Freestyle with Cycles: how to get lines on a separate layer

Support Compositing and Post Processing
1

When using freestyle with BI, I can have the freestyle lines render out to a separate layer, so that it can be used in compositing.

I can not figure out how to do that in cycles.
Is it not possible? What am I missing?

TIA for any hint in the right direction :slight_smile:

2

It doesn’t look like this is implemented yet. I imagine it’s on the ‘to-do’ list, but for now you can just make a render layer with a fs line set, and uncheck Use environment, use surfaces, use hair. All that will be rendered then is the freestyle lines ready for compositing :slight_smile:

3

That is a really helpful trick :slight_smile:

Thanks alot!

4

Since Blender 2.83 there is an option to set Freestyle as a render pass in “View Layer Properties”.

Shows the relevant As Render Pass option in view layer properties
Shows the relevant As Render Pass option in view layer properties328×685 51.8 KB

In the compositor, Freestyle can then be processed separately.

Shows the freestyle render pass in the compositor
Shows the freestyle render pass in the compositor1338×716 59.2 KB

For the default cube, the content of this render pass would look like this.

shows freestyle lines with a transparent background
shows freestyle lines with a transparent background673×577 12.4 KB