topic Material Override Black Material on Render Layer in Maya Forum

Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 01:58:21 GMT

I created a clean scene, with two object, a sphere an a cube. I put the cube in a render layer and applied a material override, in this case a lambert shader. The cube rendered with the lambert shader excluding the sphere.

Following the same steps as mentioned above, except in my scene I isolated the object in it's own render layer, appled a material override but the object renders black, to proove the object renders black, I've attached a screen shot of the node editor showing the object in black, instead of the phong shader which should be applied to the object ?

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:32:36 GMT

If I'm following you correctly, here is the result that I get:

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 13:34:59 GMT

Did you add lights to the render layer ?

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 14:07:36 GMT

No...that was just the default lighting set.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 15:00:08 GMT

The default lighting from the master layer, correct ? And so it carried over to the new render layer ?

If this is correct. When I created a new render layer, as you see in the node image, the object rendered black, the only way I could visibly see the image was to add a light to the render layer.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 15:28:09 GMT

Correct...the default lighting from the master layer. Open the attached and try rendering the two render layers...on the master layer, the sphere has the default lambert. On layer 1, it has been overriden with a red Phong, and on layer 2 it has been overridden with a yellow Blinn. Note that I did the material overrides from the render layer manager itself with the right-click overrides menu.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 21:54:48 GMT

In a clean scene, everything works as expected, not in my production scene.

I create a render layer and have an object in the render layer for my production scene the object renders completely black, only when I add a light to the render layer is the object visible for the newly created render layer.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 22:14:04 GMT

In your production scene, did you create any lights on your master layer? As soon as I do that, the other individual layers render black...

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 23:20:03 GMT

Yes I did create lights in my master layer. How come the render layer, renders black all because there are lights on the master layer ?

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:16:08 GMT

According to the documentation, if there are no lights in a scene, Maya will create a directional light that is parented to the rendering camera during the render so your objects can be seen. My guess is that as soon as you add a light to the master layer, that process is deactivated for all layers so that the previous default lighting is not interfering with your intentional lighting setup and acting as a minor nuisance. After all, if one is using render layers, there is usually a very specific effect in mind for each layer. (In other words, they think we know what we want, so they're getting out of the way.)

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:23:39 GMT

I looked in the documentation, I must not have looked deep enough.

Everything is working as it should, I just must add lights as I already know to the render layer to illuminate my object(s).

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 13:37:44 GMT

Unfortunately I can't render visibility lights for the master layer, in other words, I can't have the lights visibility on for a render layer and off for the master layer, not only so the lights don't render, but so as I don't see them in the view-port either !

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 15:01:38 GMT

Select everything on your master layer and create a new layer with it. Then you can isolate the lights on different layers as needed, and not have to work in the master layer.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

_sebastian_f — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 16:05:35 GMT

@FalconCrest wrote:
Unfortunately I can't render visibility lights for the master layer, in other words, I can't have the lights visibility on for a render layer and off for the master layer, not only so the lights don't render, but so as I don't see them in the view-port either !

for sure you can. just turn them off in your master layer and create an override with the lights on on your render layer!

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

pshwayka — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:36:17 GMT

Come on, Sebastian...stop trying to make things easier!

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 01:09:03 GMT

I have done this exact suggestion before you suggested 🙂 Can I link a layer with a render layer so I can turn off the actual visibility for lights based on the render layer ?

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

_sebastian_f — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 15:17:14 GMT

@pshwayka: i´m sorry but while others try to find the most complex solution somebody has to do it;)

@falconcrest: so whats not working then? if you want help you need to be more clear. maybe linking of render and display layers can be done by scripting but i guess it would be quite inefficient. why do you have anything in your render layers you dont want to see? sounds like you´re doing something more complicated than it has to be.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 02:12:42 GMT

When you add lights to a render layer, those lights added are also added to the master render layer. I can't turn off the visibility for those lights for the master layer, I can only turn off the lights intensity with an override.

An idea came to me, if I could link the display layer for which the lights are in with the master render layer, when I have the master layer selected, the visibility for those lights in the master layer are not visility because they are linked with the displa layer visibility.

If you know of another way, I'm open to it, I'm not complicating things, I'm only thinking of solutions to the problem that I'm faced with, obviously someone may know a technique I'm not aware of, which is why I posted the question, and if no one has a better solution then the obvious route is hopefully someone can help me with the solution, and in turn it may help someone else as well and so the wheel goes around and around.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

_sebastian_f — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 08:32:30 GMT

but thats what i´m talking about. i gave you a simple solution and it seems like you either ignore it or just don´t get it. so again: set up your master layer like you want it to be. i.e. lights visibility and than create overrides on your other layer(s) for this attributes.

Re: Material Override Black Material on Render Layer

FalconCrest — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 14:43:58 GMT

I did read your solution, you can't apply a override to a lights visibility on the master layer. I want the light not to be visible in the master layer.