Z Depth AOV is black in After effects

[henningricke]

Hi guys, I know this seems to be a known issue, but I couldn´t find a working solution for it anywhere.
I would be very grateful for some help.

I am rendering EXR (Octane) 16 Bit files. (single files, not Multilayered)
Buffer Type: HDR (float 32bit)
Colorspace: Linear sRGB

C4d Version S26
Octane Version: 2021.1.6-(R4)

When importing the renderings to After Effcts (2022) everything looks fine, except for the Z-Depth path, wich is completely black.

What is going on here? Is this a bug? Am I doing something wrong? What can I do to get it working?


EDIT: Solved! The Problem is with DWBA Compression. Looks like a Bug to me.

[Aleksei]

Having exactly the same issue with the same render settings.

Octane: 2021.1.6-(R4)
Cinema 4D: 2023.0.0
After Effects: 23.0.0

The file seems to be corrupted, because it generates a strange error about RAM, while trying to open in Photoshop. But my file is only 1280x560 px and 160 kb in size.
It was rendered in RNDR Network.
I couldn't render it at my local machine — the render frozen after rendering 1st frame, the render process was going but it never started to render the 2nd frame.
When I changed file format to EXR (not Octane) and it rendered sequence of frames as expected. But while rendering EXR in RNDR Network it still renders corrupted file.

[henningricke]

Yey! I SOLVED it!

The Problem is, that I was using DWAB Compression!
It seems to screw up Z-Depth.

Using RLE or ZIP for instance works fine with Z-Depth.

[Aleksei]

The Problem is, that I was using DWAB Compression!
It seems to screw up Z-Depth.

Wow, that's a surprise.
I was using DWAA compression.
In my opinion it's a bug, because RNDR Network recommends artists to set DWAA or DWAB compression for the outputs.

[henningricke]

In my opinion it's a bug, because RNDR Network recommends artists to set DWAA or DWAB compression for the outputs.

Is there any proof of a bug that would qualify it as one?
DWAA or DWAB (depending on the post/compositing software) are recommended for beauty or light outputs, but do also work for data AOVs.

Could you export the same single frame DWA/B compression export, locally?
I just did (Standalone 2022 and 2021) and I can confirm that it works.

I can confirm, that DWAA and DWAB don't work in C4D R26.
I checked in Photoshop and After Effects.

None, RLE and ZIP work just fine.
I didn't check any more Compressions.

[henningricke]

DWAB_test_Z_0000.zip

(88.48 KiB) Downloaded 92 times

I checked in Photoshop and After Effects.

Unfortunately, none of these software are trust-worthy.
Nuke and Fusion are (or similar ones).

Could you attach the faulty Z-Depth EXR?

Yea, Adobe .... well.
Anyway. Here is one of the faulty DWAB Test-Files.

[damsendin]

The Z-depth doesnt work with DWAB if you choose EXR(octane), you have to use the standard EXR to have DWAB compression and Z

[Labrats]

After effects works just fine, don't worry. You just need to put 'extractor on the zdepth channel (effect-3D Channel - extractor).

[henningricke]

I just wanted to note, that this issue still exists in 2022.1.1(R3)

DWAB compression still messes up the Z-Depth. At least when rendered as single layer files. It turns out black.
However, in multilayered EXR it produces a Z-Depth.a in red channel and Z-Depth.y in green channel. This type of output is new to me. Can anyone elaborate on this?

Is there no way to get a normal black and white Z-Depth channel when rendering out single file EXRs in DWAB compression?
I personally very much prefer using single files over clunky multylayered ones that tend to have a lot of useless extra data in them.

[henningricke]

Damn! I get it now!
Extracor needs to be used even when it is only a single layer file. I assumed this workflow only applies to multy layered files.
Sorry for the inconvenience!