How to Render Cryptomatte in Unreal (NEW in 4.26)

[@griffithpictures]

Thanks! I bought winbush a virtual coffee and I feel I need to do the same for you sir. Love these videos.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! Appreciate it!

[@griffithpictures]

@@WilliamFaucher hey question for you… have you ever had an issue where the matte doesn’t align with the image?

[@griffithpictures]

I have a (new) theory that may help if you ever run into it. Need to turn off pin cushioning on the camera or post process. I've tested disabling that on 1 shot so far and seems to be working. Thanks again!

[@nitinburli7814]

To anyone wanting to use the object ids in AE, use cryptomatte effect on the exr footage. Thanks for the tutorial, William!

[@Mister_Flink]

What about motion blur? I haven't been able to render it properly using Cryptomatte

[@sayanbiswas7364]

Hi William. Thanks for the video. For some reason I'm not getting the colour coded cryptomatte. All the object masks are white which is making it unusable with a lot of objects in the scene. Any idea what's wrong?

[@chpage20]

This is perfect, thank you! I was eagerly trying to figure it out on 4.26's release day but didn't realize it was an extra plugin.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers! Took me a while to figure it out too!

[@DodaGarcia]

Your hair looks really good in this video, if I didn't know better I'd wager it's rendered

[@WilliamFaucher]

Haha thanks man! I can assure you I'm losing my hair like most guys approaching their 30s

[@DodaGarcia]

@@WilliamFaucher Hey, but it’s yours!! Meanwhile I’ve been playing around with the new Groom import for my digital double and it’s kinda humiliating how much better his facial hair is than mine 😹 next thing you know I’m sabotaging the poor characters look so that it doesn’t upstage me in my own videos

[@canadianbird1185]

Wow... buddy these tutorials are awesome!

[@robdiaz]

This is great! Thanks for the quick video, super simple

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! Glad it could help!

[@apixel.content]

Thank you for the informative and quick video!

[@WilliamFaucher]

The pleasure is mine! Cheers :)

[@Madguru]

I like your short, to the point, helpful videos. Thank you.

[@WilliamFaucher]

No thank YOU, kind internet stranger :)

[@lukashilfiker6470]

Awesome stuff William! I'm Product Designer in the transition from Keyshot to Unreal Engine. Even if UE4 is a bit intimidating to start with you encourage me a lot to get better! I'd love to hear from you why you're using UE4 and what the alternatives would be in your industry? Cheers!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hey there! That's a great suggestion! UE is definitely a tool with a steep learning curve, and with no shortage of aspects that are incredibly counter-intuitive! I'd say the main appeal of unreal is its speed. With Megascans being a thing, setting up small environments, a camera, lighting, and rendering out frames can all be done in a matter of hours. It's pretty amazing in that regard. This would make a great topic for a video, so thank you!

[@lukashilfiker6470]

@@WilliamFaucher Awesome, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[@trailheadpicturesllc9983]

I'm rendering EXR's from UE 5.2 and comping in After Effects. All the crptomatte elements are in there but I have a white line around the edges. Any ideas. using 16 bit premultiplied

[@nicholaslines986]

hey mate, have you been able to get transparent materials to show up in cryptomatte?..in 5.0

[@misaelchan6990]

Thank you for all your tutorials. much appreciated. Im trying to follow along in 4.27, but the option to add "object ids (limited)" does not exist in the add settings drop down. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find this option? I'm also on a MAC. Thanks.

[@PaulZ.-zy5ft]

Thank you. But why when i loaded the frames into photoshop, all the cyptomattes only show in white color? And why i don't see the colorful cyptomatte in nuke either?

[@barmaleevmax]

You have terrific content, learned a lot of useful things for my work. One question: why are the IDs in the tutorial colored and I get all the layers white? They are all separate, everything works, just all the same color. Could it be related to the fact that I'm using Unreal 5.1. I really doubt it.

[@albertusbodenstein1976]

Thanks for the helpful tips man! ~Subscribed!

[@WilliamFaucher]

The pleasure is mine! More to come! Thanks for subbing, and welcome to the community!

[@paulfedor9828]

I would love to see an update for render layers for 5.1

[@LucasRodrigues-nu5qd]

Thank you, very helpful video!

[@WilliamFaucher]

You're very welcome! And thank you for watching!

[@GlassHandFilms]

Great video! But I believe this implementation is just a simple object id pass. Correct me if I’m wrong, but “cryptomatte” is a tool created in house at Psyop that supports many multilayers of object names, object namespaces , and materials with support for motion blur, transparency, and depth of field. In my experience, cryptomatte files are pretty large since they contain all this info and usually needs a plugin in software like fusion to read them properly and select the objects or materials. What I’m seeing here just seems to be color generated per object for a matte. Cheers!

[@WilliamFaucher]

No you're definitely not wrong! In my experience with Arnold, we would often choose crypto material, crypto id, or a variety of other options of our choice. I don't recall often rendering every single id pass possible in one go. This unreal implementation is pretty barebones in comparison. Until now there was no way to get any kind of object ID like this. Hopefully material ID comes next. Motion vectors can be rendered out too, albeit they're not great. All in all, it's a start! Thanks for commenting, you've actually made a good point there. The reason I called it cryptomatte in this video here is because you do need the crypto plugin in Nuke to see this object ID pass if I am not mistaken.

[@GlassHandFilms]

@@WilliamFaucher the cool thing is you could still use the cryptomatte plug in in fusion or after effects to isolate the id colors. But I was trying to get to the bottom if unreal actually implemented cryptomatte on their end. From what I understand how cryptomatte works with render engines, it has to trace each object or material contribution per pixel and evaluate who contributed to that pixel. So it works really good for motion blur fog, depth of field, transparency, all the stuff where normal object ids fall short of. Also fixes the halos and weird stuff that happens with normal ids. But I digress, great video, presentation, and format! Cheers!

[@WilliamFaucher]

​@@GlassHandFilms Yeah I see your point! Do you think the reason why Unreal doesn't have a full-fledged crypto pass you see in offline renderers, is due to the fact that raytracing is still fairly limited ? Thanks so much for your eloquent response, always love hearing from others well-versed in rendering tech.

[@GlassHandFilms]

@@WilliamFaucher yeah that would be my assumption at this point. From what I've seen, the hybrid approach of raytracing and rasterization is very flexible. Plus there is a full path tracer in ue4 so I guess anything is possible. Can't wait to see what happens in the next few releases. And very happy we could chat as well! Cheers!!

[@3dioplugins]

HI Glass, it is not "simple object ID pass". Lets call it "better object ID pass" :). In ObjectID a pixel can contain only data from one object (therefore the name ObjectID - it is either filled or empty), in Cryptomatte-pass a single pixel can share data of multiple objects. Translated in artist language: ObjectID has no Antialiasing on borders (you can't use it for any kind of serious masking in PS), while Crytomatte has "weighted" pixels, where a pixel on a border of an object can consist of 25% information of the foreground object and 75% information of the background object (the edges look ant aliased).

[@f_sonn_]

Is there a way to get somethig similar to Cryptomatt in ue5 ? like stancil layers? :)

[@wengweng5478]

Thank for your vedio! I encountered a problem while using. When i render scene use with this Object ID.The grasses from landscape grass type used by materials, they lose Cryptomatte.Please tell me how to make the render correctly~ :D

[@StoneDesignsChannel]

Does anybody know if this method works with the "Panoramic Rendering" feature as well? I'm trying to render equirectangular cryptomatte but can't seem to get it working.

[@matthiasz2338]

Is it possible to get a cryptomatte for each material like inside redshift? Thank you.

[@bruhfrl3315]

Thanks legend!

[@MrGravicaper]

That's a neat thing you did in the video. I was very excited to be able to get object masks, but... I repeated your steps in the video, but I have only 5 layers in the final Exr file: 1. combine, 2. alpha (looks like light gray on the whole frame), 3. mask of two colors, green and white on some objects in the scene, and the choice unreal made without any logic, 4 and 5 layers are empty. I installed Blender_Exr_auto-pass_saver-master to read passes into Blender. Or rather as far as I understood this plugin for quick naming of layers. And the layers themselves Blender should see and without the plugin. File 1920 by 1080 weighs 7800 KB, so an unknown reason just did not let the unrealistic engine to get these passes. UE_4.27 version Do you have any idea why so few layers came out?

[@septic07]

Great tutorial! Thank you very much. I'm having one issue though... When I import the exr files into e.g. Affinity Photo / Blender, the alpha channel is completely opaque... No distinction between background and forground, can you tell what I forgot? :-(

[@RW-bx1ny]

Is it possible to set face ID's for a specific mesh?

[@minghotong6879]

Hey I used cryptomatte and it says it is going to be 1700 layers, may I ask is there a way to fix it?!

[@saqibmalic]

is that possible to assign sort of ID for Selected Objects Cryptomatte pass i tried i am getting huge amount of passes.which i really don't need.

[@WilliamFaucher]

As of 4.26, no there isn't. It's still a new, limited feature, I expect epic will polish this up sooner or later

[@viewee22]

Thank you for your tutorial. How can i open Cryptomatte in AfterEffects?

[@WilliamFaucher]

You need the exr.io plugin :)

[@newearth33]

Hi William, I'm trying this but get a warning in EXR-io popup 'Decoding the cryptomatte data would result in 10322 Cryptomatte layers - do you really want to continue?' Any ideas? As far as I can see I've done everything the same. Thanks!

[@axelviv]

can you fix it?

[@martindione386]

I did a very simple scene with "trees" made with cylinders and spheres and a traveling camera, but I'm getting weird horizontal bars in the ID layer, they can be selected like a regular ID mask, but they doesn't match with the RGB layer. Any thoughts?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hmm good question! It's a bit hard to know without seeing your render. If you open this in photoshop. what does the name of the layer tell you? Sometimes this can be a way to find out what is what! It could be a number of things such as particles, fog, that sort of thing. Hope you figure it out!

[@uziemiacz007]

its crazy how such simple task like basic mask is complicated in ue

[@widam]

nice!. you can use Natron, I think it reads cryptomatte

[@兔子队长]

非常感谢您的分享，朋友！

[@WilliamFaucher]

别客气！

[@zachdoesart]

Hey Bud! Just got into Unreal, and I gotta say your videos are extremely helpful! straight to the point and very simple explanations. I was so excited to finally get colorID's out of UE4, but my mattes came out all white! Any Ideas why this happenned?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hi there, and thank you! In Photoshop this is normal! I colored the IDs in the video so we could see more clearly. The masks work fine though

[@shujahussain6467]

Hey Will, I wanted to ask you about the crypto matte pass for moving objects/foliage and for hair, because the just like zdepth pass the edge pixels are not anti aliased ? thats always comes as a problem whenever I composite.

[@ankanghoshdiscoverme]

Try adding cvars at mrq config settings r.upscalequality 1 and fxaa 16

[@tris73]

Question: What with transparency - particles and cryptomatte? I got big solid planes in place smoke particles and full screen pink(isch) solid over entire view with volumetrics in my scene. :(

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yeah so I don't think particles work so well with cryptomatte unfortunately. I haven't tried myself but lots of things with translucency and volumetrics behave weirdly with object ID. Sorry!

[@tris73]

I hope they will add it in the next version

[@EugenicsBMX]

Cryptommate pass vithout antialiasing , how to fix it? now its impossible to compose with it

[@stnikou]

If you have an actor that has geo cache (imported alembic, with many objects) the cryptomatte can identify all the different elements? Or it will see it as one ID?

[@WilliamFaucher]

That is a very good question. 4.27 has some new improvements for Cryptomatte so it will be worth checking out! I can't answer your question since I haven't tried myself yet!

[@stnikou]

@@WilliamFaucher Thank you, i tested in 4.26 it just gives a single ID, lets hope in 4.27 will be different

[@5single318]

Hi William, what if the object has motion blur or DoF? Will the cryptomatte being blurred as well?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Nope. you will need to render out Zdepth pass and motion vectors, combine those in nuke to add motion blur and DoF again in your nukescript to get cryptomatte to look correct. It is super tedious and annoying really.

[@5single318]

@@WilliamFaucher Hummm, anyway thank you very much:)

[@gaelhernandez4898]

you know how to remove the alfha channel from the particles of unreal ingene i tried to render but they didn't appear?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hi there! I'm not sure I understand your questions. You WANT alpha on your particles, or you don't?

[@gaelhernandez4898]

@@WilliamFaucher the representation of the alpha channel of the particles created by unreal are not rendered even if the alfha channel box is activated

[@vankatasiva2797]

Is that any way I can separate only one object ?

[@WilliamFaucher]

As far as I'm aware, no, you can't.

[@MonzotoOfficialChannel]

Awesomeness

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers!

[@noelbachinimiliti1760]

Hello William. Thanks for your videos. I have a question, I am doing the same as you, but I do not get any cryptomatte, do you know what could be happening? Thanks and best regards

[@WilliamFaucher]

Are you rendering as EXR 16-bit? Where are you trying to open the EXR? Photoshop? nuke? AE? Premiere Pro? Resolve?

[@noelbachinimiliti1760]

@@WilliamFaucher Yes, and im opening the render in photoshop and nuke, but it doesen´t working. i have a constant color in nuke and in photoshop nothing. Also I have activate in deferred renderer data the process materials in unreal

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@noelbachinimiliti1760 Do you have all the layers in photoshop? It is normal for the layers to be white, but you should be getting the info in each layer. One layer for each crypto ID. In nuke, do you have non-commercial, or a full-fledged version? Because cryptomatte doesn't work in Nuke NC.

[@noelbachinimiliti1760]

I have nuke 10 with crypto and it doesn't work, in photoshop I don't get the layers for each ID. I just realized that I have Accumulator includes alpha in deferred rendering enabled, may that be why, I'll see.

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@noelbachinimiliti1760 Make sure you have the Multilayer box checked in the EXR tab. In PS I am assuming you're using EXR.io?

[@ankanghoshdiscoverme]

The Object id doesn’t work when long range of frames are shot. I tried thousands frame, crypto was blank.

[@WilliamFaucher]

That's odd, while I haven't tested it on 1000's of frames, I see no reason why it would do that!

[@iamYork_]

No IDs in After Effects... Everyone is making tutorials on this topic... Including Unreal themselves and they use Photoshop as the EXR example... frustration levels maximizing... Do people actually use Unreal to Photoshop? I apologize been working with c4d for the last decade and metahuman has drawn me into using Unreal engine...

[@DanielSmith-rt1wz]

Hey William, great tutorial series, thanks a bunch! quick question, my crypto/render id layers are all coming in white, all on different layers but they're not colour passes like yours, did i miss something?

[@WilliamFaucher]

You did not! That is the normal thing to happen when you import into photoshop. In the video I colored them manually so you could see what was happening!

[@DanielSmith-rt1wz]

@@WilliamFaucher ah got ya! thanks, thats a nightmare though lol im gonna have to colour all the layers by hand..... does it work better in after effects?

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@DanielSmith-rt1wz Well, not really a nightmare no because the color is irrelevant. It's the mask that matters right? I can't speak for AE as I don't use it. It should work better with Nuke, though, since nuke is actually designed to use .exr files, unlike adobe products.

[@DanielSmith-rt1wz]

@@WilliamFaucher its just because im rendering several stills for a CMF team, and theres so many objects in the scene, so its imported about 50 or 60 layers. its impossible to find each selection that way- i just had a look in after effects, looks like it creates a single cryptomatte that can be exported, kinda works as a work around. Thanks man!

[@yangfanwei2559]

My layers are all grey and white？Thank you。

[@WilliamFaucher]

This is normal! I colorized my layers so that you could see things better in the video. But the data/masks are there. If you ctrl-click (cmd-click on mac) on the layer in photoshop, you will see the mask outline. The layer should be named what the object is named in Unreal. Hope this helps! :)

[@yangfanwei2559]

@@WilliamFaucher Thank you very much

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@yangfanwei2559 You are welcome! :)

[@sirvz]

Does cyptomatte work with path tracing?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Sure does!

[@TyCarriere]

This is awesome man! Just one thing. All my crypto layers are there when I see it in Photoshop but they are all white. Any suggestions?

[@WilliamFaucher]

That's normal! I colored them for the video so you could see clearly.

[@ninomancuso7021]

Great video, glad I found it :) Quick question though, I'm importing my EXR into Fusion in resolve, there's a quick documented workflow I'm following using Fusion plugin for EXRs, but I'm not getting anything like the layers that you're showing in photoshop (I dont have photoshop for windows). Is there any other way to confirm it's exporting correctly? to get even more specific, the whole reason I'm pursuing this is because Unreal isn't drawing focus correctly through transparent glass, are you familiar with the issue?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Honestly I don't even know if Fusion in resolve supports cryptomatte/objectID. Fusion has been so uncooperative when working with multilayered EXR, and I cannot find any documentation or tutorials to help. It's very, very irritating, and is the reason I gravitate towards Nuke instead, because Nuke is the industry standard and just.... works. Way better.

[@widdomonki238]

Fusion in Resolve does use cryptomattes but Fusion standalone is a better choice for your Fusion-ing if you don't need to work with the live Resolve link. (your Resolve license will run Fusion standalone, so you can add that at no cost) and it will also run across your fusion render nodes as well. ;) cryptomatte isn't going to show the layers like it does in photoshop, it will operate as it does in nuke. (side note: fusion will load photoshop files through the file/import function) BTW: Your go-to for answers (although the BMD forum has the same people there) is the WSL forum, which is going to be very helpful for you whether it is resolve, Fusion or Reactor. there is a dedicated thread regarding cryptomatte and you're better off getting the plugin through reactor. if you don't know WSL and Reactor then you're in for a treat. go to steakunderwater.com and make an account and enjoy the community.

[@ninomancuso7021]

@@widdomonki238 thanks so much for the info!

[@thespacebetween6480]

thanks

[@euaki1]

Very good! Does this work for animation? Generate ids and take them to Adobe Premiere?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yeah! But you should know that you need to render Motion Vectors and such in order to get proper motion blur on the ID's :)

[@sedrifarhad]

@@WilliamFaucher You saved my time for this comment! Thanks

[@marcurlus4159]

Hi everyone... for those who are looking for something else than Photoshop, take a look at Natron (natrongithub.github.io/). You'll have to install also the Natron Community Pluggins, but then you'll have some thing that looks a lot like Nuke (2D compositing only) and that is pretty usuefull when you don't have the 4K $ needed...William, you're amasing ! I love so much your tutorials !

[@WilliamFaucher]

I’ve heard about Natron before, how good is it? is it a reliable tool?

[@marcurlus4159]

@@WilliamFaucher I've used it in production... It was no heavy feature film SFX stuff but still I was impress by what it can do... But you don't have any 3D compositing. Try it maybe you'll find it intersting... it work as a portable software, you can have it on usb stick, on the side... And if you know your way in Nuke, it will be almost like home for you...