In this tutorial, i take a deeper look at the new Multi Channel OpenEXR file I/O in order to combine multiple bitmaps into a single Open EXR file. This tutorial is an extended version of a tip i gave in my tips and tricks webinar on January 13th.

You can view the webinar by visiting the Autodesk Entertainment Center here.

The Connection Extension features discussed in the video can be viewed here.

Part 1 : Multi Channel Open EXR Workflow

The first video is an overview at the basic functionality of the new Multi Channel Open EXR I/O in 3ds Max.

Part 2 : Mental Ray Labeled Element

In this video, i will show you how the Mental Ray Labeled Element can be added to the render elements in order to capture any aspect of a material as a render element. That setup will be useful to define what we want to put in the Multi Channel OpenEXR.

Part 3: Camera Map per Pixel

Here, we will look at the technique used by matte painters to project an image from a camera point of view. This is useful to have matte paintings with few 3D objects that offers perspective even if it's for a matte background. This tool will be useful for rendering bitmaps full frame without bothering with the UV mapping of the objects in front of the camera.

Part 4: Final Setup for Combining Material Components

Here, we will use all the tools we have seen so far to create a setup that will allow us to combine multiple aspects of a material into a single Mutli Channel Open EXR file.

Part 5: Stereoscopic Multi Channel Open EXR

For this final video, we will review our setup to create a basic left and right Multi Channel Open EXR file from 2 image sequences. We will also optimize the render time by turning off what we don't need in our setup. And, we'll setup the file for quick access to the bitmaps when the file is opened and used for Multi Channel Open EXR generation.