Render an object's outline

[quinnredshift]

I have some objects which need to be rendered with an outline...like the edges made by the Ink'n'Paint material, but without using Ink'n'Paint.

The problem with Ink'n'Paint is two-fold:

1 - Arnold doesn't like it (if I had my way, I'd still be using MentalRay; Arnold is way more complicated than my needs require).

2 - The 'Paint' part of Ink'n'Paint is very limited and limiting; the hoops you have to jump through to make a non-opaque material alone makes it useless.

...and, heck, for Honorable Mention:

3 - Doing an internet search for anything with "3DS MAX" and "outline" turns up two things: project outlines and people asking the same question I am and being told to use Ink'n'Paint.

I'm trying to do something like this:

...or something vaguely "Tron"-esque.

Is there a way to do this, and a way to do it that's simple? Preferably something without a ton of unnecessary and unwanted bells and whistles, something to just plug into a Map slot with controls for color and line width and that's it? Ink'n'Paint adding only the ink, not the paint?

[quinnredshift]

The problem with "adapting" is that there are things that used to be easy which now have three to four more steps, parameters, or options just to achieve.

Adding features, I can understand, but they kinda fixed what wasn't broken in many cases.

[quinnredshift]

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@Diffus3d wrote:

Another option even might be to take your model, put UV seams at every edge where you want an outline, then bring it into Substance Painter and use a generator - uv boundries on the alpha and get a texture that represents just the outlines.  Then composite it over a flat shaded black color so the object culls itself, and voila!   Not perfect but could work. 

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That's more like wireframe than an outline.

[darawork]

Hi, 

Corona has a Wireframe shader, like vRays Wireframe Shader.

I use it for the edges of things that need detail to stand out from a distance, window frames, etc or in Cardboard style Architectural renders.

Here's a very general post on them. 

https://megarender.com/blog/how-to-make-3ds-max-wireframe-render/

You can most definitely mess with the settings to alter only outer edges, in combination with distance maps, viewing angle falloff and composite maps. It might be an alternative to using anything else. 

Regards, 

[quinnredshift]

I looked into it, and Corona sounds amazing...

...and also doesn't have a MAX 2023-compatible version.

Also, I'm not trying to do wireframe. I can do wireframe.

I'm trying to get the object to have an outline.

[Diffus3d]

NVIDIA just stopped developing Mental Ray, that's on NVIDIA.  Not much Autodesk can do about it other than provide a new renderer which they did do.   I'm not disagreeing with you that things get more complicated over time, but such is the nature of everything I suppose.  Nike wants me to register my shoes for NFT's?  Like, why?!   It's just the world I guess.  

It's a bit of both (wireframe and outline) in a way, depending on how you do it.  But yeah, it's not perfect or anything.  

These days you can rent a renderer for a month for cheap, so maybe that's your solution.   Final toon isn't that much money, you've probably already spent that much trying to solve this so might as well bite the bullet.  

Best Regards,

[darawork]

Hi, 

Corona 8 Officially supports 3dsmax 2023.

https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=36232.0

https://youtu.be/sxQ4vW3Ycog

Regards, 

[Diffus3d]

In the end though, you're still learning a new renderer.  🙂  

Does the games outline not work?  Seems like it's a decent compromise.  

Best Regards,

[quinnredshift]

Oh. Wait. You're right.

I was thinking of a different renderer, AMD Radeon ProRender.

Dang.

[CiroCardoso3v]

Checking what is happening with the video, but he still has the handout that explains more than the video explains.

[ryan_buckJT76M]

Hi, folks,

I ran into a similar issue today, but I think I have it figured out!

The default Arnold Renderer settings are fine, but be sure to scroll down to Filtering and change the Type to "Contour". And under System settings, be sure the Render Device is CPU, not GPU.

Any lights in the scene should have a "/" at the beginning of their name. I tried it without, and while it did work, my test render took 4:22. Adding the slash to the light name cut it down to 0:34. 

I unchecked both Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows in the Object Properties on all my objects. I can't tell if that really makes a difference, but when I need to matte stuff out in otherwise normal renders, it was crucial. I figure it's better to play it safe.

For the material itself, I used Map to Material with the Toon texture. Most of the settings are default, but I changed the following:

• Edge
• Edge Color: white
• Edge Width Scale: 0.5
• Edge Detection
• Angle Threshold: 45.0
• All the "___ Color" slots that don't have "Edge" in the name: add a Shadow Matte texture (default settings, instanced)

Obviously, you may need to tweak some of those settings, but the main takeaway is to apply a Shadow Matte to a bunch of Color slots.

I noticed that if you have an Environment Map, it will show up as a reflection on the objects, so be sure to turn it off if your scene has one. 

My result was a clean, white line drawing of my model, with an identical alpha channel.