Get alpha pass without "Transparent"

Howdy
Anyone know a way we can get an (antialised) alpha pass from the image without using transparent option in cycles.
I would like to edit the sky in photoshop, just want a mask to select the sky.

I’ve tried the “transparent” option however this doesn’t deliver the colour for the background.

So I thought enable the “Env” pass then composite the Env back into the colour image however for whatever reason blender itself ends up putting the Env pass back into the “combined image” within the render layer and with screwed up fringes :upside_down_face:

Would prefer to avoid the transparent render option also in order to see the sky in the viewport.

Maybe someone knows a way to reliably get something like a “sky mask” using mist or z-depth or something (antialiased too).

Hoping to avoid too much rigmarole for such a simple task.

You could use the mist pass inverted - you just have to set the mist to be really far away so that there’s no misted areas in the scene.

2 Likes

Nice Thankyou. I had a bit more look into Mist pass :grinning: