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Image Formats That Support Aux Channels
Fusion supports auxiliary channel information contained in a variety of image formats. The number of channels and methods used are different for each format.
— OpenEXR (*.exr): The OpenEXR file format is the primary format used to contain an arbitrary number of additional image channels. Many renderers that will write to the OpenEXR format will allow the creation of channels that contain entirely arbitrary data. For example, a channel with specular highlights might exist in an OpenEXR. In most cases, the channel will have a custom name that can be used to map the extra channel to one of the channels recognized by Fusion.
— SoftImage PIC (*.PIC, *.ZPIC and *.Z): The PIC image format (used by SoftImage) is an older image format that can contain Z-Depth data in a separate file marked by the ZPIC file extension. These files must be located in the same directory as the RGBA PIC files and must use the same names. Fusion will automatically detect the presence of the additional information and load the ZPIC images along with the PIC images.
— Wavefront RLA (*.RLA), 3ds Max RLA (*.RLA) and RPF (*.RPF): This is an older image format capable of containing any of the image channels mentioned above. All channels are contained within one file, including RGBA, as well as the auxiliary channels. These files are identified by the RLA or RPF file extension. Not all RLA or RPF files contain auxiliary channel information, but most do. RPF files have the additional capability of storing multiple samples per pixel, allowing different layers of the image to be loaded for very complex depth composites.
— Fusion RAW (*.RAW): Fusion’s native RAW format is able to contain all of the auxiliary channels as well as other metadata used within Fusion.
Creating Auxiliary Channels in Fusion
The following nodes create auxiliary channels:
— Renderer 3D: Creates these channels in the same way as any other 3D application would, and you have the option of outputting every one of the auxiliary data channels that the Fusion page supports.
— Optical Flow: Generates Vector and Back Vector channels by analyzing pixels over consecutive frames to determine likely movements of features in the image.
— Disparity: Generates Disparity channels by comparing stereoscopic image pairs.