Better Light Groups
Hey,
I believe the light group functionality as it currently stands is not particularly helpful in compositing outside of broad strokes editing.
This tutorial outlines how lightgroups should be outputting. youtu.be/PpBVkUN1uus
We need the ability for each lightgroup to have it's own diffuse/glossy/etc passes. That way we can actually have control in compositing.
For example if you want to adjust the glossy pass in the current setup it will always adjust every light group equally. However sometimes you just want to adjust the reflections of a single light which currently you're unable to do.
Maybe I'm not understanding something but as I see it the current lightgroup setup is unfortunately essentially useless for a professional vfx workflow.
For context I've been a vfx compositor at major studios now for nearly a decade so I have encountered a fair number of lighting workflows. But the current cycles workflow is ineffective and I would love it to be better!
1 Comment
It's been a while so I thought I'd try and give this request a bump.
I've discovered this article showing how Renderman implements the concept of Per-Lobe light groups.
rmanwiki.pixar.com/display/REN25/Light+Path+Expressions
I really think it's one of the very few things Cycles is missing to truly become a production ready renderer that professionals would be willing to switch to.