Bits of Blender #59 - Render Layers and Compositing Nodes

[norvman]

Thanks for the tut guys... In all my years of using 3D software compositing has been an after thought... I need to bone up on it more and this tutorial has got me to messing with it... Thanks for the help! keep it up!

[TheGmcFilms]

I've just downloaded 2.5 and am a complete novice ( come on now, no sniggering at the back ). The next thing I did was subscribe to this channel. So with the help of you good people. Yes ! Thats you Richard and you're dad, thank you for all these quite brilliant videos...G...

[bitsofblender]

@TheGmcFilms Congrats on getting started with Blender! 2.5 is finally out of beta, so it is a good place to start. How do you plan to use Blender?

[prchkkizhe7]

Great tutorial! Would it be possible using this technique to have an object fade in/fade out of an animated scene?

Many thanks for your wonderfully clear tutorials :) 

[bitsofblender]

@prchkkizhe7 You're welcome! One way to fade in/out is by using the Time node for input to an alpha or fac.

[prchkkizhe7]

@bitsofblender

Thank you for your reply and a brilliant suggestion! I see the Time Node allows for a non-linear effect, which is exactly what I was looking for. :)

[rewii93]

Hy,

I have a problem with your technic. There is an object (and only this object) that I want to be blurred in my scene, and this object goes behind other not blurred objects. When I use layer nodes, I can't blur the object past his z-depth of alpha map over other objects.

What should I do ?

[bitsofblender]

@rewii93 What you are doing is not what we are showing. If I understand you correctly, to do what you want, make sure the objects are on different render layers. When in doubt, try it with 2.49b to make sure you're not hitting a bug. If that fails, post to the blenderartists(dot)com forum.

[PeterDraculic]

Excellent series of tutorials!..really thank you!...

[bitsofblender]

@PeterDraculic Thanks!

[mrjimmyos]

I've been using blender for years but never really made use of render nodes and such, just layers. I have a very data intensive scene so this should help me alot. Thankyou!

[bitsofblender]

@mrjimmyos I'm glad we could help!

[onjoFilms]

Thanks for explaining that clearly. Am watching another one on nodes and it's way too fast for me.

[rewii93]

You can move an object to 2 layers 8O ?!? It's impossible to stop learning with you XD.

[bitsofblender]

@rewii93 Yes! That is one of the cool things Blender does. Unlike other graphic programs where you can only have an object reside on only one layer (unless you duplicate it), in Blender you can have the _same_ object reside on many layers. This makes sense when you consider graphic programs typically use layers to control both visibility and z-order (and even compositing), with Blender they only need to control visibility. :-)

[mrjimmyos]

@bitsofblender Must be why more and more people who usually use other packages use it?

[bitsofblender]

@mrjimmyos Blender has been a strong, full-featured, stable program, now the barrier for entry is a little lower with all the available training. The program has so much to offer which belies it's price. Seems like I run into new stuff every week, even after years of use!