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Contents
Chapter 1
About rendering and renderers
. . . . 1
Rendering . . . . 1
Introduction to rendering . . . . 1
Hardware, software, and vector rendering . . . . 2
Renderers . . . . 4
Maya Software renderer . . . . 4
Maya Hardware renderer . . . . 5
Maya Vector renderer . . . . 8
mental ray for Maya renderer . . . . 11
Select a renderer . . . . 11
Chapter 2
Camera set up
. . . . 13
Cameras . . . . 13
Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras . . . . 13
Maya camera types . . . . 14
Motion blur and depth of field . . . . 15
Focus and blur . . . . 15
fStop (aperture) and shutter speed/angle . . . . 15
Motion blur . . . . 16
Framing objects with a camera . . . . 17
Camera aim . . . . 17
Angle of view (focal length) . . . . 19
Safe display regions for TV production . . . . 20
Clipping planes . . . . 21
Create and use a camera . . . . 22
Create a camera . . . . 22
Adjust a camera’s attributes . . . . 22
Make an existing camera renderable . . . . 23
Turn scene view guidelines on or off . . . . 24
Adjust depth of field . . . . 25
Camera limitations . . . . 26
Look through (select) a camera . . . . 26
Select the current scene view’s camera . . . . 26
Look through another camera . . . . 26
Frame your scene . . . . 27
Move a camera to another location . . . . 27
Aim a camera . . . . 27
Look at selected objects . . . . 29
Frame selected objects . . . . 30
Frame all objects . . . . 30
Frame part of a scene . . . . 30
Save sequential camera movements . . . . 30
Troubleshoot Resolution Gate and Film Gate display incorrectly . . . . 31
Using a stereoscopic camera . . . . 31
Create a stereoscopic camera . . . . 32
Edit the anaglyph attributes of a stereoscopic camera . . . . 33
Render a scene with stereoscopic camera . . . . 34
Create a custom rig . . . . 34
Chapter 3
Tessellation and Approximation
. . . . 39
Tessellation and approximation . . . . 39
Introduction to Tessellation and Approximation . . . . 39
Maya tessellation . . . . 40
Primary vs. secondary tessellation passes . . . . 40
NURBS surface, poly, and subD tessellation . . . . 41
Tessellate NURBS surfaces . . . . 41
View Maya tessellation settings for an object . . . . 41
Adjust NURBS tessellation settings . . . . 42
Determine which objects to tessellate . . . . 43
Display NURBS tessellation triangles . . . . 43
Use span-based tessellation . . . . 44
Tessellate polygonal surfaces . . . . 44
Adjust polygonal tessellation . . . . 44
Tessellate subdivision surfaces . . . . 44
Display subdivision surface tessellation triangles . . . . 44
Adjust subdivision surface tessellation . . . . 45
Chapter 4
Visualize and render images
. . . . 47
Rendering methods . . . . 47
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) . . . . 47
Render View rendering . . . . 52
Batch renders from within Maya (UI) . . . . 52
Render from a command line . . . . 53
Render output . . . . 53
File formats . . . . 53
Subfolders and names of rendered images . . . . 60
File output location . . . . 64
Pixel aspect ratio . . . . 65
Resolution . . . . 65
Frames vs. Fields . . . . 65
Color, Depth, and Mask (alpha) channels . . . . 67
Pre Render MEL and Post Render MEL scripts . . . . 68
Layers and passes . . . . 68
Render layer overview . . . . 68
Working with render layers: different layer examples . . . . 71
Render layer concepts . . . . 73
Mask and depth channels . . . . 78
Render passes . . . . 80
Compositing Interoperability Plug-in . . . . 80
Compositing Interoperability Plug-in for Toxik . . . . 80
Render tiles in the Maya Software renderer . . . . 81
Render tiles . . . . 81
Visualize scenes and render images . . . . 81
A typical rendering workflow . . . . 81
Choose a rendering method . . . . 83
Set scene options . . . . 84
Open the Render Settings window . . . . 84
Render all or some objects from a camera . . . . 85
Set the rendered image file format . . . . 86
Set file name syntax . . . . 86
Set rendered images output location . . . . 88
Set the resolution and pixel aspect ratio . . . . 88
Enable color, depth, and mask channels for rendered images . . . . 89
Create and view depth files . . . . 89
Modify a mask channel . . . . 90
Specify frame or field rendering . . . . 91
Run Pre Render MEL or Post Render MEL scripts . . . . 92
Adjust anti-aliasing . . . . 93
Adjust output image filtering . . . . 94
Create and load a plug-in multipixel filter . . . . 94
Set raytracing quality . . . . 96
Set motion blur . . . . 96
Maya software . . . . 97
Set IPR options . . . . 98
Set Paint Effects rendering options . . . . 99
Set per-material vector rendering options . . . . 99
Work with render layers . . . . 100
Work with layers . . . . 100
Work with layer overrides . . . . 102
Remove material overrides from objects in any render layer . . . . 105
Assign different component shading for each render layer . . . . 108
Work with attribute overrides . . . . 109
Preview layers . . . . 111
Render layers to PSD format . . . . 115
Batch and command-line render with layers . . . . 116
Duplicate an existing render layer . . . . 118
Naming render layers . . . . 119
Recycling rendered images to save time . . . . 119
Control visibility/reflection per layer . . . . 120
Merging display layers or render layers when importing files . . . . 122
Visualize a scene . . . . 123
Visualize interactively with IPR . . . . 123
See shading and lights in a scene view . . . . 126
Test render a low-res still or frame . . . . 127
Test render a low-res animation . . . . 128
Render selected objects . . . . 129
Render a region of your scene . . . . 130
Perform final renders from within Maya . . . . 131
Render a single frame . . . . 131
Batch render a still or animation . . . . 131
Render with several processors . . . . 132
Perform command line rendering . . . . 133
Command line rendering . . . . 133
Render multiple scenes . . . . 135
Render multiple scenes . . . . 135
Work with the Compositing Interoperability plug-in . . . . 135
Work with Autodesk Toxik 2007 . . . . 135
Work with Autodesk Toxik 2008 . . . . 139
Troubleshooting Rendering . . . . 140
Troubleshoot image plane displays black swatch . . . . 140
Troubleshoot displacement is not displayed . . . . 140
Troubleshoot software-rendered is too bright . . . . 141
Troubleshoot Multi-UVs for NURBS don’t software render . . . . 141
Troubleshoot NURBS surface does not appear when
rendering . . . . 141
Troubleshoot rendered image doesn’t match interactive window display . . . . 141
Troubleshoot projection texture swims over an animation . . . . 143
Troubleshoot transparent blobby surface rendering anti-aliasing problem . . . . 143
Troubleshoot memory exceptions . . . . 143
Troubleshoot highlight artifacts close to object edge . . . . 143
Troubleshoot background surfaces show through . . . . . 144
Troubleshoot objects vibrate when an animation is rendered as fields . . . . 144
Troubleshoot 2D Motion Blur problems . . . . 144
Troubleshooting Surfaces (Maya software) . . . . 146
Troubleshoot edits in the Texture Editor don’t update in IPR . . . . 149
Troubleshoot looping renders . . . . 149
Troubleshoot render tiles . . . . 149
Troubleshoot assigning objects to Render Layers through the Relationship editor . . . . 150
Troubleshoot render layer color indicators do not appear correctly (Linux only) . . . . 150
Troubleshoot Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) . . . . 150
Chapter 5
Quality, render speed, diagnostics
. . . . 153
Image quality and render speed . . . . 153
The speed/quality tradeoff . . . . 153
Anti-aliasing and flicker . . . . 154
Artifacts . . . . 155
Render speed . . . . 155
Maya render diagnostics . . . . 156
Improve rendered image quality . . . . 157
Adjust scene anti-aliasing parameters (Maya software) . . . . 157
Adjust per-object anti-aliasing parameters . . . . 157
Reduce artifacts and flicker . . . . 157
Increase render speed . . . . 158
Increase overall rendering speed . . . . 158
Increase surface rendering speed . . . . 160
Increase shadow rendering speed . . . . 161
Increase camera views render speed . . . . 162
Global illumination and caustics . . . . 162
Final Gather . . . . 162
Reduce render memory usage . . . . 163
Reducing memory usage . . . . 163
Cache texture tiles using BOT (block ordered
texture) . . . . 163
Delete information not relevant to the renderer . . . . 164
Render parts of a scene separately . . . . 164
Decrease file size (Maya Vector renderer) . . . . 165
Strategies to decrease vector render file size . . . . 165
Diagnose scene problems . . . . 166
Run diagnostics . . . . 166
Sample diagnostic messages . . . . 166
Chapter 6
Network rendering
. . . . 169
Overview of network rendering . . . . 169
Maya network rendering . . . . 170
Managing Maya network rendering . . . . 170
Network render with Maya software . . . . 171
Chapter 7
mental ray for Maya rendering
. . . . 173
About the mental ray renderer . . . . 173
About the mental ray for Maya renderer . . . . 173
Motion Blur . . . . 180
mental ray for Maya motion blur . . . . 180
Approximation in mental ray for Maya . . . . 181
Approximation . . . . 181
Approximation nodes . . . . 182
Approximation styles . . . . 183
mental ray for Maya geometry types . . . . 184
Visualize and render images . . . . 186
Command line render . . . . 186
Exporting .mi files . . . . 186
Multi-render passes . . . . 187
Quality, render speed, diagnostics . . . . 197
mental ray for Maya diagnostics . . . . 197
Converting textures to optimized format . . . . 197
Network rendering . . . . 199
Overview of network rendering . . . . 199
mental ray for Maya network rendering . . . . 199
mental ray network rendering: Satellite and standalone . . . . 199
What you need to set up network rendering . . . . 200
Configuration files . . . . 201
mental ray for Maya reference links . . . . 202
mental ray for Maya Output window messages . . . . 203
Work with mental ray for Maya approximation . . . . 203
Create an approximation node . . . . 203
Assign an approximation node . . . . 204
Edit an approximation node . . . . 205
Unassign an approximation node . . . . 205
Delete an approximation node . . . . 206
Override approximation settings . . . . 207
Obtain quads for subdivision surfaces . . . . 207
Troubleshoot partial creases rendering as full creases . . . . 208
Control Fine approximation triangles . . . . 208
Setting Fine approximation cache limit . . . . 208
Control Fine approximation triangles . . . . 208
Tweak Approximation node settings . . . . 209
Render time smoothing of polygon meshes . . . . 214
Smooth polygon meshes at render time . . . . 214
Rendering a smooth polygon mesh . . . . 215
Render a smooth polygon mesh using Smooth Mesh Preview . . . . 215
Contour rendering . . . . 217
Adding a contour to your scene . . . . 217
Work with multi-render passes . . . . 218
Introduction to multi-render passes: a simple workflow example . . . . 218
Sample workflow for multi-render passes . . . . 224
Exporting the multi-render passes for compositing in Toxik . . . . 233
Set scene options . . . . 236
Open the Render Settings window . . . . 236
Modify a mask channel . . . . 237
Adjust anti-aliasing in mental ray for Maya . . . . 238
Set motion blur in mental ray for Maya . . . . 239
Perform command line rendering . . . . 239
Rendering from the command line . . . . 239
Export .mi files . . . . 241
Export a .mi file and render with mental ray . . . . 241
Managing your scenes using render proxies . . . . 242
Using render proxies in your scene . . . . 242
Material assignments for render proxy . . . . 246
Increase render speed . . . . 247
Increase overall rendering speed in mental ray for Maya . . . . . 247
Increase surface rendering speed in mental ray for Maya . . . . . 249
Increase shadow rendering speed in mental ray for Maya . . . . 250
Diagnose scene problems . . . . 251
mental ray for Maya error handling and diagnostics . . . . 251
Network rendering . . . . 252
Network render with mental ray for Maya . . . . 252
Set up mental ray network rendering . . . . 252
Set up a master machine with mental ray for Maya or mental ray for Maya Satellite . . . . 254
Verify which hosts file is being read . . . . 256
Change the set of slaves used for mental ray for Maya renders
. . . . 2 5 6
Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method
1) . . . . 257
Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 2) . . . . 258
Slave machine setup . . . . 259
Submit a job to render over the network . . . . 262
Dynamic Attributes for mental ray for Maya . . . . 263
Dynamic Attributes . . . . 263
Troubleshoot mental ray for Maya rendering . . . . 276
Troubleshoot general mental ray for Maya rendering issues . . . 276
Troubleshoot render layers do not render correctly when exporting a .mi file . . . . 282
Troubleshoot Motion Blur . . . . 282
Troubleshoot Surfaces . . . . 283
Troubleshoot final gather causes flicker . . . . 283
Troubleshoot Network rendering with mental ray for Maya . . . . 284
Troubleshoot exporting .mi files . . . . 288
Chapter 8
Appendices
. . . . 289
Appendix A: Extra mental ray render settings . . . . 289
Appendix B: Creating camera output passes with mental ray for Maya . . . . 291
Appendix C: Additional mental ray for Maya rendering commands . . . . 293
Appendix D: Render layer presets . . . . 294
Work with layer presets . . . . 294
Render layers example: automotive preview . . . . 298
Appendix E: Render Passes for Maya software renderer . . . . 301
Work with render passes . . . . 301
Appendix F: mental ray user framebuffers . . . . 303
mental ray for Maya user framebuffers . . . . 303
Create, edit and delete user framebuffers . . . . 304
miDefaultOptions node . . . . 306
mentalrayUserBuffer node attributes . . . . 307
mentalrayOutputPass node . . . . 308
Chapter 9
Rendering menus
. . . . 309
File . . . . 309
File > Export All, Export Selection (mental ray) . . . . 309
Modify . . . . 313
Modify > Convert > Displacement to Polygons . . . . 313
Create . . . . 313
Create > Cameras > Camera . . . . 313
Create > Cameras > Camera and Aim . . . . 317
Create > Cameras > Camera, Aim, and Up . . . . 317
Window . . . . 318
Window > Rendering Editors > Render View . . . . 318
Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer . . . . . 318
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings . . . . 318
Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade . . . . 318
Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags . . . . 319
Window > Rendering Editors > Shading Group Attributes . . . . 319
Window > Rendering Editors > Multilister . . . . 319
Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Approximation Editor . . . . 319
Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Custom Text Editor . . . . 319
Render . . . . 320
Render > Render Current Frame . . . . 320
Render > Redo Previous Render . . . . 321
Render > IPR Render Current Frame . . . . 321
Render > Redo Previous IPR Render . . . . 323
Render > Test Resolution . . . . 323
Render > Run Render Diagnostics . . . . 324
Render > Batch Render . . . . 324
Render > Cancel Batch Render . . . . 326
Render > Show Batch Render . . . . 326
Render > Render Using > Maya Hardware . . . . 326
Render > Render Using > Maya Software . . . . 327
Render > Render Using > Maya Vector . . . . 327
Render > Set NURBS Tessellation . . . . 327
Render > Render Using > mental ray . . . . 334
Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 . . . . 334
Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 . . . . 335
Render > Export to Toxik 2008 . . . . 336
Render > Export Pre-Compositing . . . . 337
Panel menus . . . . 340
View . . . . 340
View > Select Camera . . . . 340
View > Camera settings . . . . 340
View > Camera Attribute Editor . . . . 345
View > Camera Tools . . . . 354
View > Image plane . . . . 357
Stereo . . . . 358
Stereo > Center Eye . . . . 358
Stereo > Active . . . . 358
Stereo > Horizontal Interlace . . . . 358
Stereo > Checkerboard . . . . 358
Stereo > Anaglyph . . . . 359
Stereo > Luminance Anaglyph . . . . 359
Stereo > Freeview (Parallel) . . . . 359
Stereo > Freeview (Crossed) . . . . 359
Stereo > Background Color . . . . 360
Stereo > Set Color Using Preferences . . . . 360
Renderer . . . . 360
Renderer > Default Quality Rendering . . . . 360
Renderer > High Quality Rendering . . . . 360
Renderer > <Custom Renderer> . . . . 362
Chapter 10
Rendering Windows and Editors
. . . . 363
Approximation Editor . . . . 363
mental ray Approximation Editor . . . . 363
Surface Approximation settings (Attribute Editor) . . . . 363
Render Layer Editor . . . . 367
Render Settings . . . . 376
Render Settings window . . . . 376
Render Settings: Common tab . . . . 377
Render Settings: Maya Software tab . . . . 388
Render Settings: mental ray tabs . . . . 404
Render Settings: Maya Hardware tab . . . . 454
Render Settings: Maya Vector tab . . . . 459
Create Render Passes window . . . . 470
Custom Stereo Rig Editor . . . . 471
Render View . . . . 472
Render View menu bar . . . . 472
Render View toolbar . . . . 478
Rendering Flags . . . . 482
Rendering Flags window . . . . 482
Hardware Render Buffer . . . . 484
Hardware Render Buffer window . . . . 484
Hardware Render Buffer global settings . . . . 486
Hardware Render Buffer menus . . . . 491
Chapter 11
Rendering nodes
. . . . 497
Render Layer attributes . . . . 497
Render Layer render attributes . . . . 497
Render pass nodes . . . . 501
Render pass Attribute Editor . . . . 501
Render pass set Attribute Editor . . . . 503
Render pass contribution map Attribute Editor . . . . 504
mental ray for Maya Dynamic Attributes for Rendering . . . . 504
Dynamic Attributes for Rendering . . . . 504
Transform node mental ray attributes . . . . 505
Transform node mental ray rendering attributes . . . . 505
Object-specific mental ray attributes - Attribute Editor . . . . 506
mental ray . . . . 506
Object-specific render attributes - Attribute Editor . . . . 511
Render Stats . . . . 511
Smooth Mesh Render . . . . 514
Vector Renderer Control . . . . 515
Texture Map . . . . 515
Tessellation . . . . 517
NURBS objects tessellation . . . . 517
Index
. . . . 519
About rendering and
renderers
Rendering
Introduction to rendering
Rendering is the final stage in the 3D computer graphics production process. Though the wider context of rendering begins with shading and texturing objects and lighting your scene, the rendering process ends when surfaces, materials, lights, and motion are processed into a final image or image sequence.
Visualization vs. the final render
As you build your scenes (shade and texture objects, light scenes, position cameras, and so on), you’ll want to visualize your scene many times before you produce the final rendered image or image sequence. This process may involve
1
(depending on your particular project) creating and setting up additional cameras.
Visualize a scene during early iterations to detect and correct image quality problems or to estimate and reduce the amount of time the final render takes before you spend time performing the final render.
When you are satisfied with the results of your scene during test renders, you can perform the final render.
You can visualize and final render a single frame, part of an animation (multiple frames), or an entire animation in Autodesk® Maya®.
The key to successful rendering
The key to rendering is finding a balance between the visual complexity required and the rendering speed that determines how many frames can be rendered in a given period of time.
Rendering involves a large number of complex calculations which can keep your computer busy for a long time. Rendering pulls data together from every sub-system within Maya and interprets its own data relevant to tessellation, texture mapping, shading, clipping, and lighting.
Producing rendered images always involves making choices that affect the quality (anti-aliasing and sampling) of the images, the speed with which the images are rendered, or both.
The highest quality images typically take the most time to render. The key to working efficiently is to produce good-enough quality images in as little time as possible in order to meet production deadlines. In other words, choose only the most economical values for options that let you produce images of acceptable quality for your particular project.
Hardware, software, and vector rendering
Software rendering
Software rendering produces images of the highest quality, letting you achieve the most sophisticated results.
Computation occurs on the CPU, as opposed to hardware rendering, which relies on the machine’s graphics card. Because it is not restricted by the computer's graphics card, software rendering generally is more flexible. The
trade-off, however, is that software rendering is generally more time consuming.
Exactly what you can render depends on which software renderer you use and its particular limitations.
Maya has the following software renderers: ■ The Maya software renderer
To find out about Maya’s software renderer, see Maya Software renderer
on page 4.
■ mental images® mental ray® for Maya®
To find out about mental ray for Maya, see About the mental ray for Maya renderer on page 173.
Hardware rendering
Hardware rendering uses the computer's video card and drivers installed on the machine to render images to disk. Hardware rendering is generally faster than software rendering, but typically produces images of lower quality compared to software rendering. In some cases, however, hardware rendering can produce results good enough for broadcast delivery.
Hardware rendering cannot produce some of the most sophisticated effects, such as some advanced shadows, reflections, and post-process effects. To produce these kind of effects, you must use software rendering.
Maya has the following hardware renderer: ■ The Maya hardware renderer
To find out Maya’s hardware renderer, Maya Hardware renderer on page 5.
NOTE
■ Maya displays a warning message if your video card is not qualified for hardware rendering, which can affect the display in the scene view (for example, Toon shading). In this case, shading in the scene view is what you get with non-High Quality rendering, or when not using the hardware renderer.
■ For information about the Hardware Render Buffer, see Hardware Render Buffer window on page 484.
Vector rendering
Vector rendering lets you create stylized renderings (for example, cartoon, tonal art, line art, hidden line, wireframe) in various bitmap image formats and 2D vector formats.
Maya has the following vector renderer: ■ The Maya vector renderer
To find out about Maya’s vector renderer, see Maya Vector renderer on page 8.
Renderers
Maya Software renderer
Maya’s software renderer is an advanced, multi-threaded renderer. It is based on a rendering technology that is built directly into Maya's dependency graph architecture, which means its feature nodes can be intimately connected with any other feature in Maya. It provides artists with an excellent general purpose rendering solution with very broad capabilities.
It is a hybrid renderer, offering true raytracing plus the speed advantages of a scan-line renderer. The Maya software renderer, while not slow, tends to favor quality and wide breadth of capability over raw speed.
The Maya software renderer supports all of the various entity types found within Maya including particles, various geometry and paint effects (as a post render process) and fluid effects. It also has a robust API for the addition of customer-programmed effects.
The Maya software renderer features IPR (Interactive Photo Realistic rendering), a tool designed to allow you to make interactive adjustments to the final rendered image, and which greatly enhances rendering productivity. Most importantly, the nature of Maya's integrated architecture allows complex interconnections, like procedural textures and ramps that govern particle emission and other unpredictable relationships that are capable of producing stunning visual effects.
Maya Hardware renderer
Maya’s hardware renderer presents a seamlessly integrated rendering solution that leverages the ever increasing power of next-generation graphics cards to render frames.
Benefits include an intuitive workflow to generate hardware rendered images for previews, specific passes, and hardware rendered particles. You can render and display images using the Render View, which lets you compare images during the shading and lighting tasks.
The user experience and the visual quality of the final images significantly surpass that of the Hardware Render Buffer window on page 484. You can produce broadcast-resolution images in less time than with software rendering. In some cases, the quality may be good enough for final delivery.
The hardware renderer uses Maya's existing interface and workflow for assigning shaders, textures, particles, light linking, and so on.
To prevent the windows of other applications from interfering with the rendering of the image, you can perform off-screen batch rendering.
Highlights of supported features
These features are processed natively on the graphics card to improve quality and speed in many cases.
Supported features include:
■ Display a layered texture and create multiple UV sets for each different texture
■ Negative light. Frame buffer format on page 455 must be set to floating point. Select RGBA: 16-bit float per channel from the drop down list in the Render Settings: Maya Hardware tab on page 454.
■ Displacement mapping ■ Direct input of normal maps ■ Shader translucency
■ Blinn shaders ■ Ramp shaders
■ Integrated rendering workflow and interface
■ Polygons and NURBS geometry ■ Multiple textured channels ■ Advanced transparency ■ Hardware particles ■ Instancing
■ Point, Directional, Spot, and Ambient Light types ■ Any number of lights
■ Light linking
■ Per-vertex and per-pixel shading effects ■ Multi-pass and multi-sampling anti-aliasing ■ File textures for any supported channel
■ On-the-fly procedural and shading network conversions ■ Specular highlights
■ Bumps ■ Reflections ■ Shadows ■ Motion blur
■ RBG color, alpha matte (mask), and Z depth output ■ Command line rendering
■ Render diagnostics, such as warnings for unsupported primitives, shaders, and light types and light features
Supported hardware and platforms
Only specific hardware and platform combinations are supported by hardware rendering. For more information, see:
http://www.autodesk.com/qual-charts
Limitations of the hardware renderer
■ The Maya hardware renderer does not support subdivision surfaces. ■ BOT files are not supported by the hardware renderer. BOT file textures
will be rendered black by the hardware renderer.
■ Hardware renderer does not support point light shadows. Shadows are not created for point lights when the hardware renderer is used.
■ When displaying mental ray area lights, the hardware renderer does not provide the same results as an actual render, but instead produces a very rough approximation that can be viewed in High Quality mode. The Maya hardware renderer supports the following configuration for mental ray area lights:
■ A Maya area light must be used.
■ Only the Rectangle mental ray area light shape is supported. ■ Basic light parameters such as Color, Intensity, Decay Rate are
supported.
■ An approximation of shadows is supported.
■ A fixed point sampling rate is used for both diffuse and specular highlights. Sampling artifacts may occur, especially for specular highlights where the area of the light is large and the light is close to the surface.
■ Other light shapes and options such as High Samples, High Sample Limit and Low Samples are not supported.
Light linking for instanced lights
Hardware rendering supports per light-instance light linking. For example, two instances of a light shape can have different light linking.
For a light instance to illuminate the scene, the light instance should be connected to a light linker node, either indirectly through a light set, or directly through a transform node or a shape node.
If the light shape node is connected to a light linker node, all the instances of the light shape are affected.
The Light Linking Editor does not support instance light linking, so making per-instance light linking must be done indirectly by using light sets.
For example, put light_instance1 and light_instance2 in separate light sets, and set light linking relationship of each of the light sets.
Breaking the light linking of a light_instance directly in the Light Linking Editor (as opposed to through lightset) operates on the light shape, resulting all the instances of the light shape breaking.
Maya Vector renderer
(Microsoft® Windows® 32-bit and Apple® Mac OS® X)
You can use the Maya Vector renderer to create stylized renderings (for example, cartoon, tonal art, line art, hidden line, wireframe) in various bitmap image formats (for example, IFF, TIFF, and so on) or in the following 2D vector formats:
■ Adobe® Flash® (non-interactive) version 3, 4 or 5 (SWF)
■ Adobe® Illustrator® version 8 (AI)
■ Encapsulated PostScript Level 2 (EPS) ■ Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
To select the Maya Vector renderer, see Select a renderer on page 11. To set options for the Maya Vector renderer, see Render Settings window on page 376.
Example Animations
flowers.swf helicopter.swf
Example Animations
car.swf boat.swf
NOTE
■ The Maya Vector renderer cannot render certain Maya features (see Maya features that do not vector render on page 10).
■ If you are rendering SWF or SVG files for online delivery make sure you read Strategies to decrease vector render file size on page 165. Otherwise you may create files that are too large for online delivery.
■ Due to some limitations in technology, (upon which the vector renderer is based), increasing the resolution in the Render Settings does not necessarily produce better results.
Maya features that do not vector render
The Maya Vector renderer cannot render the following Maya features. Notes
Maya Feature
Not rendered. Bump maps
Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert > Displacement to Polygons to convert dis-placement maps to polygons for rendering. Displacement maps
Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert > Fluid to Polygons to convert fluid effects to polygons for rendering.
Maya® Fluid Effects™
Not rendered. Image planes
Only point lights are used during render-ing. Only the following light attributes are Lights
considered during rendering: light loca-tion, light color, Emit Specular, Use Depth Map Shadows, Use Ray Trace Shadows. Not rendered.
Maya® Fur™
Not rendered. Multiple UVs
Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert > Paint Effects to Polygons to convert paint effects to polygons for rendering. Maya® Paint Effects™
Some Paint Effects may not render as ex-pected. Many Paint Effects brushes use a transparency texture on a single polygon to achieve an effect (for example, the out-line of a leaf). However, the Maya Vector renderer only supports per object transpar-ency.
Not rendered. Particles
Notes Maya Feature
Not rendered. (Post-render effects include motion blur, fog, glows, and so on.) Post-render effects
Anisotropic, Lambert, Blinn, Phong and Phong E shaders should produce expected Shaders
results. Other Maya shaders may produce unexpected results.mental ray shaders and custom shaders are not rendered.Multiple shaders assigned to a single NURBS or subdivision surface are not rendered. Texture rendering is limited by the Fill Style and the number of polygons. Fill styles that Textures
fill individual polygons (Full Color and Mesh Gradient) render textures more ac-curately than other fill styles, and models that contain more polygons render textures more accurately than models with fewer polygons.
By Frame is ignored in Vector rendered fi-lenames
By Frame
mental ray for Maya renderer
For information regarding the mental ray for Maya renderer, see About the mental ray for Maya renderer on page 173.
Select a renderer
To find out more about Maya renderers, see the following: ■ Maya Software renderer on page 4
■ Maya Hardware renderer on page 5 ■ Maya Vector renderer on page 8
■ mental ray for Maya renderer on page 11
When you select a renderer, Maya’s user interface is automatically configured to use the renderer. For example, if you render the current frame, Maya uses the renderer to process the image and display it in the Render View. Or, if you press the Display Render Settings window button, the Render Settings window
on page 376 appears, showing the Common tab and tab that corresponds to the selected renderer.
To choose the renderer 1 Do one of the following:
■ Click Render > Render Using, then choose the renderer.
■ Select the renderer from the drop-down list in Render View (Window > Rendering Editors > Render View).
■ Select the renderer from the drop-down list in the Render Settings window on page 376.
NOTE
The mental ray renderer and the Maya Vector renderer are plug-ins that are loaded by default. If you do not see them listed in Render > Render Using, choose Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager and make sure the Mayatomr and, or VectorRender plug-ins are loaded.
To specify the default renderer
1 Click Window > Settings/ Preferences > Preferences.
2 Select the Rendering category, then set the Preferred Renderer option.
Camera set up
Cameras
Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras
Whenever you look at your scene in Maya, whether you are building your scene or ready to render images, you are looking through a camera. Think of it as being a director on a movie set and looking through a camera lens. Your field of view is restricted to what you can see through that lens.
By default, Maya has four cameras that let you view your scene in a panel: the perspective camera and the three orthographic cameras (side, top, front) that correspond to the default scene views. You look through these cameras (panels) as you model, animate, shade, and texture objects. (For more information about views, see Main window in the Basics guide.)
Typically, you don’t use these default cameras to render a scene; you create one or more perspective cameras from which to render. The only difference between a rendering camera and any other camera through which you can view your scene is a flag that allows it to render the scene.
For more information on the kind of cameras you can create, see Maya camera types on page 14.
To create a camera, see Create a camera on page 22.
2
Maya camera types
Maya cameras have certain advantages over real world cameras, giving you more creative freedom. For example, because Maya cameras are not restricted by size or weight, you can move cameras to any position in your scene, even inside the smallest objects.
Static and animated cameras
Three types of cameras help you create both static and animated scenes: ■ Use a Basic camera for static scenes and for simple animations (up, down,
side to side, in and out), such as panning out of a scene. See Create > Cameras > Camera on page 313 for more details.
■ Use a Camera and Aim camera for slightly more complex animations (along a path, for example), such as a camera that follows the erratic path of a bird. See Create > Cameras > Camera and Aim on page 317 to set its options. ■ Use a Camera, Aim, and Up camera to specify which end of the camera
must face upward. This camera is best for complex animations, such as a camera that travels along a looping roller coaster. See Create > Cameras > Camera, Aim, and Up on page 317 to set its options.
Stereoscopic Camera
Use stereoscopic cameras to create scenes that you want a three-dimensional effect. Camera rigs can also be customized by using MEL or Python scripting or using the Custom Stereo Rig Tool. See Custom Stereo Rig Editor on page 471 to set it options.
Motion blur and depth of field
Focus and blur
The process of recording what you see through a real-world camera is simple: you press the button that opens the shutter, which lets light through the aperture, which in turn exposes the film to light, recording what you see. A camera’s exposure settings determine depth of field (the region of sharp focus), and whether or not subject matter is crisp or blurred by motion. Especially if you using photography based images in your scene (such as live action footage), you may need to work with some camera settings. You set these and other settings, such as the film back or focal length, in:
■ The selected camera’s Attribute Editor. See Adjust a camera’s attributes on page 22.
■ As options for a camera as you create it. See Create > Cameras > Camera
on page 313.
fStop (aperture) and shutter speed/angle
In real-world photography, together the fStop and shutter speed (or shutter angle for film cameras) determine how much light is exposed to film. However, fStop and shutter speed also determine what is in focus, to a certain extent, but for very different reasons.
The length of time light is allowed to pass through the camera lens to the film is determined by the shutter speed. The higher the speed, the shorter the exposure time, the less light exposed to the film.
The amount of light that is allowed to pass through the camera lens to the film is determined by the camera’s aperture setting (also known as the fStop). The wider the aperture, the more light exposed to the film.
NOTE A still camera’s shutter speed performs the same function as a film camera’s
shutter angle. The shutter angle is a metal disk that is missing a pie-shaped section.
This disk sits between the lens and the film, and rotates at a constant rate. When the missing section is in front of the film, it allows light from the lens to pass through and expose the film.
The larger the angle of the pie-shaped section, the longer the exposure time, and moving objects appear more blurry. For more information, see Shutter Angle on page 353.
Shutter speed/angle determines motion blur
Motion blur gives the feeling of motion. Motion blur is determined by the shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed (sometimes deliberately done), the harder motion is to stop. That is, fast motion (such as a moving car) appears motion blurred at slower shutter speeds. At higher speeds, the moving car is ‘stopped’ and therefore in focus.
To set motion blur in Maya, see Motion blur on page 16.
For information on mental ray for Maya’s motion blur, see mental ray for Maya motion blur on page 180.
Aperture determines Depth of Field (DOF)
Depth of field is the region of sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field is determined by the camera’s aperture setting. At wide aperture settings (for example, at fStop f/2), the depth of field is shallow, and more of the foreground and background (that brackets the area in sharp focus) is out of focus. At narrow aperture settings (for example, at fStop f/22), the depth of field is deep, and more of the foreground and background is in focus.
To adjust a camera’s fStop to affect the depth of field, see Adjust depth of field
on page 25.
Motion blur
Motion blur can be turned on and off on a per-object basis. If some surfaces in the scene don’t move, or move only slightly, do not motion blur them. Being selective about what you motion blur can decrease rendering times. (See also 2D Motion Blur global attributes information about 2D motion blur.)
Related topics
■ mental ray for Maya motion blur on page 180
Framing objects with a camera
Camera aim
Aim a camera to frame objects in your scene.
To look through a camera, see Select the current scene view’s camera on page 26.
To frame your scene in other ways, see Move a camera to another location on page 27.
Camera tools
Camera tools let you reposition the camera in different ways.
Tumble
Revolves the camera around a center of interest (such as a particular object), or the camera’s pivot point (which, by default, is the center).
To adjust the way in which the Tumble tool works, see View > Camera Tools
on page 354.
Track
Slides the camera horizontally or vertically in space.
To adjust the way in which the Track tool works, see View > Camera Tools on page 354.
Dolly
Moves the camera into the view, or backs the camera out of the view. When you use the Dolly tool, you change the perspective; that is, objects far from the camera change in relative size at a slower rate than objects which are close to the camera. Compare to Zoom (see Zoom on page 18).
You can use the Dolly tool in a perspective view or an orthographic view. To adjust the way in which the Dolly tool works, see View > Camera Tools on page 354.
TIP You can also use platform-specific keyboard combinations for most camera tools. See Selection, tools, and actions in the Basics guide for details.
Zoom
Changes the focal length (viewing angle) on the camera. The Zoom tool does not change perspective like the Dolly tool does; all objects in the frame change size at the same rate. The camera doesn’t move, but the effect is similar. To move in or out of the view without changing the viewing angle, see Dolly. To adjust the way in which the Zoom tool works, see View > Camera Tools
on page 354.
Roll
Rotates the camera around its horizontal axis, down the barrel of the lens. To adjust the way in which the Roll tool works, see View > Camera Tools on page 354.
Azimuth Elevation
Revolves the camera around a point of interest in perspective view only. The angle of a camera’s sight line relative to the ground plane is called its elevation; the angle of a camera’s sight line relative to a plane perpendicular to the ground plane is called its azimuth.
To adjust the way in which the Azimuth Elevation tool works, see View > Camera Tools on page 354.
Yaw-Pitch
Points the camera up or down (pitch, also called tilt), or left or right (yaw, also
called pan) without moving the camera. The scene in the camera’s view appears to move in the opposite direction.
To move the camera up or down or side to side, use the Track tool.
To adjust the way in which the Yaw-Pitch tool works, see View > Camera Tools
on page 354.
Fly
Flies the camera through the scene with no constraints. The Fly Tool lets you navigate your scene as if you were playing a 3D first-person perspective game. To use the Fly Tool, Ctrl+drag up to fly forward and down to fly backward. To change the camera direction, release the Ctrl key and drag.
TIP Tumble, track, and dolly are available while the Fly Tool is active.
Angle of view (focal length)
For every shot, you decide how big an object appears in the frame. For example, should a shot include an entire character or just its head and shoulders? There are two ways to make an object larger in the frame. You can either move the camera closer to the object (see Dolly on page 17) or adjust the lens to a longer focal length (see Zoom on page 18).
The focal length of a lens is the distance from the center of the lens to the film plane. The shorter the focal length, the closer the focal plane is to the back of the lens.
Lenses are identified by their focal length. Focal length is expressed in millimeters or, on occasion, in inches (1 inch is approximately 25mm).
The object’s size in the frame is directly proportional to the focal length. If you double the focal length (keeping the distance from the camera to the object constant), the subject appears twice as large in the frame. The size of the object in the frame is inversely proportional to the object’s distance from the camera. If you double the distance, you reduce the size of the object by half in the frame.
Angle of view
As you adjust the camera’s focal length, the angle of view narrows and expands. This is what causes objects to get larger or smaller in the frame. As you extend the focal length, the angle of view gets narrower. As you shorten the focal length, the angle of view gets larger.
Safe display regions for TV production
You can display a guideline that indicates a region within which you should keep all action or text if you plan to display the rendered images on a television screen. Action and text within these guidelines is visible on every television. Different TV manufacturers use different tubes and put them in different boxes, so there’s a difference in what gets displayed; safe action and text region are broadcast standards that assure action or text (respectively) is visible. Safe text is 80% of the screen because the sensitivity to logotypes (fonts) is much higher than the sensitivity to objects moving; that is, at the 10% edge of the tube, text appears warped. Safe action is 90%.
To turn the safe action or safe title border on or off, see Turn scene view guidelines on or off on page 24.
Safe action
The safe action view guide represents 90% of the rendering resolution (the resolution gate).
Safe Title
The safe title view guide represents 80% of the rendering resolution (the Resolution Gate). For example, in this image, the title DANCER does not fit within the Safe Title area. Track the scene until the title fits within the border.
Clipping planes
Near and far clipping planes are imaginary planes located at two particular distances from the camera along the camera’s sight line. Only objects between a camera’s two clipping planes are rendered in that camera’s view. Any parts of objects in the scene closer to the camera than the near clipping plane, or farther from the camera than the far clipping plane, are not rendered.
If part of an object is in front of the near clipping plane, then only the part of the object beyond the near clipping plane is rendered. If part of an object
is beyond the far clipping plane, the entire object is rendered, including the part beyond the far clipping plane.
A completely opaque object which is behind the far clipping plane is clipped. If that object’s transparency is greater than 0, the part behind the far clipping plane is clipped.
NOTE For Maya software rendering, if refractions are toggled on, an object that intersects the far clipping plane is not clipped regardless of the transparency value.
Create and use a camera
Create a camera
To learn more about Maya cameras, see Maya camera types on page 14. To create a new camera
1 Select Create > Cameras > camera type > , where Type is the type of camera.
To find out about the type of cameras, see Maya camera types on page 14.
The Create Camera Options window appears.
NOTE If you’ve previously set the options for the type of Camera you want to create, you can just select the camera type; you don’t have to set its options each time.
2 Set the camera options, then click Create.
For a description of the camera options, see Create > Cameras > Camera
on page 313.
Adjust a camera’s attributes
A camera’s attributes describe various properties of the camera, including angle of view, focal length, and depth of field.
To adjust a camera’s attributes
1 Select the camera. To select a camera, see Select the current scene view’s camera on page 26.
The camera’s Attribute Editor appears (unless it’s been hidden). If it does not, click View > Camera Attribute Editor....
2 Set attributes.
For a description of the attributes, see View > Camera Attribute Editor on page 345.
Make an existing camera renderable
By default, your scene has only one renderable camera (the original perspective camera) that can render all objects in your scene.
If you add another camera to your scene and want to make it renderable (or you would like to make one of the existing cameras renderable), you must set the camera to renderable. You can have multiple renderable cameras. Set your list of renderable cameras in the Render Settings window (Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings).
To make a camera renderable
1 Open the Render Settings window by selecting Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.
2 Click on the Common Tab and locate the Renderable Cameras section. 3 To set another renderable camera, select Add Renderable Camera from
the drop-down list. A new Renderable Camera section appears. Select from the drop-down list the additional camera that you would like to make renderable. Repeat until all of the cameras that you wish to make renderable are displayed.
4 To make a camera unrenderable, click the beside the camera name. This will remove it from the list of renderable cameras but not delete the camera from the scene.
See Renderable Cameras on page 382 for more information regarding the Renderable Cameras option.
NOTE
■ Advanced users can turn off the Renderable attribute in the Output Settings section of the Attribute Editor for the cameras you do not want to render from.
■ For Maya software rendering, you can also select a camera (or several cameras) to render from when you render from a shell or command line. Use Render and the ?cam option. See Render from a command line on page 53 for information about command line rendering.
Turn scene view guidelines on or off
You can turn view guidelines on or off so that you can correctly determine safety boundaries for certain types of information: safe action and text for TV broadcasts, or render borders.
TIP You can display several view guides at the same time by opening the camera’s Attribute Editor (View > Camera Attribute Editor...), and turning on options in the Display Options section.
To learn more about the safe action and safe title border or the resolution gate, see Safe display regions for TV production on page 20.
To turn the safe action border on or off
1 Click View > Camera Settings > Safe Action. To turn the safe title border on or off
1 Click View > Camera Settings > Safe Title. To display the Resolution Gate view guide
1 Select View > Camera Settings > Resolution Gate from the view’s menu bar.
The resolution gate and the resolution values appear.
Adjust depth of field
You can view the calculated distance of the camera from the object and apply that value to the Focus Distance for the camera to achieve Depth of Field effects in the Camera’s Attribute Editor.
For information on depth of field, see Focus and blur on page 15. NOTE
■ To create an image that has wider depth of field (more area in front of and behind the subject that is in focus) use high fStop values, such as f16, f22, f32. To achieve narrow depth of field (less area in front and behind the subject that is in focus) use low fStop values such as f2.8, f4 or f5.6. For more information on fStops, see fStop (aperture) and shutter speed/angle
on page 15.
■ Depending on the fStop and Focus Region Scale values, parts of the object may or may not be in focus.
To ensure the center of an object is in focus for Depth of Field 1 Select the object in the view.
2 Make sure Object Details is turned on in the Heads Up Display menu. (Object Details is on by default). Notice the Distance from Camera value. 3 Use the Distance from Camera value as the Focus Distance value in the
Depth of Field section for the current Camera.
If you select multiple objects, Maya uses the center of their bounding box to calculate the distance from the camera.
Camera limitations
Look Through Selected
Look Through Selected can produce unexpected results if the camera is duplicated, or the scene is saved.
Manipulator undo and two- or three-node cameras
Manipulator undo does not work for two- or three-node cameras.
Problems if camera not proportionally scaled
Problems exist if the camera is not proportionally scaled. The view and render will be skewed and manipulation may result in odd behavior.
Look through (select) a camera
Select the current scene view’s camera
Select the current scene view’s camera to show the camera’s Attribute Editor (unless it’s been hidden) or to aim the camera while you are looking through it. For more information about scene views, which are in fact cameras, see Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras on page 13.
To select the current view’s camera
1 In the view, click View > Select Camera.
Look through another camera
If you have more than one camera, you can switch the camera with which you are viewing the scene to another one.
To look through a camera 1 Do one of the following:
■ To look through a camera that is selected, click Panels > Look Through Selected.
■ To look through another camera, click Panels, then select the camera name from either the Perspective or Orthographic submenus.
Frame your scene
Move a camera to another location
You can display a camera as an object in a view and use the standard manipulators to move it. This is like holding a camera through which you are
not looking and moving it from one place to another (from a bag to a table
for example); your hands are the manipulator. Moving a camera this way is particularly useful if you want to see the camera’s path or adjust frustum or clipping planes, for example.
To move a camera while looking through it, see Aim a camera on page 27. To move a camera
1 Select the camera, then use the Move tool. For more information on the Move tool, see the Basics book.
Aim a camera
You can aim the current view’s camera with camera tools. Aiming is like holding the camera up to your eye, then pointing up, down, or moving yourself around your subject matter to frame objects in the scene.
To move a camera through which you are not looking, see Move a camera to another location on page 27.
To use a camera tool
1 In the view, do one of the following:
■ Click View > Camera Tools, select the tool you want to use, then drag the cursor to use the tool.
■ Click View > Camera Tools > , set the options, then click close. ■ For a description of the tool settings, see View > Camera Tools on
page 354.
■ TIP
■ You can use the keyboard combinations to Tumble, Track, and Dolly the camera. See Selection, tools, and actions in the Basics guide for details.
■ If you change the default settings in the camera tool options windows, remember to press the Reset Tool button to reset the tool defaults for the next operation.
■ Select View > Default Home if you zoom and tumble the view repeatedly and then need to see the default camera’s view.
TIP If you want to aim your camera down a curve path, you can attach your camera to the curve by following these steps:
1 Create Camera and Aim. The camera's hierarchy should consist of the following nodes: camera_group, camera, and camera_aim. 2 Create 2 locators. Move the locators so that the first locator is at the same location as the camera and the second locator is at the same location as the camera's aim.
3 Parent camera_group under first locator. 4 Parent camera_aim under second locator.
5 Select the first locator and the curve and create a Motion Path by selecting Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path>
. In the Attach to Motion Path Options window, select Z as the Front Axis. Make sure that Follow and Bank are checked; then, click Attach.
6 Parent the second locator under the first locator.
7 Turn on Snap to Curve and then Ctrl-drag the second locator to the curve. The locator should snap to the curve.
8 Play the animation. The camera should stay aimed down the curve path. If the camera is moving backwards along the curve, try moving the locator to the other side of the curve.
Look at selected objects
To look at selected objects
1 Select View > Look At Selection.
2 The camera moves to show selected objects in the center of the camera’s view.
