Blocking parts of a render

Hello,

I'm trying to get a scene where I can mix and match various characters, without having to render every possible combination separately.

An example of this is 4 characters sitting at a table. I want to individually render the characters so that I could switch them in/out/change their expressions individually but I have a problem because the table effectively interracts with the characters as their legs are below the table but their arms are on top of it.

This means I can't render them with the table included to block the legs as when I overlay them all the arms of all of them except the last one layered gets cut off, and similarly I can't render them without the table and overlay them as all of their legs will be showing.

Is there a way to set the properties on an object (The table in this instance) so that it still acts as a 3d block on anything behind it, but it doesn't actually render anything itself and so comes out as empty space?  

I've tried googling and had no luck.

Comments

  • SofaCitizenSofaCitizen Posts: 1,896

    Not tried anything like that myself but that sounds like perhaps it could be done with Canvases under the Advanced section of Render Settings?

    If you didn't have the table in the way then you could probably also use Spot Rendering maybe.

  • felisfelis Posts: 4,348

    I think you can do it with an advanced Iray Matte node.

    With the table selected, go to Content > My Daz Library > Scripts > Utilities and click 'Create Advanced Iray Node Properties'.

    And then open Parameters > Display > Rendering. There should now be an option for enable Iray Matte, and set it to On.

     

  • felis said:

    I think you can do it with an advanced Iray Matte node.

    With the table selected, go to Content > My Daz Library > Scripts > Utilities and click 'Create Advanced Iray Node Properties'.

    And then open Parameters > Display > Rendering. There should now be an option for enable Iray Matte, and set it to On.

    Thanks - This is very nearly what I need it to do, but it renders shadows onto the now invisible table which I don't want.

  • rcatterrcatter Posts: 2

    For anyone trying to do this in the future you can use Iray Section plane nodes to block parts of the render out. It's a bit more fiddly than I'd like but it works

Sign In or Register to comment.