Export Mask Layers For After Effects

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

Hi all,

I’m doing a scene that has metal dome lamps hanging from a ceiling. I rendered the lamps separately from the bulbs for compositing in After Effects.

I rendered all the diffuse, glossy, AO, alpha, and depth passes for the lamps.

I rendered the alpha, depth, and emission passes for the bulbs.

So, they’re their own separate AE layers. How do I get the bulbs back inside the lamps? I’m assuming with mask layers from inside Blender, but I have no idea how they work. Do I check the layer box for the lamps on my “bulbs” render layer? How do I get the mask layer frames out of Blender and into After Effects?

I’m walking on new ground here, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Chris

2

I have gone down the road of trying to separate it all out into passes then recombine it back in After Effects. Sometimes it is just easier to render out the final from Blender and be done with it. Masking in After Effects is way easier than in Blender. At most I do a foreground, midground and background render out of Blender then I stack what ever I need in between in side After Effects.