Cannot render Arnold Cryptomatte AOVs in 3ds Max

Autodesk Support

Jun 8, 2020

Products and versions covered

Issue:

When trying to render Cryptomatte AOV (arbitrary output variable) elements with the Arnold renderer in 3ds Max, the rendered elements appear blank (empty) after loading into Adobe After Effects.

Environment:

3ds Max 2020.3 and higher.
Arnold renderer.
Adobe After Effects or Photoshop.

Causes:

Cryptomatte elements are not added automatically to an "all-in-one" RGBA image when using the AOV Manager in 3ds Max 2020.2 and above.

Solution:

To make sure Cryptomatte elements are added to AOV images, do the following:

In the 3ds Max Rendering > Render Setup > Arnold renderer > AOV tab, go to the Maps section and click on the topmost slot to open the Maps browser.

From the Maps browser, make sure the Arnold category is picked, then open the Cryptomatte section and double-click on the Cryptomatte map type to load it.

In the Render Setup > Arnold renderer > AOV tab, click on the AOV Manager button.
In the AOV Manager, click the + Add AOV File to create the save the initial AOV elements in the scene. (To include all of them into the same image, such as a 16-bit or 32-bit .EXR file, check the "All In One File (RGBA)" button first.)
Then, click on the AOV List tab, and from the list, drag over the desired Cryptomatte elements to the AOV title bar. This will add them to the existing list, as shown in the following image:

From the Rendering Setup menu, set the destination folder, file name and file type for the rendered output, then return to the AOV Manager menu and set the Output Path for the AOV Elements image(s).

For more information, see:

Products:

3ds Max; Arnold;

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