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Table of Contents

This page gives some basic details about the Refraction Render Element and how it is used in compositing.


Overview


The Refraction Render Element stores refraction information calculated from materials – such as glass or water – that refract objects behind them in the camera's view. This means the brightness, coloration, etc. of the refractions can be adjusted without the need to rerender.

Any material in a scene that has a value set for its Refraction parameter will generate refraction information that can be seen in this render element. A surface with no refraction values set in its material(s) will contain no information in the render element and therefore render black.

The Refraction Render Element is a key component in the main Beauty Element and can easily be used to control the refractions in the Beauty composite.

The Refraction Render Element itself is already a composite of the Raw Refraction render element multiplied by the Refraction Filter render element. When finer control over refractions is needed in the composite, add these additional two channels to the output along with the Refraction render element channel.


Attributes


The parameters for this render element appear in the V-Ray RenderChannelColor render channels node.

Deep Output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images.

Color Mapping – When enabled, the Color Mapping options in the render settings are applied to the current render channel.

Consider For AA – When enabled, anti-aliasing is used where possible.

Filtering – Applies the image filter to this channel. Image filter settings are in the Image Sampler tab of the Sampler tab of the V-Ray Renderer node.

Denoise – Enables the render element's denoising, provided the V-Ray Denoiser render element is present.

Derive Raw Channels – Generates data in the raw channels by combining the respective color and the filter color channels.

VFB Color Corrections – Applies the post render color adjustments made from the VFB.



Common Uses


The Refraction Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of refractive elements after rendering in a compositing or image editing application. In the example below, the bottle and the cap are selected, using a Cryptomatte mask and their refractions are tinted and lowered, using the Refraction RE.


Before
After


Compositing Formula


Raw Refraction x Refraction Filter = Refraction