When you create a scene, it has a single pass named Default_Pass. This is a “beauty” pass that is set to render every element of the scene as is. It is also selected as the current pass for the scene and its name appears in the pass text box on the Render toolbar.
You will most likely want to create more passes as your scene grows in size and complexity. You can create a variety of pass types from the Render toolbar.
To create a render pass
• From the Render toolbar, choose Pass > Edit > New Pass and select a type of pass to create. Your choices are as follows:
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Pass |
Description |
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Empty |
Empty pass with empty object and light partitions. Use this option to build a custom pass from “scratch.” See Creating Custom Render Passes. |
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Based on Layers |
Pass with a partition for every defined layer. See What about Scene Layers?. |
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RGBA Matte |
Matte pass of the selected objects. This type of pass is regularly used to composite overlapping objects. Background objects and lights are not rendered but matte objects are rendered with their original RGB settings. See The Matte Pass. |
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White Matte |
Matte pass with a constant white RGBA channel of selected objects. This type of pass is regularly used to composite overlapping objects. The white matte pass renders matte objects in white, while background objects and lights are rendered black. See The Matte Pass. |
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Isolate Matte |
Matte pass of the selected objects. Each matte object is isolated from non-matte objects, meaning that a matte is generated for areas of matte objects that are overlapped by non-matte objects. See The Matte Pass. |
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Depth |
Pass of the entire scene’s depth information. Also called a Z-depth pass, this type of pass contains depth information for objects based on the distance from the camera. See The Depth Pass. |
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Shadow |
Shadow pass of the entire scene. Rendering a shadow on its own and being able to composite it back in the final render allows you to edit a shadow’s blur, intensity, and color without any additional rendering. See The Shadow Passes. |
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Selective Shadow |
Shadow pass that includes only shadows projected on the selected objects. See The Shadow Passes. |
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Pass containing every selected object’s reflections. |
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Pass containing every selected object’s refractions. |
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Pass containing all of a scene’s ambient color. |
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Pass containing all of a scene’s ambient and diffuse information. |
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Pass containing all of a scene’s diffuse color. |
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Pass containing the highlight of the entire scene. A highlight pass (sometimes called specular) contains all of a scene’s specular highlights or hotspots. |
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Image Based Lighting (HDRI) |
Pass that lights the scene using a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) compatible environment shader and final gathering. For more information about creating an HDRI pass, see Using Environment Maps to Light a Scene [Texturing]. |
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Caustics |
Pass of all of the scene’s caustic effects. |
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Global illumination |
Pass of all of the scene’s global illumination effects. |
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Glow |
Pass of every selected objects’ glow property. |
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Lens flare |
Flare pass for the selected camera or light. A lens flare partition is created for the light(s) that create the flare. Flare properties are applied to the partition and the render pass camera. |
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Volumic |
Volume pass for each selected object in your scene. |
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Toon |
Pass in which scene objects are rendered using the Toon Paint and Host material shader. If additional inking is needed, you can apply the Toon Ink Lens shader to the camera. |
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More... |
Opens a browser offering more pass presets. |
The current pass is the pass to which all pass and partition properties are applied. The current pass is also the pass displayed in 3D views when the Render Pass Camera view is chosen from the viewport’s View menu.
Every time you create a new pass, it immediately becomes the current pass.
To set the current pass
1. Click the arrowhead beside the Pass Selection menu on the Render toolbar to display the pass list. The list contains all available passes defined for the scene.
The Pass Selection menu also appears on the main menu bar.
2. Choose the render pass you want to set as current .
3. The Pass commands on the Render toolbar to set the camera for the pass, add a partition, or delete the current pass, etc. are all applied to the current pass.
4. To make a change to another pass, set it as the current pass.
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The order of passes in the Pass Selection menu is determined by the general sort order set in the explorer, for example, Alphabetical, None (creation), and so on. You can modify the creation order using the Reorder tool in the explorer. See Sorting and Reordering Elements in the Explorer [Interface and Tools]. |
Controlling the Active Camera for the Render Pass
You can specify the camera you want to use for each render pass. The active camera provides the viewpoint from which the pass is rendered. You can add new cameras to your scene and set them as active if needed.
In the explorer, a Pass Camera node appears as a sub-node of each render pass. This doesn’t signify that a new camera is created with each pass: the Camera node represents the camera used for that pass only.
To set the active camera for a render pass
1. Open the Render Pass Property Editor for the current pass (as described in the previous procedure).
2. In the pass property editor, click the Output tab and select from the Pass Camera menu which camera you want to be active for your render pass. The menu lists all of a scene’s cameras.
To view the current pass from the viewpoint of the active camera
• Choose Cameras > Render Pass from any 3D viewport’s Views menu (on the left side of its title bar). This will set the viewpoint to that of the active camera for the current pass.
When saving a pass preset, you are actually saving its render options and any shaders applied to the pass’s shader stack.
To save a pass preset
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Passes.
2. Click the icon of the pass that you want to save to open its property editor.
3. Click the Save icon at the top of the property editor to save the pass’s render options and the shaders applied to its shader stack.
4. The Save Pass Preset browser is displayed. Enter a file name for the preset and click OK.
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By default, the pass preset is saved to the User path in the \Data\DSPresets\Groups directory. You can, however, save it to any other directory. |
If you do not want to use any of the predefined pass presets, you can easily load your own.
1. Choose Pass > Edit > New Pass > More from the Render toolbar.
2. In the browser, navigate to a folder in which you have a saved preset pass.
3. Click OK to load the preset.
You can also drag a preset pass from the browser or custom toolbar and drop it directly on the Render Passes root in the explorer. The preset pass appears as a subnode under the Passes node.
As you add passes to your scene, you may find that many of them use a similar structure or have partitions that contain mostly the same objects or lights.
In cases like these, it’s often easier to duplicate a render pass and modify the duplicate than it is to create several similar passes from scratch (or by modifying presets).
To duplicate a pass
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Passes (press p).
2. Select the pass that you want to duplicate.
3. From the edit panel in the main command panel, choose Edit > Duplicate Single duplicate the pass.
The duplicate pass is added to the pass list, but does not become the current pass.
Deleting an unwanted pass is a simple operation.
To delete the current render pass using the Render toolbar
1. Make the render pass you want to delete the current pass.
2. Choose Pass > Edit > Delete Current Pass from the Render toolbar to delete the current pass.
To delete a pass using the explorer
1. Open an explorer and set the scope to Passes (press p).
2. Select the pass that you want to delete.
3. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
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