Z Buffer Smoothing Node

Rendering engines such as Maya and Mental Ray output images in a format that uses a simple Z-buffer that does not allow for proper antialiasing around the edges of the geometry. Hence, it is ultimately better for image quality to render using RenderMan or Arnold if possible. Otherwise, if a different rendering engine must be used and there appears to be pixelated hard seams around 3D models, the Z Buffer Smoothing node can be used to smooth out the edges of the rendered model.

Connection

The Z-Buffer-Smoothing node takes the rendered 3D model output by a MayaBatchRender node as its input image, and outputs the rendered 3D model with its edges smoothed.

Layer Properties

Parameter	Description
Enable/Disable	Allows you to enable or disable the node. When disabled, a node has no visible effect on the rendered image, nor on the preview in the Camera, Perspective, Side and Top views.
Colour Swatch	Sets the colour of the layer in the Timeline view and of the node in the Node view.
Name	Allows you to enter a name for the node.
Histogram Range	Lets you define the range of clean pixels in the depth histogram when rendering 3D models. Only opaque or semi-transparent values are considered. A low value means fewer pixels are used in the depth calculations and may flatten your object, while a higher value uses more pixels in the depth calculations, but may not eliminate all the image artifacts.
Kernel Size	Lets you determine the size of the matrix used for calculating the depth of a single pixel. For example, for an operation with a kernel size of 3 pixels, Harmony uses the pixels within a 1-pixel radius to calculate the effect. A larger kernel size means longer calculations.