Rendering Real-Time Shaders
polycounter lvl 10
Hello.
Like you, I am excited by real time shaders. The ones around here are particularly nice. I would like to composite some realtime animation sequences but getting the entire finished shot into the viewport is impossible.
I was taking screenshots frame by frame and matching the viewport color in the composite but its obviously limiting... I wonder if its possible to somehow get a transparent background for the real time character performing animation in my viewport window?
Maybe im just not seeing things clearly?
Like you, I am excited by real time shaders. The ones around here are particularly nice. I would like to composite some realtime animation sequences but getting the entire finished shot into the viewport is impossible.
I was taking screenshots frame by frame and matching the viewport color in the composite but its obviously limiting... I wonder if its possible to somehow get a transparent background for the real time character performing animation in my viewport window?
Maybe im just not seeing things clearly?
Replies
but in general (I'm hijacking this thread a bit) .. is there a way to get a screen shot in a higher resolution? or using something like a virtual desktop to run the app like max in that is using a higher resolution.
... To say is short.. is there ANY way to get past the resolution your monitor dictates you?
Try this? http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/video-capture-select-viewport
I would be willing to bet you could modify one of these to take a screenshot, advance to the next frame, take another screenshot, advance to the next frame, etc. This is similar to the script ZacD just posted, but not quite.
As for "transparent background", I'm guessing that isn't possible. But I would suggest going for a "Green Screen" approach and using an obnoxiously bright color for your background (just on a polygon) that you could key out in your video application of choice.
Although this won't give you a transparent backdrop. If your cheeky you could set a key-color as background and use your compositing software to mask it out.
I've updated the script with an resolution-refresh button and now it's on my absolute fav script list
thx man!
and use the "green screen" method (in fact the "green" should be a color(value) you don't use in the models texture),
now you need to take the screenshot twice as big as your final resolution if you want a 4 sample aa
then simply use the magic wand tool with an tolerance around 5% to select and delete the background and reduce the image size by the amount you rendered it bigger then needed (here half the size)
this gives you perfect aa on a transparent background while rendering only once
of course for motion the 2nd render in black and white is the way to go, here you should also render in a higher resolution or (if possible) use viewport aa
This is only a solution to his second question and it only works without realtime shaders
And on the other hand I'm more answering my own question then answering his, this was done by others already.
Then i said nothing, nevermind me:poly142:
That way you get a clean alpha, work in 1 pass and you can use a green ground plane to get screenspace AO and contact shadows. If you have access to a compositor then use that, most keyers can 'despill' the green or blue which will remove green tints from shadows
Rollin: wouldnt you be more inclined to use the method for motion? i mean if your doing motion your going to comp in a compositor and the compositor will have a good automatic keyer like keylight.
Going the "green-screen" route, you can capture a sequence of targa's and feed them directly into a video program like adobe premiere. These types of apps have specific tools for working with green-screened video and can parse out the background just as well as photoshop...but it would probrably be way easier.
The amount of time this would save you is likely directly proportionate to the actual amount of animation you need to handle but still, the point stands. And if you are working with animation I assume you are going to put this all into a video application at some point anyway.