Can a particular object's reflections be isolated?

   167   2   1
User Avatar
Member
116 posts
Joined: April 2014
Offline
I'm rendering a product model on a cyc and the client is going to want the background to change (just a solid color), so I would like to be able to isolate the cyc's reflections so I can just tint those in comp and easily accommodate any color changes. How can this be done? Is there something like the LPE tag for objects, to break out their individual contributions?

On a possibly-related note: this product is a transparent bottle holding an almost-transparent liquid, but the alpha (even with the cyc set to phantom or turned off) is 100% opaque. How can I get the alpha to match the theoretical transparency of the object(s) so I can change backgrounds freely (notwithstanding reflection/lighting changes)? I even tried lowering the bottle's IOR to 1.5 and turning off the environment light, neither of which helped.

Thanks!
User Avatar
Member
8822 posts
Joined: July 2007
Offline
1. Yes, you can assign LPE tag to your object and then filter just for reflections hitting objects with that tag

2. You can try filtering for refractive paths ending with B event which stands for background, to get something like Alpha for areas that hit nothing

Both are described here
https://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/render/lpe.html [www.sidefx.com]
Tomas Slancik
FX Supervisor
Method Studios, NY
User Avatar
Member
116 posts
Joined: April 2014
Offline
Alrighty, I've gone through the docs but there's still some context missing in my brain. This is all easy with lights, but trying to isolate the transmission/refractions of my background replies some syntax which I can't figure out based on the examples. I made an LPE tag for the cyc, and set up two extra render AOVs, both type color4f, with the names:
lpe:C+`cyc`L
lpe:C<T>+`cyc`L

The planes show up in the render, but they're black, so I'm clearly doing something wrong. What am I missing?

My simple dummy test project is attached.

Thanks!

Attachments:
lpe_test.hiplc (930.1 KB)

  • Quick Links