by estebanponce·Rendering
Images © estebanponce. Used for product review; image policy.
Render Tools earns its place in the superhive library by bringing Corona- and V-Ray-style ID and mask render workflows to Blender's Cycles engine, with support across Blender 4.0 through 5.1.
Render Tools brings ID render passes and mask rendering to Blender, offering the kind of post-production control found in Corona Render and V-Ray. The ID Pass Tool adds random ID colors across an entire scene in two clicks and renders the final ID pass, with the option to assign a specific ID color to individual objects.
The Mask Pass Tool lets you select one or more objects and render only those objects with transparency, ready to compose into the final image without re-rendering everything. It supports objects with motion blur and depth of field, and works for still images as well as sequence animation.
Additional tools include Bake ID to Texture, which bakes ID colors into existing UVs or automatically unwraps the model, along with Mask Selection Presets for saving mask selections and a Fix Ghost Objects option for objects that disappear in the render window. Rendering options include ID pass and ID bake with alpha transparency. The add-on uses the Cycles render engine and is released under the GPL license.
Render Tools is best for blender artists producing ID passes and object masks for post-production compositing.
Render Tools is completely free to download and use.
Render Tools installs through Blender's add-on system: open Edit > Preferences, choose Install, and select the render_tools.zip file, then activate it. Once enabled, a tab named Selection Tools appears in the side panel, where all the tools become available. After installing any update, restart Blender before using it. Render Tools uses the Cycles render engine, and from the Selection Tools tab you can reach the ID pass, mask pass, and bake tools.
Render Tools supports Blender versions 4.0 through 5.1, and compatibility with Blender 4.2 and 4.3 Beta was added in a later update. It also handled the upcoming Blender 4.0 at the time of an earlier release. The add-on uses the Cycles render engine. For the most current compatibility details, check the developer's page, since Blender's version support can change as new releases arrive.
Render Tools supports objects with motion blur and depth of field in its render mask pass, and it works for both still images and sequence animation. The Mask Pass Tool lets you select one or more objects and render only those with transparency, ready to compose into the final image without re-rendering the whole scene. This mirrors the mask rendering found in Corona and V-Ray, handy for fixing or updating parts of an image.
Render Tools is listed as free here in the catalog, and it is released under the GPL license. For current licensing and any pricing details, check the developer's page, since terms can change over time. On the tools side, it provides ID pass rendering, mask pass rendering, Bake ID to Texture, Mask Selection Presets, and alpha transparency options, all accessed from the Selection Tools tab in Blender's side panel.
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