The Problem with Material ID Masks
In post-production, selecting specific objects (grass, vegetation, cars, etc.) using Material ID often causes issues:
- Too many similar colors → Selecting one material often affects others unintentionally.
- Objects with multiple materials → Some assets (e.g., grass, cars) have multiple materials, making selection inefficient.
Meanwhile, Sky Mask is an excellent selection method because:
It provides a clean black-and-white mask for perfect selection.
In Photoshop, “Select Pixels” grabs only the white areas with accuracy.
In video editing apps, it works as a Luma or Alpha Matte for precise masking.
The Solution: Custom Mask Channel
D5 Render should introduce a Custom Mask Channel, allowing users to create black-and-white masks for specific objects, layers, or categories, just like Sky Mask.
How It Works:
New “Custom Mask Channel” option in render settings.
A selection window lets users choose:
- Specific objects from the object list.
- Layers (e.g., everything in “Layer 2”).
-
Categories (e.g., all Vegetation, all Scatter, all Characters).
Users can create multiple mask channels (e.g., one for vegetation, one for characters).
Each selection is exported as a black/white mask, just like Sky Mask.
Why This Feature is Essential
This would greatly improve post-production workflows, making camera tracking, render compositing, and color grading much easier.
This feature is especially needed for my free D5 Reality course, which focuses on Camera Tracking and Video Matching in D5 Render. Watch it here: [D5 Reality Course]