How to get a list of AOVs and LPEs


Here’s a simple kick trick to get a list of AOVs and LPEs.

The -laovs flag lists all the AOVs in the loaded scene, but if you give kick no input, you’ll get a list of all built-in AOVs defined by Arnold.

For example, on Windows, run kick -laovs -i Nul

On Linux or macOS, run kick -laovs -i /dev/null

kick -laovs -i Nul
Available aovs:
    Type:    Name:                        LPE:
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    VECTOR2  motionvector (~)
    RGBA     RGBA                         C.*
    VECTOR   N (~)
    FLOAT    Z (~)
    RGB      direct                       C[DSV]L
    RGB      indirect                     C[DSV][DSVOB].*
    VECTOR   Pref (~)
    RGB      albedo                       C[DSV]A
    RGB      emission                     C[LO]
    RGB      diffuse_direct               C<RD>L
    RGB      background                   CB
    RGB      denoise_albedo               ((C<TD>A)|(CVA)|(C<RD>A))
    RGB      sss_albedo                   C<TD>A
    RGB      specular_albedo              C<RS[^'coat''sheen']>A
    RGB      diffuse                      C<RD>.*
    FLOAT    cputime (~)
    RGB      diffuse_indirect             C<RD>[DSVOB].*
    RGB      sss_indirect                 C<TD>[DSVOB].*
    RGB      diffuse_albedo               C<RD>A
    RGBA     shadow_matte
    FLOAT    volume_Z (~)
    RGB      specular                     C<RS[^'coat''sheen']>.*
    RGB      coat_direct                  C<RS'coat'>L
    RGB      specular_direct              C<RS[^'coat''sheen']>L
    RGB      specular_indirect            C<RS[^'coat''sheen']>[DSVOB].*
    RGB      volume_direct                CVL
    RGB      coat                         C<RS'coat'>.*
    RGB      coat_indirect                C<RS'coat'>[DSVOB].*
    RGB      coat_albedo                  C<RS'coat'>A
    RGB      sheen                        C<RS'sheen'>.*
    RGB      transmission                 C<TS>.*
    RGB      transmission_direct          C<TS>L
    RGB      transmission_indirect        C<TS>[DSVOB].*
    VECTOR2  AA_offset (~)
    RGB      transmission_albedo          C<TS>A
    VECTOR   P (~)
    RGB      sheen_direct                 C<RS'sheen'>L
    RGB      volume                       CV.*
    RGB      sheen_indirect               C<RS'sheen'>[DSVOB].*
    NODE     shader (~)
    RGB      sheen_albedo                 C<RS'sheen'>A
    RGB      sss                          C<TD>.*
    RGB      sss_direct                   C<TD>L
    RGB      volume_indirect              CV[DSVOB].*
    RGB      volume_albedo                CVA
    FLOAT    A (~)
    FLOAT    ZBack (~)
    RGB      opacity (~)
    RGB      volume_opacity (~)
    FLOAT    raycount (~)
    UINT     ID (~)
    NODE     object (~)
    FLOAT    AA_inv_density (~)
    RGBA     RGBA_denoise (~)
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    (~) No opacity blending

[MtoA] Per-light AOVs for volumes


 

Arnold 4.2.12.2 added support for per-light AOVs for volumetrics.

Here’s how to set up per-light AOVs in MtoA 1.2.6.0:

  1. In the light Attribute Editor, enter a name for the light group.
  2. Create a custom AOV for the light group. Give the AOV a name that starts with “volume_”. For example, if the light group name is “red”, then the AOV name is “volume_red”.

aov_light_group

[Arnold] Standard shader AOVs and shading trees


Here’s a question asked recently. Given a shading tree like the one below, why don’t AOVs like diffuse_direct include the blended color from the Blend Color node?

aovs_blend_color

The answer: because it is the Standard shader that writes the AOV, not the Blend Color shader. The diffuse_direct AOV gets the diffuse layer calculated by the Standard shader, and that’s it.

The MtoA AOV browser shows you what AOVs are implemented by which shaders:
aovs_mtoa_browser

Creating object mask AOVs that include opacity


  • Create a custom RGB AOV.
  • Use aiWriteColor to write the object mask to the custom AOV. The Input color of the aiWriteColor is the mask color, and you have to enable Blend to get the opacity blended into the Input.
    mask_opacity_aiWriteColor
  • Connect the Out Color of the aiWriteColor to the Color of a Standard shader. That sends the aiWriteColor beauty to the Standard.
    mask_opacity_Nodes
  • Make sure Enable AOV Composition is turned on in the Render Settings.
    EnableAOVComposition

I don’t think this set up works if you plug a Standard into the beauty of the aiWriteColor (eg Standard > aiWriteColor > Standard). With that set of connections, I could never get the opacity right in both the Beauty and the Mask AOVs.

[MtoA] Creating color masks with a custom AOV and the Utility shader


In this video, I show how to a color mask AOV using a custom AOV and the Utility shader. Topics covered include:
– Creating a custom AOV
– Setting the default shader for a custom AOV
– Setting up the Utility shader to output a color for each shape
– Understanding the difference between the Color and Color ID color modes

AOV Composition and opacity


AOV Composition allows opacity and transparency to carry forward into AOVs. It works only for RGB AOVs, so you won’t see it in the render region (because the xsi display driver always outputs RGBA AOVs).
aov_composition

For example, suppose you have a textured grid with an opacity map:
noicon_grid_w_opacity_map
In the render region, the Main AOV is fine, but the Arnold Direct Diffuse doesn’t have the opacity, even if you enable AOV Composition:
main_vs_direct_diffuse1
However, if you render out the image (with AOV Composition enabled and the Direct Diffuse format set to RGB), you’ll get what you expected:
arnold_direct_diffuse_aov_composition

Preserve Layer Name for single-layer EXRs


So, what’s this Preserve Layer Name setting do?
exr-preserveLayerNames
Preserve Layer Name is for single-layer EXRs, and it determines whether or not the AOV is written into the pre-defined R,G,B,A channels.

By that, I mean that if Preserve Layer Name = False, then a single-layer EXR will have these channels:

  • A
  • B
  • G
  • R

And if Preserve Layer Name = True, then the single-layer EXR will have channels like this (that include the “layer name”):

  • Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.A
  • Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.B
  • Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.G
  • Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.R

Channel names like “Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.R” can cause problems with some software, so by default Preserve Layer Names is set to False.

Note that Preseve Layer Names applies to single-layer EXRs only. If you’re writing out multi-layer EXRs, you’ll always get names like “Arnold_Direct_Diffuse.R”.