Trouble with Z-depth
 

I'm trying to render a Z-depth file for use in Combustion. I've followed the documentation as closely as I can and I just get "corrupted file" when I look at what is rendered as the z-depth channel.

I'm sure I'm missing something but being new to this aspect of Maya (v6) I can't quite figure out what to do.

Any suggestions?

Thanks :(

I'm guessing Dynamics/Particles are used so you should not be in Maya Software, if so try Maya Hardware in Render Globals. Select .iff as I believe you can only get Z depth in .iff format. Production quality with transparency is what I use as Z depth will give you true transparency around your objects for your composit program. Select the Frames you want rendered. Recently I rendered 1,800 frames in Z depth, opened the sequence in adobe A/E. It does come out beautiful. Just to let you know The frames took up about 1.3 GB. If you could be a little more precise. I'm sure someone here can help you through this Good Luck

hey bud, what platform are you on if you don't mind me asking.

Multiplatform (mac & PC) but this render was done on a mac. Forgot to mention I used NTSC where You might use Pal

OK, I missed the doo-dad where Z-depth only renders in the "iff" format. I will try again with that approach.

I'm on Windows XP.

OK, I figured it out. By rendering with Maya Hardware I was able to generate the Z-depth within the ".iff" file.

I use Combustion for compositing. So for the depth-of-field blur I used a Compound Blur with the zdepth file as the source and "wahlah", it worked.

Thanks for your help.