Corona Image Editor feedback

[mike288]

1. CIE doesn't ask if user want to save changes when another image is drag&dropped
2. Zoom level in the title bar doesn't update on zooming. It updates once, when some changes to the image are made and after that it doesn't updates anymore.

Thank you for reporting. Both issues should be fixed in RC2.

[maru]

Another low priority nice-to-have: drag and drop support for conf files

[mike288]

It really would. I don't know how to import layered exr into photoshop (if possible at all), so i have to save all cessential elements from CIE one by one. It's pretty tedious. Also it's a bit confusing when same button - "save all" saves LDR image layers into separate files and HDR image layers combines into one.

Hi romullus, last RC 8 introduces changes of CIE's saving behavior as we have agreed. Can you please try whether CIE now fits better to your workflow? Thank you.

[pokoy]

I tried CIE only yesterday and this opens up some nice possibilities I didn't think of before - many thanks for this!

Some thought, sorry if they have been posted:

- It would be good if prompts (do you want to save changes etc.) could react to y/n/esc keys. Currently we have to use the mouse and press buttons in the prompts.
- CIE's prompt logic is 'inverted' from most programs (PS, Max), at least from my experience. Most programs will ask you if you want to save changes when you want to open another image without saving or exit the program, while CIE asks you if you really want to open a new image or exit the program. So it kinds of contradicts muscle memory with these prompts. A simple solution would be to ask 'Save changes?' instead and would be valid for many cases.
- Not sure if this is a valid request since we can save postprocessing files but would it be possible to add a preset tab where we could save and rename our postprocess settings, similar to how render history is working in Max's cVFB, and simply save them together with the cexr when resaving? This would make it obsolete to manage these files which can be a pain sometimes when moving or archiving projects.

Other than that, it's great to have CIE now!

[Dippndots]

Is there some way of rebuilding layered EXRs (in photoshop from 32 bit TIFFs for instance) in a way that CIE will recognize and work on correctly?

[mike288]

Is there some way of rebuilding layered EXRs (in photoshop from 32 bit TIFFs for instance) in a way that CIE will recognize and work on correctly?

CIE is currently able to open regular EXR files and Corona EXR files (.cxr). We are going to add support for loading HDR and JPEG files. Meanwhile you can try Exr-IO plugin (http://www.exr-io.com/) which is free and should be able to save EXRs from Photoshop in a way that works for CIE.

Technically: inside EXR files CIE looks for R, G, and B channel triplets ("layers"/elements). For instance, if you create an EXR file consisting of 6 channels named "R", "G", "B", "SomeElement.R", "SomeElement.G", and "SomeElement.B", CIE would see that file as a 2-element file holding "BEAUTY" and "SomeElement".

[mike288]

I tried CIE only yesterday and this opens up some nice possibilities I didn't think of before - many thanks for this!

Some thought, sorry if they have been posted:

- It would be good if prompts (do you want to save changes etc.) could react to y/n/esc keys. Currently we have to use the mouse and press buttons in the prompts.
- CIE's prompt logic is 'inverted' from most programs (PS, Max), at least from my experience. Most programs will ask you if you want to save changes when you want to open another image without saving or exit the program, while CIE asks you if you really want to open a new image or exit the program. So it kinds of contradicts muscle memory with these prompts. A simple solution would be to ask 'Save changes?' instead and would be valid for many cases.
- Not sure if this is a valid request since we can save postprocessing files but would it be possible to add a preset tab where we could save and rename our postprocess settings, similar to how render history is working in Max's cVFB, and simply save them together with the cexr when resaving? This would make it obsolete to manage these files which can be a pain sometimes when moving or archiving projects.

Other than that, it's great to have CIE now!

Thank you too. :-)

• You are right, some keyboard shortcuts would be nice. We will also improve the dialog logic.
• The "preset tab" is a nice feature tip. We will think about it. Thanks for that!

[Dippndots]

Thanks Mike, I can create layered EXRs from my TIFFs, and CIE recognized the layers when I load that EXR, but it doesn't operate on them correctly (i.e. changing bloom and glare, doesn't modify the bloom and glare element layer). Additionally, if I render all my layers out to individual EXRs and then try to merge them it says it is missing the vertex weights "CORONA_FB_WEIGHTS".

I should add, I rendered those EXRs in 1.5.2 so maybe I'm missing something that 1.6 appends to exrs?

[romullus]

It really would. I don't know how to import layered exr into photoshop (if possible at all), so i have to save all cessential elements from CIE one by one. It's pretty tedious. Also it's a bit confusing when same button - "save all" saves LDR image layers into separate files and HDR image layers combines into one.

Hi romullus, last RC 8 introduces changes of CIE's saving behavior as we have agreed. Can you please try whether CIE now fits better to your workflow? Thank you.

Thank you, it works perfect. However i have found one more small bug - when i choose save all, CIE offers to save to EXR by default, but keeps CXR filename extension. Clicking on save, gives error message: "unrecognized bitmap format in filename".

[Ryuu]

Thanks Mike, I can create layered EXRs from my TIFFs, and CIE recognized the layers when I load that EXR, but it doesn't operate on them correctly (i.e. changing bloom and glare, doesn't modify the bloom and glare element layer). Additionally, if I render all my layers out to individual EXRs and then try to merge them it says it is missing the vertex weights "CORONA_FB_WEIGHTS".

Thanks for pointing out this UI bug. "Merge" is properly not the correct word here which causes confusion.

The current merge functionality is intended mostly for render farms as it merges together partial renders from DR slaves into a final render the same way DR master does. It does not produce a single combined CXR file from multiple single-layer files storing different elements.

[Dippndots]

Yay, I helped! Haha, but seriously, it sounds like there isn't a way to "rebuild" an exr in a way that CIE can read it. I guess it's not the end of the world, we'll just have to add bloom and glare to the beauty pass in CIE instead of being able to save it out as a separate element.

[mike288]

Thank you, it works perfect. However i have found one more small bug - when i choose save all, CIE offers to save to EXR by default, but keeps CXR filename extension. Clicking on save, gives error message: "unrecognized bitmap format in filename".

Great! The file extension bug will be fixed in next RC. Thanks.

[mike288]

Thanks Mike, I can create layered EXRs from my TIFFs, and CIE recognized the layers when I load that EXR, but it doesn't operate on them correctly (i.e. changing bloom and glare, doesn't modify the bloom and glare element layer). Additionally, if I render all my layers out to individual EXRs and then try to merge them it says it is missing the vertex weights "CORONA_FB_WEIGHTS".

I should add, I rendered those EXRs in 1.5.2 so maybe I'm missing something that 1.6 appends to exrs?

Yay, I helped! Haha, but seriously, it sounds like there isn't a way to "rebuild" an exr in a way that CIE can read it. I guess it's not the end of the world, we'll just have to add bloom and glare to the beauty pass in CIE instead of being able to save it out as a separate element.

• Please, could you provide us some EXR file for which CIE doesn't work as you are expecting? I mean, you have written that you can create layered EXRs from TIFFs. Could you share it so we can better understand what are you trying to do? If yes, please use our uploader for that: https://corona-renderer.com/upload/. Thank you.
• As pointed out by Ryuu, the Merge button can merge/accumulate/stitch (whatever we can call it) multiple images coming from DR nodes into a final image. Pixel weights (stored inside files as a special channel named CORONA_FB_WEIGHTS) are needed for that. This is something what Corona 1.6 writes into Corona EXR files (.cxr). That explains the error message.

[Dippndots]

Hi Mike, sorry for not being clear, I'm happy to upload the EXR on Monday when I'm back in the office.

My main goal is to use CIE to generate a bloom and glare element for my image because I need to strip render all my large stills at work, and B+G doesn't work correctly when strip rendering, understandably. Essentially what I've tried to do is take my strip rendered image (TIFF) and it's elements, combine them into a layered EXR, and then bring it into CIE, with the hope that CIE will recognize all the elements as if it was an EXR saved directly from corona. However, CIE doesn't seem to recognize this, I can see all my layers in the drop down, but if I adjust the bloom and glare, it just operates on the beauty pass, the bloom and glare element stays black.

EDIT by moderator: the discussion continues here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php/topic,15660.0.html

[pokoy]

After trying to use CIE in production I see two major gaps:

- none of the LDR files I saved out had an alpha channel included. When inspecting a pixel, I can see there's alpha information so it's included in CXRs. In any case, we need alpha to be included in any format we save out, too.
- it looks like we have no way to save 16 bit images - we absolutely need this! Would it be possible to add TIFF files to the Save dialog with the common options like in PS (Alpha, LZW compression, 8/16/32 bits)? Saving to EXR would be sufficient IF PS could correctly convert 32 bits to 16 bits (which it unfortunately doesn't because it always shifts tones). Without TIFF with 16 bits, we miss a way to get 16 bits files out of CIE that match exactly what we see in Max VFB and CIE.

Other thoughts:
- when loading CXR images, I can only display the Beauty pass. What about displaying all the channels that are saved in the CXR? At least displaying alpha should be possible.
- could we have more steps when zooming in/out? Maybe in 1/4 steps instead of 1/2 like now?
- zooming seems to somewhat respect mouse pointer so it zooms into the area under it, but often it jumps either a bit or a lot. Not sure why this is but I feel this could improve, best would be the same behavior like in PS.

Thanks in advance!