ZDepth-Maya/mental ray FumeFX 3.5.3 HowTo requested.

[rconover]

I've seen precious few rendered (Maya or Max) examples of FumeFX zdepth sequences on the web. Followed by an influx of "oh my gawds how did you do thats?!" in th comments section.
But no answer.

I gone over and over the UI I can't see any thing i can use in 3.5.3 to get this working.
How do I do it???!!!!

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Can you at least get the other Maya geometry to output Z-Depth and velocity info?

Regards,
Kresimir Tkalcec

[rconover]

Yup. I'm only wondering about z-depth.
I've tested probably the simplest workflow for maya:
I put the objects (fumeFX grid and related matte objects) in a render layer
and then add a Luminance Depth attribute (this applies a surface shader to the layer members).
But of course the Fume grid doesn't understand the surface shader.

I had been expecting to find some sort of direct 'render option' in the Fume grid's render controls or on the volume node. I've seen examples of what i wanted (from Max) somehow a render channel option or FusionWorks setting?! This is what i was hoping for in Maya.

The z-depth result/method that got this example is all I need:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMTksK1zYcM

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Have you tried with the Camera Depth Render Pass output to an .exr ?
That should work.

Please let me know.

Regards,
Kresimir Tkalcec

[rconover]

I did some testing with a production scene.
I set up multiple render passes to render out with a 32 bit exr.
I am viewing the results in NUKE.

Only the 'beauty' and 'objectvol' channels got me anything with the FumeFX.
The 'camera_depth' and 'camera_depth_remapped' and '3d motion vector' worked with only the geometry
of the shot-the fume was missing in action from those channels (but is visible in rgb).
Also tried doing specific passes -same difference.
From here it feels like none of this stuff supports volumes/voxel rendering-only geometry.

In Max isn't this handled with FumeFX channels output? Like you tell *FumeFX* what to render: fire only, smoke only, both smoke and fire, fuel, zdepth,etc. Thats what I was expecting as a feature in 3.5.3. Or at least a couple of check boxes equivilent. Or a checkbox under 'ffxMRVol'.

It doesn't feel like Maya/linux/mr understand FumeFX other than rgba. So it seems to me FumeFX has to 'override' the rgb result with a depth result option.

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Please find attached scene. Simulate and render a frame.
From Render View go to File->Load Render Pass and you can load z depth or 2D velocity.

Let me know if this works for you.
Mentalray is a bit different from max's Scanline, but we're always working on improvements.

Regards,

Kresimir Tkalcec

[rconover]

Darn-I don't suppose you can make me a 2013 scene (I suspect this is from a newer version of maya)?!

Worse case-if you save it as a maya ascii file i might be able to fudge it into loading with a header hack.

FYI I check imf_disp on my own result images and I see the same issues -so hopefully your scene can suggest to me what i am missing in my work flow.

many thanks!

[sitnisati]

Hello,

Please find the .ma file attached - I hope it works for you.

Regards,
Kresimir Tkalcec

[rconover]

I was able to load that version of the scene. I did get a warning about data loss-but it 'looks' functional as expected. I believe we are both reproing the same method. However with your scene too I am not getting the expected result in NUKE or imf_disp. I am getting those buffer chanels rendered. Its just they don't look as i expect them to look. Anyithing to do with fume is 'missing in action'. Only the geometry is there.

Now I am wondering if it is my maya/mr build (which won't upgrade until fall 2014 at the soonest).
We are using Maya 2013 x64 SP2 (Linux)-as best i can tell the mr version is 3.10.

Any way you can test for that?
Or is there anything I should do to your scene to 'get-it-to-work' besides?;
-make the cache output path local
-make the render output path local

Any hope?

[romanus]

Hi there,

I've used the not so accurate solution of having an omni (no shadows) positioned at camera with the same falloff setting i would use in zdepth. It works with any type of render.

Cheers,

PS: I advise also to use facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/164868190323236/ ) since there are many active users there... always sharing etc