Hi all. I've been having a trouble getting background images to render properly when using the Superfly engine for years now and nothing I try seems to remedy it. Essentially, it compresses the background horizontally nearly every time. Every other element in the scene (figures, props, lighting, cameras, whatever) remains the way I set it up. It's just the background pics that get squished.

I've tried adjusting and resizing the render dimensions, the document window, docking and undocking (floating) the docking window, deleting and re-importing the background, etc. etc.... Nothing I try seems to help.

I never have this problem with Firefly. And I'm rapidly running out of hairs to pull out. AAAARGH!!!  >:-{    Pleeease help...

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: The first is a Firefly render which comes out correctly, the second is the Superfly render showing the problem.

Thank you in advance for any help offered!

The only thing you didn't mention is the dimension size of your background image.  I doubt that it might have an impact but it's worth considering, ATM.

I have run several renders for Superfly and Firefly with a few background scenes and have not noticed any irregularities between them.  If this was a straightforward problem, I would see it immediately, regardless of the dimensions of the images.

hborre posted at 6:38 PM Mon, 26 February 2024 - #4481994

I have run several renders for Superfly and Firefly with a few background scenes and have not noticed any irregularities between them.  If this was a straightforward problem, I would see it immediately, regardless of the dimensions of the images.

Oh sorry, yeah it's 1920x1080. And that's the size I almost always use and almost always render my final images at as well. I just prefer it because it fits perfectly on HDTVs.

Check the "auto-fit" in the background picture node in material room.

I'm not sure that will do it.  I played with that setting and it didn't make a difference in either render engine.

I'll give it a try. I'm open to all suggestions at this point. 

Check the "auto-fit" in the background picture node in material room.

Firstly, thank you for the suggestion.

I tried this today exactly as indicated, but it didn't work.  Actually, to clarify - it worked one time. lol  After that it was no joy. I couldn't get it to work again no matter what I did.

In fact, it also did  something else I don't understand. After I'd import the background and click auto-fit and connect the nodes as shown, if I then tried to switch back to the pose room, it would undo everything, including clearing the background.

So I'm right back at square-one.  :(

I don't use background images often but I do remember sometimes having issues if I tried to set up a background in the material room like you would for adding a texture to a prop. If You used file>import>background picture, it worked. I don't know how or why. I never looked into it further.

RedPhantom posted at 7:40 AM Fri, 1 March 2024 - #4482105

I don't use background images often but I do remember sometimes having issues if I tried to set up a background in the material room like you would for adding a texture to a prop. If You used file>import>background picture, it worked. I don't know how or why. I never looked into it further.

I have a sort-of workaround by attaching the bg image to a flat-plane primitive and resizing and positioning it in the scene but it's a pain in the butt to try to do it that way and it complicates the lighting.