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Volume Caustics
I’ve been playing about with volume caustics over the last couple of days trying to find settings that work well. I’m close to results that I like but I can’t eliminate that last bit of graininess from the render.
I realize that good caustic settings are going to vary a lot from scene to scene so my question is much simpler.
Is there a workaround for rendering volume caustics to a separate pass in the multipass render settings? I tried enabling ‘Caustics’ but I think this refers to surface caustics only. I’d like to be able to lower the quality of the render to get it done faster and then blur/process the caustics separately to get them looking okay.
-D
Darby Edelen
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6 Replies
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A little more detail.
I see the volume caustics as well as my volumetric lights in the Atmosphere multipass layer and nothing at all in the Caustics layer. I’d like to have the Atmosphere and Caustics separate if possible.
Darby Edelen
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caustics should go in the caustics layer… are you talking about the shaft of light that comes out of a glass object (from a volumetric light)? In that case I think it should go in Atmosphere because it’s a continuation of the volumetric light not caustics (which is the bright spot of light on objects behind (or in front depending) of the objects causing the caustics)
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[Brian Jones] “In that case I think it should go in Atmosphere because it’s a continuation of the volumetric light not caustics (which is the bright spot of light on objects behind (or in front depending) of the objects causing the caustics)”
I believe you’re describing what C4D refers to as Surface Caustics (those that appear on surfaces). I’m trying to work with Volumetric Caustics. It makes sense that these would appear in the Atmosphere layer, but it’s also frustrating that there doesn’t appear to be an option to separate the volumetric lighting effect from the volume caustics.
I was hoping there might be a work around to treat these two elements (volume lighting vs. volume caustics) differently in the compositing stage.
-D
Darby Edelen
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ah sorry, you are correct of course. Volume Caustics go in Atmosphere because they are an extension of the Volumetric light, there is no separation I am aware of
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I came up with a work around.
If I render my multi-pass image with Caustics enabled and then render again with only the Atmopshere component and Caustics disabled I can use the ‘Subtract’ blend mode in either Photoshop or After Effects to remove the regular volumetric lighting effect and end up with only the volume caustics.
I’ve tested this and it works really well. I just wish a second render wasn’t necessary.
Darby Edelen
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good workaround, you might want to leave a suggestion at Maxon’s Support/Suggestions page.
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