I am hoping someone better versed in Deadline would be able to point me in the right direction.
Simply, I would like to export an Octane EXR using the C4D Deadline submitter, so that I can export cryptomattes.
The issue I am having right now is that Deadline renders out Multi-pass images from the native C4D save dialog. So there is no option there to export Octane EXRs, just standard EXRs.
To go one step further, I would love to know how to simply render out from my Octane Render AOV group settings, not the native C4D save tab, as I have less control over my outputs.
I’m familiar enough with C4D to poke around at this myself, and I’m not seeing too much information in out submitter documentation other than this section on export jobs. But I’d imagine if you configured Octane to output Octane EXRs I’d expect the resulting Octane render would respect that setting.
Deadline should be using whatever render settings are present on the scene file, unless they’ve been explicitly overwritten in the submitter. Are you finding that your Octane Render AOV group settings are being ignored?
In short, yes, Octane Render AOV group settings are ignored. Let me explain a little bit so it makes a little more sense.
Octane has it’s own AOV export tab as you know. Here you can define the type of image output (in my case I want to use OctaneEXR instead of standard EXR in order to export cryptomattes). The Octane AOV tab is the only place where you can set OctaneEXR as the export filetype.
In my workflow, as is typical I’m sure for a lot of Octane users. We bypass the in-built C4D ‘Save’ tab entirely (leaving it blank) opting to use the Octane AOV export options, since they afford more control: tonemapping, colorspace, alpha types, etc.
Unfortunately, it appears that deadline uses the native Save settings only during render instead of respecting the output types set in Octane AOV. So I will get a prompt saying I haven’t defined an output when exporting, even though I have set it all up inside of Octane AOV Manager. Because of this it will only render outputs based on the settings I have defined in the native C4D ‘save’ tab.
Unfortunately C4D doesn’t have OctaneEXR as a standard export option which means no usable Cryptomattes are carried over to my render exports.
I tried the export jobs approach. Still trying to work that out. However it would be much more intuitive to be able to Submit the renders straight to deadline without the additional step of creating an orbx, ensuring it works correctly and then rendering that way.
Here’s a screenshot of the interface and export types available natively. Deadline only gives the option of native export. No OctaneEXR, just standard OpenEXR.
Here is a screenshot of the Octane AOV Export manager. Note the option to select Standard “EXR” or EXR(Octane).
When a path for “Render pass file” is defined for the output, it is ignored entirely by Deadline. You can still render AOVs but they will be exported based on the Native C4D “Multi-Pass” settings which cryptomattes do not work with (since there is no OctaneEXR filetype option there).
