This page provides information on the Normals Render Channel which creates a normals image from surface normals in the scene.
Overview
The Normals node is a render channel that creates a normals image from surface normals in the scene. It stores the camera space normal map using the geometry's surface normals. The Normals Render Channel is useful for adjusting lighting in the composite. For example, the red, green and blue channels can be adjusted in compositing software.
Bump maps are not represented in this render element; to include bump maps, use the Bump Normals Render Channel.
Parameters
The parameters for this render channel appear in the Parameters tab under the out Network and within the render elements node.
Name – The text added to the end of the rendered file, when saved as a separate file (e.g. myrender.Normals.vrimg).
Filtering – Applies the image filter to this channel. Image filter settings are in the AA sub-tab of the Sampler tab of the V-Ray Renderer node.
Deep Output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images.
Normals Color Generation
The Normals Render Element uses screen space to determine the colors in the render element. With screen space in the camera view:
The X axis runs left-right perpendicular to the camera viewing angle. This is represented in the Red channel of V-Ray Normals with 1 being left-facing geometry and 0 being right-facing geometry.
The Y runs up-down perpendicular to the viewing angle. This is represented in the Green channel of V-Ray Normals with 1 being up-facing geometry and 0 being down-facing geometry.
The Z runs forward-back to the viewing angle. This is represented in the Blue channel of V-Ray Normals with 1 being forward-facing geometry and 0 being back-facing geometry.
Common Uses - Relighting
The Normals Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of lighting in a scene in a composite without the need for re-rendering.
In the example a relighting workflow is used at a composite level to change the lighting in the scene. Note that it does not create any extra shadowing. This example is exactly the same under the hood as that shown in the Bump Normals Render Element page, with the only change being that the Normals render element was used here instead of the Bump Normals render element.
See the render before and after rendering:
The Point Position pass