Kev Binge | Blender 2.8 Render Passes and VERY Basic Compositing [Old School but Beginner Friendly] @KevBinge | Uploaded September 2019 | Updated October 2024, 5 days ago.
- 📲👍Grab a free CG Animation Time Saver eBook here, learn about the industry and get lots of shortcuts and links: virtualtweakers.com/freebook

*Edit*: If you use OpenEXR Multilayer, you DON’T NEED to do the the FILE OUT setup. The File Out setup WILL work for .png or other types of files though if you want separate image sequences. Also, for OpenEXR MultiLayer, it will show up automatically when you go to your composite workspace and hit “use nodes”, but to see the animation, bring the EXR file sequence in like I do in the video. I’ll address this in a follow on video.

This video goes into how to render out separate objects and how to render in passes for compositing inside Blender 2.8. It's basic and shows you how to set things up. Later videos will address more advanced features, but this should give anyone new to comp in Blender some ideas of how it all works with collections, a bit about view layers, and multichannel EXR files.

I purposely didn’t add in any shadow over the city in this one due to two factors. 1. The extreme angle of the sun just below the horizon was throwing the shadow off screen, and 2. It would have made this video even longer. I can get it in part 2 if you want?

Also, as a very generous commenter shared, a soften node will help, as will matching the shadows and highlights first. This video is more about rendering out passes in 2.8 and reassembling them than dedicated compositing, and I overlook a few key habits that one should acquire. That’s the next video.