This page provides details about the Caustics Render Element and how it is used in compositing.

 

Overview

Caustics is an effect that is produced when light rays are reflected or refracted by the materials within a scene, which can produce light patterns on objects in the scene. The Caustics Render Element displays these effects, generated with Caustics photon mapping. It is enabled from the Caustics rollout under the GI tab in the Render Settings window. This render element is useful for enhancing or toning down caustic effects in the composite.

 

 

UI Path


||out Network|| > V-Ray Render Elements node > V-Ray > Render Channel > Color Channel > Type > Caustics


Attributes

The parameters for this render element appear in the V-Ray RenderChannelColor render channels node.

 

 

Consider for Anti-Aliasing – When enabled, anti-aliasing will be used where possible.

Filtering – Applies the image filter to this channel. Image filter settings are in the Image Sampler tab of the Sampler tab of the  V-Ray Renderer node.

Color Mapping – When enabled, the Color Mapping options in the render settings will be applied to the current render channel.

Derive Raw Channels – Generates data in the raw channels by combining the respective color and the filter color channels.

VFB Color Corrections – Applies the post render color adjustments made from the VFB.

 

Common Uses

The Caustics Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of rendered caustic effects with a compositing or image editing application. Below is an example of its use.

 

 


Original Beauty composite

 


Caustics Render Element

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tinted Caustics Render Element

 


Darkened caustics

 

 

 

Compositing Formula

Caustics + Beauty = Final Image

 

 

 

Notes

  • The Reflective Caustics and Refractive Caustics options of the GI section in the Render Settings cause a similar effect to the final rendering, but these caustics do not show up in the Caustics Render Element.

  • This render element is not supported with V-Ray GPU rendering.