Render Passes

Transparent Background & Control in Post

Because of the way bloom & glare is applied to images, it's impossible to render the effect to a PNG or video with transparency.

However it is possible to render in passes (i.e. layers), which allows you to add backgrounds and even control the intensity of glare in the post-processing app of your choice (Photoshop, Davinci, AE etc.). It's quite simple once you understand how to set it up, and gives you a lot of control after render.

Follow the steps on the addon to prepare your render. If there are no warnings, it’s ready to go.

Vignette is not included in the pass. It’s recommended you add vignette back in post.

72MB

passes_demo.mp4

1

Setting up export in Blender

💚 Auto Set-up (Recommended)

Set your preferred export settings in the Render Pass section. If they're not supported the addon will tell you.

1. Set Transparency

   Both transparency & alpha need to be enabled for this to work.

2. File Format

   PNG and EXR (with RGBA) are supported.

3. File Path

   Uncheck sync if you want to save to a custom folder rather than the main render output.

4. If there are no more warnings you're ready to render as you normally would.

Beware:

You cannot use this feature if you're using multiple instances of glare (duplicate node groups), because the different passes will save to the same file. The config is synced across all instances.

If you need to use Glare for different passes you can duplicate the node group and set up your own pass outputs using the manual set-up guide.

💜 Manual Set-up

1. Set up the nodes in the compositor like below. The yellow nodes are called Mix Color. Add a File Output node and add three inputs in the N-panel on the right. Now connect the nodes to the inputs. Set the base path to wherever you want to save your render. It's important you choose a file output that supports transparency (i.e. PNG or EXR with RGBA).

1. Set film to transparent under Render settings.

1. If there are no more warnings you're ready to render as you normally would.

2

Layering the passes in post

When your render is done you'll find two passes (base & glare) in your selected path.

• Import both passes into your post-processing app, with the Glare pass above the Base pass. Set the Glare pass to SCREEN or ADD blend mode.

3

You're done!

Now you can add any background you want below these passes. You can also adjust the glare using any effect like curves, hue, gradient map etc.