Rendering Depth Pass via Z Depth 2017 or old school way HELP!!!

[iekomedia]

So i'm trying to keep my cool right now but I'm getting to that limit.

Ok so I've been trying to use the stupid Render layer system to render out the ZDepth sequence.

I followed all the steps from the Render layer setup on how to create the layers and their orders.

I set the Render view AOV to Z so I can see what I am doing because the ZDepth is all I need.

I test render, everything looks great, I'm viewing at -10  in the render preview since there is no way to make the depth adjustment like before.

I go to render the sequence and I get either all black or all white

I bring in nuke and step up..Nothing,, all flat,

I go do the same for the white... nothing. all flat.

I go back to my render.. save as exr.. save raw from the Render preview.. bring in nuke.. presto.. depth pass looks great..!!!!!!

sooooooo Why am I not able to get the same results for the sequence. I've tried to even just use the master with no layers created.. nothing works.

I've brought the AOV down over the collection in the layer, that doesn't work.

I tried to do the old way with using the surface shader but since 2017 doesn't have render layers with luminance presets, I cant use that method. I cant use the other renderers because its Arnold based.

So how in the heck am I supposed to get the renders to show when using the Render Layers as apposed to "saving As" from the render window?

I have over 2k frames to render and I cant save as each one.

AOV settings are (see image below)

PLEASE HELP HELP HELP!!!!!

LOAD ME A TEST FILE THATS EVEN SETUP WOULD WORK..

[Stephen.Blair]

Hi

There's nothing special to do. I did a quick test with a render layer and Render Sequence, and the output files had the non-normalized Z values in them.

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

Thats not really how this works.

Can you share your setup during the render sequence process?

my scene is 800mb or I would share it. 

As I stated in the Maya Render View, I get the results but when rendering using the layer system I get flat, no depth renders. 

So if you could share something substation to verify your statement otherwise I have to assume you are just pulling my leg and you aren't getting the results. 

I need to get this figured out by today. 

[Stephen.Blair]

Hi

The Z AOV is non-normalized. 

Attached is a simple example. Load scene, render sequence, load exr into Nuke.

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

Hello

Are you using Arnolds batch renderer or Maya Sequence Renderer because even with your scene, for beauty im getting all lizards and for the zdepth i'm getting all black

See zip - i didnt change anything just loaded, and hit render sequence 

[mspeer]

Hi!

I also did some tests with Z-Depth, Render Layers, Render Sequence and the provided scene by @Stephen.Blair .

It works all fine here.

But what's a bit surprising is, that your rendered images have a different file size (about 4 times bigger) than the images i rendered, so there seems to be a difference in the used render settings.

I have no idea what's the problem, so i only can recommend the following:

1. Make sure that you use the latest version of Maya (Update 2)  and Arnold (1.4.1.x)

2. Reset the preferences https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Reset-May...

3. Start Maya and make sure that the First Scene you load after opening Maya is the scene provided by @Stephen.Blair

4. Render Sequence

If this doesn't help i would consider a complete re-install, but hopefully @Stephen.Blair has a better solution for you.

[iekomedia]

@mspeer 

Can you load the folder that you got from the sequence so I can see what you got?

Also when I run maya sequence the images go into the tmp folder of the images folder. 

when i run the scene using the arnold scene renderer i get a proper looking depth, when i render using render preview i get proper looking depth, when i save from either i get  proper looking depth, but when i run sequence and go to the tmp folder specified in the render settings i get a flat no depth image.  This is my issue...

so my issue is what the sequence is saving and i have no idea how to modify this or whats driving how it saves. 

[Stephen.Blair]

I used Render Sequence.

You're using Arnold 4.2.15.1 and MtoA 1.4.0, so I would upgrade to the latest MtoA, which is 1.4.1.2

In your exr files, the depth information is in the Alpha channel.

Grade the alpha and you'll see the depth values.

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

I dont know if you guys are running the standard version of Maya 2017 but I am, I updated to  1.4.1.2 as suggested and now i cant even save an exr with the depth info, at least I was able to get the depth that way but now everything is flat. 

The render preview and Arnold preview windows still show the depth but when I save AS  exr or mulitlayer exr I get either flat red or flat white.

I even rename/sent pref back to default after realizing I was no longer able to save a legitimate depth pass. 

i'm not even using my scene, as soon as I reset the pref I only loaded the lizard scene. 

Can you f/stop down in Nuke so I can see your results. I know it shows as white, but right when I gamma/expose down, its flat?

Also am I correct that your renders are going to your tmp folder?

I can try to reinstall maya but I dont know if that will work. there is an issue with what i see in maya and what maya saves out, how can I  fix this - where do I go in the program?

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

@mspeer

I think Im making progress, but I need to do a sequence test. When I updated to the latest Arnold if went from -10 to view to -2 which is alot better..but now i need to see if the results are reflected in the sequence renderer

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

So the update did not solve the issue, I included the meta data for the output files. also is it -10 but when stoping down via the exposure node, its -2 density.

I guess the only option to try is to import the geometry into the lizard scene and see if that works ... unless the export isnt compensating for my real world settings? but that doesnt make sense since i'm able to SAVE AS and get the proper image. 

[iekomedia]

@Stephen.Blair

Here is a dropbox of the file if you would like to give it a shot, maybe you can quickly see what I am not. 

The file is clean of textures, only surface shader applied and i'm mostly using lobbycam 9 todo my test but will need to do renders from all the cameras

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8eprn9wdsbifnbq/TheArts_Lobby_v004_ZRender_Main.zip?dl=0

[iekomedia · Accepted solution]

FOUND A SOLUTION!!!!! FINALLY.. THANK YOU NEO AND MORPHEUS.. 

Ok ok, so I deleted the layers and recreated them, the thing that kept nagging me is the flat surface.. i can only assume it was the pure color of the surface shader and the sequence renders were only showing the diffuse no matter how much I wanted to save out the Zpass. 

So I just happen to click on the geometry and noticed there was a Renderlayer tab. It looked just like the legacy tab that you could assign a zdepth to the layer via a preset and lord and behold it was there.. the luminance preset. It converted the render setup to software maya so I just put it back to Arnold, I replaced my surface shader with the surface shader created by the luminance preset which has everything hooked up and ran another sequence and it worked!!

Now I am not only able to see the Zdepth in viewport 2.0 and make adjustments if I need to, which i didnt since the scene is real world, but I am also able to see the same results in the sequence render output.

Thank you so much for your patience and helping me deduce the options for this fix! 

@Stephen.Blair 
@mspeer

[Anonymous]

Hi ! 

any chance to save Z and z_variance at same time ? 

[Anonymous]

Hello Stephen ! 

any chance to output Z with different name rather than Z ?

lets say I want to call it depth and output Z 

[vuke151]

Hi iekomedia, can you please explain where exactly did you find option for old luminance pass preset? Global material overrides are really buggy in new render setup system - I have to try with old preset and see if it behaves more predictable...

Thanks in advance,

Vuk