alpha maps....

# 1 04-07-2006 , 07:13 AM

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is there any way for mental ray to generate seperated alpha maps? and save them as seperate files from the color map? (in other words, one set of files for the color, and the other set for the alpha map).
Thanks!

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# 2 11-07-2006 , 10:16 AM

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I think there is, its in the render globals, under "Memory usage" or somethnig close to there (at the bottom few spin down boxes), its a single tick box that has "pass something to something" I think.

So its soooo vague, I havent got maya with me and I set it up ages ago so my mind's very rusty on the matter.

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# 3 12-07-2006 , 08:34 AM

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Hi Xander,
I'm not quite sure why you want to achive this because you always get the correct alpha when you render the beauty pass. If you want to have alpha seperated into a the colour channels just runt fcheck - open animation - press a to view the alpha channel and then save the animation. Fcheck will save them with the alpha in the colour channel!

Hope this helps! user added image

/Chris

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder - Immermann"

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# 4 12-07-2006 , 08:46 AM

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well, mostly I want to do seperate passes this way, because one of the major programs I'm using for compositing doesn't support several file format types, including .pngs.... ah well....

Thanks for the help, though!

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# 5 14-07-2006 , 12:15 AM

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targa and tiff file formats are also capable of including alpha maps. what compositing program are you using?

Accept no substitutions.

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# 6 14-07-2006 , 05:16 AM

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about half the time, this little thing I got out of a bargin bin, for like 10 bucks. Works decent for most stuff, and despite its issues with certain file types, it does descent. Its also the only one I have that I can use to mess with sound, for adding effects and things to clips.... I do have a couple of other programs that can mess with other file types, but they can't mess with sound either at all, or not to the level I might need. And I'm mildly leery of running it through multiple programs (cause of another of the program's quirks... *sigh*)

I'll try maybe looking at using tiffs, and what else, but I think the list was something like jpegs, gifs, and bmps.....
Thanks for the advice, though!

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# 7 14-07-2006 , 07:27 AM

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Xander:
There's a free open source compositing package that you might find usefull! Jahshaka
Version 3 looks really promessing, but it has all the main features and also supports Win, Linux, OSX.

Take a look!

Cheers,
/Chris

Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder - Immermann"

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