Backdrop not rendering

Turner

Simple as that...

Running 8.5. Backdrop show up fine in assembly; however, it doesn't render...

Not sure if I'm missing anything or if it's a bug.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,
Andrew

Dartanbeck

Shouldn't really make a difference, I don't think... but, is your render resolution the same as the backdrop? Have you tried using the backdrop in the background instead - just as a test? So many unknowns when you're not at the computer in question. I wish I could help more....

Turner

Thanks for the note Dartanbeck.

Well... restart! The magic fix.

I'll take that...

[edit] My mistake!

Wasn't the restart; was trying to use a sky in the scene. I seem to remember trying to get around this before... hmm..

evilproducer

Turner said:

Thanks for the note Dartanbeck.

Well... restart! The magic fix.

I'll take that...

[edit] My mistake!

Wasn't the restart; was trying to use a sky in the scene. I seem to remember trying to get around this before... hmm..

When using the sky and an image in the Backdrop or the Background, both will appear to be behind the atmosphere. The way to avoid this is not to us the atmosphere. If you need clouds or haze or something, you can use volumetric clouds.

Now I know some people don't like that a Background or Backdrop appears behind the atmosphere, but logically, that's the way it would work. The atmosphere is a scene element, just as much as the other objects in your scene are scene elements. If you have a Backdrop, then the atmosphere must appear in front of the Backdrop or you wouldn't see it.

Aside from all that, you can get some really cool results from using a Backdrop or Background in conjunction with an atmosphere. You can improve the look of a realistic sky by adding a dark blue color (if it's a natural looking sky) to the Background. If rendering using the Skylight function, it's value will be calculated with the Realistic Sky's value, which can help the light look a bit more dynamic.

If you stick a picture in the Backdrop of a planet, it's great for adding planets rising above alien horizons. Or this one, with an invasion fleet in low Earth orbit:

Dartanbeck

Turner said:

Thanks for the note Dartanbeck.

Well... restart! The magic fix.

I'll take that...

[edit] My mistake!

Wasn't the restart; was trying to use a sky in the scene. I seem to remember trying to get around this before... hmm..

Were you trying to see both the Backdrop and the sky? Like, is there an alpha channel on the image? If so, apply that image to a plane of the right proportions. Set the plane to not receive or cast shadows. For more brilliance, copy the texture map into the glow channel and adjust the brightness slider for the image within the glow channel for the proper effect. Stand up the plane and set it larger than the production frame (view > Show Production Frame). Try that.

Turner

Hey guys,

Thanks for the note.

Honestly, I didn't really need to see the sky; was just planning on using it for scene illumination. I'm going the route of using a billboard. Basically, I just want to see woods out the window of a building.

Would be nice to have the option to put objects wherever you want in terms of sky, but hey... I can work around it.

cheers
Andrew

evilproducer

Turner said:

Hey guys,

Thanks for the note.

Honestly, I didn't really need to see the sky; was just planning on using it for scene illumination. I'm going the route of using a billboard. Basically, I just want to see woods out the window of a building.

Would be nice to have the option to put objects wherever you want in terms of sky, but hey... I can work around it.

cheers
Andrew

You can use the Background and the Backdrop in conjunction with each other. What does that mean? Well, the Backdrop will hide the Background, so you can put a specific image in the Backdrop to hide the Background, which can contain an HDRI, an image map (preferably spherical), a color or a color gradient. Any one of which, when used with the Skylight in the render room is treated as an image based light (IBL).

So what that means, is that you can load an image of the woods in your scene's Backdrop, and then a picture of a sky, a color gradient that uses sky colors, an HDRI (better quality than the other options) or just a plain color and get the light effect you want, and still see the Backdrop through the window.