Hi

One thing I find really useful in Bryce is to select parts of a model and do a mask render for that part. I can then load them all into alpha channels in Photoshop to create masks. I was wondering if I can do this in Carrara. I’ve been looking in the options and render settings but can't see a way to do it.

cheers 

 Carrara 6 allows for alpha and depth masks. Carrara 7 has a full range of multi-pass masks you can engage. These options are found in the Render Room under the Output tab in the properties tray.

Hmm still a bit confused.

As an example I loaded a poser dinosar model. I selected just the teeth and rendered with render alpha channel ticked but it still seems to render the whole image. In bryce I would just  get a black image with the teeth silloetted in white. is there some way I have to select the part to make the alpha for.

 I'm on the same page now; I was thinking alpha masks in general. Carrara does not have a similar function - wish it did. 

Mark

Ha thats a shame its a really useful feature. Think they need to add that.  well at least Im not going mad looking for it now.

 In Carrara your only option would be to turn the visibility of all the other objects off and then render with the alpha mask option activated. So, it can be done but it requires a few more clicks. 

The method I use that has some advantages, but still needs a seperate document/version of the model, is to use Digital Carvers Guild's Shaders Plus, that offers the 'flat' and 'mask' shader.

That shading model creates flat renders, so it is easy to shade the whole scene black and the parts you want masked white. You can more or less use drag and drop on scene elements, or in the tray. It is a bit easier than making elements invisible (especially if it concerns shading domains or parts of models).

Good luck!

Link to Shaders Plus