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Do you need Nuke or After effects to be able to use the Z-depth AOV?

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Message 1 of 6
CityArchVizTech
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Do you need Nuke or After effects to be able to use the Z-depth AOV?

Is there any other way to just simply get a z-depth from arnold? Im not sure why its so convoluted.. in any other render engine you can easily just render a z pass. I dont have Nuke or After effects and I wouldnt know how to use those software anyways.... So what am i supposed to do!?

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Message 2 of 6

The Z AOV is built in, so it's not hard to render it out.

The values are non-normalized, so that are not values between 0 and 1

To use the Z, you just need to normalize the values.

Why do you need to Z depth, what are you going to do with and in what software?



// Stephen Blair
// Arnold Renderer Support
Message 3 of 6

@Stephen BlairYea I realize that it’s built in but do you need nuke or after effects to utilize it? How can I just simply use the z pass in photoshop?

Message 4 of 6

How do you use any other depth pass in Photoshop? I don't have Photoshop, and I've never used it...but I'd say you use the Z aov the same way, except you have an extra step: converting the non-normalized Z values to normalized values eg in the range 0 to 1.

For example, divide by the far clipping plane. Or do something like adjust the exposure. See this thread on the Autodesk maya rendering forum



// Stephen Blair
// Arnold Renderer Support
Message 5 of 6

@Adam Brown It's not really that the z-depth process is convoluted. It is more of an issue that photoshop has never really supported 32 bit images and multi-layer compositing. Here is how I used to do it.

Open your multilayer exr in photoshop. Must be done in 32 bit as converting to 8 will lose all the depth info. You will see your Z as white. Use image adjust exposure and keep dialing down the exposure until you get something that looks like a regular z-depth pass. (You can enter values lower than the slider goes) or you can use your white point and black point sample tools.

572-screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-104439-pm.png

Now, normally at this point you can add the z into a new channel and use it with lens blur, but lens blur does not work in 32 bit mode even in 2018.

573-screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-104527-pm.png

So to compensate for this you have to go to image mode > 8 bit. When requested, do not merge layers.

Now copy and paste the z-depth layer into a new channel and then you can use lens blur selecting the channel you just created.

575-screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-104917-pm.png

or. . . you can bring it into Nuke (or Natron which is free) and get much more accurate 32 bit results in about a minute. You can also try Affinity Pro which is an alternative to photoshop with more 32 bit options and sells for about $50 but I don't know what it's capabilities are with this particular area. Hope this helps.

576-screen-shot-2017-12-13-at-110324-pm.png

Message 6 of 6

@Brian FoleyThanks a ton!!!! That solves my problem and thanks for the natron recommendation I’ve never heard of it and Photoshops lack of 32bit support has been a huge annoyance so I will definitely be getting that!

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