deep image workflow
by Jeff Ranasinghe 2016 July
Summary
By using Deep Image functionality, artists are able to combine multiple rendered elements, without requiring tedious matte passes to determine the correct A-over-B placement. The existing Deep renders can then be added to or replaced with newer versions without having to update other layers, saving wasted render cycles and scene management.
GridMarkets support of Houdini dependencies allows you to build up your scene, and your final image as you go by automatically triggering the Deep Image Merge after your latest render is complete.
GridMarkets also supports the automatic generation of h264 and ProRes movie files on the cloud straight after your renders or Deep Image Merge, giving you rapid feedback on your latest iteration.
Benefits
By harnessing the power of Deep Images with DSMMerge, artists can iterate their projects more quickly, spending less time re-rendering elements or updating matte passes. Artists have often avoided Deep Images because of their huge file sizes, and the bandwidth needed to process them. This is no-longer an obstacle: GridMarkets can do the heavy lifting with data and bandwidth, allowing the artist to download the result.
FAQ
Deep image background:
https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-deep-compositing/
What is a Deep Image?
A deep image, is a grid of pixels like a regular rasterised bitmap image where every pixel value has a record of its constituent samples and the depth. Like regular EXR files, the Deep EXR file formats supports storing multiple render layers (eg. Houdini Mantra Image Planes).
Why would I use Deep Images?
By virtue of Deep Imagery storage of accurate pixel depth, it is possible for the user to place elements within an image, or to crop images based on depth. This allows an artist to iterate their work, adding new elements without having to update mattes to get everything to sit properly. Deep Images take care of it for you.
Aren’t Deep Images really big?
Yes, they can even be in the region of 40x the original EXR file size. The good thing is you don’t always need to download them to work with them. You could let the GridMarkets cloud handle Merging multiple Deep Images, flattening the result to a smaller file for you. You could make use of h264/ProRes movie generation to give you quick feedback. This way you can minimise how much data you need to download.