Bloom/Glare and animations on C4D

[Albo]

I'm starting to work with animations, so pardon me if this is a noob question:

I understand the best and safest workflow is to render each frame as PNG and then compose the video in editing, but there's something that i'm missing.

When I render, I can see in C4D picture viewer all the individual frames and export them unprocessed, but I have no idea how to apply Corona bloom and glare and export the PNGs already postprocessed. Bloom and glare are enabled in render settings but if I open Corona VFB I can't put a tick on the option, only tonemapping and denoise seem to work.

What am I doing wrong? Should I use the CoronaBatch script I've read about?

[TomG]

I guess some example images would be useful as I am not sure what you are getting.

So, when you render a single frame, does Bloom and Glare show up in the VFB? Does it show up in the PV? For B&G to appear in PV for an animation sequence, it has to be set before you begin rendering (you can adjust B&G in the VFB and the current frame in the PV will update, but any previous frames in the PV will not, the B&G is baked in to those).

The batch script, I think you mean for processing the CXR in post. However, you can't save to CXR from the PV at the moment, so that wouldn't be an option when rendering an animation (as animation output can only be saved from the PV).

If you could show what you have in the VFB, what you have in the PV, and describe your workflow, that would help - unless the above already gives the answer!

[Albo]

Hi Tom, thanks for your reply.

Ok, today I opened the project, switched off and on again bloom and glare in the render settings and in Corona Camera and then tried to render a single frame. Now b&g work in both corona VFB and PV. I am currently re-rendering the animation and it looks like it's working. The problem I had was that b&g wouldn't show up in the frames inside the PV, only in VFB.

For B&G to appear in PV for an animation sequence, it has to be set before you begin rendering (you can adjust B&G in the VFB and the current frame in the PV will update, but any previous frames in the PV will not, the B&G is baked in to those).

So basically the correct workflow would be:

- render a single frame to the VFB
- choose the preferred values for every postprocess option, knowing that it won't be possible to change them later
- then render all the frames with the "baked" post inside the PV
- export PNGs

I have some questions: what is with the Corona drop-down menu inside the PV next to "animation"? It has a "Post-process" option but if I open it everything is greyed out.

Does the Corona VFB always show the last image rendered, or there's a way to "transfer" one render from the PV history to the VFB?

Thanks again.

[TomG]

The Post Process in the PV should work the same as in the VFB (except that they only update once you release the control, rather than as you adjust it). If they are greyed out, then I would think that means they are being overridden, e.g. in the render settings or in a Corona Camera, and so you'd have to adjust them there at the source (the VFB/PV post process is the last and lowest priority for those).

There isn't a way to move an image from the PV history over into the VFB as the current active image, sorry.

The workflow you describe sounds like the expected one, and should work! Hope this helps.

[jojorender]

Hi,
I came here looking for a “best practice” of adding B&G to an animation.
It seems to me that Corona calculates B&G for every pass rather than at the end, after the last pass before saving the frame.
This is so highly inefficient and unlike Corona, that I feel I must be missing something…
Is there a hidden button “calculate after last pass” or any other workaround?

While we are here, is there any indication that saving CXR in PV will work anytime soon?
Can somebody please call Maxon to finally share their secrete sauce.
We (me) have been asking since the beta days… and we are almost 5 versions in now…

[TomG]

It's not quite every pass, but "every so often", but not once the frame is complete as you say. Something I have mentioned myself that would save a little bit of time, rather than recalculate it during a render (of course, for IR, it would have to continue to be "every so often"). We'll see if that gets incorporated at some point.

For CXR in PV, you can save a CXR from the PV, but only for stills. Since the PV uses the C4D save dialog, it only lists the C4D formats and not third party formats.

[jojorender]

It's not quite every pass, but "every so often"

Seems it depends on how complex a scene is. When I forget to turn off B&G for final render, I constantly get the spinning beachball between passes for quite some time. Does not happen when B&G is turned off.  Will do a short animation test with and without B&G to see how much difference it actually makes. 

“you can save a CXR from the PV’

Yes, sorry should have said “CXR in the render settings/ save dialog’, but you understood what I meant…
You are referring to the “Dump to CXR” in the PV.
For animations: Whatever triggers the hidden “save dialog” after each frame, maybe can also trigger a “Dump to CXR” - same file name, same folder from c4d save dialog…
You guys are coding gods - everything is possible for you!