Split a multichannel EXR into separate render-pass sequences
5 min read · Checked against Sequency 1.4 · Updated
Short answer
Import the multichannel EXR sequence, set Container to Image Sequence, and turn on Split Multichannel Layers in Image Sequence Options. Sequency writes each layer to its own subfolder, applies your colour conversion only to colour passes, and leaves data passes such as depth, normals and motion vectors untouched.
Steps
- 1
Import the multichannel sequence
Click Import… (⌘I) and choose the folder of multilayer EXR frames.
- 2
Choose Image Sequence output
In Container choose Image Sequence, then pick OpenEXR, PNG or TIFF in Image Sequence Options.
- 3
Turn on splitting
Turn on Split Multichannel Layers. The Detected Layers list shows every layer Sequency found and whether it is treated as colour or data.
- 4
Set colour for the colour passes
Turn on Enable Color Space Conversion if you want the beauty and lighting passes converted. Data passes always skip colour management.
- 5
Export
Click Export Selected… (⌘E) and choose an empty folder. Each layer gets its own subfolder, such as RGBA/ or Depth/.
Colour passes and data passes
Sequency recognises pass names from the major renderers. Beauty, diffuse, specular, emission, volume and lighting passes are colour passes and go through your colour conversion. Depth, normals, position, UV, motion vectors, IDs, AO and other utility passes are data passes and are written without any colour transform.
PNG and TIFF are forced to 16-bit when splitting so data passes keep as much precision as those formats allow. For depth and position, write OpenEXR to keep values outside 0 to 1. Cryptomatte and deep data are skipped.
Questions
- Which renderers are supported?
- Layer names from Arnold, V-Ray, Redshift, Octane, Karma, Cycles and others are recognised. Unknown layers are still exported. Multi-channel layers are treated as colour unless their name matches a data pass; single-channel layers, and passes Blender tags as data, are treated as data.