Hello,

I hope I explain this correctly; Is there is a way to render specific items in my scene with areas of non-rendered objects subtracted from my end result?  Example, a perspective view of a sidewalk that is partially blocked by some foliage of a tree. I want to render just the sidewalk, and have the space of the tree subtracted from the render.  Make sense? 

- I do have all my items organized by layers

Apply a Matte/Shadow material to anything in front of your sidewalk.  Or to everything but the sidewalk (or whatever you want to show up).

I don’t think it ever made it into Viz, but Max with mental ray has Render Subset Pixels which will render only those pixels of a selected object.

3ds Max Design 2012 64-bit - Subscription Advantage Pack / PU10
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA