Using Free transform (Ctrl + T) adjust the size of your sky until it fits the
image. Remember to hold Shift while resizing to uniformly scale.
Then add a Color Balance adjustment layer over your sky BG only
(again using the clipping mask method) and play with the settings until
you're happy with the result. I liked mine with a bit of a cyan tint to it.
Step 44
We are now done with the compositing! Now I'm going to cover some post
production tips like adding motion blur to cars, adding DOF using ZDepth,
and adding chromatic aberration. You have come a really long way, so
let's compare our composite to the original V-ray output (the RGB layer).
As you can see, apart from the skies, they both look extremely similar, the
only difference being that in our composite, anything can be changed or
tweaked without having to re-render anything.
Step 45
Now begins the fun part - post production! There are many different
workflows for this part, it all just depends on your own personal
preferences. I will be showing you some of the techniques I use, to help
you get started.
First make sure you have the look of your render exactly how you want it. If
you want to increase reflections or refractions, add more specular
highlights, now is the time!
Now merge all your visible layers into one single layer by selecting the top-
most visible layer and pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E. This will paste a
merged copy of all your layers into a new layer called Layer 1.
Step 46
Making sure you've got the new Layer 1 selected, use the same select
color range technique we learned earlier (steps 26 & 27) but this time on
the Object ID layer, to select the cars.
Step 47
We want to create a new layer containing only the cars, and to do this we
press Ctrl + J. Rename the new layer (initially called Layer 2) to Cars
Motion Blur then delete the merged Layer 1.
Step 48
With the Cars Motion Blur layer selected, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.
Step 49
Alter the direction of motion so that it matches the direction of the cars, and
then choose a medium Distance (I used around 25 pixels). Click OK to
finalise.
Step 50
Lower the Opacity of this layer to around 30%. The motion blur is complete!
Step 51
Now to add some chromatic aberration. Please be advised that CA is an
effect that should be used as little as possible, as too much can cause your
renders to look blurry and ugly. Before attempting to use this effect on your
own renders I suggest you read more about this phenomenon, so that you
know where and when CA should appear. When done right however, this
effect can really enhance the realism of your picture.
Use the same shortcut as before (step 45) to merge your visible layers
together, and rename this new layer Merge.
Step 52
Making sure the Merge layer is selected, go to Filter > Distort > Lens
Correction. We will use this filter again in a moment to add a vignette, so
remember where to find it!
Step 53
Deselect Show Grid and then experiment with the values for Fix
Red/Cyan Fringe and Fix Blue/Yellow Fringe (I used +5 & -5) until you
get a suitable, subtle effect. Then set your Edge mode to Edge Extension
to prevent your picture from having transparent edges, although if this
issue is visible, you've likely set your values too high already!
Although this is the native way of adding CA in Photoshop, There are many
other ways people use. Some people use three different layers with the
red, green and blue data and shift them manually, other people use plug-
ins. I decided to show you the native way as almost all the plug-ins are
commercial.
Some of the greatest commercial plug-ins for photoshop post-production
are Magic Bullet Photolooks, 55 mm Digital Film Tools and Knoll Light
Factory . One of my favorites is Nik Software: Color Efex Pro. If you
can afford these then by all means they are worth it, but if you can't you
now know how to add the effect manually!
Step 54
Now that you have completed your CA effect, it's time to add some DOF.
Remember that we pasted our ZDepth render element into a new
channel? We will use that now! Start by going to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.
Step 55
In Source choose your Zdepth channel (in my case Alpha 2) and enable
the Invert checkbox. Radius controls the amount of blurriness, so
experiment with that although dont over-do it! I chose a radius of 4 and
then pressed OK.
As a rule of thumb if a filter/effect is really noticeable, it is too much!
(Unless of course it is some kind of an artistic approach). Maybe take some
time to surf around in the CG forums and see how the pros use DOF in
their images. Try to learn the best ways to add it in without hurting your
own visualization. Also, remember that some clients hate DOF, so be
careful with it!
Step 56
Another effect that looks really good on some pictures (and awful on
others) is cross processing. Cross processing is basically playing with your
color curves to achieve a more dramatic look. So add a Curves adjustment
layer on top of your Merge layer.
Step 57
Go to the Channel drop down menu in the adjustment layer, and adjust
your curves individually by selecting them one at a time. Here's the Red
channel curve that I used.
Step 58
Here's the Green channel curve.
Step 59
Finally, here's the Blue channel curve. Remember that this is just an
example; hundreds of looks can be achieved with this method, and your
curves will very likely vary from one shot to another depending on the look
you're after.
Step 60
I felt the final effect of this adjustment was too much for my taste, so I
decreased the Opacity of the adjustment layer to around 65%.
Step 61
The final step is to add a vignette to your render. Some people prefer
adding a black layer with an oval shaped soft mask, however I actually
prefer adding it using Magic Bullet Photolooks. For this tutorial, we'll stick
with the built-in tools, so lets add it using the Lens Correction Filter.
First we have to merge our Merge layer with the Curves adjustment layer.
To do that use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E as before, and then, with
the new layer selected, go to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction.
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Step 62
I used an Amount of -20 for this render, however it's important that you
don't over-do the vignette, as it just won't look that good!
Step 63
With that, your image is complete! I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial
and learned at least a new trick or two. If you have any comments,
questions or criticisms please go ahead and post in the comments below,
and I'll be more than happy to answer you.
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About Ahmed Fathi
Hi I'm Ahmed Fathi, an architect and freelance CG artist from Cairo, Egypt. I have been into CG for nearly 4 years
now, and I specialize in architectural visualizations and simple walkthrough animations. I learned most of what I know
from online tutorials on sites like this one, so I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with anything along
the way!
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