Reflections on being slow

I know I should have thought of this a long time ago (been using since ver.3) so please don’t make fun of me.

My animations in carrara 6 mostly involve showing some kind of process using my companies CAD models.
I usually set the BACKDROP to cromakey green to later comp in After Effects or Vegas.

I was never much satisfied with the way the reflections turn out.

Most of the models I work on are of machined metal components.

Just last week I realized I could have a reflection map in the BACKGROUND channel and still use the green screen in the BACKDROP, thus getting the nice metal reflections and still render out to a  good key.

DUUUUUUUU

You could also use an HDRI to further enhance the effect.

And you can use alpha channel for better composite in After Effects, so you dont need a green backdrop.

The problem with Carrara's alpha channel in render is that it doesn't handle blurs well, so if you're rendering with motion blur, you're better off using a chroma-key green background and doing the composite with Keylight in AfterEffects.  Keylight handles blurs and semi-transparent areas really well, in my experience.

 - Dex

I see, never did something with motion blur... by the way can you show your work with Carrara?