Overview
Using the Image Layers group of attributes the user specifies one or several layers of images to output simultaneously from the rendering process. Each can be set to be displayed on screen (in a window) or be saved to in a file or both. By default, the Image Layers group of attributes is setup to output only one image layer: the RGBA components representing the main image, also commonly referred to as the Beauty. And it is setup to be displayed on screen and saved in a file.
It is possible to add any number of layers, each set to output any complementary values to the Beauty image. These are derived from variables computed inside shaders and are commonly called Arbitrary Output Variables (AOVs). Example of layers are: depth values associated to the Beauty image, original color of surfaces (without the effect of the lighting), the specular and diffuse shading components of the Beauty image. These layers can be useful for compositors to have many options while composing the final image. Refer to AOV Selector for further details on supported AOVs.
Layers can not only be generated for different AOVs, they can also:
- Have different camera angles. This is very powerful for fast simultaneous multi-camera rendering (for 3D stereo for example).
- Contain a different subset of objects in the scene.
These are more advanced options and are described in Layers Advanced.
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All the layers are rendered simultaneously. Adding many layers do not generally increase rendering time significantly. This is different and not to be confused with the 3Delight for Maya functionality of Render Passes. Those are processed sequentially and can produce totally different output from one pass to another. |
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