 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||
|
||||
| Updated 27/1/2003 |
Render Passes for Maya is a plugin I have written which allows you to define completely customizable render passes whilst still maintaining a single scene file.
Render passes are a crucial aspect of generating high-end visual effects work. A render pass is a special render where you change various aspects of your shaders, lights and scene in order to make matching sets of images that allow the 2D compositing process maximum control. In the most basic sense you might generate a beauty pass (like a 'normal' render) as well as maybe a shadow pass and a specular pass. However, it is not uncommon for high-end work to generate dozens or even hundreds of passes and layers as input to compositing.
Passes can be absolutely necessary, but more often they are used to give compositors more flexibility, and to shift some of the time-consuming look development work off into the 2D realm, where feedback is so much quicker. For example, somebody responsible for look development might spend a whole day playing with the relative strengths of shadows, specular and other light contributions to get a 3D render to sit well into a filmed background plate. However, if seperate passes were made and brought into a compositing system, these variations can all be viewed and tweaked in real time.
Previously if you wanted to make custom render passes in Maya you needed to make the required changes to your scene, and save out a version specifically for rendering that pass. If you did this for six different passes you would have seven scene files (6 passes plus your master scene). Then if changes were needed (and when are they not!) you would need to either make the change to your master scene, then break it up into passes again, or otherwise make the identical change to all your existing pass scenes.
This is a pain, and invites mistakes where the passes might not line up perfectly. Worse still however, is the side effect that it introduces a reluctance to continue making improvements to your scenes after you have split them up for pass rendering.
This plugin works by having the user specify the changes needed to generate each type of pass, and these changes are recorded into the original scene file. At any time you can select one of your defined passes and the plugin will automatically apply all the required changes to your scene. When you select another pass all these changes are first undone, and the changes relevant for the new pass are then applied. You can always return to your original scene by selecting the special "<none>" pass which undoes any changes.
If you want to know more about how the plugin works before downloading it yourself, you can check out the online documentation here, including a quick tutorial here.
Sure. You can download Render Passes as either a zip or gzipped tar archive below:
Download Render Passes for Maya v1.01 (zip)
Download Render Passes for Maya v1.01 (tar)
Both packages contain the plugins compiled for Windows (Maya v4 and Maya v4.5) and Linux (Maya v4 and Maya v4.5) along with support scripts, the online documentation and a simple demonstration scene. I don't have access to an OSX machine for compiling just now, but I hope to have that available soon too. And does anyone still use Maya on Irix?
If you have any problems with it, please make sure you have read the online docs (including the tutorial) and check out the demo scene included in the download. After that, if you're still having problems (or if you have any suggestions for new features or improvements) you can email me at [email protected]. Please note though, that this is a free plugin and I'm often very busy - so you may not get a hugely quick response.