Blender layers example.

Posted on by

1stmultilayersuccess.jpgA nice and crazy multilayer setup example.

From RamboBaby:

You’ll have to render the renderlayers B4 you can work with the file. Just connect the image output from the second z-combine node to the composite and viewer nodes, then render. No need to connect the z output as the value gets passed through anyway. You’ll find the renderlayers to the right of the composite node. After rendering reimport the render into each of the image layers. The image layers were configured from top to bottom: Rear, Center, Front, but you can order them any way you choose, but that will give you a different effectthan what you see in the screen shot. These files are HUUUGE! This particular file was rendered at 960 X 540 and cost me 16.8 MB. Each of the 3 layers was rendered with 8 passes. No effects were applied during render even though passes were enabled. All post was done upon reimport of the multilayer. Be sure to deselect single on the renderlayers tab B4 rendering, else you’ll only render the layer labeled “Front”.

If nothing else this is just fun to look at. RamboBaby hopes that it will help you learn how the system works.

Be Sociable, Share!

    Twitter



    Please support us

    • http://vladius.fanatic.ru Vladius T

      0_0 When I start to hate blender once again, it just cant do anything but present something like this outstanding demonstration of professional feature it has, and Im starting to love it once again ^_^
      (usability project I want, shhhh)

    • http://www.osysi.net Bmud

      Ugly colors… but awesome file!

    • http://www.sf-galere.net Kram1032

      Nice!

      @ Vladius T:
      nice to read from you, when you have changed mood!

      @Bmud:
      I like the colours^^ They may just are too flashy…

    • tripdragon

      WTF, who works lilke that ! There is a reason Photoshops layers work for artists… 

      Now Shake has a mass of nodes as well but this is just crazy,, Think of the ammount of time you spend setting that up and rearranging it. 

    • http://www.instinctive.de Alexander Ewering

      Kram1032: I can’t help but think that Vladius_T was being sarcastic and you did not notice.

    • Kyle

      i think the point i that some people dont ahve access to photoshop so they are integrating it into the program. plus it easier to work if its all in one program.

    • http://www.sf-galere.net Kram1032

      @Alexander:
      Could be… (I wondered anyway, ’cause most Blender-users, who had an other 3D-Program before don’t like Blender-nodes, i thought) But, even if (@ all) please don’t start argue again, so Bart has to close this as well.

      Photoshop is very expensive… so it’s pretty good to have this in Blender…

    • tripdragon

      No I mean that the layer system that just stacks and has Masks and blend modes. No need to pipe nodes together and they just simply stack on top of each other

    • bartrobinson

      The layer / nodal compositor is a highly professional feature that goes well beyond photoshop. It’s a great way to see how your composite is built in a logical manner. Definitely necessary for complex and realistic compositing. Stacking things doesn’t cut it, you have to be able to do many other things like resize, reposition, distort, blur, all in a very specific and reconfigurable way.

    • Tony

      Photoshop is no substitute for this at all. For the simplest reasons, these features determine *what* you can output from Blender (i.e. render layers). You could of course work with these in Photoshop, although nodes are more powerful for non-destructive non-linear compositing anyway, so there’s no point really. But… at least some of us do animation. Obviously there’s no way you’re going to use Photoshop for that.

    • Hexa

      I’ve been working with Digital Fusion for quite some time now and I think the addition of nodes to blender is a major thing. For artists that are used to layers and timelines the concept behind nodes may, at first, be a little strange though. They are much more powerful than any layersetup — but sometimes a real hassle to work with if you just need ‘basic’ layer stuff. Actually you use nodes to do some fine grained changes to your footage (compositing) — and use a timelime to cut and edit the result at a larger scale. BTW: I tried to use Lightwave and Digital Fusion with EXR as the format of choice … and I wish Digital Fusion would provide the tools blender has now. Now the only thing missing in blender is a decent tracker.

    • grafixsuz

      Well, XSI basically has a similar setup to that which TON has implemented into blender, and fair enough, nodes may not seem to be as easy to master or manage as the system you are referring to in photoshop, but by all accounts it is far more superior in been able to manage all your work at all levels of the process. regardless if your doing stills or animation. But I must say the setup they have above looks mind blowing if you are new to this sort of stuff. Other than that, great work guys, once again.

      On another point, can someone tell mehow to say ‘thank you very much for your kick ass work’ in Dutch? I can say it in Japanese (トンへ、影ひなたなく、働いて下さってありがとう！）but I am sure that won’t have as much impact, and I personally feel like everytime Ton and the guys keep releasing new features that I find truely useful, well just for releasing blender to us for our enjoyment, and I can only reply ‘thank you’ I sort of feel like I am repeating myself hundreds of times, and cheating them of the respect they deserve. So if someone can at least be kind enough to teach me that in Dutch I can then express my gratitude in more than one way.

    • BeBraw

      Just simply setting your basic three point lighting setup to be render layer based gives a lot more control than the standard way of tweaking. The downside of that is the longer render time but I think the good sides (render takes less memory and control) are worth it. Render passes and light groups are the way to go if you want even more control.

      ‘thunk yuoo fery mooch fur yuoor keeck ess vurk’ :D

    • RamboBaby

      The set up isn’t meant to be mindblowing. It’s not even something that you would see in any real workflow. Come on, normals have been re-lit from 3 different directions. No one needs to tweek every pass every time. That’s why the passes are configurable and include the option for a “Combined” pass. Bear in mind that this is a HIGHLY professional workflow which is ideally suited to teamwork in a production environment. I was just trying to spare some of you folks a bit of frustration in trying to figure out how to work with the files and they can save you a lot of time in the long run.
      As far as PhotoShop goes, I know that program like the back of my hand and there’s no real comparison to be made between PS and the nodes compositor. With these files you can make local or global adjustments within the image the way you can in PS, but you can also apply time based effects which transition from pass to pass, threading in and out of the layers within the file. A good example of this type workflow would be to link specular flare to depth of field, rendered across multiple layers while applying other effects to the individual layers which affect them only, rather than the composition as a whole.
      And, as BeBraw mentioned, renderlayer based lighting via lightgroups is truly awesome and you don’t need multilayer files to harness their power.
      If you want to know what to do with the passes there is a description of how how they are created and what to do with (some of) them here:
      http://blender.org/cms/Render_Passes.829.0.html

    • grafixsuz

      BeBraw-‘thunk yuoo fery mooch fur yuoor keeck ess vurk’ :D

      Ohh is that how you say it? I always knew it would be spelled different, but never thought it would be pronounced the same! Wot do u noo!

    • BeBraw

      I tried the chef translator: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~jbc/home/chef.html

      I think Babelfish is much better though: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

      Also there are online translator communities available I think.

    • grafixsuz

      Well this is what babelfish came up with: Dank u zeer voor uw achter brekend werk! Don’t know if it makes sense though… well anyway Ton here goes, Dank u zeer voor uw achter brekend werk!

    • grafixsuz

      p.s. BeBraw, thanks for your help! Sorry I should say ‘Dank u zeer voor uw achter brekend werk!’

    • grafixsuz

      p.s. BeBraw, thanks for your help! Sorry I should say ‘Dank u zeer voor uw achter brekend werk!’ Hehe, seriously, thanks!

    • grafixsuz

      Doh, double post….

    • http://www.sonatimes.edu son

      i need blender demo…