Export to OpenEXR with layers fails on any file

[Theseus]

Hi,

In Photo and Designer 2.0.4, Windows 10, the EXR export function does not work when using the "layered" preset.

Hardware accelerated performance option makes no difference.

Steps to reproduce:

Copy any image into a layer, add some text (just to get a second layer).

Go to file->Export

Select EXR

Select Preset: OpenEXR 32-bit linear (layered)

The 'generating preview' window on the left loads forever and never finishes. If you press the 'export' button anyway and select a file name for the export, it fails with the error: "An error occurred while exporting to: <filename>"

 

Exporting without layers works fine, it seems to be specifically the layered OpenEXR that doesn't work.

[NathanC]

Hi @Theseus,

I believe the ‘Layered Preset’ which enables the ‘Multi Channel’ option under the advanced export settings is more related to breaking multiple channels into layers rather than preserving layers such as text. This requires that the pixel layers be given the correct affix to be used on the layer’s name in order for the layered export to work.

For example, If I open a JPEG and then immediately export to EXR with Multi channel enabled, this will fail to generate the preview and error on export because there’s no channel affix on my pixel layer’s name and therefore nothing to export. 

However, if I rename my pixel layer to ‘Test1.RGBA’ to add an affix and then export to EXR with multi channel enabled again, this will work as expected, and when I re-open the .EXR file in Affinity, I can see that it has separated my RGB and Alpha channels.

Before Multi Channel Export:

After Multi Channel Export:

I've linked the help guide below which goes into more detail on how this works.

https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/HDR/openexr.html

 

[Theseus]

Thanks for the thorough explanation. It seems I was misled about the capabilities of OpenEXR!