This page provides information about the V-Ray Render Elements in Cinema 4D.
Overview
Render Elements are a way to break out renders into their component parts such as diffuse color, reflections, shadows, mattes, etc. This gives fine control over the final image when using compositing or image editing applications to re-assemble the component elements. Render elements are also sometimes known as render passes.
Render elements appear in the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB) and can be viewed from the drop-down at the upper left corner of the VFB. They can also be saved out of the VFB as many common file formats.
Render elements are generated at render time based on the user's selection before rendering. Most render elements have parameters that can be customized to further assist the composting process. These parameters are described on each render element's individual page.
Render Elements Manager
The Render Elements window consists of three panels.
Left panel contains all of the V-Ray render elements. There is a search bar on top to help narrow down your choice.
You can drag and drop a render element on its own to add it for rendering, or add the whole group. The render elements are grouped into the following categories: Beauty, Advanced, Matte, Geometry, Utility and Other.
Center panel lists the added render elements that are included in the VFB as render channels.
Properties are displayed on the right-hand panel, which offers control over the representation of the selected channel.
Categories
All render elements are grouped into the following categories: Beauty, Advanced, Matte, Geometry, Utility and Other.
Beauty – Contains all the needed render elements for "Back to Beauty" compositing. If a render element already exists, the preset will not add it a second time.
Advanced – Contains some light-related render elements that help in the compositing post-render process.
When the renderer is set to V-Ray GPU, the Caustics render element will not be added, as V-Ray GPU does not support Photon Caustics.
Matte – Includes render elements that serve as a mask during compositing.
Geometry – This category holds all render elements related to geometry.
Utility – They give insight into how V-Ray is running and extra functionality for compositing. These include the Sample Rate and Extra texture.
Other – Shadow-related and other misc render elements.
Supported Render Elements
The following render elements are supported by V-Ray. All render elements support native V-Ray materials.
In order to render a correct Raw render pass, you need to also render the corresponding main element and filter. For example, Raw Reflection will require you to render Reflection and Reflection filter. For Raw GI, you need GI and Diffuse, etc.
| Render element | Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels* | Description |
| 16bit/32bit | Atmospheric effects, such as Environment Fog. | |
| 16bit/32bit | Image background, such as any Background Texture specified in the Environment overrides. | |
| Bump Normals | 16bit/32bit | Normals generated by bump maps, in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). Use the VRaySamplerInfo utility texture node to get the normals in camera, world or object space. |
| 16bit/32bit | The caustics on the material. These caustics are present only when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics. | |
| Coat Filter | 16bit/32bit | Reflection filter for V-Ray Material Coat layer. |
| Coat Glossiness | 16bit/32bit | Returns a float value that corresponds with the Coat Glossiness value of the V-Ray Material Coat layer. |
| Coat Reflection | 16bit/32bit | Indirect reflections coming from the Coat layers of V-Ray Material used in the scene. |
| Coverage | 16bit/32bit | For each pixel, the final values for the render element are taken from the object that makes the largest contribution to that pixel. |
| Cryptomatte | forced 32bit (for multi-channel files) | Uses the Cryptomatte convention by Psypop to encode mattes into multichannel OpenEXRs. |
| Diffuse | 16bit/32bit | Pure diffuse surface color. |
| Extra Texture | forced 32bit (optional for multi-channel files) | Renders the entire scene with a single defined texture mapped on all objects. |
| Global Illumination (GI) | 16bit/32bit | The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
| Light Select | 16bit/32bit | Extracts the contribution of a user-defined light or a set of lights in the scene as a separate render element. |
| Light Path Expressions | -- | A tool for extracting specific lighting events from the scene to a separate channel. |
| 16bit/32bit | Diffuse direct surface lighting. | |
| Material ID | – | Material ID of scene objects. |
| 16bit/32bit | Renders only the object(s) assigned to a user-specified V-Ray compatible material. The material can be a top-level material or a sub-material of a VRayBlendMtl. | |
| Matte Shadow | 16bit/32bit | Matte shadow part of the image. |
| Normals | 16bit/32bit | Surface normals in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). To output the normals in camera/object/world space, use Maya's Sampler Info utility texture node. |
| – | Returns solid un-shaded colors to represent a numerical identifiers set through that object's Attributes, Object Property, or assigned material. Useful for selection masks. EXRs and .vrimg formats store as integer values. | |
| Object Select | 16bit/32bit | Renders only the object(s) called out with a specific Object or Material ID. This effect is reversible to create a render element that excludes a particular object or objects according to Object or Material ID. |
| Raw Coat Filter | 16bit/32bit | Creates a solid mask showing the areas of reflection in the Coat layer without being affected by Fresnel. |
| Raw Coat Reflection | 16bit/32bit | Pure surface indirect reflection from a V-Ray Material Coat layer before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color. |
| Raw GI | 16bit/32bit | Raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
| 16bit/32bit | Raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color. | |
| Raw Reflection | 16bit/32bit | Pure surface indirect reflection before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color. |
| 16bit/32bit | Pure surface refraction before it is multiplied by the refraction filter color. | |
| Raw Shadow | 16bit/32bit | Raw light blocked by other objects. |
| Raw Sheen Filter | 16bit/32bit | Holds information similar to Sheen Filter RE, but without being affected by Fresnel. |
| Raw Sheen Reflection | 16bit/32bit | Pure surface indirect reflection from a V-Ray Material Sheen layer before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color. |
| Raw Total Light | 16bit/32bit | Sum of all raw lighting, both direct and indirect. |
| Reflection | 16bit/32bit | All indirect reflections from a surface. |
| Reflection Filter | 16bit/32bit | Reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered an alpha channel for reflections. |
| Reflection Glossiness | 16bit/32bit | Returns a float value that corresponds with the Reflection Glossiness value of an object's material. |
| Refraction | 16bit/32bit | Refractions through a surface. |
| Refraction Filter | 16bit/32bit | The refraction filter mitigates the raw refraction layer. This render element returns the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction. This may be considered an alpha channel for refractions. |
| Refraction Glossiness | 16bit/32bit | Returns a float value that corresponds to the Refraction Glossiness value of an object's material. |
| Render ID | – | Node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value. |
| SSS | 16bit/32bit | Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer. |
| Sample Rate | 16bit/32bit | Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at that pixel. |
| Self Illumination | 16bit/32bit | Self-illumination of the surface. |
| Shadow | 16bit/32bit | Diffuse light that is blocked by other objects. |
| Sheen Filter | 16bit/32bit | Reflection filter for V-Ray Material Sheen layer. |
| Sheen Glossiness | 16bit/32bit | Returns a float value that corresponds with the Sheen Glossiness value of the V-Ray Material Sheen layer. |
| Sheen Reflection | 16bit/32bit | Indirect reflections coming from the Sheen layer(s) of V-Ray Material used in the scene. |
| Specular | 16bit/32bit | All direct specular highlights coming from a surface. |
| Total Light | 16bit/32bit | Total lighting in the scene, both direct and indirect. |
| Velocity | 16bit/32bit | Surface velocity of an object. This render element is useful for generating motion blur in post-production. |
| Z-depth | forced 32bit (for multi-channel files) | Z-depth of surfaces in the scene. |