multipass render newvie question.

[Mikeh64]

My first advice is to make sure you check the manual for info on how the multi-pass render works – it seems as though you think it does something different than it does – it does not render each object to it’s own layer (though you can make an alpha for each object via the object buffer function if you need objects separated out).

As far as getting more than just a normal movie out of multi-pass, you need to tell C4D which passes you want – for example “shadows” or “specular” (which is done in the multi-pass render settings). Just enabling multi-pass doesn’t automatically do anything.

Mike

[Sebaplatz]

I’m a newbie too, but i can recommend you rendering in numbered TIFF files with a SEPARATE ALPHA channel also in TIFF.
You can do this by going to the RENDER SETTINGS (ctrl+b), then SAVE. On the SAVE settings you can specify the type of file that you want for your output.
Select TIF in the file type and assign a folder specifically for the render.
Below that you can see a box that says ALPHA CHANNEL; Select it.
Then a box that says SEPARATE ALPHA; Select it too.
Then hit Shift+R or RENDER(menu)>RENDER TO PICTURE VIEWER
You’ll have a bunch of numbered TIFFS and another bunch that has the “A” prefix in it’s name. Eg: Render_A_01.tif or something like that.
the A files correspond to the alpha channel for every frame.

By rendering each frame in one file, you can prevent rendering the whole bunch again, in the case that you’ve made a mistake.

You can import both bunches (alpha and content) to after effects as a sequence. Then, you can set the alpha track to be an animated matte for the track that you want to be visible (defines transparent areas for a track).