Introduction to Maya - Rendering in Arnold
This course will look at the fundamentals of rendering in Arnold. We'll go through the different light types available, cameras, shaders, Arnold's render settings and finally how to split an image into render passes (AOV's), before we then reassemble it i
# 1 21-08-2015 , 10:26 AM
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Alpha settings with mental ray

Hello everyone, I cannot find a solution to what seems to be a rather simple task. I want to render a png image with a background color but I cant turn the transparency off. I will really appreciate it if someone can help me out with this.

Things I have already tried.

1- turning off alpha in renderable cameras worked with vray but fails with MR.

2- pass custom alpha checked/unchecked

That was pretty much all I could dig up on this topic.

# 2 22-08-2015 , 11:09 AM
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Break the alpha connection to the shader in the hypershade or the node editor.


From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"
# 3 22-08-2015 , 05:33 PM
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Thank you David for your reply, but I am not talking about any one shader. I am talking about the alpha/mask that is saved with the .png format I want it to show the background color that I set in the camera environment attribute but it comes out transparent.

# 4 22-08-2015 , 06:45 PM
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Ah sorry i misunderstood, as far as i know any image format with an alpha channel will not save the camera background colour. if you save as a jpg you'll see the background. Only way i know of the top of my head.

TBH you're not meant to see the camera bg colour in a final render which is why it's not there. Why not just comp in any colour you want afterwards? It will take no time at all and give you a lot more flexibility especially if it's just a solid colour

My advice save as jpg if you must but personally i'd save out as a 16bit exr then comp in the bg afterwards. Someone else might know a way but it's not something i'd ever do.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
David


From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"
# 5 23-08-2015 , 08:13 PM
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I needed to do that for a script I was working on but thanks anyways.

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