Render showing black background but no background in scene?

juantambor

Hello - I am trying to render a character in a scene to combine with some other things in PS, but I keep getting a partial black background even though there is no background in the enviornments tab. In other scenes with no background i would get the checker like image which was transparent when I put it into PS. I am using HDRI lighting in this scene (and still figuring that out) not sure if that would make the background appear dark?  any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks

barbult

Are you rendering to a file format that supports transparency, like PNG. JPG does not support transparency.

juantambor

yes, it was to PNG and still having the issue. 

juantambor

and when I spot render

barbult

Are you rendering the HDRI dome or just using it for lighting? If you are rendering the dome (i.e. you have selected Draw Dome On in Render Settings), the dome will be rendered as your background and there will be no empty space to be transparent.

Richard Haseltine

Is Render Dome on?

juantambor

thanks  - that must be it. I am still figuring out HDRI lighting. I was trying to use it for lighting.-  but now I think i understand it is creating that whole dome around. So, maybe this is a dumb questions but is there a way to use it for lighting a character but then have transparent background? I see a draw dome option and that is off but I'm not finding an  option to turn render dome off.  I can also just go back to using scene lights on this...thanks again

barbult

Draw Dome = Off means that the dome won't be rendered. It will still be used for lighting.

barbult

And make sure the Backdrop Type in the Environment pane is "None".

juantambor

great thanks!