1、Use EXR's multi-layer feature to hide your Sheep-it render content.
(a)First, there are two boxes here.
(b)In the “1box” ViewLayer, there is one box, and in the “2box” ViewLayer, there are two boxes.
Please note the difference inside the red outline.
(c)The image format should be set to OpenEXR MultiLayer for output.
Please note that if you use ZIP Codec here, the resulting file may become too large for Sheep-it to handle. This can cause Sheep-it to block your project entirely.
Use DWAA Codec instead.
For more details, refer to the “Actual Test” section at the bottom.
(d)Use Alpha Over to overlay the “2box” ViewLayer on top of the “1box” ViewLayer.
(e)Save this EXR format file — it will display only the ViewLayer containing the two boxes.
(f)Import the EXR file into Blender.
In Render Layers, selecting the “1box” layer will output one box, while selecting the “2box” layer will output two boxes.
This way, you can separate out the hidden image.
(g)Here is the actual test on SheepIt
During the actual test, I noticed that if ZIP Codec is used, the EXR image becomes extremely large. Sheep-it does not support transferring files of that size, so compression is necessary.
I used the DMAA codec with 90% quality for compression, which reduced the EXR image size to a level that SheepIt can handle for transfer.
Here is the final result.
2、Using the Blender add‑on
it can slice and rearrange the image. Once the cloud‑encrypted image is downloaded locally, it can be decrypted on your machine — the process is completely lossless.
It’s a lousy method 😭, but it’s lossless.
