Vray Render Elements
In this tutorial I will explain exactly what each individual vray render element does and how to set up the vray render elements in your vray render settings. I will then go on to explain explain how we use some of those elements in post production to tweak our images. This can save you a lot of time re-rendering images if you are not happy with a certain element (reflection, colour etc) you can use a few tricks in photoshop (see the photoshop layers masks and compositing tutorial) and the various vray render element images to adjust your final image without having to re-render!
What are the vray render elements?
The vray render elements basically allow you to seperate the different visual information available in a 3d rendering into seperate images. It is then possible to use photoshop to use these various elements to tweak specific parts of your rendering.
Here is a list of all the vray render elements available in vray 1.5 and a brief description of what they do:
Vray Alpha - Alpha transparency
Vray Atmosphere - The atmospheric effects
VRayBackground - The image background
VRayCaustics - The caustics on the material. Only present when the Caustics option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics
VRayDiffuseFilter - The pure diffuse surface color. Note that this is different from the standard 3ds Max Diffuse render element, which contains the diffuse surface lighting
VRayGlobalIllumination - The diffuse surface global illumination
VRayLighting - The diffuse direct surface lighting
VRayMtlID - The material ID of the object
VRayMtlSelect - This element allows you write the result of a V-Ray compatible material into a separate element
VRayNormals - The surface normals
VRayObjectID - The object gbuffer ID
VRayRawGlobalIllumination - The raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color
VRayRawLighting - The raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color
VRayRawReflection - The pure surface reflection before it's multiplied by the reflection filter color
VRayRawRefraction - The pure surface refraction before it's multiplied by the refraction filter color
VRayRawShadow - The raw light that was blocked by other objects
VRayReflection - The reflections on the surface
VRayReflectionFilter - The reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the reflections
VRayRefraction - The refractions on the surface
VRayRefractionFilter - The refraction filter (the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction). This may be considered as an alpha channel for the refractions
VRayRenderID - The node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value
VRaySelfIllumination - The self-illumination of the surface
VRayShadow - The diffuse light that was blocked by other objects
VRaySpecular - The surface specular hilights
VRayUnclampedColor - The unclamped image color
VRaySamplerRate - Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at this pixel
VRayExtraTex - Renders the entire scene with one texture mapped on all objects
VRayVelocity - The surface velocity. This channel will not be generated if 3d motion blur is enabled
VRayWireColor - The wire color of the object as set in the 3ds Max scene. This can be used to generate masks for the objects based on their wire color
VRayZDepth - The z-depth of the surface
VRaySSS2 - Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer