Creating a Matte Layer?

Deke

I create solid black matte layers of figures in a scene for post processing. The problem is that some items are now 100% black when rendered in Viewport setting. All the lights are out, but the eyes of a figure and sometimes clothing items (helmets) are not black but gray. Any idea why? Or how to get a black sillhouette some other way?

joanna

I'm not sure what you did (sorry, your explanations are a bit vague), but if you want an actual (flat) silhouette, rendering the figures in canvas with Material ID for all their parts turned to black.

There are also the following products that might help:

https://www.daz3d.com/easy-light-and-render--silhouettes

https://www.daz3d.com/fpe-faceless-for-genesis-8-and-81

https://www.daz3d.com/fpe-faceless-for-genesis-9

The two latter contain shaders that can also be used on clothing etc.

nonesuch00

In iray is will be impossible according to the laws of physics to get solid black silohette because of light reflection on surfaces. You can use masks in the shader editor I think but I don't know how. Best ping someone like @OSO3D to ask if he has a shader set in the store to do that, knows of one, or can advise on the steps in the shader material tab on your model to do that. Sorry.

You can use an external image editor, e.g. Photoshop or GIMP, to mask and flood fill the part of the image you want to be a (0,0,0) pure black silohette but I guess you know that and want to do it directly in DAZ to avoid as much post work as possible?

Deke

Thanks. Yes in After Effects I can "fill" a layer and then adjust the range so that fill is 100%.  Just find it strange that I can turn off all the lights and some parts still render gray.