Arnold Depth Pass Help..

[Anonymous]

This week I started educating myself with Arnold for Maya 2017 and I've watched various videos (digital tutors, YouTube, etc) and I can't seem to find a way of pulling a depth pass using the Z AOV. I've read documentation that doesn't match the current setup and I feel like I'm missing some simple step to produce a simple depth pass. I've tried various methods and the render (assuming it's actually rendering something) comes out pure white. Any info in this area would be greatly appreciative. Thanks in advance.

[mspeer]

Hi

Pure white in Arnold Render View is OK (if you turn down the exposure in this window to a very low value like -5, -8, or even lower, the z-Depth should become visible).

"The Depth channel will give you non-antialised, non-normalized depth data in the alpha channel. Non-normalized means that the Z depth values are not between 0 and 1 (distance in front of the camera), so you must divide the Z values by the far clipping plane value to get 0..1 values. This remapping is only required when viewing the depth channel in the viewer. It is not needed to make the zdefocus node work."

https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/Z+Depth+AOV

[Anonymous]

Ah ok thanks! Just curious I can't seem to view the rendered image properly inside of Photoshop, just curious since I see most open the renders inside Nuke. I feel like I'm missing some small step and can't seem to find much documentation on the issue. 

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

In Photoshop:

A) Image -> Adjustments -> Exposure (turn exposure down), or

B) Image -> Adjustments -> Levels (in Output Settings turn white level down), or

C) Image -> Adjustments -> HDR Toning (use Method Exposure.. and turn Exposure down)

Feel free to mark every answer that solves your problem as solution, so others interested in this thread will get a better overview.

[Anonymous]

When I drop the exposure inside the render view I can see the depth pass fine, when I save it from the render sequence it gives me white renders and exposure/level adjustments in Photoshop reveal nothing. 

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

If you save the image from Arnold Render View  you can use: File -> Save Image (color-corrected), this includes all settings from the menu, including Color Management and Exposure corrections.

If you render the images with Render Sequence you have to choose a 32-bit float Image format like "exr" that stores all the information of the Z-Depth Pass and enables you to do the color correction later.

Please mark every answer that solves a part of your problem as solution, so others interested in this thread will get a better overview.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this! i've had similar problems adding zdepth.

Im new to 2017 also, but where's the attribute tab for the Zdepth?

I can't find them in the Render setup.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Just use Render Settings to create a new AOV for Z Depth as shown in the screenshot above.

Then you can click on the triangle at the far right of the AOV -> "Select AOV Node"

https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/AOVs

[Anonymous]

Thank you mspeer!

ok, so is it my understanding there's no luminance attribute editor for zdepth?

in earlier Maya versoins, there was a set range attributes (min & max).

I can definitely see the zdepth  in the arnold renderview if i bring down exposure to -8 though.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Right, there are no values to be set for the Z Depth because this pass is rendered with full 32-bit precision, so there is no need to specify Min or Max.

[Anonymous]

perfect! thank you very much!

[Anonymous]

Well, unfortunately, there are occasions, where a range definition is mandatory as 32 bits are not infinite precision. 

It would be a quite nice option to add a range definition possibilty in future releases. 

[Anonymous]

'If you save the image from Arnold Render View  you can use: File -> Save Image (color-corrected), this includes all settings from the menu, including Color Management and Exposure corrections.'

When I save the image, it's just a white image. When I open it in Photoshop, it's just white. Even changing the exposure, nothing appears even though i can see in the Arnold RenderView the Zdepth image that I need.

[Anonymous]

Solved^^

On the save Image options->apply color management, put it on Disabled and view transform as display settings.