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I'm wondering if anybody can think of a way to render condensation out of octane in a manner that I can drop any image/color under it in Photoshop and it'll look correct. Pretty much how some people do with layer effects in photoshop (example of the PS method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbq7IsBdVb4 ). Is there any manner of using various beauty layer outputs that I could combine in photoshop to have this work?

The reason I need to do it like this is for a project where I have a beer can with a ton of different design variants and due to some workflow restrictions, all of the different can designs have to be added onto the cans as vector smart objects in photoshop. Unfortunately , it has to be able to just be quickly swapped, so, no custom masks for different colors in each design, or baked in water drops or anything like that can be done...the person handling it just has to be able to update the smart object with any design they want and it just looks correct.

Any ideas of how to creatively use layers out of Octane for this?

Hi itsallgoode9,
just an idea, in c4dOctane you can use a .psd texture with smart objects, jump to photoshop to edit them, save, reload the texture in c4doctane and the file is updated. You can have the scene open, continually update the smart objects, and save the render from Live viewer for a very fast workflow.
ciao beppe

bepeg4d wrote:Hi itsallgoode9,
just an idea, in c4dOctane you can use a .psd texture with smart objects, jump to photoshop to edit them, save, reload the texture in c4doctane and the file is updated. You can have the scene open, continually update the smart objects, and save the render from Live viewer for a very fast workflow.
ciao beppe

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately all the updates would have to be done through Photoshop, without any adjustments via 3d, like you suggested. It's just some specific requirements for the workflow of this specific project, unfortunately.

though one

theoretically the drops refract and reflect light, which is bounced back every time from the cans.
but the drops are quite small, so it could be ignored

What kind of condensation do you need to have?

whersmy wrote:though one

theoretically the drops refract and reflect light, which is bounced back every time from the cans.
but the drops are quite small, so it could be ignored

What kind of condensation do you need to have?

Not sure what kind yet or how much. ya know, just beer can condensation....the can will be 8000+ pixels tall, so no matter how small the drops it's def going to be large enough to tell if it doesn't look right. I know it's not going to be able to magnify and distort the images underneath as it would if I I had baked the water into the render. Just more looks for the highlights, shadows, etc that I could overlay with blending modes in PS to at least look correct, minus the refraction

He's right IAG.. each drop is like a little magnifying glass, and the refraction and bending of can surface (text etc)... eeeks! This is a tough one! Even though I have eons of PS experience, I have never really played around with displacement too much in PS (beyond crap like heat shimmers etc), but maybe you could somehow make a displacement map that could be loaded and hit beer cans with Displacement filter, beneath your condensation layer?.... Maybe this could be turned into an Action?... I do so much less work in PS nowadays, since so much of my work is full scene renders, and very little composting and retouching monkey-business... So this may not be a viable solution big guy...

You could maybe try keying/automating actions in Photoshop. So after applying the condensation layer, one click will distort all drops