A user recently asked how to render a preview image with Air from Massive that included a background plate. The Massive camera node includes an option to specify a background image, but that setting is not exported to rib for rendering with Air. Hopefully Massive Software will add this feature in a future release; until then, here are a couple alternatives:
Option 1: Use a small options file with an imager shader to add a background image:
- Create a small text file with the following imager declaration:
Imager "VBackdrop" "string TextureName" "nameofbgimage.jpg"
- Enter the options rib file name as the “options rib include” entry in the ‘render parameters’ tab of the renders dialog.
- Drawback: the imager shader will be included in the rib export for preview rendering and normal rendering. If you do not wish to include the background image in final rendering, you’ll need to remove the options reference prior to exporting ribs for the final render.
Option 2: Use Air Show to view the rendered preview image with a background plate
- Air Show has an option to display a rendered image over a background plate, but that option is only available for images with an alpha channel. Unfortunately, the Massive preview image is always “rgb” only, so again this is not as easy as one might hope.
- A solution is to render the preview rib from a command shell and use Air’s command line options to override the output declaration to include an alpha channel.
- When rendering a preview image with Air, Massive exports the rib files and other data to $TEMP/massive. To render the preview rib from a command shell:
cd $TEMP cd massive air -d -mode rgba massive.rib
- You can leave the command shell open and re-launch the last command for each preview. Note that this means each preview will be rendered twice. If the preview render takes more than a few seconds, you can use the red stop button in Air Show to abort the first preview render.
- To load the background image in Air Show, select Load Background from the View menu. Use the checkered toolbar button to enable or disabled display of the background for the current image.