Compositing Tutorial:

1. Download Scene File Here: Scene

2. Create a Render Layer

   • In the bottom right, where we made display layers for rigging there is a render tab
   • Under the render tab, click create layer. You can either make it from selected or add pieces later
   • Don't forget to NAME the layers.
3. The Different Layers
   • The REQUIRED Layers for this tutorial are: Ball_Diffuse, Ball_Specular, Grass_Matte, and Grass_Color
   • You will thus need two layers with just the ball, one for diffuse color and one for specular.
   • You will also need a layer with both to make the ball a matte object so that when you composite them the grass behind the ball isnt in front nor all the grass behind.
   • And last you will need a layer with just the grass.
   • In each of these layers hold right click and then go to presets, there you can see diffuse, specular, occlusion etc.
   • Click the appropriate ones, and for the grass_matte layer, which is supposed to define where the ball is in the grass, click the ball, then hold right click again and go to create new material override and click background shader.
4. Rendering
   • Now we need to Render the layers, you can render the same as normal and you can click on the layer you wish to render
   • You need to render and then save a tif of each layer to accesss later
   • Normal Rendering guidelines apply, such as keeping consistent resolution, quality, and save location.
5. Compositing
   • Now that you have the layers, open up Adobe After Effects.
   • Here you will make a new composition and then load up each of the images you created.
   • You can then drag the images down into the work area below.
   • Once down in the work area you should stack the render layers appropriatly. Obviously the Matte needs to be on top to show where the grass is and where the ball blocks the grass.
   • Then the ball specular and then the ball diffuse. We actually don't need the grass color but we had you render it to practice more layers.
   • You will notice the ball specular blocks out the diffuse. To fix this go to the top while on the specular layer and click layers>bledingmode>screen. This should composite the two correctly.
   • Now Render the final image through the render queue or export and save it!
6. Turn In
   • Turn in your Maya file with all the appropriate layers and turn in a final tiff of your composited image from after effects with all the layers correct.