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title: "Cryptomatte"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VBLD/117637514/Cryptomatte"
format: markdown
---
This page provides information about the Cryptomatte Render Channel in V-Ray for Blender. Overview Cryptomatte is a method developed by  Psyop  for efficiently encoding accurate mattes. It typically uses three to five automatically generated render channels stored in a multichannel OpenEXR file which removes the hassle of creating dozens or hundreds of Multimattes.  Compared to the Multi Matte Render Channel, Cryptomatte offers the following: It does not require a setup with object IDs, etc. Only requires a fixed number of additional render channels, typically four. It cannot be propagated through reflections or refractions. UI Path:  ||V-Ray Node Editor|| >  World  >  Render Channels  >Matte >  V-Ray Cryptomatte Properties See the  Render Channels  page to find out where you can find these properties. Channel Name  – Customizable name for the render channel. Enable Deep Output  – Specifies whether to include this render channel in deep images. Id Type  – Specifies how the ID mattes are determined. Node Name  – Creates mattes by node names. Node Material Name  – Creates mattes based on the materials in the scene. Node Name with Hierarchy  – Creates mattes by node names and takes the node hierarchy into account for linked or grouped objects. Node User Attribute  – Creates mattes from a property specified in the  User Attribute  field. Node Asset/reference name  –  Creates mattes based on Cinema 4D References made within the scene.  Note:  This does not create mattes based on Cinema 4D Assets, only file references. Node Layer Name  – Creates mattes based on the layer names in the scene. Sub Object Name  – Creates separate mattes for each individual object within a V-Ray Proxy when the proxy file contains more than one object. This option works by getting IDs from within the   V-Ray Proxy  by creating a mask for each sub-object of the proxy ( .abc  and  .vrmesh ). This type produces masks for V-Ray Proxy objects only - regular geometry is not included in this cryptomatte layer. User Attribute  – Specifies a user-defined attribute for creating ID mattes when the  ID type  is set to  V-Ray user attribute . Add Root Object Name  – When ID Type is set to  Sub object name ,  it specifies what information about the sub-object names goes into the Cryptomatte manifest. The dag path and the sub-object name(s) (e.g., MeshName.abc/ObjectName) are added to the manifest. Number of Layers  – Specifies the number of layers for the render channel, which determines the number of objects that can be distinguished per pixel. If multiple objects intersect at a single pixel, higher-order layers will contain non-zero results. The default value of 6 is normally enough for most cases. Write Metadata  – Determines whether or not the render channel saves the metadata. Object Path Start Slash  – When enabled, add a forward slash ( “ / “  ) at the beginning of the object path.