Rendering

Rendering
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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
v
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
vi | Contents
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
Contents | vii
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
viii | Contents
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
Contents | ix
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
x | Contents
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
Contents | xi
Change the set of slaves used for mental ray for Maya renders
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
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
xii | Contents
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
Contents | xiii
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
xiv | Contents
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
Contents | xv
xvi
About rendering and
renderers 1
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
2 | Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers

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.
Hardware, software, and vector rendering | 3

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
Maya Hardware renderer | 5

■ 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.
Maya Hardware renderer | 7

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
helicopter.swf flowers.swf

Example Animations
boat.swf car.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 Vector renderer | 9

Maya features that do not vector render
The Maya Vector renderer cannot render the following Maya features.
Maya Feature Notes
Bump maps Not rendered.
Displacement maps Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert >

Displacement to Polygons to convert dis-
placement maps to polygons for rendering.
Maya® Fluid Effects™ Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert >
Fluid to Polygons to convert fluid effects
to polygons for rendering.
Image planes Not rendered.
Lights Only point lights are used during render-

ing. Only the following light attributes are
considered during rendering: light loca-
tion, light color, Emit Specular, Use Depth
Map Shadows, Use Ray Trace Shadows.
Maya® Fur™ Not rendered.
Multiple UVs Not rendered.
Maya® Paint Effects™ Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert >
Paint Effects to Polygons to convert paint
effects to polygons for rendering.
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.
Particles Not rendered.

Maya Feature Notes
Post-render effects Not rendered. (Post-render effects include

motion blur, fog, glows, and so on.)
Shaders Anisotropic, Lambert, Blinn, Phong and

Phong E shaders should produce expected
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.
Textures Texture rendering is limited by the Fill Style

and the number of polygons. Fill styles that
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 By Frame is ignored in Vector rendered fi-

lenames
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 | 11

■ 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
2
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.
13
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.
14 | Chapter 2 Camera set up

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.
Motion blur and depth of field | 15

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).
Framing objects with a camera | 17

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 (focal length) | 19

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
Clipping planes | 21
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.
Make an existing camera renderable | 23

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.
Adjust depth of field | 25

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

■ 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.
Frame your scene | 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.
Frame your scene | 29

Frame selected objects
To look at and fill the view with selected objects
1 Select View > Frame Selection (or press the hotkey f).
2 The camera moves to fill the camera’s view with selected objects.
Frame all objects

To look at and fill the view with all objects in a scene
1 Select View > Frame All (or press the hotkey a).
2 The camera moves to fill the camera’s view with all objects in the scene
(including lights and cameras, if their icons are displayed in the view).
NOTE View fit may have problems with some joints, where it will zoom out
too far.
Frame part of a scene

To look at and fill the view with a region of a scene
1 Ctrl+Alt+drag over the region.
2 The camera moves to fill the camera’s view with the selected region.
Save sequential camera movements

You can write all camera movements to the Script Editor to let you undo or
redo camera movements or copy camera movements to use them for other
cameras or scenes.
To save camera movements to the Script Editor
1 In the view panel, select View > Camera Settings > Undoable Movement.

Troubleshoot Resolution Gate and Film Gate
display incorrectly
Resolution Gate and Film Gate may not correctly display with non-standard
Film Fit Offsets, when Film Fit is set to Vertical or Fill.
Workaround: The Horizontal setting works correctly.
Using a stereoscopic camera
With the stereo plug-in you can create three dimensional renders with the
illusion of a three dimensional depth of field.When rendering a stereoscopic
scene, Maya takes into account all of the stereoscopic camera attributes, and
performs calculations to produce an anaglyph or parallel image that can be
composited by another program.
In this section you will learn how to:
■ Create a stereoscopic camera on page 32
■ Edit the anaglyph attributes of a stereoscopic camera on page 33
■ Render a scene with stereoscopic camera on page 34
■ Create a custom rig on page 34.
Using a stereoscopic camera | 31

Create a stereoscopic camera
1 In this scene there are 3 NURBS Primitives, a cube, a cone and a sphere.
2 From the main menu bar, select Create > Cameras > Stereo Camera.
An icon with three cameras appear, indicating that a stereo camera has
been created.
TIP It is best to set up the scene first with your objects, then create a
stereoscopic camera.
3 Select the middle camera of the stereoRig.

The middle camera of the rig affects the left and right camera attributes
that impact the anaglyph effect for the left and right eye.
4 In the Transform node, rename the stereoCamera to exampleCamera.
5 Select the left and right cameras and rename them to exampleCameraLeft
and exampleCameraRight.
6 In the viewport menu, select Panels > Stereo > exampleCamera.

The viewport switches to stereo mode and you are viewing the scene
changes to the stereo camera’s viewpoint. The Stereo menu appears in
the Viewport menu. From the Stereo menu you can choose among
different types of 3-D simulations, for example Horizontal Interlace,
Checkerboard and Freeview (Crossed). These views are dependent upon
specific hardware settings. In this example we will work with Anaglyph.
7 Move and rotate the camera so that you can view the Nurbs objects in
the viewport.
NOTE You may want to change your background color by selecting Stereo >
Background color to have a better view in stereo mode.
You have now created and named a stereoscopic camera for your scene. In
the next steps you will be adjusting the attributes of the cameras to fine tune
the anaglyph effect.

Edit the anaglyph attributes of a stereoscopic
camera
Use the Interaxial Separation and Zero Parallax settings to adjust the anaglyph
effect.
1 In the viewport select Stereo > Anaglyph.

The scene changes to the anaglyph perspective view.
2 In the Outliner double click on exampleCamera.
3 In the Attribute Editor under the Stereo section heading, set Interaxial
Separation to 0.
The red and cyan imaging of the grid and the Nurbs objects are
nowmerged.
NOTE You need colored anaglyph or red and cyan glasses to view the 3-D
effect.
4 Slowly move the Interaxial Separation slider to the right.

The 3-D depth of field effect starts to appear as the left and right camera
move away from the center camera. You can adjust the focus of objects
in the background by adjusting the Zero Parallax. If you move the slider
too far the effect will not appear correct due to the left and right camera
being too far apart.
You have now created a simple anaglyph effect with a stereoscopic camera.
Now you can render out the images from each camera.
Related topics
■ View > Camera Attribute Editor on page 345
■ Stereo on page 358
■ Render View menu bar on page 472
Edit the anaglyph attributes of a stereoscopic camera | 33

Render a scene with stereoscopic camera
When rendering out a scene with a stereoscopic camera, Maya renders out
the individual left and right camera images. The images have to be composited
in order to apply the desired stereo effect.
1 Open the Render View window by selecting Window > Rendering Editors
> Render View.
2 In the Render View window select Render > Render >

<exampleCamera.exampleCamera>
You have now selected your stereo camera for rendering
3 To view your render output in other stereo modes select Display > Stereo
Display
Create a custom rig
There are two ways you can add a custom rig camera to a scene.
■ Method 1: Write a rig creation method using a MEL or Python script and
register the rig in Maya. This is the preferred method.
■ Method 2: Edit an existing rig to be recognizable by Maya.
Method 1
Writing a MEL or Python script procedure
1 Create your custom rig by writing a MEL/Python Script.
TIP It is best to create a rig using Python scripting.
2 Describe the hierarchy of your camera rig and define the relationship of
the your center, left and right cameras.

All your rig nodes must be parented under one camera, directly or through
any number of transforms. This camera serves as the root of your rig, and
as the center camera. It is not possible to use instancing inside the rig
structure.
The creation procedure should take no arguments, and must return an
array of three strings. The first is the root node of the rig, and the second
and third are the left and right cameras, respectively.
See StereoRig Manager in the Commands documentation for examples:

stereoRigManager in the Command documentation
Registering your custom rig
1 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Custom Stereo Rig Editor
The Custom Stereo Rig Editor window appears.
2 In the Register a new rig section, select a name for your custom rig. Select
the language that you used to create your custom rig, either Python or
MEL. Enter the Python or MEL procedure that you want to use to create
your custom rig, for example:
maya.app.stereo.stereoCameraComplexRig.createRig.
3 Click Add New Rig.

You can now access your custom rig in by selecting Panels > Stereo > New
Stereo Camera (<Your custom rig>).
NOTE You can also register your custom rig by using the stereoRigManager
command. Refer to the stereoRigManager commands documentation for
examples on how to register a custom rig, query the default rig, or delete a
rig using this command.
Create a custom rig | 35

Source code examples
Maya ships with a default stereo rig enabled. The source code is available in
the python module: …\Python\Lib\site-packages\maya\app\stereo. Within
this directory, you can also find the following code examples:
■ stereoCameraDefaultRig.py is the procedure used to create default Maya

rigs.
■ stereoCameraComplexRig.py creates a more complex rig, using 3 pairs of

cameras.
■ stereoCameraHierarchicalRig.py creates a similar setup as

stereoCameraComplexRig, using 3 copies of Maya default rig, parented
under another camera.
…\scripts\others\stereoCameraSimpleRig.mel creates the simplest rig, where

a camera is used for both the right and center eye. A left camera is parented
underneath.
These scripts are used in the stereoRigManager example.
Method 2
Making an existing rig Maya compliant
If you have an existing rig, or if you need to create a rig outside of Maya, you
can make an existing rig compliant with Maya’s requirements. However, all
cameras must be parented under a common transform, called the rig root.
Call this Python code:
import maya.cmds as cmds
from maya.app.stereo import stereoCameraRig
# Make sure the stereo plug-in is loaded

cmds.loadPlugin("stereoCamera", quiet=True)
stereoCameraRig.makeStereoCameraRig(rigRoot, rigTypeName, leftCam,
rightCam)
where rigRoot, leftCam and rightCam are the names of the root transform,
and the left and right camera pair. rigNameType is a user defined string used
to identify the rig type.

Change the default left and right camera pair
If you have a rig with multiple left and right camera pairs, you can change
the default left and right pair, used for interactive display.
Call this Python code:
import maya.cmds as cmds
from maya.app.stereo import stereoCameraRig
# Make sure the stereo plug-in is loaded
cmds.loadPlugin("stereoCamera", quiet=True)
stereoCameraRig.setStereoPair(rigRoot, leftCam, rightCam)
Create a custom rig | 37

38
Tessellation and
Approximation 3
Tessellation and approximation
Introduction to Tessellation and Approximation
Tessellation (called approximation in mental ray for Maya) is the process

renderers use to convert NURBS surfaces (or displacement mapped polygon
meshes) to triangles. Triangles determine how smooth an object looks at closer
distances to you (the camera). When poorly tessellated objects are close to the
camera, they appear faceted; when they are further away, they don’t.
When to adjust tessellation
Because (most) renderers can only render triangles, tessellation is a necessary

and automatic step that occurs at render time. However, you need to adjust
tessellation settings when objects aren’t smooth enough, which typically happens
as objects come close to the camera or if objects are displacement mapped.
39
Tessellation settings determine how many triangles are used, where the
triangles are concentrated, and what size they are. Numerous and concentrated
triangles increase the memory requirements (which in turn decrease
performance) of the renderer, so you must adjust tessellation settings to strike
a balance between smooth edges (quality) on objects that are closer to the
camera and renderer performance (the time it takes to render).
Tessellation strategy always is to adjust the settings, per-object (not globally),
only high enough to achieve a smooth surface. Distant and less-important
objects can have lower tessellation settings than objects closer to the camera.
Related topics
■ Approximation on page 181
■ Create an approximation node on page 203
Maya tessellation
Primary vs. secondary tessellation passes

Primary tessellation is a first pass through the geometry that creates a specific
number of triangles in the U and V directions of the surface; it places triangles
evenly all over the surface, regardless of curviness or displacement.
Secondary tessellation (also called Adaptive tessellation) is a second pass that
creates more triangles only where needed.
With Maya software rendering and hardware, you can set basic and advanced
tessellation settings.
Basic tessellation (for novice users) performs both primary and secondary
tessellation, in the following ways:
■ curvature tolerance affects the chord height ratio of the secondary attributes
■ u/v divisions affects the number U/V, and uses per-span # of isoparms
If basic tessellation doesn’t provide you with the required results, choose
advanced tessellation, and make adjustments accordingly.
40 | Chapter 3 Tessellation and Approximation

NURBS surface, poly, and subD tessellation
You don’t need to adjust tessellation for polygon meshes or subdivision surfaces
unless those surfaces are displacement mapped.
A NURBS surface is composed of one or more patches. (For more information
on NURBS surfaces see Degree of NURBS curves and surfaces in the NURBS
Modeling guide.) During rendering, each patch is divided into an appropriate
number of triangles to approximate the true shape of the surface.
You can set NURBS tessellation on all or selected objects (see Render > Set
NURBS Tessellation on page 327), or on an individual basis by selecting an
object and adjusting the settings in the object’s Attribute Editor.
Tessellate NURBS surfaces
View Maya tessellation settings for an object

See Primary vs. secondary tessellation passes on page 40 for information on
Maya’s default tessellation settings.
To view Maya tessellation settings for an object
1 Select the object whose tessellation settings you want to view.
2 Open the Attribute Editor (CTRL+a).
3 Click the shape tab (for example, nurbsSphereShape1).

The shape node’s attributes appear.
4 Expand the Tessellation section.
Tessellate NURBS surfaces | 41

Adjust NURBS tessellation settings
NOTE Some of the advanced tessellation parameters can dramatically increase
rendering times.
Because the tessellation of NURBS surfaces has nothing to do with the material
assigned to the surface (unless the surface is displacement mapped), you can
start adjusting tessellation early in the process, anytime after the object is
modeled.
To adjust tessellation on NURBS objects
1 Determine which objects in the scene you have to adjust tessellation

settings.
See Determine which objects to tessellate on page 43.
2 Display the tessellation triangles so you can visualize your adjustments.

See Display NURBS tessellation triangles on page 43.
3 Select the object(s) for which you want to adjust tessellation.

If you want to apply settings to All surfaces, skip this step.
4 Select Render > Set NURBS Tessellation > to open the Set NURBS
Tessellation Options window.
5 Choose either Selected Surfaces or All surfaces (see Selected Surfaces, All
Surfaces).
6 Switch the Tessellation Mode from Automatic (default) on page 328 to

Manual on page 328.
(You can also adjust some of the Automatic tessellation settings to
optimize the default settings. See Automatic Mode settings on page 328.)
7 Select either Basic on page 330 or Advanced on page 330 tesselation.

Always start with the Basic settings. Basic lets you adjust a smaller number
of settings that automatically determine some of the more advanced
settings.
NOTE Some of the advanced tessellation parameters can dramatically increase

rendering times, so choose them wisely.
8 Test render to see the results.

Fine-tune the adjustments you’ve just set until you reach an adequate
level of smoothness.
TIP To prevent overtessellation of objects, use the Use Smooth Edge on page
330attribute in the Render > Set NURBS Tessellation on page 327 window to
increase tessellation only along the edge of the object.
Determine which objects to tessellate

What models are going to be used are usually determined during the
pre-production phase of a project. Based on storyboards, you will know their
positions in the scene and distance to the camera.
Determine which objects never get close to the camera and which ones either
are (for static images) or do (for animated objects).
■ If an object is far from the camera at all times, decrease the default settings.
■ If the object is middle distance away from the camera, leave the default
settings.
■ If the object gets close to the camera at some point during the scene,
increase the tessellation settings a little more, but only enough to achieve
an acceptable level of smoothness.
Display NURBS tessellation triangles

To display tessellation triangles
1 Select the NURBS surface(s) you want to see.
2 In the Tessellation section of the NURBS object’s Attribute Editor, turn

on Display Render Tessellation.
Determine which objects to tessellate | 43

Use span-based tessellation
To use span-based tessellation
1 In the Tessellation section of the surface’s Attribute Editor, turn on Enable

Advanced Tessellation and set Mode U and Mode V to Per Span # of
Isoparms. Guidelines are as follows:
To use span-based tessellation
1 Turn on Smooth Edge. Open the Common Tesselation Options section

of the Attribute Editor to access the Smooth Edge check box.
Tessellate polygonal surfaces
Adjust polygonal tessellation

To set polygonal tessellation
1 Select the polygonal object for which you want to set tessellation.
2 Click Window > Attribute Editor, in Tessellation Attributes section to

adjust the attributes.
Tessellate subdivision surfaces
Display subdivision surface tessellation triangles

To see subdivision surface tessellation triangles
1 Select the object.
2 Click Modify > Convert > Subdiv to Polygons to convert the subdivision
surface to a polygonal surface to use as a temporary visualization object.

Adjust subdivision surface tessellation
To set subdivision tessellation
1 Select the subdivision object for which you want to set tessellation.
2 Click Window > Attribute Editor, in Tessellation Attributes section to

adjust the attributes.
Adjust subdivision surface tessellation | 45

46
Visualize and render
images 4
Rendering methods
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR)

IPR is available only for Maya software rendering and mental ray for Maya
rendering.
IPR, a component of the Render View rendering, lets you preview and adjust
lights, shaders, textures, and 2D motion blur quickly and efficiently.
IPR is ideal for visualizing your scene as you work because it almost immediately
shows the changes you make. You can also pause and stop IPR rendering and
select several rendering options to be included or excluded from the IPR process.
47
IPR works a little differently than regular software rendering; if you need to
know more about how it works, see How IPR works on page 48.
IPR doesn't support all software renderable features (for example, raytracing
or production quality anti-aliasing are not supported). See IPR Limitations
(for Maya software renderer) on page 49.
How IPR works
When you start an IPR session, Maya computes the initial IPR image, which
is a deep raster format that contains more than just the final picture. Maya
performs all the visibility calculations (only once), and stores the results in a
file in the iprImages directory.
An IPR image is an IFF image with additional data. It is larger than a regular
image file because it stores both visibility and shading data. The data is
computed in the following ways:
■ Visibility calculations compute where items are located in the scene, or

what is visible to the camera (or to the light, for depth maps for shadowing)
at each pixel in the image.
■ Shading calculations compute what color is displayed at each pixel of the

image.
NOTE An IPR image is not part of the scene file; it only represents what the
scene looks like from a specific camera or light, at a specific time. You can reuse
an IPR image as you work on the scene, but remember that the IPR image may
be out of sync with the scene as you adjust it and move objects in the views.
The data in this format is used to efficiently adjust shading and lighting
parameters in an interactive way.
To adjust IPR options, see IPR Options on page 402.
NOTE For advanced users:

You can batch process IPR images ahead of time from the command line, so
you can then adjust several frames of the same animation, in which the
visibility data may vary from frame to frame.
See To batch render IPR files on page 125 for details.
It takes longer to perform an IPR render than it does to perform a software

render because more information is written to disk. The IPR image contains
48 | Chapter 4 Visualize and render images

the information needed to perform the shading calculations for each pixel in
the image as you adjust scene parameters.
When you select a region to adjust, Maya loads all the necessary information
into memory for all the pixels in the selected region.
As you modify scene attributes, Maya recomputes the shading calculations
and the selected region in Render View updates.
Since none of the visibility calculations have to be recomputed at this stage,
tuning updates much faster than a full software rendering.
IPR images can be very large (for example, at NTSC Video resolution, a single
IPR image could be up to 60MB). Make sure you have adequate disk space for
your IPR image before you perform an IPR Render.
NOTE An IPR default light source (created during IPR rendering) works in a similar
way to the software renderer’s default light source:
■ The IPR default light source is removed from the scene as soon as the IPR
session is terminated (for example, when you click the IPR stop button).
■ The IPR default light source is not saved with the scene, preventing you
from accidentally adding the IPR default light to the saved scene.
For more information, see Default lighting in Maya in the Lighting guide.
IPR Limitations (for Maya software renderer)
Visibility limitations
Any change to an attribute that affects the visibility calculation, such as

changing the camera angle, adding or removing a surface, or transforming
CVs on a surface, requires another IPR render before you can see the effect of
that change.
Transformations affect visibility when applied to an object or camera (like
moving an object or zooming the view, since moving an object or the camera
may change what is visible at each pixel). This does not include lighting
changes; they are supported.
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) | 49

Adding or removing surfaces, UV mapping values
If you add surfaces to or remove surfaces from the scene, or if you change the
UV mapping values for a texture, you must perform another IPR render before
you see the change. Examples of these kinds of changes include:
■ When you select a new group of faces on a polygonal surface, even if the
surface is already in the scene. In IPR, selecting a new group of faces to
texture is equivalent to creating a new surface.
■ Turning Fix Texture Warp on/off changes how UV mapping values are
generated in an IPR render. This situation is analogous to modifying
polygon UVs by changing their placement.
■ Editing UVs in the texture window.
Changing image planes, shadow maps, background color
If you make changes to shadow map resolution, image planes, or background

color, you must manually update the IPR tuning region (select IPR > Update
Shadow Maps or IPR > Update Image Planes/Background).
General limitations for Maya Software Renderer IPR
■ raytracing effects (for example, transparency, reflection, refractions)
■ particles
■ 3D motion blur
■ anti-aliasing: adaptive shading, multi-pixel filtering
■ global override of Enable Depth Maps attribute (in the Render Settings
window on page 376) does not function properly
■ output to IFF (deep raster)
Mac OS X-specific limitations
■ Cannot render interactively with resolution of 4K or higher
■ If you render an image successfully and then render it again with a lower
resolution, the rendered image does not reduce in size.

Image plane limitations
■ Only supports file mode, not texture mode.
■ Changes to file mode do not IPR render properly unless you turn on
“Update Image Planes/Background” per change.
Shader and Texture limitations
■ Use Background shader is not well supported because it relies on raytracing.
■ Modifying, adding, or deleting a displacement map applied to the geometry

requires re-rendering.
■ Turning on advanced filters (such as quadratic, cubic, or Gaussian) in the

file texture requires re-rendering. Much more information needs to be
stored into the IPR image, unless the render was originally generated with
the advanced filter turned on.
Geometry changes that require IPR re-rendering
■ Adding or deleting geometry.
■ Transforming or morphing geometry.
■ Changing tessellation.
■ Turning on/off Fix Texture Warp for the surface, or modifying any Fix
Texture Warp attributes.
TIP Consider using directional lights for preview rendering, especially when
using IPR. These lights are easy to transform to get the initial light effect you
need. Maya’s default light is the directional light.
Glow limitations
■ Light glow intensity may appear different because the light glow occlusion
is computed at the time of the IPR generation. If the light is moved where
the light glow occlusion changes, an inaccurate glow intensity could result.
■ Shader glow may look different because the IPR region (not covering the
entire scene) produces a different auto-exposure normalization.
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) | 51

Others
■ Changing blur-by-frame does not update the IPR unless you re-render.
■ 2D motion blur won’t be exactly right because you work on a smaller

region.
Render View rendering

If you want to render a single frame (or a single frame of an animation), render
it in Render View. Advantages include the following:
■ easy to use
■ Maya UI
■ you can see the render as it occurs
■ you can interrupt the render at any time
NOTE Large scenes or image files may run out of memory. In this case, use
batch rendering to reduce memory usage.
To render in Render View, see:
■ Test render a low-res still or frame on page 127.
■ Render a single frame on page 131.
Batch renders from within Maya (UI)

If you want to render an animation, start a batch render from within the Maya
UI. (You can also render a single frame this way.) Advantages include the
following:
■ easy to use
■ you can continue to use the Maya UI
■ you can start a batch render while you continue to work within Maya
■ you can interrupt the render at any time from within Maya

To start a batch render from within Maya, see Batch render a still or animation
on page 131.
Render from a command line

You can render from a command line if you want to render an animation or
single frame. Advantages include the following:
■ works with single images and animation
■ uses less memory than having all of Maya (UI) running
■ can be scripted
■ can be integrated into a rendering pipeline (render farms)
■ for Maya software rendering, you can override render settings using
command flags (for other renderers, you must also write a MEL script)
For more information, see Command line renderer in the Rendering Utilities
guide.
Related topics
■ mental ray for Maya command line options on page 186
Render output
File formats
Maya can save rendered image files in several standard image file formats.
By default, Maya saves rendered image files in the Maya Image File Format
(Maya IFF). The Maya IFF is the most efficient format, in which no data loss
occurs. All other file formats are translated from the Maya IFF format.
For information about the File format syntax, see Subfolders and names of
rendered images on page 60.
To set the file format, see Set the rendered image file format on page 86.
Render from a command line | 53

Bitmap vs. vector
Maya can render and save an image in either bitmap or vector format. A bitmap
image uses pixels (colored squares) arranged in a grid to describe the image.
When you zoom into a bitmap image, you can see the jagged edges of
individual pixels. Common bitmap formats include TIFF, GIF and BMP.
A vector image uses vectors (lines and curves) to describe the image. When
you zoom into a vector image, lines and curves remain smooth. Common
vector formats include SWF (Adobe Flash), AI (Adobe Illustrator) and SVG
(Scalable Vector Graphics).
NOTE
■ If Image Format is SWF or SVG, an animation renders as a single file.
Otherwise, an animation renders as a series of sequential files.
■ EPS files (generated by any application) do not import correctly into

non-Adobe products (such as the Flash authoring application). EPS files
import correctly into Adobe products. (SWF and AI files import correctly
into the Flash authoring application.)
Details of supported file formats
Adobe Illustrator (.ai) This file format is only available on Win-

dows 32-bit and Apple® Mac OS®X, and
only when using the Maya Vector renderer.
Adobe Illustrator (version 8) file format.
When rendering to Adobe Illustrator
format, the background color is always
white.
Autodesk PIX This file format is available on Linux® and

Windows only.
Autodesk pix file format. Maya saves the
image, mask, and depth channels as separ-
ate files.
AVI (.avi) This file format is available on Windows

only.
On Linux, IMF does not support movie
files.

On Windows, you can select the compres-
sion method for AVI files. See Compres-
sion... on page 380.
Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved movie
file format. Maya can store a sequence of
images in an AVI file.
Cineon (.cin) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Cineon image file format. Maya does not
create a mask file or channel.
This is a format typically used for digital
film, however, Maya does not use the 10
bit log encoding standard.
Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) Encapsulated PostScript file format.

An EPS file can contain both bitmap and
vector image information.
When using the Maya Vector renderer
(Windows 32-bit and Mac OS X only), the
rendered EPS file consists of a vector im-
age.
When using bitmap renderers, the
rendered EPS file consists of a bitmap im-
age. Maya saves the image and depth
channels as separate files. (Maya does not
create a mask file or channel.)
When rendering to EPS format with the
Maya Vector renderer, the background
color is always white.
GIF (.gif) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Graphics Interchange Format typically used
for web. Maya saves the image and depth
create a mask file or channel.) GIF images
may be up to 8 bits (256 colors) in depth
and are always compressed.
Animated GIFs are not supported.
File formats | 55
JPEG (.jpg) Joint Photographic Experts Group file
format. Maya saves the image and depth
create a mask file or channel.) The JPEG
format is standard for compressed still im-
ages. JPEG uses DCT and offers data com-
pression of between 5 and 100%. Three
levels of processing are defined: baseline,
extended, and lossless. Maya supports only
JPEG formats containing RGB information;
Maya does not support JPEG formats con-
taining CMYK information.
Compression is controlled by the environ-
ment variable AW_JPEG_Q_FACTOR. Set-
ting it to 1 gives the lowest quality (most
compression) and setting it to 100 gives
the highest quality (least compression).
The default value is 75.
Adobe Flash (.swf) This file format is only available on Win-

dows 32-bit and Mac OS X, and only when
using the Maya Vector renderer.
Adobe Flash Player (version 3, 4 or 5) file
format (non-interactive).
Maya IFF (.iff) Maya Image File Format with 8 bits per
color and mask channel. Additional chan-
nels (for example, depth, motion vector
data) are stored as floating point data.
Maya saves the image, mask, and other
channels in one file.
Maya16 IFF (.iff) Maya Image File Format with 16 bits per
color and mask channel. Additional chan-
nels (for example, depth, motion vector
data) are stored as floating point data.
Maya saves the image, mask, and other
channels in one file.
Not available when using the Maya Vector
renderer.

MacPaint (.pntg) Mac OS X only.
Adobe® Photoshop® (.ps) Mac OS X only. Adobe Photoshop file.
PNG (.png) Mac OS X only.
Quantel (.yuv) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Quantel image file format. Maya saves the
image and mask channels in one file. The
Quantel format outputs to YUV. Maya can
only output Quantel format images at
NTSC, PAL, or HDTV resolutions; if you se-
lect a different resolution, Maya saves
rendered images in Maya IFF.
QuickDraw (.pict) Native Apple® Macintosh® file format.
Apple® QuickTime® Image (.mov) This file format is available only on Mac OS
X.
On Mac OS X, all Apple QuickTime image
formats are supported, including any user-
written or user-added Apple QuickTime
plug-in formats. For the Maya software
renderer and the Maya Hardware renderer,
Apple QuickTime output supports over 20
different compression codecs for batch
rendering and Playblast.
Apple QuickTime movie file format. Maya
can store a sequence of images in an Apple
QuickTime file.
RLA (.rla) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Wavefront image file format. Maya saves
the image, mask, and depth channels in
one file.
File formats | 57
Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) This file format is only available on Win-
dows 32-bit and Mac OS X, and only when
using the Maya Vector renderer.
Scalable Vector Graphics file format.
When rendering to SVG format, the back-
ground color is always white.
SGI (.sgi) Silicon Graphics Image file format with 8

bits per color channel. Maya saves the im-
age and mask channels in one file, and the
depth channel as a separate file.
SGI16 (.sgi) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Not available when using the Maya Vector
renderer.
Silicon Graphics Image file format with 16
bits per color channel. Maya saves the im-
age and mask channels in one file, and the
depth channel as a separate file.
SGI Movie This file format is only available on and

Linux.
SGI movie file format. Maya can store a
sequence of images in an SGI Movie file.
Maya only renders out uncompressed SGI
Movie files as these are the most general
for reading into other applications.
Avid® Softimage® (.pic) This file format is available on Linux and

Windows.
Avid Softimage image file format. Maya
saves the image and mask channels in one
file, and the depth channel as a separate
file.
Targa (.tga) Targa image file format. Maya saves the

image and mask channels in one file, and
the depth channel as a separate file.
Not all Targa formats are supported.

Tiff (.tif) Tagged-Image File Format with 8 bits per
color channel. Maya saves the image and
mask channels in one file, and the depth
channel as a separate file. Maya generates
TIFF files that use TIFF 6.0 compression. To
generate uncompressed TIFF files, set the
environment variable IMF_TIFF_COMPRES-
SION = none before starting Maya. (For
more information on environment vari-
ables, see Setting environment variables
using Maya.env in the Basics guide.)
Use uncompressed TIFF files when you in-
tend to read the images into an application
that requires uncompressed images or that
supports the TIFF 4.0 standard.
Tiff16 (.tif) Not available when using the Maya Vector

renderer.
Tagged-Image File Format with 16 bits per
color channel. Maya saves the image and
mask channels in one file, and the depth
channel as a separate file. Maya generates
TIFF files that use TIFF 6.0 compression. To
generate uncompressed TIFF files, set the
environment variable IMF_TIFF_COMPRES-
SION = none before starting Maya. Use
uncompressed TIFF files when you intend
to read the images into an application that
requires uncompressed images or that
supports the TIFF 4.0 standard.
Windows Bitmap (.bmp) Windows bitmap image file format. RGB

only. Doesn’t support paletted images.
Maya saves the image and depth channels
as separate files.
(Maya does not create a mask file or
channel.)
HDR (.hdr) High dynamic range images.

Render HDR images when using the mental
ray for Maya renderer.
File formats | 59
Subfolders and names of rendered images
You can create subfolders as well as custom filenames for storing your rendered
images using the File Output section in the Render Settings: Common tab on
page 377.
This section describes the tokens that you can input to create the subfolders
and filenames. Should you decide not to input any of the tokens described
below, Maya creates default subfolders in which it saves the rendered images.
For more information regarding project file locations, see File > Project > New
of the Basics guide.
Default behavior of rendered images and directories
By default, Maya saves rendered images to the following subfolders:

<RenderLayer>/<Camera>
Scenes with more than one render layer and renderable camera
If your scene consists of more than one render layer, then a subfolder is created
for each layer.
Similarly, if your scene consists of more than one renderable camera, a
subfolder will be created for each camera.
For example, a scene with two render layers and two renderable cameras would
save out rendered images to subdirectories as follows:
layer1/camera1/
layer1/camera2/
layer2/camera1/
layer2/camera2/

Scenes with only one render layer or only one renderable camera
By default, a layer subfolder is not created for a scene with only one render
layer. Therefore, a scene with two renderable cameras but only one render
layer creates subfolders as follows:
camera1/
camera2/
Similarly, a camera subfolder is not created by default for a scene with only
one renderable camera. Therefore, a scene with two render layers but only
one renderable camera creates subfolders as follows:
layer1/
layer2/
If a scene has only one render layer (or no layers at all) and only one renderable
camera, then subfolders are not created by default and Maya saves the scene
as MyScene.iff.
NOTE Explicitly entering tokens forces folders to be created. See Rendered image
filename options (tokens) on page 61 below for more information.
Creating subfolders and filenames for rendered images
The following rendered image filename options and tokens can be combined
to create subfolders and custom image names for rendered images. Enter these
options in the File Name Prefix field of the Render Settings: Common tab on
page 377.
Use the tokens in conjunction with different separators between them. To
create subfolders, use the slash (/) separator as in
<RenderLayer>/<Camera>/<Scene>. Use any other separator, for example,
underscore (_) and dash (-), to separate the tokens in your image file name.
You can repeat options within the specification, and you can also specify any
text you like in the image file name or path (for example, .TEST or _final to
indicate the kind of render that you are performing).
Rendered image filename options (tokens)
<RenderLayer> Adds the layer name to the created subfolder or image file
name (for example, layer1).
When using render passes with the Maya software renderer, if more than one
pass is created for the layer, then pass names are appended to the layer name.
Subfolders and names of rendered images | 61

The format used is layer_pass (for example, layer1_beauty). For more
information on passes, see Render passes on page 301. When using multi-render
passes with the mental ray renderer, a directory is created for each pass. See
Multi-render passes on page 187for more information.
<Scene> Adds the scene name to your subfolder or image file name.
<Camera> Adds the renderable camera name to the created subfolder or image
file name (for example, camera1).
If your scene is set to render fields, then field names are appended to the name;
for example, camera_odd or camera_even.
<RenderPassFileGroup> Adds the render pass file group name to the created
subfolder or image file name (for example, IndirectIllum). See Pass Group
Name on page 501 for more information regarding the pass group name.
<RenderPass> Add the render pass node name to the created subfolder or
image file name(for example, diffuseNoShadow).
<RenderPassType> Many different types of render passes are available for

selection using the Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501, for example,
beauty, shadow, specular, refraction, and so forth. When you use this render
token, a unique abbreviation of the pass type, of less than 6 characters, is
appended to your output file name, for example, REFR for refraction pass.
<Extension> Adds the extension to the created subfolder or image file name.
<Version> Adds the version label that you have selected to the created
subfolder or image file name. This option can be a numeric version number,
the current date, the current time, or any custom version label. Customize
this token using the Version Label attribute.
NOTE For more information regarding render tokens, see Render Settings:
Common tab on page 377.
OpenEXR file format
Among the available multi-channel file formats, OpenEXR is the only file
format where multi-channel is being leveraged. Therefore, multiple render
passes can be concatenated into a single-multi-channel .exr file. Use the Frame
Buffer Naming and Custom Naming String attributes in the Render Settings:
Common tab on page 377 to customize the naming of your OpenEXR channels.
In order to use these attributes, your scene must contain at least one render
pass. Also, you must select OpenEXR as your file format for these attributes
to become active.

Select the Automatic mode under the Frame Buffer Naming attribute to use
the <RenderPassType>:<RenderPass>.<Camera> tokens to name your channels.
This is the default option.
Select the Custom mode under the Frame Buffer Naming attribute to customize
your OpenEXR channel names. Choose from the render tokens listed in
Rendered image filename options (tokens).
Your frame buffer name must be less than or equal to 31 characters in length;
otherwise, the name is truncated and a warning appears.
NOTE The OpenEXR filename has a 31 character limit. If your filename exceeds
this limit, it is truncated automatically. Therefore, when taking advantage of the
multi-channel capabilities of OpenEXR, you should keep the render pass name
and camera names as short as possible to avoid automatic truncation of the
filename.
NOTE Do not use the <RenderPass> token in your File name prefix field if you are
using the multi-channel OpenEXR format. Using the <RenderPass> token creates
a file for each render pass instead of writing to a multi-channel .exr file.
See Render Settings: Common tab on page 377 for more information.
Frame/Animation Ext
In addition to the rendered image filename tokens discussed above, you can
also use the Frame/Animation Ext drop-down list to customize your image
name by adding the frame number to your image name. For example, if you
choose name#.ext with a Frame padding of 4, and the scene name is MyScene,
then the rendered image would be named MyScene0001.iff.
Examples
1 If you choose not to enter any tokens in the File Name Prefix attribute,
the following subfolders are created by default:
<Layer>/<Camera>/IMAGENAME.iff
2 If you choose to use the Frame/Animation Ext field in conjunction with

the File name prefix on page 377 attribute, you can add the frame number
to your image name also. Assume that you choose the name_#.ext option
with a Frame padding of 2. The following entry produces a layer name
subfolder and adds 1) the camera name, 2) the scene name, and 3) the
frame number to the name of the rendered image. The -(dash) separator
is added to separate the camera and scene names.
Subfolders and names of rendered images | 63

<Layer>/<Camera>-<Scene>
For example, layer1/camera1-MyScene_01.iff
3 The following entry produces no subdirectories, but simply a flat file

structure. The _(underscore) separator separates the scene, layer and
camera names.
<Scene>_<Layer>_<Camera>
For example, MyScene_layer1_camera2_01.iff
4 The following entry produces a scene name subdirectory, then the layer
subdirectory, then a camera subdirectory, and then adds the scene name
to the name of the rendered image, and adds ‘TEMP’ to the image name:
<Scene>/<Layer>/<Camera>/<Scene>TEMP
for example, MyScene/layer1/camera1/MySceneTEMP_01.iff
File output location

By default, Maya saves rendered images to the images directory of the current
project. You can, however, change the location to save in any directory.
To set the file output location, see Set rendered images output location on
page 88.
NOTE If you are rendering images with a mask or depth channel and the file
format of rendered images does not support mask or depth channels, Maya may
save the mask channel as a separate file in the mask directory of the current project,
and the depth channel as a separate file in the depth directory of the current
project.
The IFF and RLA file formats can hold mask and depth channel information.
For more information regarding the treatment of mask and depth channels
by various file formats, see Details of supported file formats on page 54.

Pixel aspect ratio
A rendered bitmapped image file consists of numerous rectangular pixels
(picture elements). The size of a rendered image is measured by the number
of pixels it contains horizontally and vertically, and by the aspect ratio of
individual pixels (whether pixels are square or rectangular).
Most display devices (for example, a computer monitor) have square pixels,
and their Pixel Aspect Ratio is 1. Some devices, however, have non-square
pixels (for example, NTSC video has a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 0.9).
To set the pixel aspect ratio, see Set the resolution and pixel aspect ratio on
page 88.
Resolution
Image resolution is the total pixel size of a bitmap image. For example, 720 x
486 for NTSC video output. Display resolution is the number of pixels in 1
inch on the screen. Display resolution is measured in pixels per inch (ppi).
Most monitors have a display resolution of about 72 ppi. If your output is for
print, consider a display resolution of around 300 ppi.
To set the pixel aspect ratio, see Set the resolution and pixel aspect ratio on
page 88.
NOTE The terms pixels per inch (ppi), and dots per inch (dpi) are often
interchanged freely. Pixels per inch, however, applies only to screen resolution,
which display images in pixels. Dots per inch, applies only to paper-based images,
which are printed with dots of color.
Frames vs. Fields

Only the Maya software renderer supports field rendering.
Motion picture film and video simulate motion by displaying a continuous
sequence of images or frames. There are, however, important differences in
the way film and video systems display individual frames which may affect
how you render images.
To render as frames or fields, see Specify frame or field rendering on page 91.
Pixel aspect ratio | 65

Video system fields
Most video systems display an individual frame in two stages—by illuminating

half of the phosphors on a television screen (in NTSC every odd row beginning
with the first row), and then illuminating the remaining half of the phosphors
(every even row beginning with the second row). These two half-frames are
known as fields and the process of displaying the two fields alternately is called
interlacing.
NTSC and PAL video systems both use interlaced fields. NTSC video systems
display 30 frames per second, or 60 fields per second; PAL video systems display
25 frames per second, or 50 fields per second.
Because video systems display an individual frame in two stages, if you render
images as frames (that is, in one stage) and then display them on a video
system, fast moving objects may appear jerky or choppy. If post-production
process or final presentation formats involve interlaced video systems, render
images as fields. (If your animation does not contain fast moving objects, you
could try rendering images as frames.)
To properly view a frame or an animation rendered as fields, you must interlace
the two fields together.

Motion picture film frames
Motion picture film projectors display an entire frame in one brief instant by
shining light through the film. Most motion picture film systems display 24
or 25 frames per second.
If your post-production process and final presentation format do not involve
interlaced video systems, render images as frames.
Color, Depth, and Mask (alpha) channels
Each pixel in a bitmap image contains three color channels, each of which
represent the amount of red, green, or blue in the image. Each pixel might
also have an alpha (mask) channel to achieve transparency and a depth
channel that represents the distance from the camera.
By default, Maya generates an image file with three color channels and a mask
channel.
To enable specific channels to rendered images, see Enable color, depth, and
mask channels for rendered images on page 89.
NOTE Mask channels and depth channels are mainly used for compositing, so if
you don’t plan on compositing rendered images, you don’t have to generate mask
or depth channels (or files) during rendering.
The file size increases if an image contains a mask or depth channel. The
computation time may also increase.
For information about mask and depth channels and files, see Mask and depth
channels on page 78.
Color, Depth, and Mask (alpha) channels | 67

Pre Render MEL and Post Render MEL scripts
In some situations, you may want Maya to run a specific MEL command or
script before rendering each frame, and another MEL command or script after
rendering. For instance, if your scene contains a very large complex surface,
which you do not want to work on, you could run a MEL command before
rendering to display the surface (so it renders), and run another MEL command
after rendering to hide the surface.
To run Pre Render MEL scripts or Post Render MEL scripts, see Run Pre Render
MEL or Post Render MEL scripts on page 92.
NOTE If you need to use multiple sets of quotations in the preframe MEL or post
frame MEL fields in Render Settings window, be sure to use \" for every quotation
mark except the first and last. For example,
print("Time to render my Maya scene, called\"bingo.mb"\");
Layers and passes
Render layer overview
A system of per layer and per object overrides means that objects can have
different shading and rendering attributes on different layers.
With render layers, you can assign any object to multiple layers with a different
material on each layer. This lets you create multiple images for each frame,
from any combination of Maya's four renderers, third party plug-in renderers,
and post- processes such as Fur and Paint Effects. Rendered images can be
efficiently organized for output to a compositor. Render layers can be also be
rendered to Adobe® Photoshop® (PSD) format, which supports multiple image
layers.
As well, a preview composite of all the layers can be viewed in the Render
View.

Benefits of render layers
You can propagate changes across layers that exist in a single scene, rather
than having to manage multiple scenes. Render layer presets allow easy setup
of commonly-used passes, such as shadows and specularity. Render Layers
can also be used to prepare different layers in a scene for vertex baking or light
mapping.
Overview of render layer workflow
Examples of how layers are used:
■ Working with render layers: different layer examples on page 71
Render layer overview | 69

Related topics
■ Render layer concepts on page 73
■ Work with layers on page 100
■ Work with layer overrides on page 102
■ Work with attribute overrides on page 109
Overview of render layer preview workflow
The Master layer is non-renderable by default (this is only relevant if there is

more than one layer). To set whether a particular layer is renderable, click the
R to the left of the layer name.
Related topics
■ Preview layers on page 111
■ Render layers to PSD format on page 115
■ Batch and command-line render with layers on page 116

Working with render layers: different layer examples
You can segment your scene using render layers. If you have foreground,
midground, and background objects in your scene, you can render them using
three different layers. This can save a lot of time when rendering if there is
no interaction between the objects; for example, in a forest scene, you would
render three different layers separately: a static background (sky, trees),
midground (a cottage), and foreground (characters). Rendering the static
background once and then compositing later can speed up your workflow
and render time dramatically.
A more complex example might involve different effects that you want to
composite. One layer has raytracing turned on just for those objects that need
it (raytracing can be a very time-consuming process). A second layer has glow
lights which will be composited with certain objects to produce halo effects;
and a third and fourth have the shadow and specular information for later
compositing.
Consider the following example of two planes in a dogfight.
This image is made up of five composited layers that are rendered separately.
The background is one layer, as is the foreground airplane and the midground
airplane.
Working with render layers: different layer examples | 71

The two other layers are for effects: the midground bullets with their glow
and blur are rendered on a separate layer, as are the motion-blurred propellers.
All these layers are composited together with different blend modes in order
to create the final image you see here. This simplifies the workflow and makes
it easy to re-render parts of the scene with different options.
A larger production may use different renderers for different passes as well as
modifications to lights, objects, and layer overrides. For example:
■ A Beauty layer rendered in the Maya software renderer using production

quality.

■ A Matte layer rendered with Maya hardware renderer; this could be lower
quality as only the alpha channel matters. Hardware particle effects could
be rendered on this layer as well.
■ A Reflection layer rendered in mental ray using bright white lights. If there
weren’t reflections in all parts of the scene, this could be only rendered
for part of the scene (for example, only the middle 100 frames).
■ A Glow layer rendered in the Maya software renderer for glowing objects.
It can be rendered extra bright knowing it will be dialed down as needed
in the compositor.
■ A “Hot” layer rendered with mental ray (for example, an exaggerated

specular achieved by assigning white Blinn to all objects, tweaking the
specularity, and setting key lights bright and slightly red).
■ A “Cool” layer rendered with mental ray final gather and no other lights.
As well, an exaggerated diffuse is rendered from this layer, achieved by
assigning a white Lambert to all objects and tweaking the diffuse).
■ A Dirt layer as an ambient occlusion pass rendered by mental ray.
■ Render post processes like Fur and Paint Effects are also rendered separately.
Render layer concepts
The following section describes basic concepts necessary to work with render
layers:
■ Master layers and layer membership on page 74
■ Changes to a layer or to objects on a layer (overrides) on page 74
■ Master layer and render settings on page 75
■ Viewing layers and managing layers on page 75
■ What you can do with render layers: summary on page 76
Render layer concepts | 73

Master layers and layer membership
The Master layer contains all the objects and materials in the scene. There is
always a Master layer in your scene; it’s exposed in the Render Layer editor.
It is only visible in the Render Layer editor if there is more than one layer (in
which case it is non-renderable by default).
When you create new layers, you can make any objects or nodes (including
lights) members of only that layer, multiple layers, or all layers. Only objects
in a specific layer affect or contribute to that layer; this includes lights,
reflections, shadows, and so on.
In addition to segmenting your scene into render layers, you can change the
characteristics of each layer or object on a layer by creating layer overrides.
(By definition, you can't override the characteristics of the Master layer.) Maya
stores each of the layer and attribute overrides as changes between that layer
and the Master layer. See the next section.
Changes to a layer or to objects on a layer (overrides)
There are two types of overrides for attributes: per layer and per object.
■ Per layer overrides change attributes, characteristics, or material assignments

that affect the entire layer. This can include the renderer for the layer, the
image size for the rendered image of that layer, whether or not all objects
on the layer cast shadows or receive shadows, or a material assigned to all
objects in the layer.
■ Per object overrides change the value of an attribute or material assignment

on an object in a specific layer on which overrides exist. This can include
the material assignment for an object on the layer, render stats for that
object (such as casting or receiving shadows), or attributes of the object,
or on per-object shaders (such as transparency).
There are two ways to create overrides: auto and manual.
■ Auto overrides immediately change the value of the attribute to be different

than the one specified on the Master layer, without any additional action
required on your part.
■ Manual overrides require you to explicitly tell Maya that you want that
attribute value to be different than the one specified on the Master layer.
■ Per layer auto-overrides include shader assignments (to all objects in a
layer); see Work with layer overrides on page 102.

■ Per layer manual overrides include changes to per-layer render settings
and member overrides (render stats). See Work with layer overrides on
page 102.
■ Per object auto-overrides include material assignments to objects; see

Work with attribute overrides on page 109.
■ Per object manual overrides include all other attribute change; see Work
with attribute overrides on page 109.
Master layer and render settings
To facilitate changing the Master layer’s render settings (the base from which
all overrides are created), the Render Settings for the Master layer shows the
renderer-specific tabs for all four renderers: Maya Software, Maya Hardware,
Maya Vector, and the five mental ray renderer tabs.
Changing the settings on the Master layer means that all layers that use that
renderer and do not have overridden attributes inherit these settings.
Viewing layers and managing layers
Render layers affect the scene view, Hypergraph, Hypershade, and so on.
Switching layers means that lights, geometry, or nodes are visible or not
depending on whether those objects are in a particular render layer. (Previously,
objects always appeared in the scene view and were either present or not
present in a render.)
Visibility of Display layers and Render layers interact subtractively. That is, if
you have a Display layer that contains objects and turn off visibility on that
layer, you will also not see these objects in any of your Render layers.
■ There are three different ways to create per-layer changes:

■ overrides that affect the entire layer

■ auto-overrides to render stats or material assignment of an object on a
layer
■ manual overrides to any other attribute .
■ There are three different ways to create per-layer changes:

■ overrides that affect the entire layer
■ auto-overrides to render stats or material assignment of an object on a

layer
■ manual overrides to any other attribute .
What you can do with render layers: summary
Once you understand the basic concepts of Master layer, layer and object
overrides (auto or manual), render settings, and presets, you can do the
following on a layer-by-layer basis:
■ select the renderer (software, hardware, mental ray, vector, and any plug-in
renderer) and override Render Settings (formerly known as Render Globals)
both in the Common tab and in the renderer-specific tab.
■ create layer overrides. You can override settings that affect rendering; for
example, you can turn off Cast Shadows and turn on Visible in Refractions
and Visible in Reflections for a layer.
■ override material assignments:

■ per component (for example, assign certain faces a different material
for any layer).
■ per object (for example, assign certain surfaces a different material for
any layer)
■ override any renderable attribute (for example, set a different value for
transparency on a object on a particular layer)
■ assign the blending modes for layers directly in the Render layer editor,
and preview the layer composite in the Render View.
For examples of how to use layers, see:
■ Working with render layers: different layer examples on page 71

■ Render layers example: automotive preview on page 298
Related topics
■ Work with layers on page 100
■ Work with layer presets on page 294
■ Work with attribute overrides on page 109
■ Preview layers on page 111
■ Control visibility/reflection per layer on page 120
You can render individual objects, groups of objects on layers, or attributes

(passes) of your scene, then combine them using a compositing system.
Compositing is the process of combining multiple images into one.
(You can also render global illumination passes separately.
To set up layers and passes, see Render layer overview on page 68 and Render
passes on page 301.
Advantages of rendering in layers and passes
Rendering separate objects in layers and passes takes more time and effort to
plan, but it offers the following advantages:
■ More creative freedom.

For example, you can render different layers with different render options.
You can then color correct or add special effects to each rendered layer in
a compositing application.
■ Flexibility to accommodate unanticipated requests for changes.

For example, you can change a ceramic vase to a glass vase without
re-rendering the entire scene.
■ Increased speed to meet production schedules.

For example, you can quickly render the foreground layer where most
changes occur, instead of the whole scene or background, where objects
tend to be static. You can also render smaller portions of large scenes,
reducing the load on computer memory.

General tips for rendering for compositing
■ Plan to separate a scene into elements early in the production process.
■ If you plan on compositing rendered images, make sure the scene’s

background is black. To change the color of the background, see the Lights
and camera’s chapter.
■ Understand the type of image that compositors require: premultiplied or

not.
Premultiplied images
When an image is stored not only with the three basic color channels but also
with the alpha channel, the presence of the alpha channel can modify the
color channels to some degree. For example, typically the color channels have
been multiplied by the value of the alpha channel to take transparency into
consideration.
Some compositors (as well as games engines) can use premultiplied images;
others require separate image and alpha information, especially when they
want to separate object color data from background color data. By default,
Maya premultiplies images, but you can turn premultiplication off.
To turn premultiplication on or off, see Premultiply on page 398.
Mask and depth channels

During rendering, Maya software can generate an image file that contains
color channels (RGB), a mask channel (RGBA), a depth channel (RGBZ) or a
combination of the three (RGBAZ). For more information on color channels,
see Color, Depth, and Mask (alpha) channels on page 67.
Some image formats cannot include embedded mask or depth channels; in

these cases, Maya can generate a separate mask or depth file.

By default, Maya generates an image file with three color channels and a mask
channel. Mask channels and depth channels are mainly used for compositing.
You can control the types of channels Maya includes in rendered image files.
For instance, if you don’t plan on compositing rendered images, you don’t
have to generate mask or depth channels during rendering.
To turn channels on or off, see Enable color, depth, and mask channels for
rendered images on page 89.
Mask channels
A mask channel (or alpha channel) defines where an image is opaque or

transparent. Opaque regions of the objects are white, semi-transparent regions
are gray, and transparent regions are black.
Use a mask channel to layer images for compositing software. For instance,
you can use the mask channel of an image as a matte to composite an object
(without its background) with another image.
Depth channels
A depth channel (or Z depth or Z buffer channel) provides 3D information

about an image. It represents the distance of objects from the camera.
Depth channels are used by compositing software. For instance, you can use
the depth channel to correctly composite several layers while respecting the
proper occlusions.
Maya stores depth values as -1/z. These represent the near and far clipping
values.
Arranging objects in order in 3D space
When you render in layers the compositing application must be able to tell
which part of which object goes behind or in front of another one. Alpha
channels do not contain this information, so you can use the Black Hole mode
of the Matte Opacity feature in Maya to produce cutout regions that composite
correctly. See Modify a mask channel on page 90.
To set up layers and passes, see Render layer overview on page 68 and Render
passes on page 301.
Mask and depth channels | 79

Render passes
To render various attributes separately, for example, color, shadow, specular

shading, and so forth, you may want to use render passes. If you are using the
Maya software renderer, see Render passes on page 301for more information.
If you are using the mental ray renderer, see Creating a pass-compliant shader
using the AdskShaderSDK and Sample workflow for multi-render passes on
page 224for more information.
Compositing Interoperability Plug-in
Compositing Interoperability Plug-in for Toxik

The Compositing Interoperability plug-in allows you to export information
from your Maya scene to Autodesk Toxik. Load this plug-in through the Maya
Plug-in Manager (see Plug-in Manager). When you load the plug-in, a
Toxik-specific menu item appears in the Maya Render menu.
Using this plug-in, you can generate a preliminary Toxik composition from
within Maya based on the render layers in your scene. The compositing graph
includes the associated image sequence filenames, Maya blend modes, and
layer-specific render settings.You can export all the layers in your scene, or
selected layers.
This plug-in architecture can be used to implement integrations to your
preferred compositing application. For more information, see the
compositingInterop command.
Related topics
■ Work with Autodesk Toxik 2007 on page 135
■ Work with Autodesk Toxik 2008 on page 139
■ Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 on page 334
■ Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 on page 335
■ Render > Export to Toxik 2008 on page 336

Render tiles in the Maya Software renderer
Render tiles
The Maya Software renderer renders an image as a series of tiles. The renderer
tries to use a tiling configuration that ensures memory is optimized. Thus, the
tiles are smaller in the regions of the image where the geometry is dense. The
renderer tries to ensure that the memory cap specified in Render Settings
window is respected.
See also Troubleshoot render tiles on page 149.
Visualize scenes and render images
A typical rendering workflow

The exact workflow steps and the order in which you perform them vary.
Rendering is an iterative process in which you tweak lights, textures, and
cameras; adjust various scene and object settings; visualize your changes; then,
when you are satisfied with the results, you render your final images.
Once you have completed shading and texturing objects, adding lights, and
adding renderable cameras to your scene, you can render your scene. The
following workflow outlines the typical steps.
Related topics
■ Surface shading in the Shading guide.
■ Light and shadow in the real world in the Lighting guide.
■ Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras on page 13.
To render a scene
1 Decide which renderer you want to use, and set scene options for it:
■ For detailed information about each of Maya’s renderers, see Maya
Software renderer on page 4, Maya Hardware renderer on page 5,
Render tiles in the Maya Software renderer | 81

Maya Vector renderer on page 8, mental ray for Maya renderer on
page 11.
■ To select a renderer, see Select a renderer on page 11.
■ To learn more about some of the scene options you can set, see Open
the Render Settings window on page 84. For detailed descriptions of
the scene options, see Render Settings window on page 376.
2 If you plan to composite your work, you can render your scene in layers
and passes.
See Render layer overview on page 68 and Render passes on page 80.
3 Make any required per-object adjustments:

■ To adjust the surface quality (tessellation) of objects, see Adjust NURBS
tessellation settings on page 42, Adjust polygonal tessellation on page
44, or Adjust subdivision surface tessellation on page 45.
■ To adjust per-object settings; for example, settings for lights, cameras,

objects, see information on the particular object you want to adjust.
4 Test iterations of your scene to visualize your the changes you make
materials, textures, lights, cameras, and objects.
■ To visualize your changes as you make them, see Visualize interactively
with IPR on page 123.
■ To diagnose scene problems, see Run diagnostics on page 166.
■ To optimize rendering speed image quality, see The speed/quality

tradeoff on page 153.
5 When you are satisfied with the results, render the final images.
■ See Render a single frame on page 131.
■ See Command line rendering on page 133.
NOTE When working on the Linux platform and rendering with the Maya
Software renderer, you may choose to send the (rendering) output
messages to a file instead of to the shell. Use the command maya >&
logfile. A file with the name logfile is created and all output messages
are saved to this file upon rendering in Maya.

Choose a rendering method
TIP Before you render a scene, you should diagnose it for common problems
which can affect image quality and rendering times. See Diagnose scene problems
on page 166.
Visualize a scene
Though you can render a scene to see what it looks like, visualizing your scene
in the following ways can be faster:
To... Do this...
See changes to a still image or a single Use Interactive Photorealistic Rendering

frame of an animation as you make them. (IPR)IPR updates the display to show your
most recent change, but there are limita-
tions to what you can see. For more inform-
ation, see Interactive Photorealistic Render-
ing (IPR) on page 47.
See what a still image or single frame of Use Render View, especially Render Re-
an animation (or a region of it) looks like gion.Render View has fewer limitations
as the render occurs. than IPR, so you can see more, but it takes
longer to render.Render regions of a scene
to reduce the amount of time you spend
visualizing the scene. For more informa-
tion, see Render View rendering on page
52.
See lights, objects and textures in the scene Use hardware texturing.This does not actu-
view without rendering. ally perform a render; it just lets you see
an approximation of what your scene looks
like when rendered. For more information,
see See shading and lights in a scene view
on page 126.
See what a fully rendered still image, single Render at lower resolutionsFor more inform-
frame of an animation, or an animation ation, see Test render a low-res still or
looks like quickly. frame on page 127 and Test render a low-
res animation on page 128.
Choose a rendering method | 83

Perform a final render
To render... Do this...
A still image or single frame of an anima- Use Render View.For more information,
tion. see Render a single frame on page 131.
A still image or single frame of an anima- Batch render.For more information, see
tion, or an animation. Batch render a still or animation on page
131.
A still image or single frame of an anima- Command line render.For more informa-
tion, or an animation. tion, see Command line rendering on page
133.
Set scene options
Open the Render Settings window

The settings you use to produce your final rendered image or sequence of
images depend on a number of factors, including:
■ the renderer you use
■ the medium to which you are outputting
■ whether you are rendering in layers and passes for compositing
■ whether you are preview rendering or producing the final rendered image(s)
NOTE The changes you make in the Render Settings window affect the entire
scene. Often, it makes sense to adjust settings on a per-object setting.
Render settings for the Hardware renderer, the mental ray for Maya renderer,
the Maya software renderer, the Maya Vector renderer are available from the
Render Settings window.
The Common tab of the Render Settings window contains the attributes
common to most of the renderers, which decreases the number of parameters

you need to modify when switching between renderers. Settings specific to
the chosen renderer are available in a another tab.
For detailed descriptions of the settings in the Render Settings window, see
Render Settings window on page 376.
To open the Render Settings window

■ Click Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.
■ Click the Display Render Settings Window button on the main toolbar
or in Render View.
■ Select Options > Render Settings in Render View.
You can edit settings in the Common tab and the renderer-specific tab.
For more information, see Render Settings window on page 376.
Render all or some objects from a camera

By default, your scene has only one renderable camera (the original perspective
camera) that renders all objects in your scene. You can change this to render
only selected 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 default orthographic cameras renderable),
you must set this camera to renderable (see Make an existing camera renderable
on page 23).
To render only selected objects in your scene
1 Select the objects you want to render.
2 In the File Output section of the Render Settings window on page 376,
select the camera from the Renderable Camera drop-down list.
3 In the Render View window, select Render>Render Selected Objects Only.
4 Render the scene.
Set scene options | 85

Set the rendered image file format
Maya can save rendered image files in one of several standard image file
formats. By default, Maya saves rendered image files in the Maya Image File
Format (Maya IFF).
For a comprehensive list of supported file formats, see File formats on page
53.
NOTE For image formats that cannot include mask or depth channels, Maya
generates a separate mask or depth file.
To set the file format of rendered images
select the Image Format from the drop-down list.
Set file name syntax

For information on the file name syntax, see Subfolders and names of rendered
images on page 60.
NOTE You can also set the file name of rendered files when you render from a
shell or command line, using Render and the -im option.
See Render from a command line on page 53 for information about command
line rendering.
To set the file name (syntax) for rendered images
1 In the File Output section of the Render Settings window on page 376, set
the following:
■ File name prefix, (for example, rocket):
Option Example
name rocket
name.ext rocket.iff
name.#.ext rocket.1.iff

Option Example
name.ext.# rocket.iff.1
name.# rocket.1
name#.ext rocket1.iff
IMPORTANT
■ If you select an option that does not contain #, Maya renders a
single frame.
■ If you select an option that does contain #, Maya renders an image

sequence (animation). The top of the Render Settings window on
page 376 provides feedback for the output files.
■ Frame/Animation Ext to the combination and order of base name (name).
■ File format extension (ext).
■ Frame number extension (#) you want rendered files to have.
■ Start Frame to the first frame you want to render and End Frame to the
last frame you want to render.
■ By Frame to the increment between frames you want to render.
■ Frame Padding to the number of digits you want in frame number

extensions.
To use a custom file format extension for rendered images
1 The file format extension is the standard file format extension for the
current Image Format setting. To change that, in the File Output section
of the Render Settings window on page 376, turn on Use Custom Extension
and type the extension you want to use.

Set rendered images output location
For information on image file location, see File output location on page 64.
To set the location where rendered images are saved
1 From the main Maya window, select File > Project > Edit Current.
2 In the Project Data Locations section of the Edit Project window, change
the directory for Images and click Accept.
TIP You can also set the location where rendered files are saved when you
render from a shell or command line using Render and the -rd option.
See Render from a command line on page 53 for information about
command line rendering.
Set the resolution and pixel aspect ratio

You can select from a list of preset render resolutions, or set the resolution
options manually.
For details on resolution, see Resolution on page 65.
For details on pixel aspect ratio, see Pixel aspect ratio on page 65.
To set the resolution and pixel aspect ratio of rendered images
1 In the Image Size section of the Render Settings window on page 376,
select a preset render resolution from the Presets attribute(for example,
640 x 480).
If you do not see an appropriate preset Render Resolution, you must set
the following attributes manually to output to an unlisted device:
■ Width, Height
■ Pixel Aspect Ratio

Enable color, depth, and mask channels for
rendered images
Color channels, depth and mask channels are generated by default. Each pixel
in an image may consist of channels representing the amount of red, green,
and blue, mask, depth in the image. If channels have been turned off, you
can turn them back on.
For more information about mask channels, see Mask and depth channels on
page 78.
NOTE During bump or displacement mapping, if an image file contains a mask

channel, the mask channel is used for displacement and bump mapping. If the
mask channel is absent, the luminance of the RGB is used to displace and, or bump
map.
If you prefer to use the luminance information as the alpha, turn on the Alpha
Is Luminance attribute (in the Color Balance section of the file texture’s
Attribute Editor).
To enable a channel to rendered images
select the camera from which you want to render from the Renderable
Camera drop-down list.
2 Do any of the following:

■ Turn on RBG Channel (Color)
■ Turn on Alpha Channel (Mask)
■ Turn on Depth Channel (Z Depth)
Create and view depth files

The depth channel represents the distance of objects from the camera.
To create a Depth file
1 Turn on Depth Channel (Z Depth) in the Render Settings window on

page 376.

2 Open the renderable camera’s Attribute Editor in which you want to
create a depth file.
Select View > Camera Attribute Editor... from the current view. See View
> Camera Attribute Editor on page 345.
3 In the camera’s Attribute Editor, select a Depth Type from the Output
Settings section (Closest or Furthest Visible Depth).
To view depth channels
1 View the animation file using FCheck.

See the Overview of FCheck in the Rendering Utilities guide for
information on FCheck.
■ IRIX, Linux and Windows
2 Press z to see the depth channel.

■ Mac OS X
FCheck does not let you view the z-depth data of an .IFF file. To view
z-depth data, use a non .IFF file format and then view the z-depth data
stored in the separate file.
If the output format is not IFF or RLA, Maya writes a separate depth file
containing a black RGBA image with depth values.
Modify a mask channel

For Maya software and mental ray for Maya.
To increase or decrease the mask value for an object
1 In the Matte Opacity section of an object’s material Attribute Editor, set

Matte Opacity Mode to Opacity Gain and adjust the Matte Opacity value.
During rendering, Maya first generates the mask channel, then multiplies
the mask values for the object by the Matte Opacity value. For example,
if Matte Opacity is 1, the mask values for the object remains unchanged;
if Matte Opacity is 0.5, the mask values for the object are half their original
values.

To set the mask value for an object to a constant value

Matte Opacity Mode to Solid Matte and adjust the Matte Opacity value.
If the object is transparent, any objects behind it appear in the mask
channel.
During rendering, Maya first generates the mask channel, then sets the
mask values for the object to the Matte Opacity value. For example, if
Matte Opacity is 1, the mask values for the object are 1; if Matte Opacity
is 0.5, the mask values for the object are 0.5.
To set the mask value for an object to zero
1 In the Matte Opacity section of an object’s materials Attribute Editor, set

Matte Opacity Mode to Black Hole.
mask values for the object to 0. If the object is transparent, any objects
behind it will not appear in the mask channel.
Specify frame or field rendering

Motion picture film and video simulate motion by displaying a continuous
sequence of images or frames.
When you render images as frames, Maya generates one image file for each
time frame of an animation. By default, Maya renders images as frames.
When you render images as fields, Maya generates two image files for each
time frame of an animation, one for each field. Maya renders a frame at time
“x” by rendering one field at time “x” and one field at time “x+0.5”.
For information on the differences between film and video systems see, Frames
vs. Fields on page 65.
To properly view a frame or an animation rendered as fields, you must interlace
the two fields together.
TIP The settings you use for rendering images as fields may depend on the video
standard you are using for the images, and how fields interlace together (for
example, NTSC or PAL).
Before you render an animation as fields, perform a test render and use the
test rendered images through your entire post-production process.

To render images as fields for Maya software rendering
1 Choose the Field option from the Maya Render Settings window on page
376. Interlacing is automatic.
To render images as fields for anything other Maya software rendering
1 In the Render Settings window on page 376, set the By Frame value to 0.5.
This results in twice as many frames being rendered.
2 Turn on the Renumber Frames Using option and set Start Number and
By Frame values to 1.
3 Interlace the resulting images using a third-party solution.
To interlace two fields together on Linux
1 See interlace in the Rendering utilities guide.
Run Pre Render MEL or Post Render MEL scripts
IMPORTANT
When you render a scene from within Maya, make sure you do not specify a
MEL command or script that includes delete operations or you may accidently
delete objects in your scene.
To run a MEL command or script before or after rendering
1 In the Render Options section of the Render Settings window on page

376:
■ Enter a MEL command or execute a script to run before rendering
each frame in the Pre Render MEL attribute box.
■ Enter a MEL command or execute a script to run after rendering each

frame in the Post Render MEL attribute box.

Adjust anti-aliasing
NOTE You may not need to adjust quality settings for an entire scene. Adjusting
settings on a per-object basis is often more efficient and has less of an impact on
rendering speed.
For more information on aliasing artifacts and strategies on how to fix them,
see Anti-aliasing and flicker on page 154.
Maya software rendering specifics
The options in the Presets drop-down list and the Edge Anti-Aliasing Quality
drop-down list drive each other; when you change one, the other changes,
and values for the Anti-aliasing subsections are automatically filled in. You
can fine tune any of these settings.
Do one of the following:
■ In the Anti-Aliasing Quality section of the Render Settings window on

page 376, select a preset.
■ In the Anti-Aliasing Quality section of the Render Settings window on

page 376, select Custom, then manually adjust the settings in Number of
Samples, Multi-pixel Filtering, and Contrast Threshold.
Maya Hardware rendering specifics
The options in the Presets drop-down list drive values for other settings in the
Quality section of the Render Settings window on page 376. You can fine tune
any of these settings.
■ In the Quality section of the Render Settings window on page 376, select a
preset.
■ In the Quality section of the Render Settings window on page 376, select
adjust any of the settings in the section.
Related topics
■ mental ray anti-aliasing specifics on page 238

Adjust output image filtering
TIP
■ In most cases, you should test render a file texture in Render View when
filtering because you may not be able to see the results in the views or in
Attribute Editor swatches.
■ When bump mapping, set Filter to a low value (under 0.1). Filter is
primarily used for anti-aliasing textures—distant surfaces are blurrier. This
may cause a bump map to become smoother when further away. If you
want the bumps to be smooth, use a small Filter Offset value for a constant
blur.
To fix a noisy procedural texture that appears to shift and swim during an
animation

■ Increase the Filter and, or Filter Offset values to achieve a slightly
blurred effect and reduce the sharpness that causes the swimming.
■ Create a file texture (see Convert a texture or shading network to a

File Texture in the Shading guide), then increase the Filter and, or
Filter Offset values to achieve a slightly blurred effect and reduce the
sharpness that causes the swimming.
■ Increase the Shading Samples value.
Create and load a plug-in multipixel filter

Maya software only.
To create a plug-in multipixel filter
1 The Plug-in Filter Weight attribute is connected with the plug-in filter
node and its value will be used as the filter weight. The filter does not
have to be normalized.
You can define a plug-in DG node with at least two input attributes and
one output attribute with a float type. The input attributes require the
short name X and Y. The output attribute has to be connected to the
Plug In Filter Weight attribute in the renderQuality node.

When the plug-in filter type is selected, the plug-in node is evaluated
multiple times with different x and y weights, ranging in [-1..1]. The
plug-in filter should be defined in the normalized domain [-1..1,-1..1].
The filter width change only affects the mapping of the normalized filter
to the pixel coverage.
To load a plug-in multipixel filter
1 The following assumes you have already created a multipixel filter plug-in.
2 Copy the filter plug-in .so (Linux), or .mll (Windows), or .lib (Mac OS X)
file to:
■ Linux: /maya/bin/plug-ins
■ Windows: drive:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\bin\plug-ins
■ Mac OS X: /Applications/Maya2009/Application Support/plug-ins

or to a directory where the Plug-in Manager can read them
3 In Maya, click Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager.
4 Load the plug-in you created.
Connect a plug-in multipixel filter
To connect a plug-in multipixel filter to the Plug-In Filter Weight
1 In the Script Editor, create a plug-in node by typing:

createNode <yourPluginNodeType>
A node is created for the plug-in.
2 Select the plug-in node by typing in the script editor:

select <yourPluginNodeType>
3 With the plug-in node selected, open the Connection Editor (Windows
> General Editors > Connection Editor).
4 Load the plug-in node to the left side of the Connection Editor.
5 Repeat steps 1 and 2 to load the defaultRenderQuality or user-created

renderQuality node to the right side of the Connection Editor.
6 Connect the plug-in node’s weight to the defaultRenderQuality Plug In

Filter Weight attribute. You can use the multipixel filter plug-in.

Set raytracing quality
Raytracing is a type of rendering where the path of individual light rays are
calculated between the camera and the light source. To find out more about
how to raytrace to produce shadows, see Raytraced shadows in the Lighting
guide.
To find out more about how to raytrace to produce reflections, see True
reflections in the Shading guide.
settings on a per-object basis is often faster and has less of an impact on rendering
speed.
To set raytracing quality, adjust the settings in the Raytracing Quality section
of the Render Settings window on page 376.
Set motion blur

When you render an animation, motion blur gives the effect of movement
by blurring objects in the scene. For more information on motion blur, see
Focus and blur on page 15.
Maya software rendering specifics
Only Maya software supports both 2D and 3D motion blur.

To set motion blur, work with the settings in the Motion Blur section of the
NOTE
You may not need to adjust quality settings for an entire scene. Adjusting
settings on a per-object basis is often faster and has less of an impact on
rendering speed.
General motion blur and Maya Software rendering limitations
■ Motion blur does not work with software particles.
■ When you have a light illuminating a moving object, the object’s shadow
does not blur correctly (use mental ray rendering instead).

■ When you have a moving spot light that illuminates a surface, the spot
light’s beam moving across the surface does not blur (use mental ray
rendering instead).
■ Motion blur is not rendered in raytraced reflections and refractions.
Maya hardware rendering specifics
Supports only 3D motion blur.

To set motion blur, work with the settings Motion Blur section of the Render
Settings window on page 376.
Related topics
■ mental ray motion blur specifics on page 239
Maya software
Set tessellation options
Though tessellation is determined on a per-object basis, you can manage how

Maya handles the tessellation settings for the scene.

By default, Maya optimizes the tessellation settings for surfaces by:
■ Storing (caching) geometry information to reduce the amount of memory

used.
■ Tessellating identical surfaces only once to save time and disk space.
■ Reusing tessellation for the generation of depth maps.
■ Calculating the bounding box scale that you define for all
displacement-mapped surfaces to make rendering faster.
For more information on tessellation, see Introduction to Tessellation and

Approximation on page 39.
You can turn these optimization settings on or off in the Memory and
Performance Options section of the Render Settings window on page 376.
For tesselation settings for mental ray for Maya, see Approximation on page
181.
Set raytracing
Though raytracing quality is set by the options in the Raytracing Quality

section of the Render Settings window on page 376 (see Set raytracing quality
on page 96), you can set scene optimization options in the Memory and
Performance Options section of the Render Settings window on page 376.
For more information on raytracing, see Raytraced shadows in the Lighting
guide.
Set multiple processors
You can control the number of processors for interactive rendering. To render
with multiple processors, see Network render with Maya software on page 171.
Set IPR options

You can control which elements are included in IPR renders in the IPR Options
section of the Render Settings window on page 376.
For more information IPR renders, see Interactive Photorealistic Rendering
(IPR) on page 47.

Set Paint Effects rendering options
See Paint Effects Rendering Options in the Paint Effects, Artisan, and 3D Paint
guide.
Set per-material vector rendering options

You can control the following attributes on a per-material basis when vector
rendering:
■ Fill Object
■ Edge Weight Presets
■ Edge Weight
■ Edge Style
■ Edge Color
■ Hidden Edges
For more information on the above attributes, see Render Settings: Maya
Vector tab on page 459.
■ Hidden Edges On Transparent
■ Outlines At Intersections
■ Edge Priority
For more information on the above attributes, see Vector Renderer Control
on page 515.
NOTE These attributes are only available on the following material nodes:
Anisotropic, Blinn, Lambert, Phong, and Phong E.
You can find these attributes in the Vector Renderer Control section in the
Attribute Editor for the material node (for example, phong1).
To set vector rendering material attributes
1 Select the object with the material for which you want to set vector
rendering attributes.

2 In the Attribute Editor, select the material node, (for example, blinn1).
3 Open the Vector Renderer Control section.
4 Turn on Overwrite Default Values.
5 Adjust the attributes as required.
Work with render layers
Work with layers

To create an empty layer
■ Click Create new empty layer icon in the Render Layer editor.
■ Select Layers > Create Empty Layer.
If this is the first layer you created, the Master layer will also become
visible.
To create a new layer with selected objects as members
1 Select your objects, and do one of the following:
■ Click the Create new layer and assign selected objects icon in
the Layer editor.
■ Select Layers > Create Layer from Selected.

To select all objects in a layer

■ Right-click the layer and select Select Objects in Layer.
■ Select the layer or layers in the Layer Editor and select Layers > Select
Objects in Selected Layers.
To add objects to a layer
1 Select the object(s). You may need to do so on the Master layer, where
all objects are present.
2 Right-click the layer to which you want to add the objects and select Add
Selected Objects.
To remove objects from a layer
1 Select the object(s).

■ Right-click the layer from which you want to remove the objects and
select Remove Selected Objects.
■ Select the layer or layers from which you want to remove the objects
and select Layers > Remove Selected Objects from Selected Layers.
To remove all objects from (empty) a layer
1 Right-click a layer and select Empty Render Layer from the menu that
appears.
To get details of layer membership

■ Right-click a layer and select Membership.
■ Select a layer and select Layers > Membership.
To delete one or more layers

■ Right-click the layer you want to delete and select Delete Layer.
Work with render layers | 101

■ Select the layer or layers you want to delete and select Layers > Delete
Selected Layers.
You can also delete unused layers by selecting Layers > Delete Unused
Layers.
Work with layer overrides
To override materials and shaders on a per layer basis: method 1
1 In the Render Layer editor, select a layer.
2 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade.
3 Select a material from Hypershade, or create a new material, and assign

by right-clicking and choosing Assign Material Override from the marking
menu.
This creates a material and assignment that will override all shader
assignments to objects on the current layer.
1 You can also override materials and shaders on a per layer basis by
right-clicking on a layer in the Render Layer editor and selecting Overrides
> Create New Material Override or Assign Existing Material Override from
the menu that appears.

You do not need to have a layer selected to use the context-sensitive
menu; right-clicking an unselected layer still allows you to override its
materials.
1 Select a material from Hypershade, or create a new material. To assign

this material to the layer, middle-drag the material swatch over the layer.

To remove a material override
1 Right-click on the layer, and select Overrides >Remove Material Override

from the menu that appears.
To override layer attributes (render flags) on a per layer basis
2 Open the Attribute editor by right-clicking on a layer and choosing

Attributes from the menu that appears.
The Member Overrides section of the layer attributes appears.
3 Click a render check box (for example, turn off Motion Blur, turn off Cast
Shadows, or assign a shading group to all objects in that layer).
When a layer override is applied, the flag icon for that layer appears in
color (red) .
To override render settings, including the renderer, on a per layer basis
2 Open the Render Settings; for example, by clicking the controls (render
settings) icon on a layer, or select Window > Rendering Editors >
Render Settings.
3 Right-click on a setting name and choose Create Layer Override from the
menu that appears.

The settings you can override on a per-layer basis include: Render Using,
Edge Anti-Aliasing, Size Units, and Resolution Units.
When a render setting override is applied, the clapboard icon on the layer
appears in color (orange) .
To remove a render flag override
1 Right-click on the layer, and select Overrides >Remove Render Flag

Overrides from the menu that appears.
To remove a render setting override
1 Right-click on the layer, and select Overrides > Remove Render Setting
Overrides from the menu that appears.
NOTE You cannot create overrides on the Master layer: any change you
make to render settings on the Master layer propagates to all layers that
derive from it.
Remove material overrides from objects in any

render layer
You can remove any material overrides you created on a render layer and
revert back to the material shader used in the master layer.
To remove a material override from an object in a render layer: method 1
1 In the Render Layer Editor, select the render layer in which you want to
remove a material override.
2 In the scene view, right-click the object and select Remove Material
Override. A list of material overrides for the selected layer appears in the
menu.
3 Select the material override that you want to remove.

To remove a material override from an object in a render layer: method 2
1 Open the Hypershade (Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade) to

see the material swatch for the material override that you wish to remove.
2 Right-click the material swatch and select Remove Material Override

From. The menu lists all objects in the layer that use the material override.
3 Select from the list the object for which you want to remove the material
override.

If a material is currently not used as a material override, the menu displays
"There are no objects with override" when you right-click a material
swatch and select Remove Material Override From.
TIP The contents of the menu are also useful if you need to query whether
a material has been used as an override, or the names of the objects for which
it has been assigned as an override.

Assign different component shading for each
render layer
You can now assign different component shading groups for each of your
render layers. Assume, for example that you have a plane on both layer one
and layer two. In layer one, you can now assign half of its faces to a white
shader and half of its faces to a black shader. Then, in layer two, you can assign
half of its faces to a green shader and half of its faces to a red shader.

To assign different component shading for each render layer
1 Select a render layer for which you wish to assign component shading.
2 Right-click the object and select Face to convert to Face mode.
3 Select the components for which you wish to assign a shading group.
4 Right-click and select Assign New Material or Assign Existing Material to

assign a shading group for the selected components.
5 Select the second render layer for which you want to assign component
shading.
6 Right-click the object and select Face to convert to Face mode.

In this layer, you can assign component shading groups that are different
from the first layer.
Work with attribute overrides

All attributes can be overridden on a per-layer basis. Some types of attributes,
specifically those applying to Shading Groups and Member Overrides (Render
Stats), automatically create layer overrides when you make changes. Other
attributes require you to manually specify that you’re making per-layer
overrides.
To change an object’s material on a per layer basis (auto-overrides)
2 Select the object whose material assignment you want to change.
3 Assign a new material just as you would any new material assignment
(for example, right-click and select Assign New Material from the marking
menus). Set the attributes of the material.
4 Switch between the selected layer and any other layer and watch the
material assignment on the object change in the Scene view.
The material assignment on the object applies to the selected layer when
Options > Auto Overrides is on. The material assignment applies to the Master
layer (and therefore, all objects that are not otherwise overridden) when
Options > Auto Overrides is off.

NOTE Layer overrides are less costly in terms of processing time than per-object
overrides. For example, if you select all objects in a layer and override each object’s
material assignments by assigning a Lambert shader to them in the scene view,
this requires considerably more processing time than creating a material override
on the layer that assigns a Lambert shader.
To override an attribute on a per layer basis (auto-overrides)
2 Open the Attribute editor.
3 In the Member Overrides section of a shape, click an option (for example,

Casts Shadows).
The attribute name appears in orange and bold type, indicating that a
per-layer override has been made.
The change to the attributes of the Member Overrides applies to the selected
layer when Options > Auto Overrides is on. The attribute change applies to
the Master layer (and therefore, all objects that are not otherwise overridden)
if Options > Auto Overrides is off. You can do a manual override if Auto
Overrides is off for Member Overrides. See the following procedure.
To override an attribute on a per layer basis (manual override)
2 Open the Attribute editor.
3 Click the tab for the particular node whose attribute you want to override
(for example, the lambert1 material).
4 Right-click the attribute you want to override (for example, Transparency)

and select Create Layer Override from the menu that appears.
The name of the attribute appears in italic and orange text, indicating
that it has been overridden on the particular layer.

If you switch between layers, you see the scene view change, showing a
transparent override to the object in one layer, and the default shader
assignment in another layer.
To remove an attribute override
1 Right-click the attribute whose override you want to remove and select
Remove Layer Override from the menu that appears.
Preview layers
By default, the Render View will show you a composited view of all layers in
your scene with your specified blend modes. You can override this default by
changing the value of Render > Render All Layers in the Render View, or
Options > Render All Layers in the Render Layer editor.
You can choose to only show specified layers or to only show the selected
layer in the Render View.
As well, you can choose to keep all images that make up the composited Render
view, or simply render a single composited image.
To preview render layers in the Render View
1 To view all your layers composited with the specified blend mode settings,
turn on Render All Layers in the Options menu of the Render Layer editor
or the Render menu of the Render View.
2 By default, a composited result of all layers is shown in the Render View.
3 To view all your layers rendered as individual images, change the Render
All Layers option (Options > Render All Layers > ) from Composite
Layers to Composite and Keep Layers, or just Keep Layers.
NOTE Using Keep Layers significantly increases memory usage in Maya.

Consecutive use populates the Render View with more and more images.
You must clear out images manually as needed.

4 To preview the composite of only some layers, turn on Render All Layers,
and turn off the Rendering flag on the layers you want to exclude (click
on the R icon next to the layer name).
5 To preview a particular layer, select it and make sure the Render All Layers
option is turned off.
As well, the command-line render supports layers. When you use the -r file
flag during a command-line render, each layer will be rendered with the
renderer specified in the file. For more information, see Batch and
command-line render with layers on page 116.
Layer blend modes
To set blending modes for layers
1 Select a layer.
2 Choose a layer blend from the drop-down menu at the top of the Render
layer editor.
As you activate individual layers, you'll see the layer blend mode change.
The following examples show a very simple scene: three spheres colored red,
green, and blue, with a small plane in front casting a shadow.
The spheres are in the foreground and are rendered with various blend modes
against a white, gray and black background.

Maya supports the following render layer blend modes:
Blend mode Description Example
Normal The foreground tex-

ture is applied like a
decal to the back-
ground. The shape of
the decal is determ-
ined by the fore-
ground alpha.
Lighten Uses whichever pixel

in the rendered layer
is lighter as the result-
ing color.

Darken Uses whichever pixel

in the rendered layer
is darker as the result-
ing color.
Multiply Multiplies the com-

posited render's color
by the rendered layer
color. The resulting
color is always a
darker color. Multiply-
ing any color with
black (value of 0)
produces black. Mul-
tiplying any color
with white (value of
1) leaves the color
unchanged.
Screen Multiplies the inverse

of the rendered layer
and the composited
layers colors. The res-
ulting color is always
a lighter color.
Screening with black
leaves the color un-
changed. Screening
with white produces
white.

Overlay Multiplies the colors,

depending on the
composited color.
Patterns or colors
overlay the existing
pixels while pre-
serving the highlights
and shadows of the
base color. The base
color is mixed with
the rendered layer
color to represent the
lightness or darkness
of the original color.
NOTE If you use any other render layer blend modes, the preview results may not
be what you expect; however, the results may be helpful for determining layer
priority and other layering factors.
Render layers to PSD format

You can render all layers to Adobe Photoshop (PSD) format.
A PSD file is created during a render with each layer in your scene as a separate
layer in this PSD file and with all blending modes specified as they were
specified in the Maya file. When you open this file in Adobe Photoshop, each
render layer in your Maya scene will have a corresponding layer and blend
mode in the PSD.
The PSD file is rendered directly to the image directory of your project and
not in a subdirectory.
To render to PSD layer file format
1 In the Common tab of the Render Settings, select PSD layered (psd) from
the Image Format list.

You can open the PSD file created in Adobe Photoshop.
Batch and command-line render with layers

Batch and command-line rendering interacts with render layers. Read this
section to learn how they work together.
How frames are rendered with render layers on the command-line
When command-line rendering in previous versions of Maya, each render

layer of a frame was rendered before moving on to the next frame.
In order to properly support the use of different renderers with different layers
in Maya 8, rendering from the command line (render) renders all frames of

a particular layer before moving on to the next layer, as seen in the following
diagram.
Previous render behavior is shown by the dashed arrows; current render

behavior is show with the green arrows. Layers are rendered in the order they
appear in the layer manager.
This may have an impact on dispatchers and other render managers because
scripts that are triggered by completion of a particular frame won’t be triggered
until the last layer is being rendered.
NOTE The frame/layer order of processing in batch and command line is required
for maximum efficiency. Switching layers has an impact on render processing due
to the need to update all the attribute overrides.
To render all layers in the command-line renderer
1 At a Command Prompt, Terminal window, or shell, type the following:

render -r file <filename>
The batch renderer will use the specified renderers in the file per-layer to
render the scene.
Additionally, the -rl flag specifies which layer to render.
For example, Render -r file -rl layer1 <filename> renders layer1
with the renderer specified in layer1; Render -r sw -rl layer1
<filename> renders layer1 with the software renderer, no matter what
renderer is specified in the file.

NOTE
The default renderer is the Maya software renderer.
When no renderer option is specified when using the render command,
Maya uses a renderer called default. When Maya is installed, the software
renderer specification is copied to default. If you want to change the
default renderer (for example, to use the file renderer, which renders
the scene based on the renderer specified in each render layer), copy:
<Maya directory>/bin/rendererDesc/fileRenderer.xml
to
<Maya directory>/bin/rendererDesc/defaultRenderer.xml
Duplicate an existing render layer

You can duplicate any layer in your Maya scene.
You can use this feature to create two layers that are similar with only minor
differences. For example, use this feature if you want to have two identical
layers, but with raytracing turned on for one layer and turned off for the other.
With this feature, you do not need to create the two layers independently -
you only need to create one layer and duplicate it. This eliminates the need
to reassign objects, materials and attributes in order to create the second layer.
There are two options available with this feature:
■ You can choose to copy both the objects and render layer properties (e.g.
material overrides, render stats) to the new layer; or
■ You can choose to copy only the objects to the new layer and create new
overrides for the duplicated layer.
To duplicate an existing render layer
1 From the Render Layer Editor, select the layer that you wish to copy.
2 Select Layers > Copy Layer >
3 Select one of the two Copy Layer mode. To create an exact duplication
of the selected layer, including objects and render layer properties, select

With Membership and Overrides. To carry over only objects, select With
Membership.
Naming render layers

The filename for the rendered image of each layer can be customized using
the workflow as follows.
To name your render layers
1 From the Render Layer Editor, select the layer that you wish to name.
2 Open the Render Settings window (Window > Rendering Editors > Render
Settings).
3 Click on the Common tab. Under the File Output section, right-click the
File Name Prefix attribute and select Create Layer Override.
4 Enter the desired filename for the selected render layer.

After the image is rendered, the image output for the selected layer will
be saved under the filename as entered.
Recycling rendered images to save time

If you have a Maya scene with more than one render layer, you can recycle
the rendered image for the layers that are done. This saves rendering time by
eliminating the need to re-render layers that you can reuse.
You can use this feature in one of the following scenarios:
1 If, for example, you have five layers in your scene, and 4 of them are fine
but 1 layer still needs work.
In this case, you can keep the render output for the four layers that are
fine, and only re-render the one layer that is in progress. This greatly
reduces rendering time as compared to re-rendering all five layers.
2 All of your layers are fine, but you need to re-order them in the
composition.
3 All of your layers are fine, but you need to change the blend operator for
one or more layers (e.g. changed the mode of your shadow pass from
Normal to Darken).

In the second and third cases, you can keep the render output for all
layers. A render that only reorders layers and composites them is much
faster in comparison to re-rendering every layer in your scene again.
To recycle render output for one or more layers
1 Render a layer. Its recycle icon changes from grey to red.
2 Click the layer you want to keep. Click the recycle icon to toggle it
from red to green. The last rendered output image for this layer will be
reused and this layer will not be re-rendered.
Repeat for all layers whose render output you want to recycle.
NOTE
■ The recycle icon is grey until the layer has been rendered at least once.
A green recycle icon saves the rendered image and allows for faster
re-compositing while a red recycle icon will force re-rendering prior
to compositing.
■ Render output is only held in memory for your current session of

Maya. Any render output is lost after you quit the current session of
Maya.
Control visibility/reflection per layer

You may want to have a render layer that contains only reflections and
refractions of an object, but have the object not be visible on that layer. The
primary visibility attribute in the Render Stats allows an object to reflect and
refract, but the object itself does not render.
To do so, both the visible objects and the hidden objects (the objects for which
you wish to show reflection and refraction) must belong to the same layer.
To hide an object but show its reflections and refractions
1 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Layer Editor.
2 In the Render Layer Editor on page 367, select the layer on which you
want to hide the object(s).

3 Select the object. The Attribute Editor with the selected object’s attributes
appears.
4 Uncheck Primary Visibility in the Render Stats section of the object’s

shape node. The Primary Visibility attribute turns orange, indicating that
visibility is overridden on this layer.
Related topics
■ Render Layer Editor on page 367
■ Render Stats on page 511

Merging display layers or render layers when
importing files
When you import a file into Maya, you can merge the display layers or render
layers from the imported file into your current scene. You can merge layers
of the same name or of the same index number.
For example, if you choose to merge display layers by name, then all objects
on the layer named MyLayer of the imported file will be merged with objects
on the layer named MyLayer of your current scene. The merged layer will
retain its name MyLayer.
To merge display/render layers by layer name
1 Ensure that the layers that you wish to merge share the same layer name.
Click on the Display/Render radio button in the Render Layer Editor to
view the desired layers.
To change the layer name, double-click the layer for the Edit Layer dialog
box to appear.
2 Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences, click the Files/Projects

category, and in the Display Layer section (or Render Layer section), select
By Name.
3 Import the file by selecting File > Import.
To merge display/render layers by layer number
1 Ensure that the layers that you wish to merge share the same layer index
number.
Click on the Display/Render radio button in the Render Layer Editor to
view the desired layers.
To edit the layer index number, right-click the desired layer and select
Attributes from the right-mouse menu to display the display/render layer’s
Attribute Editor. Enter the layer number in the Number attribute.
2 Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences, click the Files/Projects

category, and in the Display Layer section (or Render Layer section), select
By number.
3 Import the file by selecting File > Import.

Related topics
■ Display Layer of the Basics guide.
■ Render Layer of the Basics guide
Visualize a scene
Visualize interactively with IPR

Maya software only.
When you drag a marquee (render region) around the entire scene or part of
the scene, the IPR image begins to update. If you change lights, shadows,
materials, textures, and post processes (special effects) such as glow and fog,
you can see the results of your changes interactively.
For detailed information on IPR rendering, see Interactive Photorealistic
Rendering (IPR) on page 47.
NOTE The amount of memory used during an IPR session may be considerable.
The upper-right corner of Render View displays how much memory is being used
for the current IPR tuning region.
To visualize scene adjustments interactively

■ Click the scene view you want to render, then click the IPR Render
button (from the Status Line or from within Render View if it is open).
The scene appears in Render View, and an IPR image is created.
■ To load an existing IPR file, select File > Open IPR File..., then select
the file.
2 Marquee select a region within the IPR rendered image in Render View.
NOTE You must select a region to adjust before you start to modify rendering
attributes. The region you select determines the amount of memory required
by IPR to re-render the adjusted region.
Visualize a scene | 123

3 Adjust the scene, for example, add lights or modify materials and texture
attributes.
The selected region of the IPR image updates as you adjust the scene.
■ To render another view instead, select IPR > IPR Render in Render
View and select a view from the drop-down list.
■ If you change the view (such as tumble or zoom, or add new elements
to the scene) and want to update the result, click the Redo Previous
IPR Render icon in Render View or from the Render menu in Maya’s
main menu bar.
■ If you only want to change certain elements such as lighting or

textures and do not change the view, simply drag a marquee around
the object or part of the object you want to update. The results in
Render View are immediate.
TIP After you marquee select a region, you can drag materials and textures
onto objects within the region, just as you can make connections by
dragging swatches from Hypershade onto surfaces in the views.
Pause, cancel or save an IPR render
To pause an IPR render
1 Press the pause button.
To cancel an IPR render
1 Press Esc.
The IPR render stops. You cannot adjust a cancelled IPR Render; you must
perform a complete IPR Render to adjust a region.

To save an IPR file
1 Select File > Save IPR File.... The Save IPR File window displays. Type the
name of the file and click Save.
NOTE Because an IPR file saves the deep raster information in addition to
the visible color information, an IPR file can be very large. Ensure you have
sufficient disk space.
Batch render IPR files
You can batch render IPR files from the command line.
For more information about batch rendering or command line rendering, see
Batch renders from within Maya (UI) on page 52 and Render from a command
line on page 53.
To batch render IPR files
1 In a shell or command line, type:

Render -r sw -ipr true <scene>
See Render from the command line in the Rendering Utilities guide for
information and flags about batch rendering from the command line.
NOTE
■ You cannot batch render IPR files from within Maya.
■ Batch rendering to produce IPR files is not multi-threaded.

See shading and lights in a scene view
Hardware texturing, a Maya feature that you can easily turn on or off, lets you
to see approximations textures, lights and objects in your scene in a scene
view.
What you see depends directly on the settings you make in the Render Settings
window on page 376 and per-object settings you change. What you see is not
necessarily what appears in the final render, but it gives you a good idea.
NOTE If you are using a file texture that uses MirrorUV and the resolution of the
hardware rendered texture in the scene view appears degraded, use the following
environment variable:
MAYA_HW_FILE_TEXTURE_RESOLUTION_OVERRIDE
TIP To see the resolution boundaries in the scene view, turn on the Resolution
Gate. For more information, see Turn scene view guidelines on or off on page 24.
To see textures, lights, and objects in a view port
1 In the scene view, select Shading > Smooth Shade All.
2 Select Shading > Hardware Texturing (or press the hotkey 6).
3 Do any of the following (optional):

■ To use all lights in the scene, select Lighting > Use All Lights (or press
the hotkey 7).

■ To see a more accurate preview result (which may take a little longer),
adjust the Hardware Texturing attributes in the object’s material’s
Attribute Editor.
NOTE When you play an animation with just Hardware Texturing turned
on, each of the necessary file textures are read in one at a time and the
animation speed is choppy.
Use Interactive Sequence Caching Options to load file textures into
memory only once for faster interactive animation (but this uses a lot
of memory).
Test render a low-res still or frame

The time Maya takes to software render a scene is directly proportional to the
resolution: the larger the resolution, the more time it takes.
If you want to get a feel for the final rendered look quickly, you can render
of a still image or single frame of an animation. Typically, a resolution half
to a quarter of the size lets you get a good feel for the software rendered look.
NOTE To ensure the best quality display of your rendered image, select the 1:1
(the real size) option in Render View before you render.
To test render a still image
1 From Render View (Window > Rendering Editors > Render View), click
Options > Test Resolution, then select a resolution.
2 Select the camera view you want to render from the Render > Render
submenu.
Maya renders the scene and displays the image as it renders in Render
View.
■ To cancel the render, press Esc.
■ To re-render the frame, select Render > Redo Previous Render.

Test render a low-res animation
If you want to get a feel for the final rendered look quickly, you can render
of an entire animation (or a few selected frames) at a lower resolution.
Typically, a resolution half to a quarter of the size lets you get a good feel for
the software rendered look. (As you get closer to achieving the final look
during an animation, test render a few specific frames at the final resolution
too.)
To test render an animation with command line rendering
1 From a shell or command line, type:

Render -r <renderer> <options> <scene>
using the following options:
-s <start_frame> The first frame of the animation to render.
-e <end_frame> The last frame of the animation to render.
-b <by_frame> The increment between frames to render.
-x <image_x_resolution> The horizontal resolution of the rendered

images.
-y <image_y_resolution> The vertical resolution of the rendered im-

ages.
For example, if an animation begins at frame 1 and ends at frame 100,

and the final image resolution is 640 x 480, and you want to test render
with Maya software the animation by rendering every ten frames, type:
Render -r sw -s 1 -e 100 -b 10
If you want to test render the animation by rendering with mental ray
for Maya every frame at half the final resolution, type:
Render -r mr -s 1 -e 100 -b 1 -x 320 -y 240
For a complete list of Render options, in a shell or command line, type:
Render -r <renderer> -help

Render selected objects
TIP Render at 1:1 resolution for fastest feedback.
You can isolate specific objects to render. Note that when using IPR rendering,
you must perform another IPR render before you can see the effect of this
change.
To render selected surfaces
1 Select the objects you want to render.
2 In the Render View window, select Render>Render Selected Objects Only.
3 Render the scene.
TIP You can display a wireframe snapshot of your scene to use as a guide to
select a region of your scene to render.
In Render View, select Render > Snapshot > and select the camera (view)
you want to capture.

Render a region of your scene
Render View lets you render a specific portion of your scene at any resolution
so that you can get a feel for the changes you make as you shade, light, and
texture objects.
Unlike rendering at a lower resolution, a process which reduces the size of the
entire image, rendering a region can help you make changes more efficiently
and quickly to the specific regions of interest at full resolution.
TIP If you turn on Auto Render Region (Options > Auto Render Region), the
changes you make appear as you draw the marquee anywhere in Render View.
Only the marqueed area of the surface re-renders showing the results of the
adjustment.
To render a region of your scene
1 Marquee select the area that you want to render in Render View.
2 If there is no representation of your scene in Render View for you to

marquee select Render > Snapshot > and select the camera (view) you
want to capture.
3 Click the Render region button or select Render > Render Region.

Perform final renders from within Maya
Render a single frame

When you render or re-render a single frame from Maya’s main window, the
render appears in Render View. For more information about using Render
View, see Render View rendering on page 52.
The image is automatically saved to the images directory of the current project.
TIP Render at 1:1 resolution for fastest feedback.
NOTE Navigation in the Render View panel is like most other Maya view panels.
You can zoom and track the view using the same keyboard shortcuts.
To render a frame from within Maya
1 From the main Maya window, click the Render Current Frame button,
or select Render > Render Current Frame.
Maya renders the scene from the current scene and displays the image
as it renders in Render View.
To cancel an in-progress render, press Esc.
To re-render a frame from within Maya
1 From the main Maya window, select Render > Redo Previous Render.
Maya renders the scene from the previous camera and displays the image
as it renders in the Render View window.
To cancel the render
1 Press Esc.
Batch render a still or animation
NOTE By default, Maya renders the current frame of your scene. To render an
animation, you must specify the start and end frames of the animation you want
to render in the Render Settings window on page 376.
Perform final renders from within Maya | 131

On Linux, you can select a remote host on which to render the current scene.
To batch render from within Maya

■ ClickRender > Batch Renderto batch render.
■ To cancel the render, click Render > Cancel Batch Render
■ To show the image being rendered, click Render > Show Batch Render.
NOTE
■ To set batch render options, select Render > Batch Render > to
open the Batch Render window. For a description of the batch
render options, see Render > Batch Render > .
■ When using the Maya Batch Renderer on a remote machine the

User Account information (i.e. username) must be consistent
between the machines to ensure that User Authentication will
function correctly.
Render with several processors

You can render a scene on a computer that has more than one processor and
make use of some or all of its available processors.
NOTE We recommend that you use a single processor when batch rendering a
scene that contains a spotlight, material transparency, and raytrace shadows.
To render on a computer with several processors from within Maya
1 From the Maya window, select Render > Batch Render > .
The Batch Render Frame window displays.
2 To use all available processors on your computer for rendering, turn on

Use all available processors.
3 To use only some of the available processors on your computer for

rendering, turn off Use all available processors and set Number of
Processors to Use to the number of processors you want to use.

4 Click Batch Render.
Maya renders the animation.
To render on a computer with several processors from a shell or command

line (Maya software rendering only)
1 Type:
Render -r sw -n <# of processors to render on> <scene>
(If you do not use the -n option, only one processor is used for rendering.)
Examples (for Maya software rendering only):
■ To use one processor for rendering, type:

Render <scene>
■ To use two processors for rendering, type:

Render -n 2 <scene>
■ To use all processors on your computer for rendering, type:

Render -n 0 <scene>
Perform command line rendering
Command line rendering

Your scene file determines whether you render a single frame or an animation.
You can render from a shell or a command line. Before rendering, you may
want to close all applications, including Maya, to maximize the amount of
memory available for rendering.
When you render from a command line, you can set flags that override some
of the Render Settings, saving time during test renders.
For more information, see Render from the command line in the Rendering
Utilities guide.
To get quick renderer-specific information
1 Type:
Render -r rendername -help
Perform command line rendering | 133

where rendername is the name of the renderer.
Use the following options:
■ mr = mental ray
■ sw = software renderer
■ hw = hardware renderer
■ vr = vector renderer
■ file = the file within which the renderer is specified
NOTE If you get help on a file (-r file -help), only the flags common to
all renderers, not a specific renderer, are shown. If you want
renderer-specific information, you must specify the renderer.
All flags have a short description. Each flag corresponds to the appropriate
section of the Render Settings window. See the Render Settings documentation
for more detailed information on each option.
To obtain a complete list of command line Render options, from a shell or

command line
1 Type:
Render -help
To render a scene with a specific renderer from a shell or command line
1 Type:
Render -r <renderername> <options> scene
TIP You may need to provide the -proj flag when issuing the render
command to specify where the scene file is located. For example, type:
Render <options> <projName> scene -proj
To render a scene with the renderer specified in the file from a shell or
command line
1 Whichever renderer is specified in the file is used to render the scene.

Type:

Render -r file
To batch render using user-defined region rendering
1 Use the -reg flag. For example:

render -r mr -reg 0 100 0 100 scene.ma
where -reg 0 100 0 100 indicates the region to be rendered in pixels
(left, right, bottom, top).
The above command renders the lower left 100 x100 pixel region of the
scene.
Render multiple scenes
Render multiple scenes

You can either write a batch script that starts renders in succession or use a
third-party management solution.
Work with the Compositing Interoperability plug-in
Work with Autodesk Toxik 2007

The Compositing Interoperability plug-in allows you to export information
from your Maya scene to Autodesk Toxik 2007. The Compositing
Interoperability plug-in includes Maya menu extensions for Autodesk Toxik
2007. When you load the plug-in, a Toxik-specific menu item appears in the
Maya Render menu.
Using this plug-in, you can generate a preliminary Toxik composition from
within Maya based on the render layers in your scene. The compositing graph
includes the associated image sequence filenames, Maya blend modes and
layer-specific render settings.You can export all the layers in your scene, or
selected layers. This allows you the flexibility to export all the layers in your
scene, and then make changes and export only the changed layers if necessary.
You can work in one of two output modes: Export Toxik IMSQ File, or Update
Toxik. If you are not running Toxik on the same machine that Maya is running
Render multiple scenes | 135

on, use the Export Toxik IMSQ File mode, which allows you to save the Toxik
script and run it on the machine where Toxik resides. If you are running Toxik
and Maya on the same machine, you can work in the Update Toxik mode,
which automatically updates the Toxik database and makes the Toxik
composition available immediately. To work in Update Toxik mode, Python
2.4 is required. For more information on Python, see http://www.python.org.
NOTE
■ You must use image file formats that are supported by Toxik. See the Toxik
user documentation for more information on supported file formats.
■ When exporting to Toxik, you should render the layers in your scene to
the same Maya project directory because the Compositing Interoperability
plug-in expects each layer to have the same base path.
Limitations
Update Toxik mode limitation
The first time you export a scene from Maya, one Toxik image sequence
composition is created for each render layer. In addition, a master Toxik
composition is created, which references the Toxik image sequence
compositions.
When you export the scene from Maya again, the Toxik image sequence
compositions are updated but the master Toxik composition is not. As a result,
each image sequence composition contains a new published result, which is
not reflected in the master Toxik composition.
You can use the following procedure to recreate the master Toxik composition.
This is useful in some cases where:
■ The Maya scene has changed significantly (due to blend mode changes,
new layers, and layer shuffling, for example).
■ You need to start a new master Toxik composition.
To update an existing master Toxik composition
1 Close the existing master Toxik composition in Toxik (if it is open).
2 In Maya, select one of the following:
■ Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 > .

■ Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 > .
The corresponding options dialog box appears.
3 Enter one of the following in the Python Script Arguments field:

■ -r
■ --recreate
4 Click Export.
Your existing master Toxik composition is updated, as well as each Toxik
image sequence composition.
5 Remove the -r or --recreate argument from the Python Script Arguments

field before exporting again.
To update Toxik
1 Load the compositingInterop plug-in from the Maya Plug-in Manager

(see, Load or unload Maya plug-ins).
2 If you are exporting selected layers in your scene, select them from the
Render Layer Editor (see Render Layer Editor on page 367).
4 Adjust the Toxik User Settings and Toxik Scene Settings options as
necessary. For information on these options see Render > Export All Layers
to Toxik 2007 on page 334.
5 In the Output Settings > Output Mode, select Update Toxik.
6 In the Python Location field, enter the path to the executable file for
Python (python.exe), or click the Browse button to select it.
7 Click Export.
Your Toxik database is automatically updated with the exported
information, and you can view the corresponding graph within Toxik.
Work with the Compositing Interoperability plug-in | 137

IMPORTANT
■ To work in Update Toxik mode, Python 2.4 is required. For more
information on Python, see http://www.python.org.
■ The Update Toxik mode is only available on platforms supported by

Toxik. See the Toxik user documentation for more information on
supported platforms.
To save a Toxik script
1 Load the compositingInterop plug-in from the Maya Plug-in Manager

(see, Load or unload Maya plug-ins).
2 If you are exporting selected layers in your scene, select them from the
Render Layer Editor (see Render Layer Editor on page 367).
4 Adjust the Toxik User Settings, Toxik Scene Settings and Output Settings
options as necessary. For information on these options see Render >
Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 on page 334.
5 In the Output Settings > Output Mode, select Export Toxik IMSQ File.
6 In the File Name field, type a name for the output. By default the output
file is stored in your project directory; however, you can click the Browse
button to specify an alternate location for the file.
7 Click Export.
The output file is created and placed in the specified directory (by default,
this is your Maya - Project - Default directory).
8 Run the saved script on the machine where Toxik is installed:

On Windows, in the Autodesk Toxik 2007 DOS command shell, enter
the following:
c:\python24\python "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\bin\
toxik-maya-import.py" path\toxikComp.imsq -toxikPath "C:\Program
Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Toxik 2007" -tempPath %TEMP%

On Linux, in Tcsh, enter the following:
source /opt/Autodesk/Autodesk_Toxik-2007/bin/toxik-env.csh
then enter:
python_t /usr/autodesk/Maya2009/bin/toxik-maya-import.py
path/toxikComp.imsq -toxikPath "/opt/Autodesk/ Autodesk Toxik
2007" -tempPath /var/tmp
Work with Autodesk Toxik 2008

The Toxik 2008 Export feature allows you to export information from your
Maya scene to Autodesk Toxik. Unlike Toxik 2007, which requires that you
install the compositingInterop plug-in, the Toxik 2008 Export feature is
automatically loaded into Maya.Using Toxik 2008, you can generate a Toxik
project file from within Maya based on the render layers in your scene. The
compositing graph includes the associated image sequence filenames, Maya
blend modes and layer-specific render settings.
■ You must use image file formats that are supported by Toxik. For example,
you must avoid using the name.ext.# image file format, as this file format
is not compatible with Toxik. Instead, rendered image sequences should
be named with the file extension listed last, for example, name.#.ext. This
is necessary for Toxik 2008 to recognize the sequence. See the Toxik user
documentation for more information on supported file formats.
■ When exporting to Toxik, you should render the layers in your scene to
the same Maya project directory because the Toxik 2008 Export plug-in
expects each layer to have the same base path.
To export a scene to Toxik 2008
1 Ensure that you have set a project for your scene file. Within the
project, there must be a scenes folder. By doing so, the exported Toxik
project file will be saved to the scenes folder by default. You may also
enter an Images folder to which your sequences will be stored.
2 Batch render your scene in Maya and ensure that the rendered image
sequences are named with the file extension listed last, for example,
name.#.ext.
3 Select Render> Render toToxik 2008 > . The Export All Renderable
Layers to Toxik Options dialog box appears.
Work with the Compositing Interoperability plug-in | 139

4 You may leave all fields blank with the exception of Toxik Install
Directory. By default, Maya will give the Toxik project file the same
name as your scene file and save it to the same folder as your scene
file. For example, if your scene file is myscene.ma, the corresponding
Toxik project file will be myscene.ma.txproject.
5 Select Export. Expect a pause as the scene file is exported to Toxik.
6 In Toxik, click on the Existing tab and locate your

myscene.ma.txproject file. Select Composition > Open to open the
file.
NOTE Do not simply select Render > Export to Toxik 2008 on page 336 without
selecting the option box.
Related topics
■ Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 on page 334
■ Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 on page 335
Troubleshooting Rendering
Troubleshoot image plane displays black swatch

An Image plane not connected to a camera displays black swatch. Once
connected to a camera, the swatch will function properly.
Troubleshoot displacement is not displayed

The Display render tessellation on page 517 option does not display
displacement mapping.
In the main Maya window, select Shading > Displacement to Polygon to
preview the effect of your tessellation and displacement together, then discard
the generated polygon object when you are finished previewing.

Troubleshoot software-rendered is too bright
By default, Point and Spot lights have no decay. Open the light’s Attribute
Editor and change the Decay Rate, or use Maya’s Decay Regions (for spot lights
only) to control the decay.
Troubleshoot Multi-UVs for NURBS don’t software

render
Multi-UVs defined for NURBS are currently not respected when software
rendering.
Troubleshoot NURBS surface does not appear

when rendering
If a NURBS surface is disconnected from its shading group, it will continue to
be drawn in shaded mode but will not appear when rendering. This is different
from polygon objects which will not appear in shaded mode in this situation.
Make sure that your NURBS surface is connected to its shading group, and
then try rendering again.
Troubleshoot rendered image doesn’t match

interactive window display
In rare cases, a rendered image may not match what is displayed in the
interactive window. This may be caused by different Dependency Graph
solutions if nodes are evaluated in a different order.
The most common occurrences are: renders that are divided among multiple
machines produce inconsistent results; an arbitrary frame within an animation
range is rendered alone; or rendering with motion blur produces different
results than rendering without motion blur.
Scene elements which may produce undesirable render matching include:
■ Any dependency graph cycle.
Troubleshooting Rendering | 141

■ Animated nodeState on any node.
■ Animated transform limits.
■ The multi-chain IK solver.
■ Expressions that modify values based on a previous value. For example:

tx = tx + 1.
■ Expressions that conditionally set values. For example: if (ty > 5) tx = ty.
■ Expressions that execute commands (or create or delete Maya nodes). For
example: sphere.
■ Particle/softbody solutions (because of timestep changes).
■ Geometry Constraint nodes (because they go to the point on the target

geometry that is closest to the current point).
■ Any constraint where the sum of the target weights is zero.
■ Aim, tangent, or normal constraint or lookAt nodes with the worldUpType

attribute set to None.
■ Aim, tangent, or normal constraint or lookAt nodes with the upVector

co-linear with the aimVector.
■ IK with an animated solverEnable value.
Workaround
The renderer can invoke a MEL procedure just before you render a frame. (You
specify this script in the Render Settings > Render Options > PreRender Mel
text field.) You can use this procedure to force evaluation at the intervening
skipped frames.
To use a MEL script
1 Put the MEL script (named preFrameProc.mel) in your Maya scripts

directory.
2 Under Render Settings > Render Options, type preFrameProc in the

PreRender Mel field.
If motion blur is on, you may need to bake the animation.

Troubleshoot projection texture swims over an
animation
Projection texture with useLocal, can swim over an animation.
Turn on Use Local on all upstream textures to work around this.
Troubleshoot transparent blobby surface rendering

anti-aliasing problem
With transparent blobby surface rendering, anti-aliasing may be poor, even
at the highest-quality settings. Such cases include intersecting transparent
blobby surfaces and transparent blobby surfaces behind transparent geometry.
To fix this, increase the number of Particles in the section Number of Samples
in theRender Settings.
Troubleshoot memory exceptions

On some 32-bit Windows machines virtual memory is restricted to 1.6 Gbs
(or thereabouts). It doesn't matter if you have hundreds of giga-bytes of
physical memory or swap, no process can grow larger than this size. Maya
may encounter a memory exception and report that there is still lots of
memory available.
Troubleshoot highlight artifacts close to object

edge
If you have tessellated an object with the Use Smooth Edge on page 330attribute
and you get artifacts in highlights along curved parts of the surface close to
an edge, don’t use this attribute. This caused the curvature in the surface to
be slightly different closer to the edge, which doesn’t work for strong
highlights.

Troubleshoot background surfaces show through
Especially in large scenes that have objects close together, background surfaces
may appear to show through nearby surfaces. This is a result of how the
camera’s clipping planes determine depth position of geometry. To fix this
problem, see Clipping planes on page 21.
Troubleshoot objects vibrate when an animation

is rendered as fields
For Maya software rendering only.
The settings you use for rendering images as fields may depend on the hardware
or software settings you are using with the images, and how they interlace
fields together (for example, the interlace utility, compositing software, or
frame buffer device). Before you render an animation as fields, perform a test
render and use the test rendered images through your entire post-production
process (see Batch render a still or animation on page 131 and Test render a
low-res animation on page 128).
Even though Maya automatically sets these options depending on whether
the Resolution is NTSC or PAL, if you encounter problems in the animation
where objects vibrate up and down, change the Zeroth Scanline setting and
test render the animation again. If this does not solve the problem, or if objects
in the animation vibrate left to right, try different combinations of Field
Dominance and Zeroth Scanline, and test render the animation until the
problem is solved.
Troubleshoot 2D Motion Blur problems

If dark halos display around the objects
Try the following:
■ Make sure the background color is black
■ Make sure Smooth > Color is turned on if there is fog in the scene.

Moving transparent objects with a background
The background is also blurred in this case even though it should not be. The
solution is to blur the transparent object separately and composite with the
rest of the scene. This workaround can be difficult for complex scenes with
lots of transparency, or for transparent particles.
Detailed background behind moving objects
Some details may be lost because assumptions must be made about the
background area occluded by the moving objects. The solution is to blur the
moving objects without the background and then composite the results.
Rotating objects
May not look exactly right, because assumptions about what the back sides
of these objects should look like must be made. Try using 3D motion blur.
Objects entering from outside the image or leaving the image
The edges of frames may not get the correct detail, because assumptions must
be made about the object color that is just outside a frame. The solution is to
render a slightly larger image which covers the original image and then crop
it to the desired size.
Rendered results from 3D and 2D are quite different
Try not to mix the rendered images from two different kinds of blurring
operations.
Tuning 2D motion blur with IPR
When tuning 2D motion blur with IPR, automatic updates are not always
done correctly. Tune an attribute of a material or light to force a correct update,
or marquee the tuning region to force an update.
2D motion blur artifacts
2D motion blur can cause artifacts when rendering in scenes with fog, or solid
objects in front of transparent ones, or if the background color is not black.

There are three possible workarounds:
■ Take out transparent objects, fog, glow, and background color from the
scene. Render the 2D blur and composite those elements back into the
scene.
■ Set the Smooth Value to 0. In the command line, this is -m 0. This solution
is to skip the smooth-mask operation. The image may look more aliased
as a result.
■ Turn on Smooth > Color. In the command line, this is -r 1. This solution
uses a different smoothing algorithm. The image may look more blurry as
a result.
Troubleshooting Surfaces (Maya software)

To fix faceted surface edges or profile

■ Run Set NURBS Tesselation.
■ Make sure Automatic is set in the Render > Set NURBS Tessellation
window.
■ Turn on Smooth Edge for the surface (or turn on Smooth Edge and
increase Smooth Edge Ratio).
■ Increase Curvature Tolerance for the surface and U Division Factor/

V Division Factor for the surface (to the lowest values that produce
acceptable results).
To fix aliased surface edges or profile (for Maya software and mental ray for
Maya)
1 If you do not plan to composite the rendered image, turn on Premultiply

in the Render options section of the Render Settings window on page 376.

To fix flickering thin surfaces (for Maya software only)
1 Do the following:
■ In the Render Settings window on page 376, turn on Use Multi Pixel
Filter.
■ Turn on Geometry Anti-aliasing Override for the surface, and increase

the Anti-aliasing Level (try 3, 4, or 5).
To fix flickering textures or popping displacements
1 For solid textures, make sure Use Min Screen is off for the surface and
Mode U and Mode V are not set to Best Guess Based on Screen Size.
For image file textures or textures with noise, Increase Filter Offset (to
the lowest value that produces acceptable results).
For image file textures, set Filter Type to Quadratic for the texture.
To fix outlines around 2D motion blurred surfaces (for Maya software only)
1 Do either of the following:

■ Remove transparent objects, fog, and, or glow, and set the background
color to black. Render the scene, then composite the elements you
removed with the rendered image.
■ In the Render Settings window on page 376, set Smooth Value to 0

and turn on Alpha/Color.

To fix grainy or flickering highlights (for Maya software only)

■ Make sure “Use Min Screen” is off for the surface and Mode U and
Mode V are not set to “Best Guess Based on Screen Size”.
■ Use a Blinn material instead of a Phong or PhongE material.
To fix jagged edges or jagged or sharp textures on motion blurred surfaces

(for Maya software only)
1 In the Anti-aliasing Quality section of the Render Settings window on

page 376, set Presets to 3D Motion Blur Production.
To fix jagged surface edges, textures, or shadows in raytraced reflections or

refractions (for Maya software only)
1 In Render Settings window on page 376, set the Anti-aliasing Quality to

Contrast Sensitive Production (Highest) quality, then turn on Shading
Samples Override for the reflecting/refracting surface, and increase Shading
Samples (to the lowest value that produces acceptable results).

Troubleshoot edits in the Texture Editor don’t
update in IPR
Edits you make in the texture editor don’t update in IPR. You must re-render
the scene.
Troubleshoot looping renders

Cycles in a render node network cause the renderer to loop forever. A cycle
is when two or more nodes mutually depend on each other for their
information.
Do not construct a render node network with cycles. If you create a cycling
render node network accidentally, break one or more of the cycles using the
Connection Editor before you render.
Troubleshoot render tiles

There are two cases where the tiling the renderer chooses may not be optimal.
Case 1
Over an animation texture, chattering can occur because the tiling
configuration changes. This does not happen very frequently but if you have
a noise-based texture on an object that is not moving and you have another
object (highly tessellated) that is moving you can sometimes see texture crawl
because of tiling changes. The way to check if forcing tile sizes will alleviate
the problem is to observe if over the animation the texture shift is occurring
in a rectangular region (aligned to tile boundaries).
Case 2
Sometimes the memory estimation is wrong and your rendering job can't
finish. If you see something like:
Error: Free memory is low. Memory exception thrown
You can try to force the tile sizes to be smaller so the rendering job fits into
memory. When using command line rendering, use the -reg <int int int
int> flag. For more information on this flag, see Common flags for the
command line renderer in the Rendering Utilities guide.

Troubleshoot assigning objects to Render Layers
through the Relationship editor
Assigning objects to Render Layers via the Relationship editor is not
recommended since you may inadvertently assign an object without it's
transform. Instead, use the Render Layer editor to assign objects to layers.
Troubleshoot render layer color indicators do not

appear correctly (Linux only)
If you have a modified MayaScheme file, you may not see the correct layer
indicator colors for selected layers in the Layer editors (light blue and darker
blue). As well, you may not see the correct color indicator for the override of
layer attributes (orange and bolded).
Workaround Add the following lines to your custom MayaScheme file:
*layerAdjustmentTextForeground: #e56929 *blueSelectBackgroundColor1:
#3884c4 *blueSelectBackgroundColor2: #81a7c1
Troubleshoot Interactive Photorealistic Rendering

(IPR)
IPR image plane display options
IPR doesn’t respect image plane display options. When updating, IPR displays
the image plane in the background though the image plane is set to none.
Workaround Delete the image plane.
Manual feedback from IPR
Manual updates are needed to get feedback from IPR when making changes
to:
■ image planes
■ shadow maps due to light location changing, depth map resolution

changing, or the auto focus changing

■ tessellation
Workaround
Redo the IPR render after these changes (or select IPR > Update Shadow
Maps).
Using Apply Fog in Post
When using Apply Fog in Post, the results cannot be seen in IPR.

152
Quality, render speed,
diagnostics 5
Image quality and render speed
The speed/quality tradeoff

Producing rendered images always involves making choices that affect the
quality (anti-aliasing and sampling) of the images, the speed with which they
are rendered, or both.
Related topics
■ Anti-aliasing and flicker on page 154
■ Artifacts on page 155
■ Render speed on page 155
153
Anti-aliasing and flicker
Jagged or stair-cased edges in pixel-based images or flickering surfaces in an

animation are aliasing artifacts.
Aliasing artifacts result from point sampling, a process used in all computer
graphics applications that determines the information about each pixel.
Aliasing artifacts can result at various stages during any rendering process.
Anti-aliasing is the process of removing or reducing these artifacts. Because
there are many kinds of aliasing, such as grainy surfaces, flickering, and jagged
edges, there are as many approaches to controlling or fixing these problems.
You can make adjustments to a number of settings to decrease or eliminate
aliasing artifacts and flicker. See Reduce artifacts and flicker on page 157.
Most solutions to control aliasing are time consuming and increase render
times. Try to find the solution that gives you the best balance between image
quality and performance.
154 | Chapter 5 Quality, render speed, diagnostics

Artifacts
Artifacts can show up as unintentional blotches, bands or cross-hatches on

surfaces. Textures can flicker or crawl on surfaces from frame to frame during
animations.
Clipping plane artifacts
Especially in large scenes that have objects close together, background surfaces
may appear to show through nearby surfaces. This is a result of how the
camera’s clipping planes determine the depth position of geometry; the
problem results from the limited precision used to store depth information.
It is mainly influenced by the following camera parameters: near clip distance,
far clip distance, and camera angle.
Render speed
You can make adjustments to a number of settings to increase the speed with
which the scene, surfaces, and, or shadows render, and the speed with which
camera render the scene. To find out about strategies to increase rendering
speed, see Increase overall rendering speed on page 158.
Reduce memory
In some cases, you can also reduce the memory used by the render to decrease
rendering times. See Reducing memory usage on page 163.
Artifacts | 155
Reduce file size (Maya Vector renderer)
Complex scenes and certain Maya Vector Render Settings can produce very
large SWF or SVG files that are unsuitable for online delivery.
If you are using the Maya Vector renderer to create SWF or SVG files for online
delivery, you can modify your scene and adjust the Maya Vector Render
Settings to produce the best compromise between image quality and file size.
See Strategies to decrease vector render file size on page 165.
Maya render diagnostics

The Render Diagnostics tool lets you monitor how well you optimize the scene
for rendering and watch for limitations and potential problems that may
occur. For example, surfaces that are far away or blurred may not require the
same level of visual accuracy or photo realism as surfaces close to the camera.
You can speed render times and reduce memory usage if you know what the
renderer is doing.
Run Render Diagnostics after you adjust objects and before you render to
obtain valuable information about how you can improve performance and
avoid limitations. You can run the diagnostics while experimenting with
rendering settings, or before you start the final rendering.
Hardware render diagnostics
Hardware render diagnostics traverse the shading network and geometry to

flag those features which are not supported in the same way as they are in
software rendering. Render diagnostics also examines your graphics hardware
to determine its level of support.
Related topics
■ Run diagnostics on page 166
■ mental ray for Maya diagnostics on page 197
■ mental ray for Maya error handling and diagnostics on page 251

Improve rendered image quality
Adjust scene anti-aliasing parameters (Maya

software)
Maya separates edge aliasing parameters from shading aliasing parameters to
give you more control over image quality and performance.
You can adjust anti-aliasing settings for edges, shading, multipixel filtering,
and motion blur in the Anti-Aliasing Quality section in the Quality tab on
page 415 of the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404.
For details on the settings, see Adjust anti-aliasing on page 93.
Adjust per-object anti-aliasing parameters

Maya software rendering
You can correct the flickering of very small objects by increasing the visibility
samples in the selected object’s Attribute Editor.
Reduce artifacts and flicker

Unlike anti-aliasing techniques, you cannot adjust the settings in the Render
Settings window on page 376 to reduce artifacts and flicker. Instead, you can
fix shadow artifacts, clipping plane artifacts, or animation flicker
independently.
Shadow artifacts (Maya software rendering)
Raytraced shadows are susceptible to the terminator effect, a self-shadowing

error that results from tessellation (triangles that approximate a smooth
surface). To fix raytraced shadow artifacts, increase the tessellation.
For more information on tessellation, see Introduction to Tessellation and
Approximation on page 39.
Improve rendered image quality | 157

Clipping plane artifacts (Maya software rendering)
Clipping planes help Maya to determine how far and near objects are relative
to the camera. By default, cameras have Auto Render Clip Plane turned on so
that Maya can sort geometry as accurately as possible. If objects seem to
inter-penetrate each other, turn off Auto Render Clip Plane and set the Near
Clip Plane to 1.0.
For more information on clipping planes and these settings, see Clipping
planes on page 21.
Animation flicker
For Maya software rendering and Maya hardware rendering.

During rendering, Maya filters textures. If textures flicker or crawl along objects
in your scene from frame to frame, consider using a lower resolution file
texture, or, if you are not using a file texture, adjust the Filter settings in the
Effects section of the texture’s Attribute Editor.
For more information about texture filtering, see Texture filtering in the
Shading guide.
Increase render speed
Increase overall rendering speed

To make a scene render faster, do any of the following:
■ Diagnose the scene to find ways to render the scene faster using Render >
Run Render Diagnostics. You can use this tool to monitor how well you
optimize the scene and to search for limitations and potential problems
that may occur. For more information on render diagnostics, see Run
diagnostics on page 166.
■ Perform scene optimizations:
■ Click File > Optimize Scene Size > to turn options on or off to
optimize everything in the scene and to remove unused or non-valid
elements. See File > Optimize Scene Size in the Basics guide for more
information about this window.

■ For Maya software rendering, use Block ordered texture set up. See
Cache texture tiles using BOT (block ordered texture) on page 163.
■ If the scene contains objects with construction history and you no

longer need it, delete it. See the Construction history in the Basics guide
for details.
■ Avoid memory swapping by:

■ Closing all applications before rendering to maximize the amount of
memory available for rendering (including Maya if rendering from a
shell or command line).
■ Setting the TEMP or TMPDIR variable as the location for temporary

render cache files: -TMPDIR (Linux) or - TEMP (Windows and Mac OS
X) to make plenty of room for temporary rendered files. Make sure that
the value of those variables points to a local, fast hard drive, not a
network drive.
■ For Maya software and mental ray for Maya, Test Resolution (Render >
Test Resolution) lets you select a reduced resolution to test render the
scene. For more information on test rendering strategies, see Visualize
interactively with IPR on page 123.
■ For Maya software, if the scene contains several identical surfaces (for
example, multiple spheres), use Optimize Instances in the Render Settings:
Maya Software tab on page 388 to improve rendering performance.
■ Turn off motion blur if you don’t need it (the Vector renderer has no
motion blur). For the Maya software renderer, use 2D motion blur instead
of 3D motion blur when possible. See 2D Motion Blur global attributes
and 3D Motion Blur in the Render Settings window on page 376 for details.
Related topics
■ Use average BSP (mental ray for Maya) settings on page 248
Increase overall rendering speed | 159

Increase surface rendering speed
Do any of the following:
■ Use single-sided instead of double-sided surfaces (which is the default) on

the object’s Attribute Editor. The biggest speed gain is for the Maya
hardware renderer.
■ Tessellating large surfaces requires a lot of memory, so use several small

surfaces instead of one large surface when you can. The renderer is more
efficient with smaller surfaces.
■ For Maya software rendering and Maya hardware rendering, use bump
mapping instead of displacement mapping.
■ For Maya software rendering, make bump maps flatter. To do this, reduce
the value of the Alpha Gain attribute, which smooths the bump map and
reduces the number of samples of adaptive shading. This technique only
works when Edge Anti-aliasing is set to Highest Quality. The texture bump
looks flatter when the Alpha Gain is lower.
■ For Maya software rendering, turn on Use Displacement Bounding Box

when using displacement maps.
■ For Maya software rendering, use layered textures when possible, instead
of a Layered Shader. (See Layered shaders and 2D and 3D textures in the
Shading guide for details.)
■ For Maya software rendering and mental ray for Maya, if you are raytracing
the scene, set the Reflection Limit and Refraction Limit to the lowest values
that produce acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, in the Render Settings: Maya Software tab
on page 388 on Linux, Use File Cache avoids re-tessellation of the same
surface during rendering. Turn on Use File Cache to store geometric data
in a separate file in a location that you specify (the default location is
/usr/tmp, but you can set a new location by typing setenv TMPDIR xxx,
where xxx is the name of the directory where this file is output).

Increase shadow rendering speed
To make shadows render faster

■ For Maya software and mental ray for Maya, use depth map shadows
instead of raytraced shadows.
■ For surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off Casts Shadows.
To make depth map shadows render faster

■ Set the Resolution to the lowest value that produces acceptable results.
(For shadow casting spot lights, first reduce the Cone Angle to the
lowest value that produces acceptable results.)
■ Turn on Use Auto Focus (or set the Focus to the lowest value that
produces acceptable results. See Focus, Width Focus) and set the
Resolution to the lowest value that produces acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, set the light’s Filter Size to the lowest
value that produces acceptable results. A Filter Size value of 2 or more
is usually sufficient. For mental ray for Maya, adjust the Resolution,
Samples, and Softness settings under the light’s Shadow Map Overrides
section.
■ For Maya software rendering, Set Fog Shadow Samples to the lowest
value that produces acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, set Disk Based Dmaps to Reuse Existing
Dmap(s).
■ For Maya software rendering, if a point light does not have to produce
shadows in the light’s positive or negative X, Y, or Z directions, turn
off the appropriate attributes in the Depth Map Shadow Attributes
section: Use X+ Map, Use X- Map, Use Y+ Map, Use Y- Map,, Use Z+
Map, or Use Z- Map.
■ For Maya software rendering, if the scene contains NURBS surfaces,

in the Memory and Performance Options section of the Render
Settings: Maya Software tab on page 388, make sure Reuse Tessellations
is on (the default setting).
Increase shadow rendering speed | 161

To make raytraced shadows render faster (for Maya software rendering and
Maya hardware rendering)

■ If the Light Radius (or the Light Angle for directional lights) is greater
than 0, set Shadow Rays to the lowest value that produces acceptable
results. See Shadow Radius, Light Radius, Light Angle for details.
■ Set Ray Depth Limit to the lowest value that produces acceptable
results.
Increase camera views render speed

For Maya software rendering.
You can make camera views render faster by not selectively focusing the
camera, or by selectively focusing the camera so more objects are in focus.
To make camera views render faster
1 Turn off Depth Of Field, or increase the F Stop.
Global illumination and caustics

Specify objects to participate in global illumination and caustics
By default all objects participate in photon tracing for global illumination and
caustics. Typically, not all are required for you to achieve the look you want.
You can specify exactly which objects cast and, or receive photons to reduce
the rendering load.
Final Gather
Final Gather is view dependent and is recalculated for each frame in a sequence.
You can store final gather results so that later frames can use the results from
a frame rendered earlier to speed up the Final Gather rendering process.

Reduce render memory usage
Reducing memory usage

To reduce the memory used by the renderer, perform the following pre-render
optimizations to produce a smaller and more efficient file.
■ Cache texture tiles using BOT (block ordered texture) on page 163
■ Delete information not relevant to the renderer on page 164
■ Render parts of a scene separately on page 164
Cache texture tiles using BOT (block ordered

texture)
For more information on file textures, see File textures in the Shading guide.
When you render, scripts, scenes, textures, and so on, are loaded into RAM.
If all available RAM is used, the machine may hang or experience swapping
problems. To reduce the load on RAM during render time, you can convert
your textures to Block Ordered Textures (BOT), which are essentially tiles. (For
more information on tileable images, see File textures in the Shading guide).
With BOT files, a small cache of texture tiles are kept in RAM; when Maya
needs more during render time, it goes to disk to find them.
The BOT cache is a fixed amount of approximately 250KB in RAM and
efficiently caches textures.
BOT is not recommended for all texture files, but you notice the difference in
speed when rendering high resolution textures.
Use the BOT pre-render setup
A new and optimized scene file is generated and is ready for the renderer when
you use the BOT pre-render setup.
For more information, type the following:
maya -optimizeRender -help
Reduce render memory usage | 163

maya -optimizeRender [options] mayaFile optimizedMayaFile
where mayaFile is the Maya file to be optimized and optimizedMayaFile is the

name of the optimized Maya file.
-botRes ‘int’ Resolution for which BOT files are pro-

duced. If this flag is not used, a default
botRes of 512x512 is used.
-botLoca ‘name’ Directory in which BOT files reside (default

is in the same directory as the original file).
-help Prints the help message.
-noBOT Avoid BOT creations.
-noCleanup Avoid cleaning up non-rendering related

data.
Delete information not relevant to the renderer

You can reduce memory in the Maya file by deleting information not relevant
to the renderer. Sometimes extra information is only needed when editing
the scene, or it contains currently unused items saved for future uses.
Render parts of a scene separately

You can render parts of a scene separately and composite the rendered images.
For more information on rendering in layers and passes for compositing, see
Render layer overview on page 68 and Render passes on page 80.

Decrease file size (Maya Vector renderer)
Strategies to decrease vector render file size

If you are using the Maya Vector renderer to create SWF or SVG files for online
delivery, you may need to modify your scene and adjust the Maya Vector
Render Settings to produce the best compromise between image quality and
file size. Complex scenes and certain Maya Vector Render Settings can produce
very large SWF or SVG files that are unsuitable for online delivery.
If you are using the Maya Vector renderer to create SWF or SVG files for delivery
via CD-ROM, DVD, or network, or to create AI, EPS or bitmap images, then
you do not need to be as concerned about file size.
Use the following guidelines as a starting point to help you reduce the size of
rendered SWF and SVG files. See Render Settings: Maya Vector tab on page
459 for more information on how the various options affect file size.
■ Reduce the complexity of your scene: Consider removing minor elements

of your scene. Reduce the number of triangles in polygonal and subdivision
surfaces. Reduce the tessellation of NURBS surfaces.
■ Reduce the number of frames in an animation.
■ Reduce the Frame Rate of an animation.
■ Choose an appropriate Fill Style based on the objects in your scene. Some
fill styles produce results of equal quality, but different file sizes, for certain
types of objects. Avoid using Full Color or Mesh Gradient as they always
create large files.
■ Turn on Combine Fills and Edges (SWF only).
■ Increase the Curve Tolerance value.
■ Set Svg Animation to HTML Script (SVG only).
■ Turn on Compress (SVG only).
■ Decrease the Detail Level.
■ Set Edge Style to Outline instead of Entire Mesh. (For more edge detail,
turn on Edge Detail.)
Decrease file size (Maya Vector renderer) | 165

■ Turn off Hidden Edges.
■ Turn off Show Back Faces. If a surface does not render because it is facing
away from the camera, manually reverse the surface’s normal.
Diagnose scene problems
Run diagnostics
To run render diagnostics

■ From the main Maya window, select Render > Run Render Diagnostics.
■ From the Render View window, select File > Render Diagnostics.
Maya opens the Script Editor and displays a list of potential problems in the
scene.
Related topics
■ Maya render diagnostics on page 156
■ mental ray for Maya diagnostics on page 197
■ mental ray for Maya error handling and diagnostics on page 251
Sample diagnostic messages

The following are some of the diagnostic messages Maya software rendering
displays:
■ Motion blur and raytracing are both turned on. (Reflections, refractions
and shadows are not motion blurred.)
■ You have motion blur turned on. Be aware that particles, lights and
shadows do not motion blur. As well, motion blurred shadows may produce
artifacts.

■ You have specified output to the Quantel format. In previous versions of
Maya, this format only outputs to NTSC/PAL/HDTV resolutions, and does
not output to fields. If the above restrictions are not met, rendering defaults
to IFF image output.
■ You have specified output to the Cineon format. This format does not
render out a mask channel.
■ You have specified a fractional animation by-frame step. This results in

images over-writing each other for fractional frame counts. Please remember
to turn on the modify-extension.
■ Near/far clipping values are too far apart. You may encounter numerical
imprecision resulting in incorrect renders.
■ There are no renderable cameras in the scene.
Sample diagnostic messages | 167

168
Network rendering
6
Overview of network rendering
Network rendering is the distribution of the rendering process across more than
one machine (sometimes called a render farm). For example, you can divide an
animation into smaller sequences and render each sequence on a different
computer. You can also control when and on which computer to render.
Rendering across a network of computers is often referred to as distributed
rendering.
Using Maya, there are three ways to set up network rendering.
■ Maya network rendering (see Managing Maya network rendering on page

170)
■ mental ray network rendering (see mental ray network rendering: Satellite
and standalone on page 199)
■ mental ray for Maya Satellite network rendering
■ mental ray standalone network rendering
Related topics
■ Network render with mental ray for Maya on page 252
■ Network render with Maya software on page 171
169
Maya network rendering
Managing Maya network rendering

You can manage Maya network rendering in two ways:
■ Manually. See Network render with Maya software on page 171.
■ Automated, provided by a third-party solution.
Computer preparation
Maya network rendering requires a network of properly configured computers.
TIP Maya network rendering may read and write numerous files over the network
simultaneously. Make sure your network bandwidth can handle the traffic. Consider
rendering files locally on each render node, then transferring them to the final
destination.
File Access
All files, scenes, and textures you use must be stored in locations accessible
to each render workstation. This can be achieved by doing either of the
following:
■ Providing the files to all the render workstations from a central file server.
File permissions must be adjusted for your environment.
■ Transferring the files to each render workstation’s local storage.
Plug-ins
Make sure all render workstations used to render a scene containing plug-ins
have those plug-ins installed, and that each render workstation has a valid
license for those plug-ins. If a render workstation does not have a license for
a plug-in being used, you may find that every frame it processes fails.
TIP Cache data in the scene to prevent unwanted differences between frames,
computers, effects, and so on.
170 | Chapter 6 Network rendering

NOTE There are numerous third-party solutions that provide solutions for network
rendering. This guide gives a minimum workflow only. Please check our Conductor
Partners for available solutions.
Network render with Maya software

Before you begin, you must have networked workstations. See your system
administrator if workstations are not networked.
To render on several computers
1 Install Maya on each machine.

We recommend that you pare down the installation to the minimum
requirements. For instance, you do not have to load all options on each
machine when installing (for example, documentation).
2 Initiate render commands on each render workstation.

This can be achieved manually by the Command Line Render command.
To automate it, use simple scripting capabilities. See the Command Line
Render Help (render -h) for more options.
For example,
If you have a 100-frame scene and want to distribute the rendering across
4 render workstations, type:
Render -s 1 -e 25 filename for the first render workstation.
Render -s 26 -e 50 filename for the second render workstation.
Render -s 51 -e 75 filename for the third render workstation.
Render -s 76 -e 100 filename for the fourth render workstation.
TIP Using -rep

You can use the -rep flag on the Render command to automate Maya
software networked rendering.
Related topics
■ Overview of network rendering on page 169
Network render with Maya software | 171

172
mental ray for Maya
rendering 7
About the mental ray renderer
About the mental ray for Maya renderer

mental ray for Maya offers all the features traditionally expected of photorealistic
rendering and includes functionality not found in most rendering software.
mental ray for Maya allows interactive and batch mental ray rendering from
within the Maya user interface. With the help of built-in shaders supporting
almost any effect available in Maya, mental ray for Maya allows the rendering
of scenes created within Maya or their export into the mental images file format
(.mi).
(For detailed information on the mental ray standalone application, see the
mental ray reference User Manual and the mental ray Shaders Guide, available from
the Maya help.)
After you load the mental ray plug-in (and select mental ray as the renderer),
the Render menu lists available menu items for mental ray for Maya. As well,
the Attribute Editor contains a mental ray section in which you can edit
attributes that are used exclusively when rendering with mental ray for Maya.
To load the mental ray for Maya plug-in, see the note in Select a renderer on
page 11.
173
IFF File format
The IFF image support in mental ray permits both color and depth information
written into a single file. This requires the proper parameters to be set in the
Render Settings (Depth Channel [Z Depth] in the File Output section must be
turned on).
File Export
mental ray for Maya can also be used in Maya as a file exporter. When you
export a Maya scene file to the proprietary mental images (.mi) file type, the
file export simply writes a .mi file to disk with the given name. Additional
options are available in the user interface to control ASCII or binary mode
export and file-pre-frame creation for animations.
See Exporting .mi files on page 186.
Geometry Types
Maya supports three types of geometry: polygonal (Polygon Mesh), free-form

objects (NURBS curves/surfaces), and subdivision surfaces.
Known differences
The native Maya and mental ray renderers may produce different results in
certain situations. For more details, see mental ray for Maya renders look
different than Maya renders on page 278.
Shading Networks and Nodes
A shading group in Maya defines the material, volume, and displacement

shaders, along with the list of lights used in the illumination calculation for
renderable objects. Such a shading group can directly be translated into a .mi
material.
For more information on mental ray for Maya shaders, see mental ray for
Maya shaders in the Shading guide.
Global illumination, Caustics, Final Gather, and HDRI
For information and procedures, see Indirect (global) vs. direct illumination
in the Lighting guide.
174 | Chapter 7 mental ray for Maya rendering

Global illumination
mental ray for Maya can render with Global illumination, the technique used
to capture indirect illumination (the natural phenomenon where light bounces
off anything in its path until it is completely absorbed).
Caustics
mental ray can render with Caustics, the light effects that caused by specular
reflected or refracted light, like the shimmering light at the bottom of a pool
of water.
Final gather
mental ray for Maya can render with Final gather (a method of global
illumination) to create very (or purely) diffuse scenes where the indirect
illumination changes slowly.
Support for HDR images
mental ray for Maya supports HDR images as file textures.
Direct light with mental ray for Maya Area Lights
The main purpose of area light sources is to generate more realistic lighting,
resulting in soft shadows. This is achieved by using one of four primitives
(rectangles, discs, spheres, and cylinders) as light sources with nonzero area.
For more information about mental ray for Maya areas lights, see Default
lighting in Maya in the Lighting guide.
Scene rendering
Parallelism
mental ray for Maya supports both host and network parallel rendering. It
renders identical output on all common and widely-used platforms. For
network rendering, it performs best in a client-server setup, where it takes care
of load balancing and network communication reduction.
For information on mental ray for Maya network rendering, see Network
render with mental ray for Maya on page 252.
About the mental ray for Maya renderer | 175

Animations
When rendering animation files or previewing animations inside Maya, mental

ray for Maya exploits incremental changes. This means it determines if scene
elements actually have changed between frames and just processes those
changes, thus accelerating the render cycle. The check is based on Maya
information and includes both geometry (plus instances) and shading nodes.
If no changes are detected, the corresponding object or shader is not updated
in subsequent frames and appear animated.
Incremental changes are not used if animations are exported as file per frame.
mental ray object rendering flags
You can control how particular objects contribute to certain rendering stages
by setting per-object rendering flags in the object’s Attribute Editor.
Motion Blur
For information about mental ray for Maya motion blur, see mental ray for
Maya motion blur on page 180.
Customizations
(For mental ray advanced users only.)

The Custom Text Editor can be used to create and attach custom text to certain
scene entities. This replaces the internally created .mi output with the custom
text. Using the Custom Text Editor you can integrate custom mental ray
shaders into Maya.
To use the Custom Text Editor, see Custom mental ray text the Shading guide.
mental ray for Maya checks and reads special custom attributes on certain
Maya nodes and uses them for customized scene processing. Additionally, it
adds its own custom nodes to Maya for convenient handling of mental ray
extensions.
All of these customizations are located in the Custom Entities section of the
Render Settings window on page 376. For descriptions of the mental ray for
Maya Custom Entities attributes, see Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page
404, Options tab on page 444.

WARNING To reduce the potential of unpredictable results, the processing of
such entities is disabled by default for the integrated preview rendering in Maya.
Turn on Custom Entities at your own risk.
It is, however, enabled for the .mi file export to create customized scene files
for external rendering.
Custom mental ray text
mental ray for Maya supports a method to produce custom text in the output
stream written to the .mi file. This is for text-only integration of custom mental
ray shaders within Maya; it allows for the creation of special-purpose Maya
nodes that hold customized mental images (mi) text.
Custom vertex data
mental ray for Maya checks Maya polygonal meshes for additional dynamic
(custom) attributes that supply per vertex data. This data is exported as
additional mental ray texture spaces for shader access.
For more information about custom vertex data, see Custom vertex data in
the Shading guide.
Error handling and diagnostics
mental ray for Maya checks for errors in a Maya scene and recognizes various
operating system errors. You can use diagnostics to help you diagnose issues
with samples and photon maps.
For more information on mental ray for Maya diagnostics, see mental ray for
Maya error handling and diagnostics on page 251.
mental ray specific image formats
The following image formats are unique to the mental ray renderer.
■ mentalray Color (ct)
■ mentalray Alpha (st)
■ mentalray Normal (nt)
■ mentalray Motion (mt)
■ mentalray Depth (zt)

■ mentalray Tag (tt)
■ mentalray Bit (bit)
■ mentalray HDR (cth)
Rendering Color and Z-depth
The following is true when rendering to a format other than Maya IFF or RLA.
If rendering to Maya IFF or RLA, all channels RGBAZ are written to one file.
For all other image formats, when the Depth Channel (Z depth) option is
enabled in the mental ray Render Settings, mental ray will write out a separate
image file containing depth information. Z-depth is now written out in IFF
format and rendered to a separate file that has “Depth” as a suffix to the image
name, for example, imageDepth.#.iff.
Limitation
Hyperthreading can slow down mental ray rendering
The mental ray IPR and the Auto Render Threads on page 320 option in Render
> Render Current Frame > and Render > Batch Render > do not
distinguish between dual core CPU's and hyperthreading. Therefore, these
options report all virtual CPU's as available threads.
Workaround 1: Turn hyperthreading off.
Workaround 2 (for Auto Render Threads on page 320 option): Turn off Auto
Render Threads on page 320 and reduce the number of threads by 1/2.
Unsupported features
mental ray for Maya does not support the following Maya rendering features:
■ Keyframing or set driven keyframing on the RGB components of a ramp

shader’s colorEntryList (the list of colors that comprise the ramp shader)
are unsupported.
■ postprocessing effects: Paint Effects, light glow, optical effects, and 2d

motion blur
■ Field Rendering
■ The -hardware_echo flag is not supported through the command line.

Unsupported File Texture Formats
The following file texture formats are currently unsupported by mental ray
for Maya:
■ AVI files
■ Maya BOT files
■ certain variants of the TIFF format (those with LZW compression, including
those generated by the Maya renderer)
■ Cineon CIN files
■ EPS files
■ GIF files
■ IFF16 files
■ Wavefront-alpha files
Workaround
(TIFF,CIN,GIF) For these unsupported file formats, Maya's imgcvt image
conversion tool can be used to convert the files to a supported format such
as IFF or RGB. For a complete list of file texture types supported by mental
ray, see the Rendering with mental ray Handbook.
(BOT) There is currently no workaround that will allow Maya BOT files to
be used in conjunction with mental ray for Maya. mental ray does support
its own memory-mapped map file texture format, however. Standard image
files can be converted to this format using the imf_copy command:
imf_copy -p <filename>.rgb <filename>.map
See the Rendering with mental ray Handbook for a full description of
memory-mapped textures in mental ray.
Related topics
■ Introduction to rendering on page 1
■ Hardware, software, and vector rendering on page 2

Motion Blur
mental ray for Maya motion blur

In mental ray for Maya, you can choose between No Deformation and Full
Motion Blur. Motion Blur in mental ray for Maya blurs everything: shaders,
textures, lights, shadows, reflections, refractions, and caustics.
The No Deformation mode results in instance motion; shape changes are not
considered. The Full Mode additionally exports motion vectors for every vertex
of the moving object. Use it to motion blur objects with deforming shape.
This mode requires more translation and render time.
The No Deformation mode just exports instance motion performed on
transform nodes, any shape changes (even linear movements) are not
considered.
The Shutter Open, Shutter Close on page 426 setting of the Maya camera
determines the actual motion blur path length. You can modify other settings,
such as Motion Blur By on page 426, to further control the final motion blur
calculation. Find these settings in the Motion Blur on page 394 (in the Render
Settings window on page 376).
A typical application of motion blur is the Export Motion Segments on page
449 option, which approximates any non-linear movement with a set of linear
segments.
NOTE Any transformation animation (instance translation, rotation etc.) with

non-linear properties is not handled by the plug-in (there is no support in mental
ray for more than 1 motion transform) but left to mental ray's built-in procedure
to detect common cases of rotations (even pivot rotations) automatically. More
complex transformation animation is not supported natively, but may be baked
as shape deformation in Maya to be rendered correctly.
Related topics
■ Motion blur on page 16

Approximation in mental ray for Maya
Approximation
Approximation (called tessellation in Maya; see Introduction to Tessellation
and Approximation on page 39) is the process mental ray for Maya uses to
convert NURBS surfaces (or displacement mapped polygon meshes) to triangles.
Triangles determine how smooth an object looks at closer distances to you
(the camera). When poorly tessellated objects are close to the camera, they
appear faceted; when they are further away, they don’t.
When rendering with mental ray for Maya, a set of approximation settings
must be specified for each piece of geometry.
By default mental ray for Maya derives approximation settings from Maya’s
tessellation settings. This produces results close to the look of Maya software
rendered scenes, and is useful for those familiar with the behavior of those
settings.
Alternatively, you can specify approximation settings more precisely for mental
ray for Maya by using an approximation node.
NOTE The tessellation of a subdivision surface is controlled by subdivision

approximation only, regardless of whether the subdivision surface is displacement
mapped.
Derive from Maya (default approximation) settings
If only Basic tesselation (see Primary vs. secondary tessellation passes on page
40) is used, mental ray for Maya bases tessellation on the Curvature Tolerance
attribute setting of the NURBS surface.
If the Advanced tessellation attributes are used but none of the secondary
tessellation controls are active for an object, Parametric approximation is
derived from Maya's primary tessellation controls. Otherwise, mental ray for
Maya’s LDA approximation method is applied with values calculated from
Maya secondary tessellation controls.
Primary tessellation creates a base triangulation, which is further tessellated
until the secondary set of conditions are met. mental ray for Maya’s Parametric
approximation method is comparable to Maya’s primary tessellation; the
length/distance/angle (LDA) method is comparable to Maya’s secondary
tessellation.
Approximation in mental ray for Maya | 181

Approximation nodes
Approximation nodes give you more precise control over all of mental ray for
Maya approximation features, some of which Maya cannot access. For example,
you can use Approximation nodes to specify separate tessellation settings for
surfaces, trim curves, and displacement maps.
As an example, consider a simple flat NURBS surface with a complex trim
curve. For such a case, you would specify a low-quality surface approximation
in conjunction with a high-quality trim curve approximation. mental ray
would then ensure that the surface is approximated with only a few triangles
except around the trim curves, where many triangles would be used to ensure
a smooth edge.
The same analogy applies to a simple surface with a complex displacement
map. For that case, you might apply a low-quality regular surface
approximation in conjunction with a high-quality displacement
approximation, to ensure that triangles are added only to areas where they
are needed to capture the complexity of the displacement map.
This node type... Does this... To only this type of geometry...
Surface Approxima- Determines how NURBS NURBS surfaces

tion surfaces are tessellated in-
to triangles for rendering.
Trim Curve Approx- Controls the tessellation of NURBS surfaces with trim curves
imation trim curves on NURBS sur-
faces.
Displacement Ap- Controls the tessellation of NURBS or polygonal surfaces with

proximations displacement maps on a displacement maps
surface. Whereas ordinary
Surface Approximations
only tessellate based on
the underlying surface,
Displacement Approxima-
tions additionally take into
account features of the
displacement map when
tessellating.

This node type... Does this... To only this type of geometry...
Subdivision Approx- Control render-time polygonal surfaces

imation smoothing of polymesh
surfaces.
NOTE
■ Subdivision surfaces are supported by mental ray versions prior to 3.2,
when the mental matter library libmisubdiv.so is linked in. mental ray
3.2 and later includes subdivision surface rendering (but not modeling)
support, and do not require an external library.
■ For best performance, when using subdivision approximation, use triangles

and quads or a combination of both.
Approximation styles
An approximation style is the general subdivision scheme mental ray for Maya
uses to break the surface into triangles. Some approximation styles work by
repeatedly cutting the entire surface from end to end, while others are capable
of adding triangles in a more localized fashion.
mental ray for Maya provides a few standard approximation styles (Grid, Tree,
and Delaunay) and the Fine approximation style.
The standard approximation styles use as few triangles as possible to
approximate a surface to achieve the quality you define in the approximation
settings.
Fine approximation
Fine approximation subdivides very complex surfaces (especially detailed

displaced surfaces) into a large number of roughly uniformly-sized small
triangles in order to guarantee a smooth result. To deal with the large number
of triangles mental ray for Maya breaks the surface up into independent
sub-objects that are each tessellated and cached separately, generating the
triangles without consuming excessive amounts of memory.
This approximation style only supports the Spatial approximation on page
210 method, which specifies the size of triangles to be generated.
Approximation styles | 183

NOTE Fine approximation cannot be used together with merging and connections
(that is, when surfaces are stitched, there may be holes along the stitch).
Geometry type Can I use Fine approximation?
polygon displacement yes
NURBS surface displacement yes
subdivision surface displacement yes
NURBS surface approximations yes
curves no (because they are not tessellated to tri-

angles)
How Fine Approximation works
To allow for Fine approximation, the granularity of mental ray for Maya’s
cache manager is reduced, whereby smaller units are formed by splitting
objects into smaller sets. These sets can be individually tessellated without
excessive memory requirements.
Fine approximations support a small subset of approximation techniques since
the other styles exist only to trade off triangle counts vs. quality, which is no
longer a problem for fine approximations.
mental ray for Maya geometry types

Maya supports three types of geometry: polygonal (Polygon Mesh), free-form
objects (NURBS curves/surfaces), and subdivision surfaces.
NURBS (free-form curves and surfaces)
Free-form NURBS curves and surfaces in Maya are supported by mental ray
for Maya. These surfaces, which can have a boundary and several holes, are
expressed as trim and hole curves in the mental images surface definition.

Polygonal meshes
Maya polygonal meshes are exported as mental images polygon objects and
support features like vertex sharing, holes, and displacement refinement.
Displacement mapping can be applied to meshes. The special displacement
properties for polygon surfaces are controlled in much the same way as NURBS
surfaces.
Polygonal meshes that consist only of triangles or quadrangles can be exported
as a subdivision surface base mesh for mental ray rendering.
To export a polygonal mesh for rendering, you must create and attach a
Subdivision approximation node to the mesh. This node lets you further
control the subdivision process and quality. Additionally, you can create and
attach a Displace Approximation node to support the displacement of the
mesh.
If mental ray for Maya encounters a Subdivision approximation node, it is
exported as a mental images subdivision surface base mesh (including textures
and motion vectors, but without normals) instead of a simple polygonal mesh.
If the conversion fails (because other than triangles/quadrangles were found),
an error message is printed and the mesh is exported as usual.
Subdivision surfaces
Maya’s subdivision surfaces are supported in mental ray for Maya as long as
the base mesh is made up of only quads.
The support for subdivision surfaces includes hierarchical edits, hierarchical
material assignments, edge and vertex full creases only, uncreases, texture
reference objects, deformation motion blur, and derivatives (for bump mapping
and texture filtering). Unlike Maya, however, mental ray for Maya can handle
only quadrilateral base meshes (a number of Maya standard subdiv shapes are
therefore rejected), and UV coordinates can only be specified on the base mesh
(level 0).
To prepare subdivision surfaces not directly supported (for example, where
the base mesh does not contain only quads), see Obtain quads for subdivision
surfaces on page 207.
NOTE The tessellation of a subdivision surface is controlled by subdivision

approximation only, regardless of whether the subdivision surface is displacement
mapped.
mental ray for Maya geometry types | 185

Visualize and render images
Command line render

You can render from a command line if you want to render an animation or
single frame. Advantages include the following:
■ works with single images and animation
■ uses less memory than having all of Maya (UI) running
■ can be scripted
■ can be integrated into a rendering pipeline (render farms)
■ for Maya software rendering, you can override render settings using
command flags (for other renderers, you must also write a MEL script)
For more information, see Command line renderer in the Rendering Utilities
guide.
mental ray for Maya command line options
The following mental ray for Maya command line options are supported
during IPR:
-rg/region Update the IPR region to the selected one.
-rr/regionRect Set a new IPR region explicitly (works together with -region).
-pt/pauseTuning Controls actual rendering of IPR requests, shader changes

are always recognized in all cases.
-q -imr Returns true (1) if IPR is active.
Exporting .mi files

Scene Export Optimization Controls
Several controls let you manually optimize the process of exporting scenes to
.mi format. The translator recognizes a specific set of dynamic attributes that
you can add to nodes to control how they are exported.

To export a .mi file, see Export a .mi file and render with mental ray on page
241.
You can accelerate the process of exporting scenes to .mi format by disabling
deformation checking for objects that are known to be static over an animation
(buildings, for example), and by disabling tangent vector export for objects
that do not use bump mapping or other tangent-based shading effects.
miDeformation Controls whether or not the translator tries to detect
deformation of an object.
To support per-object control of deformation determination and motion vector
calculation of shape nodes, this dynamic attribute of type boolean is
recognized. It overrides the global Export Shape Deformation option and
either marks the current shape for or excludes it from deformation motion
blur. Two common scenarios are supported:
■ disable deformation globally but enable it for specific shapes
■ enable deformation globally but disable it for specific shapes
This option may accelerate translation of shape animations and detection of

deformation motion blur dramatically.
miTangents Controls export of tangent vectors on objects.
To support per-object control of tangent vector calculation for polygon meshes
and NURBS surfaces, this dynamic attribute of type boolean is recognized. It
overrides the global Export ... Derivatives options and marks or ignores the
current shape accordingly for tangents computation. Two common scenarios
are supported:
■ disable tangents globally but enable them for specific shapes
■ enable tangents globally but disable them for specific shapes
The tangents are first order derivatives supplied as mental ray bump basis
vectors. They are required for mayabase shader filtering and bump mapping
purposes.
Multi-render passes
Multi-render passes | 187

Overview
Multi-render passes reduce the need to use render layers, thus reducing
compute times for scene translation and rendering. If you work with complex
multi-layered compositions, rendering may also be several times faster.
Using multi-render passes, you can render an unlimited number of render
passes and group them into render pass sets.
For advanced users, you can also select a subset of the objects or lights in your
scene to contribute to each render pass. This subset is called a render pass
contribution map. Render pass contribution maps allow you to perform scene
segmentation at render time.
NOTE The multi-render pass feature is supported for the mental ray renderer. The
rendering API allows other 3rd party renderers and custom renderers to support
it moving forward.
Currently, the multi-render pass workflow is supported for the following

shaders:
■ Anisotropic
■ Blinn
■ Lambert
■ Phong
■ PhongE
■ Env Fog
■ Fluid Shape
■ Light Fog
■ Particle Cloud
■ Volume Fog
■ Volume Shader
■ Hair Tube Shader
■ Ocean Shader
■ Ramp Shader
■ Hair

■ Fur
■ Image Plane
■ Layered Shader
■ Shading Map
■ Surface Shader
■ Use Background
■ mental ray mi_metallic_paint_x_passes, mia_material_x_passes,

misss_fast_shader_x_passes shaders
NOTE The mental ray mi_metallic_paint_x_passes, mia_material_x_passes,

and misss_fast_shader_x_passes shaders only support object pass contribution
map capabilities but not light pass contribution map capabilities. All lights in
your scene contribute to a render pass for a pass contribution map that includes
these shaders.
NOTE Standard surface materials support all render passes mentioned in Available
render passes on page 191; however, there are some non-standard shaders which
contribute only to a subset of applicable passes, such as volume shaders, hair, and
fur shaders, and so forth.
Setting up your scene to use multi-render passes
To set up multi-render passes, do the following:
■ Create render passes using the Passes tab in the Render Settings window
and the Create Render Passes window. The Passes tab is available when
you select mental ray as your renderer. Click the New Pass button
in the Passes tab to open the Create Render Passes window, and select the
render passes that you want to create.
See Create Render Passes window on page 470 for more information.
■ Use the Passes tab to associate render passes with each layer and each pass
contribution map.
See Passes tab on page 404 for more information.

■ Use the render pass Attribute Editor to set your render pass options, such
as the framebuffer type, or the number of channels for your render pass
output. You can even create render pass presets.
See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501for more information.
■ Optionally, if you want to create several render passes, you can group them
into a render pass set. Create a render pass set using the Passes tab in the
■ Use the Relationship Editor to manage the membership of your render

pass set. Select Window > Relationship Editors or click in the Passes tab.
See Relationship Editor for more information.
Related topics
■ Introduction to multi-render passes: a simple workflow example on page

218
■ Sample workflow for multi-render passes on page 224
Render pass contribution maps
A render pass contribution map associates a subset of lights and renderable

objects in your scene with one or more render passes.
For example, if your render layer consists of 5 objects and 2 lights, you can
create a diffuse pass, an ambient pass, and a specular pass for only 3 of the
objects and 1 of the lights.
■ Create a render pass contribution map that contains the 3 objects and the
light. Select the objects and the light, then right-click the layer in the
Render Layer Editor and select Pass Contribution Maps > Create Pass
Contribution Map and Add Selected.
Alternatively, you can click the New pass contribution map button
in the Passes tab in the Render Settings window.
See Render Layer Editor on page 367 for more information.
■ Use the Create Render Passes window to create your render passes.
See Create Render Passes window on page 470 for more information.

■ Use the Passes tab in the Render Settings window to associate the render
passes with your render pass contribution map.
You can create multiple pass contribution maps for each render layer, or, share
a pass contribution map between two or more layers.
When rendering a given render layer, only the pass contribution maps linked
to the layer are applied. Render passes that are not connected to any objects
through pass contribution maps are implicitly associated to all objects.
NOTE You can create the pass elements (pass contribution maps, passes, pass
sets, and render layers) in any order.
Related topics
Available render passes
Choose from the following render passes:
NOTE Occasionally, you may notice aliasing on the edges of your render passes
that does not exist in your overall beauty pass. This occurs because the mental ray
adaptive sampling algorithm only refines sampling in areas of high contrast in
your main beauty pass and not your individual passes. For example, an edge that
appears in a material pass, but not in a beauty pass, may be under-sampled. The
aliasing does not appear in your composited image. However, you can smooth
out the edges for your individual passes by enabling the Contrast All Buffers option
in the Render Settings window, Quality tab so that the adaptive sampling algorithm
analyzes the contrast in all color frame buffers being rendered, rather than for just
the master beauty pass.
Render Pass Description
2D Motion Vector Relative motion (in raster coordinates) of objects in your scene;
in other words, how far each pixel is moving between two frames.
Vector is expressed in normalized pixels.
3D Motion Vector 3D motion vector in world space. In mental ray for Maya, the
3D motion vector is expressed in internal space.

Ambient Ambient contribution of the surface. In Maya, this is the material

color multiplied by the ambient light color. See Render pass At-
tribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the attributes
for this pass.
Ambient Irradiance Amount of ambient light received by the surface. See Render
pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the
attributes for this pass.
Ambient Occlusion Ambient occlusion contribution from both self ambient occlusion
as well as primary ambient occlusion, which is derived from sur-
rounding objects. You must enable Ambient Occlusion in the
Render Settings: Features tab in order to use this render pass.
Ambient Material Reflectivity of the material with respect to ambient light. See
Color Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information
on the attributes for this pass.
Beauty Final color computed by mental ray for Maya. See Render pass
Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the attrib-
utes for this pass.
Camera Depth / Extracts the distance between the camera and the intersection
Camera Depth point. Choose between normalized distance and real scene dis-
Remapped tance. See Camera Depth render pass attributes on page 503 for
more information on the attributes for this pass.
Coverage mental ray Coverage frame buffer. This frame buffer offers only
silhouette coverage. Self-coverage is currently not supported.
Custom Color / Use in conjunction with the writeToColorBuffer, writeToDepth-

Custom Depth / Buffer, writeToVectorBuffer, and writeToLabelBuffer shaders to
Custom Label / Cus- write data to the framebuffer. Or, create your own custom pass
tom Vector if you are using custom shaders. See mental ray render pass
utility shaders for more information.
Diffuse Diffuse shading of material. See Render pass Attribute Editor on

page 501 for more information on the attributes for this pass.

Diffuse Without Diffuse pass without shadowing information. See Render pass
Shadows Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the attrib-
utes for this pass.
Diffuse Material Col- Provides constant diffuse color or textured diffuse color, excluding
or light contribution. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501
for more information on the attributes for this pass.
Direct Irradiance Direct light arriving at each sample location. See Render pass
utes for this pass.
Direct Irradiance Direct irradiance without shadowing information. See Render

Without Shadows pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the
Glow Source outGlow output of surface shaders; affected by pass contribution

maps. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more in-
formation on the attributes for this pass.
Incandescence Additive color. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for
Incidence Measures the difference between the direction of the light ray
(Light/Normal) and the surface normal. If the surface normal is facing the light,
this value is 1. If the normal is facing away from the light, the
value is 0. Create a pass contribution map to isolate the light ray
of your choice. If there is no pass contribution map in your scene,
Maya performs its calculations based on the sum of all lights in
your scene.
Indirect Indirect lighting from final gather, global illumination, and

caustics. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more
information on the attributes for this pass.
Light Volume Extracts all light-centric volume effects, for example, a light cone
volume effect. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for

Material Incidence Measures the difference between the direction of the camera ray
(Camera/Normal) and the surface normal. If the surface normal is pointing to the
camera, this value is 0. If the normal is facing away from the
camera, the value is 1. Any angle greater than 90 degrees is also
translated to 1. If bump mapping is applied to the shading net-
work, it will appear in this pass. See Render pass Attribute Editor
on page 501 for more information on the attributes for this pass.
Material Normal Interpolated surface normal. Choose from one of Camera space,
(Camera Space / Object space and World space. If bump mapping is applied to
Object Space / the shading network, it will appear in this pass.
World Space)
Matte The object's matte, excluding transparency/opacity. This pass

serves as the render layer compositing mask. Should be solid
white in areas where objects are intersected. Independent of
transparency/translucency. See Render pass Attribute Editor on
Normalized 2D Mo- Relative motion (in raster coordinates) of objects in your scene;
tion Vector in other words, how far each pixel is moving between two frames.
Pixel displacement is normalized to (0—1). Static objects are
expressed with 0.5,0.5 values. See Normalized 2D Motion Vector
render pass attributes on page 502 for more information on the
Object Incidence Similar to the Material Incidence (Camera/Normal) pass but does
(Camera/Normal) not support bump mapping.
Object Normal Similar to the Material Normal (Camera Space / Object Space /
(Camera Space / World Space) pass does not support bump mapping.
Object Space /
World Space)
Object Volume Extracts all object-centric volume effects, for example, smoke
that is contained in a glass object. Also includes volume particles,
volume fur, and fluids. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page
501 for more information on the attributes for this pass.

Opacity The object's opacity, which is derived from transparency/refrac-

tion. In compositing, the object's opacity can be controlled inde-
pendently from the render layer matte. See Render pass Attribute
Editor on page 501 for more information on the attributes for this
pass.
Raw Shadow Similar to the Shadow pass but calculated only with respect to
the irradiance in the scene. See Render pass Attribute Editor on
Reflection Reflection results. Includes self-reflection, primary reflections,

secondary reflections and environment reflections. See Render
Reflected Material The reflected color parameter of the material. Pure constant
Color reflection color or textured reflection. Used as a reflection matte
to determine where reflection would be revealed (colored and
noncolored). See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for
Refraction Refraction results. Includes self-refraction, primary refraction, and

environment refraction. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page
501 for more information on the attributes for this pass.
Refraction Material The transparency color parameter of the material. Pure constant
Color refraction color or textured reflection. Used as a refraction/trans-
parency matte to determine where refraction is revealed (colored
and non-colored). See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501
Scatter Scattering effects that result from the material’s scattering attrib-
utes (for example, Scatter Radius, Scatter Color). See Render pass
utes for this pass.

Scene Volume Extracts all scene-centric volume effects such as fog, layered fog,
haze, and so forth. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501
Shadow Pure shadow contribution for both self-shadowing as well as

direct shadows. The shadow pass can be luminance or colored
shadows. Takes into account material contributions. See Render
Specular Specular shading. The specular component is modulated differ-

ently depending on the type of material associated with the ob-
ject. For example, Phong, PhongE, Blinn, and Anisotropic mater-
ials produce specular contributions differently. On a Phong ma-
terial, the specular pass can be modulated using cosine power
and specular color. See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501
Specular Without Similar to Specular but without shadow occlusions. See Render
Shadows pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the
Translucence Back shading contribution revealed on the front surface. See

Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information
on the attributes for this pass.
Translucence Similar to Translucence but without shadows. See Render pass

Without Shadows Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information on the attrib-
utes for this pass.

Quality, render speed, diagnostics
mental ray for Maya diagnostics

mental ray supports a number of diagnostic modes that help you visualize
and optimize the rendering process. They modify the output image to include
grid lines or dot patterns that indicate coordinate spaces or sampling or photon
densities. These graphs help you detect insufficient or excessive sampling
densities, and tune parameters such as numbers of photons or sampling and
contrast limits.
For more information, see Diagnostics on page 251.
Related topics
■ Run diagnostics on page 166
■ Maya render diagnostics on page 156
Increase render speed by converting textures to optimized memory format
Converting textures to optimized format

You can convert textures to an optimized format to increase rendering
efficiency. Maya will automatically convert the textures in your scene file to
an optimized format (.map). This feature makes good use of memory, allowing
you to render larger scenes and render scenes with a higher resolution. This
feature can also improve the performance of network renders.
The conversion to the optimized format can be done before rendering begins,
or, you can trigger the conversion by selecting the Update optimized cache
textures now option in the Rendering Preferences. After the initial render,
only newly modified textures will be re-converted. These optimized textures
are only used for rendering. The original textures remain untouched and are
still used for tasks such as interactive display, UV placement and so forth.
Quality, render speed, diagnostics | 197

Feature benefits
■ Optimized textures are stored at a customizable location for use elsewhere.

For more information, see Optimized textures location in the Rendering
Preferences window.
■ When used for network rendering, less data is sent across the network,
reducing render times and network load.
■ Reduce memory usage so that you can render larger scenes and render
scenes with higher resolution textures, such as 10k and above.
WARNING If using network rendering, the optimized textures must be

accessible on each slave and master machine. You can either store the file on
a file server that is accessible by all machines, or, the file must be available
locally on each slave machine.
About the optimized texture format
The optimized texture format is an uncompressed format that offers

multi-resolution capability, where each level being stored is formatted in a
tile. There is no pixel being read when the texture is referenced in the scene.
Only the tiles required for the render are loaded as necessary. Using the tileable
format, multiple resolutions of the same image are stored and properly filtered.
As a result, the optimized texture files are considerably larger than their original
counterparts.
NOTE
■ You can set the preferences for this feature by selecting Window >
Settings/Preferences > Preferences. Under the Rendering section, select
mental ray as your Preferred renderer. For more information. see Rendering
preferences.
■ If the textures in your scene file are already of the .map format, then these
files will still be converted and carried over to the cache location specified
under Custom Location in the Rendering Preferences window.

Network rendering
Overview of network rendering

Network rendering is the distribution of the rendering process across more
than one machine (sometimes called a render farm). For example, you can
divide an animation into smaller sequences and render each sequence on a
different computer. You can also control when and on which computer to
render. Rendering across a network of computers is often referred to as
distributed rendering.
Using Maya, there are three ways to set up network rendering.
■ Maya network rendering (see Managing Maya network rendering on page

170)
■ mental ray network rendering (see Network render with mental ray for
Maya on page 252)
■ mental ray for Maya Satellite network rendering
■ mental ray standalone network rendering
mental ray for Maya network rendering
mental ray network rendering: Satellite and

standalone
mental ray network rendering allows you to distribute the rendering of each
frame in your scene across multiple machines on your network. This requires
mental ray rendering licenses, either mental ray for Maya Satellite or mental
ray standalone.
The mental ray for Maya plug-in that is integrated in Maya always lets you
render on up to 4 local CPUs. With Maya® Complete™, mental ray satellite
rendering can take place on 2 additional remote CPUs. With Maya®
Unlimited™, mental ray satellite rendering can take place on 8 additional
remote CPUs.
Network rendering | 199

The mental ray network rendering process can be invoked while working
within Maya (in the Render View or batch rendering) or from the command
line within Maya.
A mental ray distributed rendering can speed up all of the following tasks:
■ interactive rendering (through the Maya interface)
■ IPR rendering with mental ray for Maya
■ interactive batch rendering (a batch render started by Maya)
■ command-line rendering
Terminology
When using mental ray for Maya and mental ray for Maya Satellite, master
refers to the machine that is submitting the network render requests
interactively, via batch or command line, and slave refers to an individual
machine with mental ray standalone or mental ray for Maya Satellite on the
network that receives and performs part of a network render and sends the
information back to the client.
Any machine with mental ray standalone can be a master, a slave or both at
the same time.
NOTE While it is not recommended, you can mix any combination of Linux,
Windows, and Mac OS X machines as masters and slaves.
Related topics
■ What you need to set up network rendering on page 200
■ Configuration files on page 201
What you need to set up network rendering

mental ray standalone
If you want to render Maya scenes (.mb or .ma) from within Maya or batch
render with Maya, you need to install mental ray for Maya on all server
machines and mental ray standalone on all slave machines.

If you want to render native mental images (.mi) scenes from the command
line using the mental ray standalone renderer, you need to install mental ray
on all master and slave machines.
mental ray for Maya Satellite
If you want to render Maya scenes (.mb or .ma) from within Maya or batch
render with Maya, you need to install mental ray for Maya on all server
machines and mental ray for Maya Satellite on all slave machines. You can
use up to 2 CPUs (with Maya Complete) or 8 CPUs (with Maya Unlimited).
For more information about installing mental ray for Maya Satellite, see the
Installation and Licensing guide.
You can’t render native mental images (.mi) scenes from the command line
using the mental ray for Maya Satellite; you must use mental ray standalone.
Configuration files
To specify which network render slave machines a master uses, mental ray
for Maya and mental ray standalone use different configuration files:
■ mental ray for Maya and mental ray for Maya Satellite uses a file called
maya.rayhosts
■ mental ray standalone uses a file called .rayhosts
maya.rayhosts
mental ray for Maya and mental ray for Maya Satellite look for maya.rayhosts
in the following directories:
■ user’s Maya preference directory
■ user’s Maya application directory
■ user’s home directory
To configure maya.rayhosts files, see Set up a master machine with mental

ray standalone (method 2) on page 258
mental ray for Maya network rendering | 201

maya.rayrc
mental ray for Maya looks for (maya.)rayrc in the following directories:
■ user’s Maya preference directory
■ user’s Maya application directory
■ user’s home directory
■ $MAYA_LOCATION/mentalray
■ directory from which the plug-in was loaded
maya.rayrc is installed with mental ray and additional configuration is

generally not required.
mental ray for Maya reference links

mental ray for Maya rendering menu items
The following is a list of mental ray for Maya specific menu items.
■ File > Export All, Export Selection (mental ray) on page 309
■ Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Approximation Editor on page
319
■ Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Custom Text Editor on page
319
■ Render > Render Using > mental ray on page 334
■ To set clipping planes under Create > Cameras > Camera on page 313, see
Clipping Planes on page 315.
■ To set the number of rendering threads to be used by mental ray for Maya
for rendering, see Render Threads on page 320.
■ To create an image plane and attach it to the camera, Image Plane on page
353.
mental ray for Maya rendering Windows and Editors
See mental ray Approximation Editor on page 363 for a description of the
mental ray for Maya approximation editor.

For information on the mental ray tabs in the Render Settings window, see:
■ Render Settings window on page 376
■ Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404
mental ray for Maya rendering nodes
For a description of the mental ray options in the Render Stats section of the
object’s shape node, see:
■ Render Stats on page 511
mental ray for Maya Output window messages

The following messages appear in the Maya’s Output window at start-up:
■ mental ray for Maya 8identifies the version for mental ray for Maya.
■ mental ray: version 3.3.0.655, 29 Jan 2004 Windows_NT_4.0_x86

identifies the version of mental ray standalone libraries that mental ray
for Maya is based.
Work with mental ray for Maya approximation
Create an approximation node

1 Select the geometry to which you want to assign an approximation node.
For compatible geometry types, see Approximation nodes on page 182.
2 Click Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Approximation Editor.
The Approximation Editor opens. For more information on the
Approximation Editor see, mental ray Approximation Editor on page 363.
3 Click the Create button for the type of approximation node you want to
create.
For descriptions, see Approximation nodes on page 182.
The approximation node is created and assigned to the selected geometry.
mental ray for Maya Output window messages | 203

Related topics
■ Approximation nodes on page 182
■ Assign an approximation node on page 204
■ Edit an approximation node on page 205
Assign an approximation node

NOTE When you create an approximation node, it is automatically assigned to
the selected geometry. Use this procedure to assign already created approximation
nodes to newly selected geometry.
1 Select the geometry to which you want to assign an approximation node.

For compatible geometry types, see Approximation nodes on page 182.
3 From the drop-down list for the type of approximation node, select the
node you want to assign.
4 Click Assign.
The approximation node is assigned to the selected geometry.
Related topics
■ Edit an approximation node on page 205

Edit an approximation node
selected geometry. Use this procedure to assign already created approximation
nodes to newly selected geometry.
node you want to edit.
3 Click Edit.
The approximation node’s Attribute Editor opens.
4 Edit the attributes
Related topics
Unassign an approximation node

the selected geometry. Use this procedure to unassign approximation nodes from
any geometry.
1 Select the geometry from which you want to unassign the approximation
node.
Edit an approximation node | 205

node that you want to unassign from the selected geometry
4 Click Unassign.
Related topics
Delete an approximation node

node that you want to delete
3 Click Delete.
TIP If you want to disconnect an approximation node from a piece of

geometry but keep the node in the scene, you can unassign the approximation
node instead of deleting it. See Unassign an approximation node on page
205 for more information.
Related topics

Override approximation settings
For complex scenes, many different approximation nodes with unique settings
may be needed to ensure accurate and efficient renderings.
When previewing such scenes, you can temporarily lower the tessellation
quality to produce low-quality renderings more quickly with global
(scene-wide) overrides.
To override approximation settings
1 Click Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.

The Render Settings window opens. For more information, see Render
Settings window on page 376.
In the mental ray tabs of the Render Settings window, the Options tab
on page 444, Overrides section, Tessellation sub-section provides controls
for specifying surface and displacement approximations to use for
rendering. When specified, these settings override all approximation
assignments in the scene. Selecting None will cause mental ray for Maya
to once more respect the approximation assignments in the scene.
Obtain quads for subdivision surfaces

For more information about mental ray for Maya geometry types, see mental
ray for Maya geometry types on page 184.
To get quads everywhere in a rejected subdivision surface
1 From the Surfaces menu set, select Subdiv Surfaces > Collapse Hierarchy
> .
2 Set Number of levels to 1.
3 Click Apply.
Override approximation settings | 207

Troubleshoot partial creases rendering as full
creases
Partial creases of subdivision surfaces are not supported in this version of
mental ray for Maya. They will be rendered as full creases.
Control Fine approximation triangles
Setting Fine approximation cache limit

Fine displacement critically depends on the specification of a cache size limit,
because otherwise the fine tessellation results would not flow through the
cache but accumulate until memory runs out. mental ray has a default cache
limit of 512 MB.
A good choice is half the amount of physical RAM, or 500-800 MB on 32-bit
machines, whichever is smaller. If the number is too large, the operating
system may run out of virtual address space; if it is too small, mental ray will
perform too many cache flush operations.
Control Fine approximation triangles

Choose one of the following techniques to control fine displacement. These
help you avoid the risk of accidentally creating billions of triangles until
memory runs out, without juggling a large number of displacement-mapping
parameters.
When you use Fine approximation, you must choose one of these techniques:
view length Specifies that all triangles should be subdivided until they are
smaller than edge pixel diagonals. The edge value is typically around 0.5, or
0.25 or even 0.1 for very high quality. This technique is recommended for all
fine approximations.
length Specifies that the triangle edge length should stay under edge units in
the object's object space. The edge parameter needs more careful tuning than
in the view-dependent case, and very high values defeat the purpose of fine
approximation.

parametric Tessellates a free-form surface such that all microtriangles have
the same size. This results in very regular meshes but is harder to optimize,
and may use significantly more memory.
This lets you define triangle size as a fraction of the surface size, instead of in
object or screenspace mode.
Tweak Approximation node settings

For each approximation setting, there are various settings, including tesselation
method and style, that determine how the renderer tessellates objects at render
time. You can manually change these settings or choose from a list of presets
to simplify the process.
Presets
Parametric Grid Parametric approximation subdivides the surface into u x v

triangle pairs and tessellates each patch independently. If the surface is a curve,
it ignores the v attribute.
Use Parametric approximation for surface approximations and curves, and for
trace-only or shadow-only geometry. Do not use for displacement.
Regular Grid It is similar to the Parametric Grid approximation method,

except that the tessellation density is the same throughout the entire surface
or curve.
Angle Tolerance The Angle approximation method subdivides the surface

until every angle between normals of adjacent tiles is less than the number
of degrees specified. Use in conjunction with the Angle on page 213 attribute.
Pixel Length The Pixel approximation method takes into account both Length
on page 211 and Distance. This method subdivides until no tile has an edge
length that exceeds the specified Length. It also subdivides until the distance
between the tessellation and the actual curve is less than the specified Distance.
Use in conjunction with Any Satisfied. If Any Satisfied is selected, then only
one of these conditions need to be satisfied. Otherwise, both conditions need
to be satisfied.
This method of approximation is view dependent and is not recommended
for use with instances because the same tessellation is applied to all instances
of the same object. This may result in a really high or really low tessellation
for both a near and a far object, neither of which is ideal. It is also not
recommended for camera flythroughs and for objects that are offscreen but
Control Fine approximation triangles | 209

still appear in reflections or shadows. For instances and camera flythroughs,
use the Angle Tolerance approximation method.
Approximation method
Parametric approximation Subdivides each patch of the surface into

equal-sized pieces in the U direction and V direction.
Regular parametric Curves are subdivided into equal pieces by the parametric
approximation and into subdiv equal pieces by the regular parametric
approximation.
For displacement mapped polygons and displacement mapped surfaces with
a displace statement regular parametric has the same meaning as parametric
in the approximation. For displacement mapped polygons the u_subdiv
constant specifies that each edge in the triangulation of the original polygon
is subdivided for the displacement 2u_subdivtimes. If a displace approximation
is given for a displacement mapped surface, the initial tessellation of the
underlying geometric surface is subdivided in the same way as for polygons.
For example, a value of 2 leads to a fourfold subdivision of each edge.
Non-integer values for the subdivision constant are admissible. Nothing is
done if the expression above is smaller than 2 (if u_subdiv < 1). The v_subdiv
constant is ignored for the parametric approximation of displacement maps.
Length/distance/angle (LDA) approximation Specifies curvature-dependent

approximation according to the criteria specified by the Length on page 211,
Distance on page 212, and Angle on page 213 attributes.
Spatial approximation A special case of an LDA approximation that specifies

only the length attribute and optionally the view attribute.
Curvature A special case of LDA approximation, equivalent to the distance

attribute, the angle attribute, and optionally the view attribute statement.
Approximation Style
Tree, Grid, and Delaunay approximation algorithms are available for surface
approximation only; they have no effect on curve approximations. Parametric
approximation on page 210always uses the Grid algorithm; all other
Approximation methods can use any style but Tree is the default.
Grid Tessellates on a regular grid of isolines in parameter space.
Tree Tessellates in a hierarchy of successive refinements that produces fewer

triangles for the same quality criteria.

Delaunay Creates a successive refinement that maximizes triangle
equiangularity. Delaunay triangulation creates more regular triangles but takes
longer to compute.
U Subdivisions, V Subdivisions These values are used by the Parametric

approximation on page 210and subdivides each patch of the surface into
equal-sized pieces in the U direction and V direction. Regular parametric
approximation methods specify how many times each patch (for Parametric)
or surface (for Regular Parametric) should be subdivided in the U and V
directions.
Min, Max When using the Length/distance/angle (LDA) approximation on

page 210adaptive approximation method, these attributes can be used to control
the minimum and maximum number of times that triangles in the tessellation
are subdivided. The Max Subdivisions parameter is especially useful for
preventing runaway situations where the approximation method wants to
add many triangles to an area where they will not greatly improve the quality
of the tessellation.
You can obtain good results with a Max Subdivisions value as low as 3.
Generally, each subdivision level can increase the triangle count by a factor
of 4, so raising the Max Subdivisions from 3 to 4 can produce 4 times as many
triangles. Raising it to 5 can produce 16 times as many triangles, raising it to
6 can produce 64 times as many triangles, and so on.
Max triangles This setting only applies to the Delaunay on page 211
approximation type. It determines the maximum number of triangles that
the final tessellation may contain.
Grading Applies only to Delaunay on page 211 approximation style.

Varies the density of triangles around the border of the surface, allowing for
a smooth transition between a fine curve approximation and coarser surface
approximation. It prevents a large number of tiny triangles at the trimming
or hole curve to abruptly join very large triangles in the interior of the surface.
The angle constant specifies a lower bound related to the degree of the
minimum angle of a triangle. Values from 0.0 to 30.0 can be specified. Small
values up to 20.0 are recommended. The default is 0.0. High grading values
require you to specify a maximum number of triangles (see Max triangles on
page 211) to prevent too many triangles or endless mesh refinement.
Length Subdivides the surface or curve so that no edge length of the

tessellation exceeds the edge parameter. Edge is given as a distance in the
space the object is defined in, or as a fraction of a pixel diagonal in raster space
if the view keyword is present. Small values such as 1.0 are recommended.

For Tree on page 210 and Grid approximation, the Min, Max on page 211 values
(if specified), specify the minimum and maximum number of recursion levels
of the adaptive subdivision. Min enforces a minimal triangulation fineness
with no tests. Edges are further subdivided until they satisfy the given criterion
or the max subdivision level is reached.
The defaults are 0 and 5, respectively; 5 is a very high number. Good results
often occur with a maximum of 3 subdivisions.
For Delaunay on page 211 approximation, Min, Max on page 211 specifies the
maximum number of triangles of the surface tessellation. This number is
exceeded only if required by trimming, hole, and special curves because every
curve vertex must become part of the tessellation regardless of the specified
maximum.
For displacement mapped polygons and displacement mapped surfaces, length
limits the size of the edges of the displaced triangles and ensures that at least
all features of this size are resolved. Subdivision stops as soon as an edge
satisfies the criterion or when the maximum subdivision level is reached.
Distance Specifies the maximum distance between the tessellation and the
actual curve or surface. The value of dist is a distance in the space the object
is defined in, or a fraction of a pixel diagonal in raster space if the view
statement is present.
As a starting point, a small distance such as 0.1 is recommended. For Tree on
page 210and Grid approximation the min and max parameters, if present,
specify the minimum and maximum number of recursion levels of the adaptive
subdivision. For Delaunay on page 211approximation, the number max
following the keyword max specifies the maximum number of triangles of
the surface tessellation.
For displacement mapped polygons and displacement mapped surfaces with
a displace approximation statement the distance criterion cannot be used in
the same way because the displaced surface is not known analytically. Instead,
the displacements of the vertices of a triangle in the tessellation are compared.
The criterion is fulfilled only if they differ by less than the given threshold.
Subdivision is finest in areas where the displacement changes. For example,
if a black-and-white picture is used for the displacement map the triangulation
will be finest along the borders between black and white areas but the
resolution will be lower away from them in the uniformly colored areas. In
such a case one could choose a moderately dense parametric surface
approximation that samples the displacement map at sufficient density to
catch small features, and use the curvature-dependent displace approximation
to resolve the curvature introduced by the displacement map. Even if the base
surface is triangulated without adding interior points, as if its a trim curve
defined a polygon in parameter space, it is still possible to guarantee a certain

resolution by increasing the min subdivision level. Only the consecutive
subdivisions are then performed adaptively.
Angle The angle statement specifies the maximum angle in degrees between
normals of adjacent tiles of a displaced polygon or the tessellation of a surface
or its displacement or between tangents of adjacent segments of the curve
approximation. Large angles such as 45.0 are recommended. For tree and grid
approximation the min and max parameters, if present, specify the minimum
and maximum number of recursion levels of the adaptive subdivision. For
Delaunay approximation, the number max following the keyword max specifies
the maximum number of triangles of the surface tessellation.
View dependent
Controls whether the edge argument of the length and spatial statements and
the dist argument of the distance and curvature statements are in the space
the object is defined in or in raster space.
Turn this on to express the Length and Distance attribute values in pixels
instead of object-space units (the default). The advantage of using
view-dependent values is that objects that are close to the camera receive
many triangles, while objects that are far away (or not visible at all) are
approximated much more coarsely.
Length If the View Dependent attribute is turned on, this value is specified
in pixels, otherwise it is specified in object-space units. The Length criterion
is especially useful in conjunction with view dependency. For example, a
view-dependent value of Length = 0.5 means subdivide until all triangles are
no bigger than half a pixel in the resulting image. If the Length attribute is
set to 0.0, this criterion is ignored by the tessellator.
Distance If the View Dependent flag is turned on, this distance is expressed
in pixels, otherwise it is expressed in object-space units. The lower the value,
the more closely the tessellated surface will match the exact NURBS surface.
Small values such as 0.1 work well (with view dependency disabled). If the
Distance attribute is set to 0.0, this criterion is ignored by the tessellator.
Spatial The Spatial approximation method is the same as the Length criteria
from the Length/Distance/Angle method. Using this method, the mesh will
be subdivided until all triangles are less than a certain size, determined by the
Length attribute. This value is expressed in either pixels or object-space units,
as determined by the View Dependent flag. This method is the only one
available when using the Fine approximation type.
Sharp Controls normal-vector calculations. If set to 0.0, mental ray for Maya
uses the interpolated normal, as specified by the base surface, modified by

displacement if available. If set to 1.0, mental ray for Maya uses the geometric
normal to achieve a sharp faceted look.
Render time smoothing of polygon meshes
Smooth polygon meshes at render time

To smooth polygon meshes at render time, use the following workflow. This
is a very efficient method of smoothing polygon meshes as it reduces the
amount of data calculations during interactive manipulation.
Major advantages for this feature include the following:
■ During translation, mental ray for Maya only translates the mesh hull,
and the actual smoothing occurs at render time.
■ This workflow delays smoothing until required because mental ray only
tesselates and smoothes the mesh when a ray, for example, a camera ray,
reflection ray, or shadow ray, hits the object.
The drawback of this feature, however, is that all Maya creasing will render
differently with this technique, since the creasing appears different in the
viewport as compared to its mental ray render.
1 Open the Approximation Editor (Window > Rendering Editors > mental
ray > Approximation Editor).
2 Click the Create button beside the Subdivision approx. (Poly, Subdiv)
attribute to create and assign a subdivision approximation to your
polygon.
3 Render the scene in mental ray.
NOTE You can also smooth polygon meshes by selecting Mesh > Smooth.
This method creates denser geometry in the viewport and can increase the
number of data calculations for interactive manipulation.

Rendering a smooth polygon mesh
Render a smooth polygon mesh using Smooth Mesh

Preview
You can set up a smooth preview in the 3D viewport and then render it.
1 In the Render Settings window, under Render Using, select mental ray.
2 Select the polyShape node for your mesh.
3 In the Attribute Editor, expand the Smooth Mesh section and select
Smooth Mesh Preview.
4 Select the level of smoothing for your mesh by tweaking the division
level. A higher value produces more smoothing. If you want to use the
same division level for the 3D viewport preview as for your render, select
the Use Preview Level for Rendering option. Otherwise, uncheck the Use
Preview Level for Rendering option and use the Render Division Levels
slider or text field to enter the desired division level for your render.
Rendering a smooth polygon mesh | 215

NOTE To obtain smooth render effects, you must ensure that the Export
Triangulated Polygons option in the Options tab on page 444, under the Translation
section and Performance sub-section, is enabled.

Contour rendering
Adding a contour to your scene

To add a (default) contour to your scene
1 In the Attribute Editor of the shading group node for your material shader,
select Enable Contour Rendering under the Contours section.
2 In the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404, Features tab on page
406 expand the Contours on page 410 section and select Enable Contour
Rendering.
3 Select how you want your contours to behave with geometry by checking
the applicable options under Draw By Property Difference on page 410
under the Contours on page 410 section.
4 Tweak the contour attributes to achieve the look that you desire.
To add a contour shader to your scene
1 In the Attribute Editor of the shading group node for your material shader,
map your mental ray contour shader, such as contour_shader_depthfade,
to the Contour Shader attribute under the Custom Shaders section.
2 Tweak the contour shader attributes to achieve the look that you desire.
3 In the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404, Features tab on page
406, expand the Contours on page 410section. Under the Custom Shaders
section, map your custom contrast shader, for example,
contour_contrast_function_levels, to the Contrast Shader attribute. Map
your custom store shader, for example, contour_store_function to the
Store Shader attribute.
4 Tweak the contour shader attributes to achieve the look that you desire.
For a description of the node attributes for the mental ray contour shaders,
see the mental ray Shaders Guide in the Maya Help.
Contour rendering | 217

Work with multi-render passes
Introduction to multi-render passes: a simple

workflow example
In this scene there is a render layer, named KitchenSink, which includes a

sink and a spotlight. The sink has a Phong shader applied to it and the
spotlight’s Use Ray Trace Shadows attribute is enabled. Use the following
simple workflow to obtain a diffuse, reflection, shadow and specular pass for
this layer.
it moving forward.

Create render passes for the render layer
1 With the KitchenSink layer selected, open the Render Settings window
and select mental ray as your renderer.
2 Select the Passes tab and click the New Pass button to create a new
render pass. The Create Render Passes window appears.
3 Select the following render passes. You can multi-select items: Diffuse
Without Shadows, Reflection, Shadow, and Specular Without Shadows.
Click the Create and Close button. Four render passes named
diffuseNoShadow, reflection, shadow, specularNoShadow are created and
appear under the Scene Passes section
NOTE By default, a beauty pass is also created for the each layer once the
selected passes have been created.
4 Use the arrow buttons to move the passes to the Associated Passes section.
This makes the passes available to the current layer.
Introduction to multi-render passes: a simple workflow example | 219

5 Render the scene. By default, if you render from the scene view, your
rendered images are saved to the subdirectory
<RenderLayer>\<camera>\<RenderPass> under the images\tmp directory
of your project file. Maya also creates a MasterBeauty folder where it saves
the default beauty pass for the scene. The image file name <scene>.iff
is used for each rendered image. If you batch render, the rendered images
are saved directly to the images directory.
NOTE If you render using the Render View window, you can also preview
your render pass output by selecting File > Load Render Pass.

Beyond this example
In addition to creating render passes for the entire render layer, you can also
create render passes for a subset of the objects and lights in your render layer.
You can do this by creating a render pass contribution map. See Creating
render pass contribution maps on page 224 for more information.
You can also customize the subfolders and filenames to which the rendered
images are stored. See Creating subfolders and filenames for rendered images
on page 227 for more information.
If you have many render passes in your scene, you can group them into render
pass sets, for example, an Illumination pass set that includes all passes involving
lights, such as diffuse, and ambient. See Using render pass sets in your scene
on page 231 for more information.
Related topics
■ Passes tab on page 404
■ Render pass nodes on page 501
■ Multi-render passes on page 187

Sample workflow for multi-render passes
This sample workflow illustrates how to do the following:
■ Use the Render Layer Editor to create render pass contribution maps.
Although this step is optional, render pass contribution maps give you
finer control over light and objects and their passes relationship. For
example, you can use pass contribution maps to easily create a diffuse pass
for a specific object that is illuminated by a specific light.
■ Create render passes for each render pass contribution map.
■ Render the scene and create the subfolders and filenames for the rendered
images.
■ Group render passes into render pass sets and render the set.
NOTE For a list of available passes, and a list of shaders that is currently supported
by the multi-render pass workflow, see Multi-render passes on page 187.
it moving forward.
Rendering with render pass contribution maps
Creating render pass contribution maps
In this scene (KitchenSinkModel.ma), there is a render layer, named

KitchenSink, with two objects, a sink and a bowl, and a light. A Phong shader
is applied to the sink and a Lambert shader is applied to the bowl.

1 Select the bowl and light in your scene view. In the Render Layer Editor,
right-click the layer and select Pass Contribution Maps > Create Pass
Contribution Map and Add Selected.
passContributionMap1 is created. Double-click it and change its name
to Bowl.
2 Select the sink and light in your scene view. In the Render Layer Editor,
right-click the layer and select Pass Contribution Maps > Create Pass
Contribution Map and Add Selected. Change its name to Sink.
Related topics
Create render passes for each render pass contribution map
1 Open the Render Settings window and select mental ray as your renderer.
Sample workflow for multi-render passes | 225

2 First, create the render passes for your sink render pass contribution map.
Select the Passes tab and click the New Pass button to create new
render passes. The Create Render Passes window appears.
3 Multi-select the following render passes: Diffuse Without Shadows,

Reflection, Specular, and Shadow. In the Pass Prefix field, enter Sink.
Click the Create and Close button. The following passes are created:
SinkDiffuseNoShadow, SinkReflection, SinkShadow, SinkSpecular. The
passes appear under the Scene Passes section.
4 Create the render pass for the bowl render pass contribution map. Select
the Passes tab and click the New Pass button to create a new render
pass. The Create Render Passes window appears. Select the Diffuse render
pass and enter Bowl in the Pass Prefix field, then click Create and Close.
The BowlDiffuse pass appears under the Scene Passes section.
5 Before you can apply these render passes to each pass contribution map,
you must first make these passes available to the current layer. Use the
arrow buttons to move the passes to the Associated Passes section.
6 Using the Associated Pass Contribution Map drop-down list, select the
pass contribution map that you want to select render passes for, for
example, Sink.
7 Use the arrow buttons to move the SinkDiffuseNoShadow, SinkReflection,

SinkShadow, and SinkSpecular passes to the Passes Used by Contribution
Map section.

8 Repeat this procedure to add the BowlDiffuse pass to the Passes Used by
Contribution Map section for the Bowl pass contribution map.
9 Render the scene. Your rendered images are saved to the images directory
of your project file as described below.
Related topics
■ Passes tab on page 404
■ Render pass nodes on page 501
■ Multi-render passes on page 187
Creating subfolders and filenames for rendered images
By default, your rendered images are saved to the subdirectory

<RenderLayer>\<camera>\<RenderPass> under the images\tmp directory of
your project file. The image file name <scene>.iff is used for each rendered
image.

NOTE All image output from render passes are saved to the images\tmp directory
of your project file unless you run a batch render. Running a batch render saves
your render passes output to the images directory.
NOTE If you render using the Render View window, you can also preview your
render pass output by selecting File > Load Render Pass.
You may want to customize the subdirectories and filenames for the rendered
images instead. For example, you may not want a folder to be created for each
layer and camera. Use the tokens available from the File name prefix attribute
under the File Output section in the Render Settings: Common tab on page
377. and combine them with separators such as _ or -.
For example, you may want to use the <Scene>_<RenderLayer>_<RenderPass>
tags to create the filenames for your images. In this sample workflow, the
following images are produced:
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_BowlDiffuse.iff
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkDiffuseNoShadow.iff
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkReflection.iff
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkShadow.iff
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_SinkSpecular.iff
■ KitchenSinkModel_KitchenSink_MasterBeauty.iff (This is the default

beauty pass for the layer.)
NOTE If you use the default File Output directory, Maya creates a MasterBeauty
folder to which it saves the default beauty pass for the layer. If you customize the
File Output directory, a MasterBeauty.iff image is created for the beauty pass.

Using render pass sets in your scene
If your scene includes many render passes, you may want to group them into
render pass sets. You can create render pass sets using the Create Render Passes
window at the same time as when you are creating your render passes.

1 In the Create Render Passes window, select the passes that you want to
include in your pass set.
2 Enable the Create Pass Set option. Enter a Pass Set Name, for example,
Illumination. Click Create Passes.
3 The Illumination pass now appears in the Scene Passes section.
4 To render this pass set for the current layer, use the arrow buttons to
move the render pass set to the Associated Passes section.
5 Select the Illumination pass set and click the Pass Set Relationship Editor
button. The Relationship Editor window appears and you can see that
the Illumination pass is automatically associated with all the passes that
you created simultaneously.

6 Render the scene. By default, the rendered images are saved to
<RenderLayer>\<camera>\<RenderPass> under the images\tmp directory
of your project file.
Related topics
■ Relationship Editor
Exporting the multi-render passes for

compositing in Toxik
After setting up your render layers and creating your render passes in Maya,
you may want to export your elements to be composited in Toxik.
1 Select Render > Export Pre-Compositing. The Export Pre-Compositing

window appears.
2 The Export Pre-compositing editor is divided into three tabs: Cameras,

Render Layers and Render Passes. Select the appropriate tab depending
on the elements that you want to export.
3 Use the icon to expand the render layer, render camera, or render pass
hierarchy and select the elements that you want to export. A icon
indicates that all elements are being exported and A icon indicates
that only partial elements are being exported.
Exporting the multi-render passes for compositing in Toxik | 233

4 Enter a scene anchor name in the Pre-Compositing Scene Anchor field.
Toxik uses the scene anchor name to identify the elements that should
be included in the composite. If a composite with the specified anchor
name does not exist, Toxik builds a new one and adds to it all the
elements with the same scene anchor. Otherwise, if the composite already
exists, it is updated and all elements with the same scene anchor are
included in the composite.
NOTE Unlike the scene name, which can change, for example, from version
one to version two, the scene anchor does not change. It uniquely connects
a Maya scene to a scene composition in a Toxik project. All elements that
belong to the same composite, for example, cameras, render passes, render
layers, and so forth, should have the same scene anchor. A scene anchor is
only required if you plan to updated your scene compositions in Toxik.
5 Click the Export All or Export Selection button to export your render
layers, passes and cameras to Toxik. The Export PRECOMP file window
opens that allows you to enter a filename for your exported file.
NOTE Before exporting to Toxik, ensure that all your scene elements are named
correctly. Avoid renaming elements (for example, a camera name or a render pass
name) halfway through your workflow. Toxik does not recognize the renaming
of scene elements, since renamed elements are flagged as new elements to be
inserted in the compositions. Therefore, if your composition contains old and new
elements, you are responsible for cleaning up your composition after an update.
For example, if you export for the first time with camera1 and then change your
camera name to camera2 and export again, Toxik does not update the camera in
the composite from camera1 to camera2. Instead, your composite now contains
two cameras: camera 1 and camera 2.
Using templates with the pre-compositing workflow
You can also create a template that instructs Toxik on how to update the
composite. A template is a Toxik precomp file with nodes that contain anchor
information. For example, if you have 15 passes in your scene, but only 2 of
the passes are blended together in the template, then only these 2 passes are
blended together in your composite. Specify a template for each layer using
the Render Settings window, Passes tab. When Toxik sees the template, it
duplicates it, and then looks for the elements with specific anchors (render
layer/camera/render pass anchors).

Create and use a template with the pre-compositing workflow
1 Create a template by exporting your scene elements to Toxik. A composite

is created.
2 Add compositing operators, such as blend and comps or math compositing

nodes, to the composite and save it as a .txcomposition template file.
3 Use a different template for each render layer. Select a render layer and
open the Render Settings window, Passes tab. Enter the template in the
Pre-Compositing template for attribute. Repeat for each render layer.
4 Select Render > Export Pre-Compositing to export the scene elements to

Toxik.
File formats supported by Toxik
Refer to the following table for list of file formats that Toxik supports, as well
as their supported bit depths.
Format File Extnesion Supported bit depths for

imported files
Bitmap .bmp 8
Cineon 10
DPX .dpx 8, 10, 16
HDR .hdr 32
IFF .iff 8, 16, 32
JPEG/JFIF .jpg, .jpeg 8
OpenEXR 16 bit float, 32
Photoshop .psd 8, 16
PICT .pict 8, 16
Exporting the multi-render passes for compositing in Toxik | 235

Format File Extnesion Supported bit depths for
imported files
PNG .png 8, 16
QuickTime .mov
SGI .sgi 8, 16
RGB .rgb 8, 16
Targa .tga 8, 16
TIFF .tif, .tiff 8, 16, 32
Softimage .pic 8
RLA .RLA 8, 16
NOTE Bit depths 8, 10, and 16 are integer unless otherwise indicated. Bit depth
32 is float.
Set scene options
Open the Render Settings window

The settings you use to produce your final rendered image or sequence of
images depend on a number of factors, including:
■ the renderer you use
■ the medium to which you are outputting
■ whether you are rendering in layers and passes for compositing
■ whether you are preview rendering or producing the final rendered image(s)

NOTE The changes you make in the Render Settings window affect the entire
scene. Often, it makes sense to adjust settings on a per-object setting.
Render settings for the Hardware renderer, the mental ray for Maya renderer,
the Maya software renderer, the Maya Vector renderer are available from the
The Common tab of the Render Settings window contains the attributes
common to most of the renderers, which decreases the number of parameters
you need to modify when switching between renderers. Settings specific to
the chosen renderer are available in a another tab.
For detailed descriptions of the settings in the Render Settings window, see
To open the Render Settings window

■ Click Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.
■ Click the Display Render Settings Window button on the main toolbar
or in Render View.
■ Select Options > Render Settings in Render View.
You can edit settings in the Common tab and the renderer-specific tab.
For more information, see Render Settings window on page 376.
Modify a mask channel

For Maya software and mental ray for Maya.
To increase or decrease the mask value for an object

Matte Opacity Mode to Opacity Gain and adjust the Matte Opacity value.
During rendering, Maya first generates the mask channel, then multiplies
the mask values for the object by the Matte Opacity value. For example,
if Matte Opacity is 1, the mask values for the object remains unchanged;
if Matte Opacity is 0.5, the mask values for the object are half their original
values.
Modify a mask channel | 237

To set the mask value for an object to a constant value

Matte Opacity Mode to Solid Matte and adjust the Matte Opacity value.
If the object is transparent, any objects behind it appear in the mask
channel.
mask values for the object to the Matte Opacity value. For example, if
Matte Opacity is 1, the mask values for the object are 1; if Matte Opacity
is 0.5, the mask values for the object are 0.5.
To set the mask value for an object to zero
1 In the Matte Opacity section of an object’s materials Attribute Editor, set

Matte Opacity Mode to Black Hole.
mask values for the object to 0. If the object is transparent, any objects
behind it will not appear in the mask channel.
Adjust anti-aliasing in mental ray for Maya

settings on a per-object basis is often more efficient and has less of an impact on
rendering speed.
For more information on aliasing artifacts and strategies on how to fix them,
see Adjust scene anti-aliasing parameters (Maya software) on page 157.
mental ray anti-aliasing specifics
Manually adjust the following:
■ Quality Presets
■ Sampling Mode
■ Custom Sampling
■ Min Sample Level = 0
■ Max Sample Level = 2
■ Filter = Triangle or Gauss

Set motion blur in mental ray for Maya
by blurring objects in the scene. For more information on motion blur, see
Focus and blur on page 15.
mental ray motion blur specifics
Supports only 3D motion blur.

To set motion blur, in the Quality Presets section of the Render Settings
window on page 376 set Quality to an option that includes Motion Blur, then
work with the settings in the Motion Blur section of the Render Settings
window on page 376.
Perform command line rendering
Rendering from the command line

Your scene file determines whether you render a single frame or an animation.
You can render from a shell or a command line. Before rendering, you may
Set motion blur in mental ray for Maya | 239

want to close all applications, including Maya, to maximize the amount of
memory available for rendering.
When you render from a command line, you can set flags that override some
of the Render Settings, saving time during test renders.
For more information, see Render from the command line in the Rendering
Utilities guide.
To get quick renderer-specific information
1 Type:
Render -r rendername -help
where rendername is the name of the renderer.
■ mr = mental ray
■ sw = software renderer
■ hw = hardware renderer
■ vr = vector renderer
■ file = the file within which the renderer is specified
NOTE If you get help on a file (-r file -help), only the flags common to
all renderers, not a specific renderer, are shown. If you want
renderer-specific information, you must specify the renderer.
All flags have a short description. Each flag corresponds to the appropriate
section of the Render Settings window. See the Render Settings documentation
for more detailed information on each option.
To obtain a complete list of command line Render options, from a shell or

command line
1 Type:
Render -help
To render a scene with a specific renderer from a shell or command line
1 Type:
Render -r <renderername> <options> scene

TIP You may need to provide the -proj flag when issuing the render
command to specify where the scene file is located. For example, type:
Render <options> <projName> scene -proj
To render a scene with the renderer specified in the file from a shell or
command line
1 Whichever renderer is specified in the file is used to render the scene.

Type:
Render -r file
To batch render using user-defined region rendering
1 Use the -reg flag. For example:

render -r mr -reg 0 100 0 100 scene.ma
where -reg 0 100 0 100 indicates the region to be rendered in pixels
(left, right, bottom, top).
The above command renders the lower left 100 x100 pixel region of the
scene.
Export .mi files
Export a .mi file and render with mental ray

There are two ways to export a .mi file for rendering with mental ray. The first
method is to use the File > Export All option. The second method is to use
the mi exporter from the command line.
■ To export a .mi file and render with mental ray using File > Export All
■ To export a .mi file using the command line
To export a .mi file and render with mental ray using File > Export All
1 Select File > Export All.
2 Choose a file name and path and click Options.
Export .mi files | 241

The Export All Options window appears.
3 Select mentalRay as the file type.

There are File Type Specific Options in the Export All Options window
you can use to control file naming schemes and other details.
4 Click Export All.
TIP You can use the Esc key to cancel a mental ray for Maya export operation.
This functionality cancels the export operation, but Maya remains running.
To export a .mi file using the command line
1 Use the -r mi flag. See Command Line Flags for more information. For
example:
Render -r mi -rd "C:/images" -im "cmdTest" -of "tif" -s 10 -e
15 -b 1 -binary 0 -perframe 0 -exportPathNames "1111111111" -
file "C:/temp/test.mi" mayascene.ma
The command above exports frames 10 to 15 (-s, -e, and -b flags), and
exports one .mi file for the entire animation (-perframe flag). The exported
.mi file is in ASCII format (-binary flag), with the path and filename
C:/temp/test.mi. The .mi file uses the absolute path for its full name
(-exportPathNames flag).
When the test.mi file is rendered with a Standalone renderer, the output
image file is in tif format (-of flag) with the filename cmdTest (-im flag),
and stored in the c:/images directory (-rd flag).
Related Topics:
■ Exporting MI files using the command line
Managing your scenes using render proxies
Using render proxies in your scene

Use render proxies to manage large scenes with complex geometry. If your
scene includes a complex piece of geometry, you can first export the object
as a mental ray assembly file, and then replace it in your scene with a
placeholder object that references this file. When you render, the exported
object is loaded into memory and rendered with the rest of your scene. The
overall translation is instantaneous, since there are virtually no geometries
being passed to mental ray. Translation time and memory usage are therefore
drastically reduced, allowing mental ray for Maya to render large scenes.
NOTE The use of render proxies can cut down translation time and memory usage
in several ways. First of all, complex geometry is never loaded into Maya. It is only
loaded into mental ray if necessary. If the proxy is occluded or behind another
object or behind the camera, then it is not loaded. Also, the texture file associated
with the render proxy is not loaded unless the proxy is. Furthermore, mental ray
for Maya can also unload the entire render proxy during rendering in order to
reduce memory consumption.
Create a render proxy as follows:
1 Export your geometry by selecting File > Export Selection > . See File
> Export All, Export Selection (mental ray) on page 309 for more
information.
NOTE When you export your render proxy using the default settings, you
also export its shading network. Therefore, shading that you apply to the
placeholder does not take effect. To change this behavior, customize your
export options by selecting File > Export Selection > .
2 Under the General Options section, File type attribute, select mentalRay.
3 Under the File Type Specific Options section, Export selection output:
attribute, select Render Proxy (Assembly).
NOTE When creating your render proxy, do not compress your .mi header
file because Maya needs to read the bounding box data from the .mi file.
4 Click Export Selection, and save your object as a .mi file.
NOTE Place your proxy object at the origin before exporting it to a .mi file.
For example, if your proxy is at x=10 during the export, the placeholder item
will also be moved by 10.
Using render proxies in your scene | 243

Rendering your scene using a render proxy
1 Create a simple base geometry as a placeholder for your more complex

geometry.
2 In the base geometry's shape node, expand the mental ray section. In the
Render Proxy section, select your render proxy .mi file. Your base
geometry is now resized so that it fits the original render proxy object.

3 In the base geometry's transform node, expand the mental ray section.
In the Render proxy section, ensure that Renderable is enabled to render
the proxy instead of your base geometry.
4 Render your scene. Your base geometry is replaced by your render proxy
in the render view.
Using render proxies in your scene | 245

NOTE Assign the proxy file before animating the placeholder. The Freeze
Transformations operation fails if the transformation has incoming connections.
Therefore, you should animate the placeholder after assigning to it the proxy file.
Material assignments for render proxy

You can apply a shader to your render proxy in one of two ways. You can
retain the render proxy’s original shader assignment, or you can assign a
material to the base geometry, and then apply that to the render proxy as
well.
To retain the render proxy’s original shader assignment, when exporting your
geometry, select File > Export Selection > , and then ensure that Export
materials and Export material assignments under File Type Specific Options
are selected.
Otherwise, if you de-select Export materials and Export material assignments
under File Type Specific Options, your render proxy will be exported without
its material and material assignment. When you assign a material to your base

geometry, this material assignment is also applied to your render proxy in the
final render.
Increase render speed
Increase overall rendering speed in mental ray for

Maya
To make a scene render faster, do any of the following:
■ Diagnose the scene to find ways to render the scene faster using Render >
Run Render Diagnostics. You can use this tool to monitor how well you
optimize the scene and to search for limitations and potential problems
that may occur. For more information on render diagnostics, see Run
diagnostics on page 166 and mental ray for Maya diagnostics on page 197.
■ Perform scene optimizations:
■ Click File > Optimize Scene Size > to turn options on or off to
optimize everything in the scene and to remove unused or non-valid
elements. See File > Optimize Scene Size in the Basics guide for more
information about this window.
■ For Maya software rendering, use Block ordered texture set up. See
Cache texture tiles using BOT (block ordered texture) on page 163.
■ If the scene contains objects with construction history and you no

longer need it, delete it. See the Construction history in the Basics guide
for details.
■ Avoid memory swapping by:

■ Closing all applications before rendering to maximize the amount of
memory available for rendering (including Maya if rendering from a
shell or command line).
■ Setting the TEMP or TMPDIR variable as the location for temporary

render cache files: -TMPDIR (Linux) or - TEMP (Windows and Mac OS
X) to make plenty of room for temporary rendered files. Make sure that
the value of those variables points to a local, fast hard drive, not a
network drive.
Increase render speed | 247

■ For Maya software and mental ray for Maya, Test Resolution (Render >
Test Resolution) lets you select a reduced resolution to test render the
scene. For more information on test rendering strategies, see Visualize
interactively with IPR on page 123.
■ For Maya software, if the scene contains several identical surfaces (for
example, multiple spheres), use Optimize Instances in the Render Settings:
Maya Software tab on page 388 to improve rendering performance.
■ Turn off motion blur if you don’t need it (the Vector renderer has no
motion blur). For the Maya software renderer, use 2D motion blur instead
of 3D motion blur when possible. See 2D Motion Blur global attributes
and 3D Motion Blur in the Render Settings window on page 376 for details.
Use average BSP (mental ray for Maya) settings
When mental ray for Maya raytraces, it calculates the effects using an average
of the depth and the average of the leaf size settings of the BSP.
To speed up subsequent renderings, you can render instead with the average
settings (instead of your initial settings).
Find the averages in Maya's Output Window after you render the scene the
first time (with Verbosity Level set to Progress Messages or above in Render >
Render Current Frame > and Render > Batch Render > ), then change
the settings in the Memory and Performance section.
Example averages found in the Output Window
■ RCI 0.2 info : main bsp tree statistics:
■ RCI 0.2 info : max depth : 40
■ RCI 0.2 info : max leaf size : 114
■ RCI 0.2 info : average depth : 22
■ RCI 0.2 info : average leaf size : 7
■ RCI 0.2 info : leafnodes : 8185
■ RCI 0.2 info : bsp size (Kb) : 393

Increase surface rendering speed in mental ray for
Maya
■ Use single-sided instead of double-sided surfaces (which is the default) on

the object’s Attribute Editor. The biggest speed gain is for the Maya
hardware renderer.
■ Tessellating large surfaces requires a lot of memory, so use several small

surfaces instead of one large surface when you can. The renderer is more
efficient with smaller surfaces.
■ For Maya software rendering and Maya hardware rendering, use bump
mapping instead of displacement mapping.
■ For Maya software rendering, make bump maps flatter. To do this, reduce
the value of the Alpha Gain attribute, which smooths the bump map and
reduces the number of samples of adaptive shading. This technique only
works when Edge Anti-aliasing is set to Highest Quality. The texture bump
looks flatter when the Alpha Gain is lower.
■ For Maya software rendering, turn on Use Displacement Bounding Box

when using displacement maps.
■ For Maya software rendering, use layered textures when possible, instead
of a Layered Shader. (See Layered shaders and 2D and 3D textures in the
Shading guide for details.)
■ For Maya software rendering and mental ray for Maya, if you are raytracing
the scene, set the Reflection Limit and Refraction Limit to the lowest values
that produce acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, in the Render Settings: Maya Software tab
on page 388 on Linux, Use File Cache avoids re-tessellation of the same
surface during rendering. Turn on Use File Cache to store geometric data
in a separate file in a location that you specify (the default location is
/usr/tmp, but you can set a new location by typing setenv TMPDIR xxx,
where xxx is the name of the directory where this file is output).
Increase surface rendering speed in mental ray for Maya | 249

Increase shadow rendering speed in mental ray for
Maya
To make shadows render faster, do any of the following:
■ For Maya software and mental ray for Maya, use depth map shadows instead
of raytraced shadows.
■ For surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off Casts Shadows.
To make depth map shadows render faster, do any of the following:
■ Set the Resolution to the lowest value that produces acceptable results.
(For shadow casting spot lights, first reduce the Cone Angle to the lowest
value that produces acceptable results.)
■ Turn on Use Auto Focus (or set the Focus to the lowest value that produces
acceptable results. See Focus, Width Focus) and set the Resolution to the
lowest value that produces acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, set the light’s Filter Size to the lowest value
that produces acceptable results. A Filter Size value of 2 or more is usually
sufficient. For mental ray for Maya, adjust the Resolution, Samples, and
Softness settings under the light’s Shadow Map section.
■ For Maya software rendering, Set Fog Shadow Samples to the lowest value
that produces acceptable results.
■ For Maya software rendering, set Disk Based Dmaps to Reuse Existing
Dmap(s).
■ For Maya software rendering, if a point light does not have to produce
shadows in the light’s positive or negative X, Y, or Z directions, turn off
the appropriate Depth Map Shadow Attributes : Use X+ Map, Use X- Map,
Use Y+ Map, Use Y- Map, Use Z+ Map, or Use Z- Map.
■ For Maya software rendering, if the scene contains NURBS surfaces, in the
Memory and Performance Options section of the Render Settings: Maya
Software tab on page 388, make sure Reuse Tessellations is on (the default
setting).

To make raytraced shadows render faster (for Maya software rendering and
Maya hardware rendering), do any of the following:
■ If the Light Radius (or the Light Angle for directional lights) is greater than
0, set Shadow Rays to the lowest value that produces acceptable results.
See Shadow Radius, Light Radius, Light Angle for details.
■ Set Ray Depth Limit to the lowest value that produces acceptable results.
Diagnose scene problems
mental ray for Maya error handling and diagnostics

Error messages
mental ray for Maya checks for errors in a scene and recognizes various
operating system errors. If an error is detected, a message appears in Maya's
script editor. If a critical error is found, mental ray for Maya aborts the current
process.
The message verbosity can be changed by selecting a different Verbosity Level
option in the "Render > Render Current Frame > " and "Render > Batch
Render > ". When using the interactive renderer mental ray for Maya prints
messages to the Output Window (Windows) or the Console (Linux). When
batch rendering with mental ray for Maya, a log file is created. If severe errors
are encountered during database access of mental ray, the final rendering
doesn’t get started.
Diagnostics
You can use diagnostics to help you diagnose issues with samples and photon
maps. You can specify Diagnose Grid and Grid Size, as well as Diagnose Photon
Density or Irradiance. See Run diagnostics on page 166.
Diagnose scene problems | 251

Network rendering
Network render with mental ray for Maya

Before you begin, you must have networked workstations. See your system
administrator if workstations are not networked.
You can set up masters using mental ray standalone or mental ray for Maya,
using different method to specify which hosts to use as network render slaves.
NOTE If you have multiple versions of mental ray standalone installed (not
recommended), each must have their own TCP port number in the services file
to avoid conflict.
For example:
mi_ray3_0maya4_0 7051/tcp mi_ray3_1maya4_5 7052 and 7053/tcp
mi_ray3_2maya5_0 7054/tcp
Related topics
■ mental ray network rendering: Satellite and standalone on page 199
■ Submit a job to render over the network on page 262
Set up mental ray network rendering

To set up mental ray network rendering
1 Ensure that you have networked workstations. The slave machines must
be accessible on the network where the master machine is installed.
2 Ensure that any firewall software is not interfering with the operation of
your network rendering software.
3 Ensure that all necessary services (for mental ray standalone or Satellite)
are running.
4 mental ray service should be installed and running.

5 Set up your master machine by creating a rayhost file. Ensure that it is
located in the right directory. You can set up your master machine using
mental ray standalone or mental ray for Maya (Satellite).
For more information, see:
■ Set up a master machine with mental ray for Maya or mental ray for
Maya Satellite on page 254.
■ Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 1) on

page 257.
■ Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 2) on

page 258.
6 Install mental ray standalone or mental ray for Maya Satellite on each
slave machine. All slave machines require mental ray for Maya Satellite
or mental ray standalone.
If you have multiple versions of mental ray standalone installed (not
recommended), each must have their own TCP port number in the services
file to avoid conflict. For more information, see Network render with
mental ray for Maya on page 252.
7 Set up your slave machine(s) by following these instructions: Slave

machine setup on page 259.
8 To verify which hosts file is being read, and which render slaves are being
used, use the mentalrayrender command with a verbosity setting of 4 or
higher. For more information, see Set up a master machine with mental
ray standalone (method 1) on page 257
9 To submit a render job, follow these instructions: Submit a job to render

over the network on page 262.
NOTE You must uninstall mental ray satellite for previous versions before
installing new mental ray satellite.
The mental ray satellite for Maya packages have the same name. Therefore,
you must manually uninstall previous versions of mental ray satellite
before installing the current version of mental ray satellite.
On Mac OS X, you need to use the mental ray satellite uninstaller in the
mental ray satellite folder to properly uninstall this product. If you delete
the mental ray satellite folder, port and machine associations may not
be updated properly once you install the latest version of mental ray
satellite.
Set up mental ray network rendering | 253

Set up a master machine with mental ray for Maya
or mental ray for Maya Satellite
First, create a file called maya.rayhosts.
maya.rayhosts file format
The maya.rayhosts file must contain a listing of each slave machine’s name.
These slave machines must be accessible on the network where mental ray
for Maya (the master machine) is installed.
For mental ray for Maya masters going to mental ray standalone slaves, you
do not need to specify the port if you are using the default port (7009).
For mental ray for Maya Satellite masters, you must add the port number by
typing “:<port number>” after the hostname in the maya.rayhosts file. The
port number set on mental ray for Maya Satellite slave machines is 7109. For
example:
pc-host1:7109 pc-host2:7109
If you are using a non-default port, you can specify it here as well:
lnx-host2:7555
You can use # to comment hosts out so they won’t be used; for example:
# pc-slave4:7109
You can use IP addresses as well as machine names.
NOTE The port on which the slave listens is specified by the services file on the
slave machine. For more information, see Slave machine setup on page 259. It is
7009 for mental ray standalone and 7109 for mental ray for Maya Satellite (as of
Autodesk Maya 2009).
The port on which the master issues requests is set in the maya.rayhosts file
or defaults to 7009 (the mental ray standalone port).
The port number on the slave and the port number on the master must match
for rendering to take place.

maya.rayhosts file location
Put the maya.rayhosts file in one of the following directories. (They are
searched in order and the first maya.rayhosts file that is found is used.)
■ Maya 2009 prefs folder:

Windows
■ (Windows XP)
\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\maya\
2009\en_US\prefs
■ (Windows XP 64-bit)
\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\maya\ 2009-
x64\en_US\prefs
■ (Windows Vista)
\Users\<username>\Documents\maya\2009\en_US\prefs
■ (Windows Vista 64-bit)

\Users\<username>\Documents\maya\2009-x64\en_US\prefs
Mac OS X
■ /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/en_US/2009/prefs
Linux (64-bit)
■ ~<username>/maya/2009-x64/en_US/prefs
■ Maya Application folder:

■ (Windows) %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\maya
■ (Linux) $HOME/maya
■ (Mac OS X) /Applications/Autodesk/maya/2009
■ User's home directory:

■ (Windows) %USERPROFILE% or %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH% (usually c:\)
■ (Linux and Mac OS X) $HOME
■ Directory of Maya 2009 installation folder.

■ (Linux) /usr/autodesk/maya2009/
Set up a master machine with mental ray for Maya or mental ray for Maya Satellite | 255
■ (Windows) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\maya2009\
■ (Mac OS X) /Applications/Autodesk/maya2009/
Related topics
■ Verify which hosts file is being read on page 256
Verify which hosts file is being read

To verify which hosts file is being read
1 Set the verbosity level for messages from the translation process by using
the MEL command as outlined in Export Verbosity on page 290. During
a render, messages similar to the following are output to the Script Editor:
// Info: (mental ray) : loading startup file C:/Program
Files/Autodesk/Maya 2009/mentalray/maya.rayrc
// mental ray for Maya: using rayhosts file C:/Documents and
Settings/user1/My Documents/maya//maya.rayhosts
Additionally, error messages from mental ray for Maya are printed to the
Maya Output Window.
Related topics
Change the set of slaves used for mental ray for

Maya renders
To change the set of slaves being used for mental ray for Maya renders
1 Close Maya, modify the appropriate maya.rayhosts file, and restart Maya.

Related topics
Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone

(method 1)
To set up a master machine with mental ray standalone - method 1
1 Create the .rayhosts file. Each line of the file should specify the name
of a machine to be used as a network render slave.
2 Place the file in one of the following locations:

■ Place a file called .rayhosts in the home directory of the current
machine. On Linux and Mac OS X the home directory is specified by
the $HOME environment variable. On Windows machines, it is
specified by %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH% (on most machines,
this is C:\).
■ Place a file called .rayhosts in the current directory, for example,

from where the render will be invoked. A .rayhosts file in the current
directory overrides one in the machine's home directory.
Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 1) | 257

NOTE To verify which hosts file (if any) is being read, and what network
render slaves are being contacted, use the mentalrayrender command
with a verbosity setting of 4 or higher. For example, runningD:\>
mentalrayrender -v 4 test.mi could produce the output:
MAIN .0 info : mental ray, version 3.4
MAIN .0 info :
[...]
MAIN .0 info :
MAIN 0.0 info : version 3.4, 4 Dec 2004
MAIN 0.0 info : compiled on: Windows NT 4.0, x86
MSG 0.0 info : reading hosts file C:\\.rayhosts
MSG 0.0 info : connecting host foobar1:7054
JOB 0.0 info : started thread 0 on foobar1 now known as host
1
MSG 0.0 info : connecting host foobar2:7054
JOB 0.0 info : started threads 0,1 on foobar2 now known as
host 2
.....
This indicates that the hosts file C:\.rayhosts was read, and that it
specified network render slaves foobar1 and foobar2 for use in this
rendering. The started thread 0, 1... messages indicate that the
slaves were successfully contacted.
Related topics
■ Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 2) on page

258
Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone

(method 2)
To set up a master machine with mental ray standalone - method 2
1 Use the -hosts option with the mentalrayrender command, for example:
mentalrayrender -hosts machine1 machine2 sceneFile.mi

This uses machine1 and machine2 as render slaves. This overrides any
.rayhosts files on the master machine.
Related topics
■ Set up a master machine with mental ray standalone (method 1) on page

257
Slave machine setup

All slave machines require mental ray for Maya Satellite or mental ray
standalone.
When you install mental ray standalone, the installation automatically sets
up your machine as a server to receive network render requests. If you are
encountering problems with network rendering follow the steps below.
To set up a slave on Windows (mental ray standalone)
1 Ensure there is a rayrc file in the mental ray installation directory

(C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mentalray). This file is automatically created
during a default installation.
2 Ensure that the mental ray service is installed and running.

To verify this, go to the Services window from the Administrative Tools
and check to see if the Ray Server service exists and is started.
If the Ray Server service exists but is not started, go to step 5.
3 If the Ray Server service does not exist, edit the services file located at:
■ (Windows XP) C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\services
4 Make sure the following lines exist:

mi-ray 7009/tcp mi-spm 7050/tcp
7009 represents the port number used for rendering requests and 7050
represents the port number used for licensing connections to SPM. Make
sure the port number used for rendering requests is the same on the
master machine and all slave machines (here, 7009).
Slave machine setup | 259

5 Open a command prompt window and type the following:
ray /install
ray.exe should automatically be in your path and is located in the bin
directory of the mental ray installation.
6 Double-click the Ray Server service in the Services Window (Administrative

Tools in the Control Panel) to start it.
When the service successfully starts, the machine is ready to receive
network render requests.
When you install mental ray for Maya Satellite on a slave machine, the
installation automatically sets up your machine as a server to receive network
render requests. If you are encountering problems with network rendering
follow the steps below.
To set up a slave on Windows (mental ray for Maya Satellite)
1 Ensure there is a rayrc file in the mental ray installation directory

(C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mentalraysatellite\). This file is
automatically created during a default installation.
2 Ensure that the mental ray service is installed and running.

To verify this, go to the Services window from the Administrative Tools
and check to see if the RaySat Server service exists and is started.
If the RaySat Server service exists but is not started, go to step 5.
3 If the RaySat Server service does not exist, edit the services file located
at:
■ (Windows XP) C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\services
4 Make sure the following line exists:

mi-raysat2009 7109/tcp
7109 represents the port number. Make sure the port number is the same
on the master machine and all slave machines.
5 Open a command prompt window and type the following:

raysat2009 /install
raysat2009.exe should automatically be in your path and is located in
the bin directory of the mental ray installation.

6 Double-click the RaySat Server service in the Services Window
(Administrative Tools in the Control Panel) to start it or type raysat2009
/start.
When the service successfully starts, the machine is ready to receive
network render requests.
The mental ray standalone installer does not set up your machine as a slave
automatically. You need to follow the steps below with administrative
privileges on all Linux machines.
To set up a slave on Linux (mental ray standalone)
1 In a shell type:
/usr/autodesk/mi361/bin/netsetup -s
You are prompted for the name of the SPM license server. It defaults to
the local host.
2 Type in the SPM license server name if it is other than the default local
host and then press Enter.
The machine is now ready to receive network render requests.
The mental ray standalone installer does not set up your machine as a slave
automatically. You need to follow the steps below with administrative
privileges on all Mac OS X machines.
To set up a slave on Mac OS X (mental ray standalone)
1 Add the install location of mental ray to your path:

/Applications/Autodesk/mentalray3.6.1/bin
2 Create a new environment variable called SPM_HOST to identify your

license server machine.
The machine is now ready to receive network render requests.
Related topics
Slave machine setup | 261

Submit a job to render over the network
Once you are set up, the process of rendering over the network is fully
automatic so that every render you invoke from a client machine is
automatically distributed over the network.
To network render a Maya scene within Maya on a master machine
1 Ensure that the maya.rayhosts file has the name of all mental ray network
rendering slaves you wish to use (see Set up a master machine with mental
ray standalone (method 1) on page 257).
2 Start Maya, open a scene and select Render > Render Using > mental ray.
3 Select Render > Render Current Frame.
4 To verify that the slave machines are being used, select Render > Render
Current Frame > (or Render > Batch Render> ) and select Progress
Messages from the Verbosity Level drop-down list.
You should see messages in the console window (or in the mental ray
log file for batch render) telling you which slave machines were connected
and which machine is being used to render particular tiles.
To network render a Maya scene with Maya from the command line on a
master machine
1 Ensure that the maya.rayhosts file has the name of all mental ray network
2 From a command prompt window, change to the directory where your

Maya scene resides.
3 Type the following:

Render -r mr sceneName.mb
To network render with a mental images (.mi) scene with mental ray
standalone on a master machine
1 This works with mental ray standalone only; this operation is not
supported for mental ray for Maya Satellite.
Ensure that the maya.rayhosts file has the name of all mental ray network

2 From a command prompt window, change to the directory where your
.mi file resides.
3 Type the following:

mentalrayrender myFile.mi
4 To get progress messages to show how the slave machines are being used,
type the following command:
mentalrayrender -verbose 5 myFile.mi
Related topics
Dynamic Attributes for mental ray for Maya
Dynamic Attributes
The following dynamic attributes are designed to work in conjunction with
custom shaders. Some of these attributes are not always visible by default in
the Maya user interface. However, once you have created the attribute, you
can view and edit the value in the Extra Attributes section in the Attribute
Editor.
User Data
Custom information can be incorporated into elements of a scene such as

lights, cameras, objects, and instances. Use the dynamic miData attribute to
connect a mental ray User Data node to the element so that this custom
information can be accessed by mental ray shaders.
NOTE In order to use the following workflow, you must have a mental ray shader
with a data attribute.
1 Create a mental ray User Data node using the command:

createNode -n "miUserData" mentalrayUserData;
The mentalrayUserData node should contain custom user data that
matches the format required by your mental ray shader.
Dynamic Attributes for mental ray for Maya | 263

2 Connect miUserData.message to shader.data
The mentalrayUserData node consists of two attributes: binaryData and
asciiData. asciiData is the preferred method. The asciiData attributes
should be filled with custom user data and connected to the mental ray
shader using the mentalrayuserData.message plug.
NOTE The mentalrayUserData node is only translated if connected to a mental

ray shader.
3 Create the miData attribute as follows:

addAttr -ln "miData" -at message pSphereShape1;
4 Connect the miData attribute to the userdata node as follows:

connectAttr -f miUserData.message pSphereShape1.miData;
TIP Add a magic number to the user data, preferably as the first value in the
block. This allows your shaders to easily identify the user data.
Export shadow shader
Use this attribute to have transparent shadows even when photons are used.
The attribute functions locally and overrides the shadowEffectsWithPhotons
attribute (the Direct Illumination Shadow Effects setting in Caustics and Global
Illumination > Photon Tracing section of the Render Settings), on a per-material
basis, so that shadow shaders are exported even when photons are turned on.
Create this attribute as follows:
addAttr -ln miExportShadowShader -at bool phong1SG;
Disable animation detection
mental ray automatically detects animation of scene objects and related

shading nodes when translating subsequent frames. The Optimize Animation
Detection option (in the Render Settings window, mental ray tabs, in the
Options tab on page 444, Translation section, Performance sub-section) even
performs a pre-scan of the Maya dependency graph to find animated nodes
much faster and to mark the individual nodes accordingly for accelerated
translation of the whole animation.
There are ways to hint to mental ray about animated nodes manually, in cases
where the default performance might still not be optimal or the standard
detection algorithm does not catch all animations.

Individual instances or whole DAG subtrees can be excluded from being
considered for animation by adding a new dynamic attribute 'miAnimated'
(boolean)and setting it to off. Once found on a transform node, the DAG
traversal prunes the remaining subtree from animation detection (not the
node itself). The Optimize Animation Detection option needs to be turned
off to activate the manual overrides.
Create this attribute as an override on the shape node as follows:
addAttr -ln miAnimated -at bool group1;
Disable DG cycle detection
Use this attribute to turn off the detection of cycles in the dependency graph
when very complex shading networks are used, to improve performance.
Cycles in shading networks may cause mental ray for Maya to become unstable
in some cases. Set this attribute to false to disable the DG cycle detection.
addAttr -at bool -ln "nodeCycleCheck" mentalrayGlobals
Force on-demand translation of geometry
Use the Export Objects On Demand option to control the processing of objects
in your scene. This option is particularly effective in scenes that have objects
beyond the view of the camera. In this case, mental ray does not process the
objects beyond the camera view, therefore reducing processing time.
addAttr -ln "miPlaceholder" -at bool pSphereShape1
Disable custom node automatic light linking
NOTE This attribute is not required if light linking mode is set to 4. It is only
needed for shaders that do not support mental ray light linking. See Native mental
ray light linking in the Shading guide for more information.
Use this attribute to turn off automatic light linking on a per-node basis (set
the attribute to false). This is useful when the same material is used by several
objects that have different light linking. In this case, disable light linking with
this attribute, then manually connect the light nodes to the shader’s light
attributes.
Dynamic Attributes | 265

addAttr -ln "miLightLink" -at bool mib_illum_lambert1
Label
To enable export of mental ray labels, this dynamic attribute is recognized on

the transform node of geometry. mental ray does not perform any checks on
these labels, but just exports them. There is no label framebuffer support at
this time.
addAttr -ln "miLabel" -at long nurbsSphere1
Cutout opacity
Add the miCutAwayOpacity (float) to the material’s shading engine.

This attribute is useful for 2D stand-ins or card objects where a complex 2D
shape is cut out of a plane by means of transparency mapping.
miCutAwayOpacity is an opacity threshold. All surface points that are less
opaque than specified are considered non-existent. For example, a value of
0.05 removes all surface points with a transparency of 99.5% or more.
addAttr -longName "miCutAwayOpacity" -attributeType "float" shad
ingGroup1;
Custom motion vectors
mental ray for Maya supports the creation of zero-length motion vectors.
Custom displacement shaders can manipulate the motion vectors to generate
motion blurred displacement. Only geometric shape nodes that are marked
with the attribute miCustomMotion (boolean) set to true are considered for
custom motion.
The global option Export Custom Vectors on page 452 can be used to control
this feature. It is enabled by default. If disabled, no custom motion vectors
are generated for any object. This functionality also requires that Motion Blur
on page 394 has been enabled in mental ray render settings.
addAttr -ln "miCustomMotion" -at bool myShapeNode;
where myShapeNode is a shape node.

Force displacement animation
To specify that an object contains animated displacement, add the

miDisplaceAnimation (boolean) dynamic attribute to the object shape node.
This is a hint to the translation engine and avoids potentially expensive

traversal of the DG to detect animated displacement.
addAttr -ln "miDisplaceAnimation" -at bool myShapeNode;
Force triangle export of polygon meshes
This option processes all polygon meshes as tessellated triangles, based on

Maya’s tessellation. This allows for more efficient use of memory so that large
scenes with large polygon meshes render with less memory usage.
For more information, see Export Triangulated Polygons on page 449.
In addition, there is support on each shape node for the dynamic attribute
miTriangles (boolean), which overrides the global setting on a per-shape
basis. Therefore, two common scenarios are supported:
■ disable triangles globally but enable it for specific shapes,
■ enable triangles globally but disable it for specific shapes.

addAttr -ln "miTriangles" -at bool myMeshNode;
Force lights emitted photons
In the Attribute Editor for each Maya light, the mental ray section of the
attributes specifies the number of photons that are used for caustics and global
illumination. This is, by default, the number of photons to be stored.
For correct physical simulations, the number of photons to be emitted is much
more appropriate. To support this, mental ray recognizes two attributes on
directional, point, and spot lights:
'causticPhotonsEmit' (integer)
'globIllPhotonsEmit' (integer).
If they are created they will be translated and exported in addition to the
photon stored number.

Create these attributes as follows:
addAttr -ln "causticPhotonsEmit" -at "short" myLightShape;
addAttr -ln "globIllPhotonsEmit" -at "short” myLightShape;
Photon only lights
The mental ray light property photons only can be controlled on Maya light
nodes using the dynamic attribute
'miPhotonsOnly' (boolean)
If photon emission is enabled on the light node then this attribute is

recognized and translated to mental ray. To optimize photon tracing
performance, you can mark light sources as only being considered for photon
emission and disable their direct light contribution in mental ray.
Create this attribute as an override on the light shape node as follows:
addAttr -ln "miPhotonsOnly" -at bool spotLightShape1
Translate polygon meshes as subdivision base mesh primitives
You can smooth polygon meshes by assigning them a subdivision surface

approximation (that is, a mentalraySubdivApprox node) either through the
Approximation Editor, or, manually. Beginning Maya 2008, the subdivision
approximation node produces ccmesh primitives instead of subdivision base
mesh primitives.
To revert to the old behavior, add the dynamic attribute
'miExportCCMesh' (boolean)
to mentalraySubdivApprox nodes. If turned off, mental ray for Maya translates

smoothed polygon meshes to subdivision base mesh primitives. These are
often slower and require more memory than ccmesh primitives.
addAttr -ln "miExportCCMesh" -at bool mentalraySubdivApprox1
Custom flags
The Maya transform node does not expose all extended instance flags for
mental ray, but they can be controlled via dynamic attributes:
'miReflection' (integer)
'miRefraction' (integer)
'miTransparency' (integer)

The value is an index into predefined flags (bit sets):
■ 0 - cast off, receive off
■ 1 - cast on, receive on
■ 2 - no bit set, inherit
■ 3 - cast on, receive off
■ 4 - cast off, receive on
Create the attributes above by following these examples:

addAttr -ln "miReflection" -at "enum" -enumName "Cast Off Receive
Off:Cast On Receive On:Inherit:Cast On Receive Off:Cast Off Re
ceive On" myTransformNode
addAttr -ln "miRefraction" -at "enum" -enumName "Cast Off Receive
addAttr -ln "miTransparency" -at "enum" -enumName "Cast Off Receive
If any of the reflection and refraction attributes is present, then the standard
trace flag is not respected any more.
'miFinalGather' (integer)
This attribute follows the scheme of the existing caustic and globillum standard
flags, and supports the following values:
■ 0 - hide on
■ 1 - cast off, receive off
■ 2 - cast on, receive off
■ 3 - cast off, receive on
■ 4 - cast on, receive on
■ 5 - not bit set, inherit

addAttr -ln "miFinalGather" -at "enum" -enumName "Hide On:Cast Off
Receive Off:Cast On Receive Off:Cast Off Receive On:Cast On Re
ceive On:Inherit" myTransformNode

Custom element
To enable file export of a replacement element instead of the currently

instanced Maya shape, use the dynamic attributes:
'miExportElement' (boolean)
'miElement' (string)
If the boolean option is enabled, the replacement element is exported as the

object name, without further checks.
addAttr -ln "miExportElement" -at bool myTransformNode
addAttr -ln "miElement" -dt "string" myTransformNode
Custom phenomenon for translation
To enable translation of a different material than the currently assigned Maya

shading engine, use the dynamic attributes:
'miExportMaterial' (boolean)
'miMaterial' (message)
If the boolean option is enabled, the replacement material, typically a

connection to a Maya shading engine or a custom node, is translated as the
instance material. If the connected node is a custom node of type material,
it is translated as a full replacement of the regular material description in
mental ray.
addAttr -ln "miExportMaterial" -at bool myTransformNode
addAttr -ln "miMaterial" -at message myTransformNode
Rasterizer shading samples override
The global option for rasterizer shading quality (mental ray: shading samples)
can be overridden on a per-object/per-instance basis. The per-object override
can be accessed via the Shading Quality attribute in the Attribute Editor of
the object’s shape node, in the mental ray section. For per-instance override,
the dynamic attribute
'miShadingSamples' (float)
is recognized on the Maya shape and transform nodes and translated to mental
ray if its value is not negative.

addAttr -ln "miShadingSamples" -at "float" myTransformNode
Depth-of-field samples override
The depth-of-field effect in Maya (controlled on the camera) uses a mental

ray custom lens shader which performs true 3D depth-of-field rendering,
shooting multiple rays per pixel to get a smooth result.
The number of these extra lens samples is pre-defined to 4 but can be adjusted
in two ways.
You can add the dynamic attribute
'dofLensSamples' (integer)
to the mental ray globals node, which defines a new default for all
depth-of-field effects on all cameras in the scene.
addAttr -ln "dofLensSamples" -at "short" mentalrayGlobals
A per camera override is supported as well by adding the dynamic attribute

'miLensSamples' (integer)
to the Maya camera shape node.

addAttr -ln "miLensSamples" -at "short" perspShape
When the objects get out of focus, it is often necessary to raise the number of
samples.
Disk swapping
To enable disk swapping, add the dynamic attributes

'miDiskSwapLimit' (integer)
'miDiskSwapDir' (string)
to the mental ray globals node. Once enabled, disk swapping cannot be
disabled later on for the same mental ray session (Maya session).
addAttr -ln "miDiskSwapLimit" -at "short" mentalrayGlobals
addAttr -ln "miDiskSwapDir" -dt "string" mentalrayGlobals
For a description of the options see mental ray documentation.

Memory mode
mental ray watches memory consumption during integrated rendering (preview

and batch), and may react to low memory conditions to circumvent mental
ray fatal memory errors which normally crash Maya. By default, mental ray
is aborted when any memory request exceeds the currently set memory limit
plus a 'zone' of 20% (matching the recommendation of setting the memory
limit to 80% of installed physical memory).
This functionality can be adjusted by adding the following dynamic attribute
to the mental ray globals node:
'memoryMode' (enum: none, report, inquiry, abort, release)
The mode values are as follows:
■ 'none' (0) to disable the memory handling altogether
■ 'report' (1)
■ 'inquiry' (2) to print a warning message in the script editor
■ 'abort' (3) to force an interrupt of mental ray rendering
■ 'release' (4) to call a MEL procedure to release memory in Maya
The existing attribute memoryZone on the mental ray globals node can be used
to control the zone (in percent of memory limit) that determines when memory
handling should come into action and proceed according to mode.
addAttr -ln "memoryMode" -at "enum" -enumName "None:Report:In
quiry:Abort:Release" mentalrayGlobals
String options support (for Maya 2008 and below)
Many features can be controlled by string options, which minimizes parse

errors. Use the dynamic attribute:
'miDefaultOptions.stringOptions' (compound, multi):
It has 3 children name, type, and value, all of type string, which provide the
required information for the mental ray option. More children are possible
but will be silently ignored by mental ray.
Set an attribute as follows:

setAttr -type "string"
miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[0].name "motion factor";
miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[0].type "scalar";
miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[0].value "1.0";
More attributes can be set by using a different array index. Reusing an existing
index overwrites the corresponding option.
The following keywords are recognized in the type and value fields:
mray type type string value string
miBoolean "bool[ean]" 'on' 'off' 'true' 'false' '0' '1'
miInteger "int[eger]" integer value
miScalar "scal[ar]" floating-point value
miScalar "float" floating-point value
miVector "vec[tor]" 3 floats
miColor "col[or]" 4 floats
miString "[string]" string
This attribute is created automatically for Maya 2008. For pre-Maya 2008
scenes, create the attribute as follows:
addAttr -at compound -nc 3 -ln "stringOptions" -multi miDefaultOp
tions;
addAttr -dt "string" -p "stringOptions" -ln "name" miDefaultOp
tions;
addAttr -dt "string" -p "stringOptions" -ln "value" miDefaultOp
tions;
addAttr -dt "string" -p "stringOptions" -ln "type" miDefaultOp
tions;

TIP Beginning Maya 2009, you can set your string options through the
miDefaultOptions Attribute Editor. See miDefaultOptions node on page 306 for
more information.
To turn off network baking
mental ray provides an attribute that allows you to control the use of satellites
for integrated baking of textures. By default, mental ray sets this attribute to
true:
setAttr miDefaultOptions.lightMapsNetwork false
However, mental ray may disable this option for the actual bake run when it
detects unsupported cases such as when Bake to one map is enabled in any
active bake set.
Ambient occlusion
To calculate ambient occlusion more accurately when transparency is a factor,

turn on the Occlusion Deep attribute. You can expose this attribute using the
following dynamic attribute:
addAttr -at "bool" -ln "occlusionDeep" textureBakeSet1
Hide objects from final gather rays
Add the dynamic boolean attribute miFinalGatherHide to the shape node of

your object so that it becomes invisible to final gather rays. This is different
from disabling the Final Gather Cast and Final Gather Receive flags, which
turn the object into a black hole as far as final gather is concerned. Set this
attribute as follows:
addAttr -ln "miFinalGatherHide" -at bool myShapeNode;
Elliptical filtering
You can obtain advanced features in elliptical filtering by setting the following
dynamic attributes. For more information regarding these attributes, see the
Auxiliary Functions section in the mental ray for Maya reference guide.

Bilinear texture pixel interpolation
When the elliptical area is smaller than a texture pixel, you can turn on bilinear
texture pixel interpolation by setting miEllipticalBilinear to 1 (TRUE) to create
a more blurry image.
addAttr -longName "miEllipticalBilinear" -at bool -defaultValue 1
file1;
Maximum eccentricity
Set the maximum eccentricity of the ellipse using the miEllipticalEccMax

dynamic attribute. The value of this attribute must be equal to or greater than
1.0. The eccentricity of the ellipse is the major radius divided by the minor
radius. A high eccentricity value results in long rendering times; therefore, if
the eccentricity is higher than the specified maximum, the minor radius of
the ellipse is increased accordingly.
addAttr -longName "miEllipticalEccMax" -at "float" -defaultValue
4.0 -minValue 0.001 -maxValue 40.0 file1;
Distance between sampling points
For every three sampling points in texture space, you can set the maximum
distance between the two additional sampling points and the central sampling
point. In other words, if the central sampling point is at (0, 0), then the other
two points should be inside a disc with radius of DiscR from this central
position. Set the DiscR value as follows:
addAttr -longName "miEllipticalDiscR" -at "float" -defaultValue
Setting the circle radius
You can set the size of the projected screen--space circle using the
miEllipticalCircleR attribute. You may get more blurring when you use larger
values but you may increase aliasing with smaller values. Use a range of 0.4
to 1.0.
addAttr -longName "miEllipticalCircleR" -at "float" -defaultValue

Troubleshoot mental ray for Maya rendering
Use these suggestions to troubleshoot mental ray for Maya rendering, and to
fine tune effects in your scenes. Specifically, see:
■ Troubleshoot general mental ray for Maya rendering issues on page 276
■ Troubleshoot render layers do not render correctly when exporting a .mi

file on page 282
■ Troubleshoot Motion Blur on page 282
■ Troubleshoot Surfaces on page 283
■ Troubleshoot Network rendering with mental ray for Maya on page 284
Troubleshoot general mental ray for Maya rendering

issues
Geometry shaking from frame to frame when exported to .mi
In some cases, files exported to .mi for rendering with mental ray standalone
appear to have shaking geometry from frame to frame. In this case, there are
three possible solutions.
Method 1
When exporting to a .mi file, export using the binary file format instead of
ascii to prevent data loss due to conversion.
Method 2
The loss in precision is due to mental ray for Maya exporting only six digits
of precision for float point positions, and 15 digits of precision for double
point positions. For example, the float point value 1000.2249 is rounded to
1000.22 when exported.
To increase the precision, you can use the Export Float Precision, and Export
Double Precision dynamic attributes.
Create these attributes by entering the following in the status line:

addAttr -type short -ln “exportFloatPrecision” mentalrayGlobals
addAttr -type short -ln “exportDoublePrecision” mentalrayGlobals
Set these attributes as follows:

setAttr mentalrayGlobals.exportFloatPrecision <value>
setAttr mentalrayGlobals.exportFloatPrecision <value>
where <value> is the number of digits of precision you want to use.
Method 3
Avoid using large object offsets with very tiny shape deformations, which
results in vertex positions such as 1000.000001. This exceeds the precision of
floating point representation in general, and the .mi format does not have a
double representation of vertex positions.In situations where the default
precision is not sufficient to represent the scene in a .mi file, the Maya model
should be reviewed to avoid extreme values:
■ global placement of scene elements should only use the instance

transformation matrix, and
■ local features and deformations should use only the vertex/point data of
the shape.
Some Maya modeling features such as skinning are known to bake global
transformation into the final shape properties, which may lead to the described
problems in extreme cases.
mental ray for Maya rendering errors
If you experience mental ray for Maya rendering errors, and you save your
Maya scene, you should not try to re-render your scene immediately. Instead,
exit and restart Maya.
Error message try -memory error appears
When there is not enough memory to render your scene, you may see an error
message that is similar to "MEM 0.3: TRY -MEMORY 314".To troubleshoot,
select Render > Render Current Frame > and increase the Memory Limit
to be higher than or equal to that stated in the error message.In general,
however, when an out of memory condition occurs, you should also review
your scene for possible optimization.
Troubleshoot general mental ray for Maya rendering issues | 277

Some older derive from Maya settings no longer apply
Because of the (as of Maya 5.0) unified render settings (see Open the Render
Settings window on page 236), some of the mental ray for Maya derive from
Maya settings no longer exist. You may need to modify some older files for
which derive from Maya was set by setting the mental ray for Maya render
settings.
For known differences between mental ray for Maya and Maya, see mental
ray for Maya renders look different than Maya renders on page 278.
Object still renders when primary visibility is turned off
When an object is occluded by a transparent object, for example, an image

plane, the object still renders even if its Primary Visibility flag (under the
Render Stats section of the object’s Attribute Editor) is turned off.
Turn off the Visible in Transparency flag instead (under the mental ray section
of the object’s Attribute Editor).
This behavior only occurs in mental ray for Maya. This is because, unlike the
Maya renderer, mental ray for Maya distinguishes between Primary Visibility
and Transparency. When Primary Visibility is turned off, mental ray still
recognizes the geometry that is behind the transparent occluding object and
includes it in the render. To exclude this geometry, disable the Visible in
Transparency flag.
NOTE This behavior also only occurs when the occluding object is Transparent.
If you set up your scene with the Primary Visibility turned off for the occluding
object, this behavior does not occur.
mental ray for Maya renders look different than Maya renders
The following sections describe known differences between Maya and mental
ray for Maya and provide hints on how to handle those cases.
Scanline Only Rendering
Scanline only rendering is the default render mode in Maya. Since scanline
rendering is limited in various aspects, it may show artifacts when used
together with the following: motion blur, volume rendering, shadow tracing,
and others. Raytracing should be turned on if render problems appear.

Displacement
mental ray uses an adaptive tesselation approach to better fit the details of
the displacement map. The initial tesselation (for NURBS: after surface
approximation) is further subdivided to fit secondary criteria, controlled by
the displace approximation settings. By default, mental ray for Maya creates
appropriate settings that lead to curvature dependent subdivision of the
triangles, one form of feature-based displacement mapping. You can change
these settings by creating or selecting a custom displace approximation node
in the Approximation Editor. For more information on Approximation Nodes,
see Approximation nodes on page 182).
Shadow Mapping
If the mental ray shadow map attributes on Maya lights are disabled, mental
ray for Maya derives most parameters for shadow maps from Maya's depthmap
settings, although most control values are not comparable. This causes different
results, especially when modifying the filter values to achieve soft shadows.
For sharp shadows the Filter Size should be set to 0. Other controls, like Use
Mid Dist and Use Auto Focus are not used to derive mental ray shadowmap
values.
For information about the way mental ray for Maya handles shadow mapping,
see Shadow in Maya in the Lighting guide.
Bump mapping
The bump mapping implementation in the mental ray shaders may handle
the Filter settings in the bump nodes slightly differently compared to Maya.
This filter usually produces view-dependent bump mapping details, but might
not be appropriate in animations. As soon as the filter has been disabled by
setting the Filter value to zero, the Filter Offset determines the bump map
lookup, both in Maya and mental ray. This leads to comparable bump mapping
render results that are not view-dependent.
Matte Opacity
Transparent objects produce an appropriate alpha channel in the final image

according to Maya’s Matte Opacity settings. However, some restrictions apply:
■ The mental ray colorclip modes and the premultiply setting affect the
matte result. The default colorclip mode Raw ensures best compatibility
with Maya, especially when using the BlackHole opacity mode, or when

sliding the Matte Opacity value towards zero in OpacityGain and SolidMatte
modes.
■ The mental ray colorclip modes other than Raw may change the color or
alpha value before storing it in the framebuffer, which can be used to
produce nice effects.
■ The BlackHole opacity mode may cause different results in the color
channel when rendered with mental ray; reflections may still show up.
For more information on transparency, see Surface texture in the Shading

guide.
Depth-of-Field
This effect is supported with a mental ray lens shader, not as an output filter
as in Maya. Therefore, it is dependent on the global sampling settings in
mental ray. Raising the minimum or maximum sampling level improves
quality and but slows down the rendering accordingly. On the other hand,
as a true 3D effect, it won't show any artifacts with problematic scenes, where
output filters are not able to produce correct depth-of-field blurring.
Render Layers
When assigning a group to a render layer, mental ray for Maya assumes all
the members of the group also belong to that layer and inherit its attributes.
However, Maya allows members of the group to be assigned to different layers
than the group parent.
Particle system translation and rendering
Particle types for software rendering are supported on all platforms for
rendering with mental ray. To render particles, a new mayabase shader library
is required, which is also provided for all platforms. Particle data are also
exported to .mi files. These files cannot be rendered on machines with different
byte ordering (big end or little end) than the machine where Maya has been
used (for example, mixing Linux and Windows). Particle translation and
rendering is limited and may not be able to handle large particle counts. Light
linking is not supported with particles. However, software particles and particle
instancing should work together seamlessly.

Tearing off mental ray for Maya Render menu may crash Maya
If you tear off the Maya Render menu, then load the mental ray for Maya
plug-in and tear off the mental ray for Maya Render menu, Maya may crash.
Workaround
Close the menu before loading mental ray for Maya.
mental ray for Maya crashes or won’t load when a firewall is active
Firewall software may block command ports. When you load mental ray for
Maya, your firewall prompts you if you want "to allow the Maya application
to access the internet: IP 127.0.0.1 port 1333." If you select no, Maya instantly
exits without a warning or error message. If you select yes, mental ray for
Maya starts up as expected.
Workaround
If you are using any firewall software, you will need to give permission to
Maya to communicate on port 1333 in order for mental ray for Maya to work
correctly.
3D Paint issues with mental ray for Maya
When painting a texture with 3D Paint, mental ray for Maya will not pick up
new paint strokes automatically.
Workaround
Save either the texture being painted or the entire scene before rendering with
mental ray to ensure that all strokes are rendered correctly.
mental ray images folder
By default, mental ray batch rendered images used to go to mentalRay/images

folder of the project. As a result of the design changes in Maya 7 that made
all renderers more consistent, any such images are now being saved to the
images folder under the project.

Rendering speed is slower than expected when submitting multiple
renders on a muli-core machine
When several renders are submitted on a multi-core machine, the amount of

memory being used is much higher. On the other hand, a single render across
multiple cores yields better rendering speed because memory can be shared.
Troubleshoot render layers do not render correctly

when exporting a .mi file
When exporting your scene as a .mi file, if your scene consists of more than
one render layer, you must select the Output file per layer option in order to
obtain renders in which your render layers do not affect each other.
This restriction applies because mental ray interprets each single .mi file as a
sequence of "incremental changes" in the scene. Therefore, completely
independent render layers containing different sets of objects cannot be
represented efficiently in a single .mi file.
Troubleshoot Motion Blur

Incorrect motion blur with overexposed highlights
Overexposed highlights and incorrect motion blur with mental ray for Maya
motion blur may be caused by the framebuffer Data Type. In this case, change
the framebuffer Data Type to a float framebuffer. For more information, see
Framebuffer on page 429.
Missing Motion Blur
When rendering with motion blur, sometimes parts of deforming geometry

will fail to blur. This is because sometimes, during animation, Maya creates
incompatible changes to vital mesh data (number and order of vertices,
normals, uv indices, polygons). You need to ensure a consistent tessellation
for mental ray.
Workaround
Turn on the "keep tesselation" flag on the smooth node, and do not triangulate.

Troubleshoot Surfaces
Aliased surface edges or profile
For more information regarding troubleshooting surfaces for Maya software,

see Troubleshooting Surfaces (Maya software) on page 146.
To fix aliased surface edges or profile (for Maya software and mental ray for
Maya)
1 If you do not plan to composite the rendered image, turn on Premultiply

in the Render options section of the Render Settings window on page 376.
Troubleshoot final gather causes flicker

If you are rendering a scene with final gather and the lighting flickers, follow
these steps:
1 Enable the Optimize for Animations option under the Final Gathering
Tracing section, Final Gathering Tracing subsection in the Indirect
Lighting tab on page 432 of the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page
404. The Optimize for Animations option sets the final gather mode to
multiframe.
See Final Gathering Modes in the mental ray for Maya reference guide
for more information.
2 Set the Render Mode to render final gather maps using this command:
setAttr mentalrayGlobals.renderMode 3;
3 Set the scene to render a representative subset of frames or a coarse version

of the animation.
4 Set Rebuild to Freeze under the Final Gathering Map section of the Indirect
Lighting tab on page 432 of the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page
404.
5 Set Render Mode to full render using this command:
Troubleshoot Surfaces | 283

setAttr mentalrayGlobals.renderMode 0;
6 Fully render the scene.
NOTE While this workflow avoids flicker, some parts of the scene may still
suffer in quality if an insufficient number of final gather points is found.
Troubleshoot Network rendering with mental ray

for Maya
The instructions below refer to mental ray for Maya 2009 and mental ray
standalone 3.6.1. For information on previous versions, refer to the
documentation for that version of Maya or mental ray.
Why can’t I install the rayserver service or edit the services file?
Ensure you have administrator (or root) privileges on the machine.
I have everything correctly set up, but I still can't network render.
Here are various possibilities to check.
Port number
One possibility is that the network port number you are using is already being
used by another service. Ensure that there is no other entry in the services file
that is using port 7009 (mental ray standalone) or port 7109 (mental ray for
Maya Satellite). If that port number is already taken, you need to pick a new
available port number and use that same number for all master and slave
machines that are to work together.
You may need to change the port number.
To do so on Linux and WIndows, edit the port services file located at:
■ (Linux) /etc/services
■ (Windows XP) C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\services

To do so on Mac OS X:
■ (Mac OS X) Open NetInfo manager (/Applications/Utilities/NetInfo

Manager) and navigate to /services; then change the port number of the
mental ray or mental ray for Maya satellite service.
In the services file, ensure that the following line exists:
■ mental ray standalone 3.6.1: mayaray361 7009
NOTE The actual service may have a different name. Please check your services
file.
■ mental ray for Maya Satellite 2009: mi-raysat2009 7109
where 7109 or 7009 is the port number. Make sure the port number is the
same on the master machine and all slave machines.
Licensing of mental ray standalone
(mental ray standalone) You may need to edit a file called the rayd file located
in the mental ray 3.6.1 installation bin directory. Fill in the name of your SPM
License server and uncomment the setenv SPM_HOST line.
Restarting the service (Windows)
To restart the server on Windows, go to mental ray bin directory and type the
following:
■ mental ray for Maya Satellite

raysat2009server.exe /stop raysat2009server.exe /start
■ mental ray standalone

rayserver.exe /stop rayserver.exe /start
inetd configuration
(Linux with versions of Redhat prior to 7.2) You may need to edit the
inetd.conf file located at /usr/etc/inetd.conf and ensure that the following
line exists:
■ mental ray standalone:

mi-ray stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/local/mi35/bin/rayd rayd
Troubleshoot Network rendering with mental ray for Maya | 285

■ mental ray for Maya Satellite
mi-raysat stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/local/mi35/bin/raysatd
raysatd
You may need to restart the inetd service by typing the following:
% killall -v -HUP inetd
(Linux only with version of Redhat 7.2 and 7.3) You may need to edit the
services in the xinetd.d directory. See To check your xinetd configuration on
Linux on page 286 below.
To check your xinetd configuration on Linux
1 In a Linux shell type:

ls /etc/xinetd.d
There should be a file named mi-ray (mental ray standalone) or mi-raysat
(mental ray for Maya Satellite).
2 If there is no such file, become root, create the mi-ray or mi-raysat file
using a text editor and enter the following text:
mental ray:
# description: mental ray for maya network rendering service mi-
ray
{ flags = REUSE socket_type = stream user = nobody wait = no
server = /usr/local/mi35/bin/rayd log_on_failure += USERID }
mental ray for Maya Satellite:
# description: mental ray for maya network rendering service mi-
raysat
server = /usr/local/mi35/bin/raysatd log_on_failure += USERID }
3 Save the file.
4 In order for xinetd to find the newly configured service, you need to
restart it or send it a signal.
■ Restarting xinetd can be undesirable because it affects a number of
network services. To restart xinetd, type:
/etc/init.d/xinetd restart
■ To reconfigure xinetd without restarting it, find out the process id of

xinetd by executing:
ps -e | grep -v grep | grep xinetd

You should see a line similar to this:
980 ? 00:00:02 xinetd
The first number is the process id of xinetd.
If the system is RedHat 7.2, xinetd re-reads its configuration on receipt
of the USR2 signal. For RedHat 7.3 it re-reads its configuration on receipt
of the HUP signal. So for a RedHat 7.3 system where xinetd's process id
is 980 you would execute:
kill -HUP 980
xinetd should have found the new service and you should be able to
send it render requests from another node on the network.
How do I run multiple versions of mental ray on one machine?
If you want to run different versions of mental ray standalone in one machine,
make sure that each version has its own mi-ray* entry in the services file.
For example, if you have mental ray 3.3 and mental ray 3.4 in one machine,
and you can change the mi-ray entry for mental ray 3.3 (or 3.4).
Create your own mi-ray variable for mental ray 3.3 in the services file.
The services file might look like this
mi-ray 7003/tcp # used for mental ray 3.4
mi-raysat 7103/tcp # used for mental ray satellite 3.4
mi-ray_33 7155/tcp # used for mental ray 3.3
The server also needs to be updated.
To rename the server file (Windows)
1 Go to mental ray 3.3 bin directory.
2 Stop the service (rayserver.exe /stop).
3 Rename rayserver.exe to ray_33server.exe.
4 Restart the server (ray_33server.exe /start)
To rename the server file (Linux)
1 Stop xinet.
2 Rename rayd to ray_33d.
Troubleshoot Network rendering with mental ray for Maya | 287

3 Create a new file called mi-ray33 in the xinetd.d directory. This file must
contain setup information. For example:
server = /usr/local/mi33/bin/ray_33d log_on_failure += USERID }
4 Restart the service.
Compatibility issues
Due to a number of changes between mental ray satellite for previous versions
of Maya and the current mental ray satellite, there are incompatibilities with
using a master (with the current release of Maya) with slaves using a previous
version of Maya.
Workaround
Use master and slave machines with the same version of Maya (for example,
Maya 8.5 or Maya 8.0).
Troubleshoot exporting .mi files

Exporting to .mi interactively may produce incorrect results with dynamics.
Workaround
■ Manually run up the scene to the current frame and export
■ Use batch export to .mi

Appendices
8
Appendix A: Extra mental ray render settings
In addition to the render options in the Render Settings window, you can also
set the following render settings using MEL commands.
Render Mode
You can set the render mode by using the following MEL command:
setAttr mentalrayGlobals.renderMode <value>;
Where value is as follows:
■ 0 for a full render
■ 1 to render lightmaps
■ 2 to render shadow maps
■ 3 to render final gather maps
You may choose to render only shadow maps or final gather maps when the
shadow and final gather information does not change throughout your scene.
For all renders after your final gather render, set Rebuild to Off or Freeze in the
Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404, Indirect Lighting tab on page 432,
Final Gathering section, Final Gathering Map sub-section.
For all renders after your shadow map render, set the Rebuild Mode to Reuse
Existing Maps in the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404 in the Indirect
Lighting tab on page 432, Shadows section, Shadow Maps sub-section.
289
Export Verbosity
You can set the verbosity level for messages from the translation process.
Messages equal to or below the selected severity are displayed in the script
editor.
Set the verbosity level using the following MEL command:
setAttr mentalrayGlobals.exportVerbosity <value>;
Where value is as follows:
■ 0 for No Messages
■ 1 for Fatal Messages Only
■ 2 for Error Messages
■ 3 for Warning Messages
■ 4 for Info Messages
■ 5 for Progress Messages
■ 6 for Detailed Messages
Multiple custom state shaders
mental ray installs its own state shader to perform pre- and post-shading
operations like sample conversion for rendering with Maya base shaders.
Custom state shaders can be chained to perform additional operations.
To do so, follow these steps:
1 Ensure that miDefaultOptions exists. Otherwise, open the Render Settings

window or perform a render.
2 stateShaderList is order sensitive. Append state shaders to the end as

follows, where index is the size of the stateShaderList; or, reorder as
needed.
connectAttr "myStateShader.message" "miDefaultOptions.stateShader
List[index]";
The connected nodes are translated in addition and appended to the standard
Maya base state shader (if not disabled) and the potential single state shader
node connected to the original stateShader attribute.
290 | Chapter 8 Appendices

Export includes startup file option
The Export includes startup file option has been removed from the File >
Export All, Export Selection (mental ray) on page 309 dialog box. To enable
this option, use the following mel script:
optionVar -iv "mentalrayExportStartupFileOption" 1;
With this option enabled, the exported .mi file contains an $include directive
for the maya.rayrc startup file that is used by the interactive mental ray
renderer in Maya. Use this option to ensure that a consistent configuration is
used for rendering both with the mental ray standalone and interactively in
Maya.
Appendix B: Creating camera output passes

with mental ray for Maya
NOTE You can use the following method for creating output passes if you are
using Maya 2008 or below. Beginning Maya 2009, the recommended method is
multi-render passes.
You can obtain advanced control over the lighting and color values in your
scene by creating camera output passes. Using this method, you can isolate
the color information into separate passes, for example, RGBA in 8 bit.
To create camera output passes
1 Create a camera.
2 In the camerashape node Attribute Editor, expand the mental ray section.
3 Expand the Primary Output Passes section and click the Create button
to create your first output pass. The mentalrayOutputPass node appears.
Appendix B: Creating camera output passes with mental ray for Maya | 291
NOTE You can obtain additional control by creating an output shader and
connecting it to the Output Shader field. For more information, see Output
Shaders in the mental ray reference guide.
4 In the Attribute Editor for the mentalrayOutputPass node, adjust the

Output Pass Options as necessary. The output pass options control data
types, sampling, file mode, user framebuffers, image format and so on.
For more information, see mentalrayOutputPass node on page 308.
Repeat as necessary to create multiple output passes.

For each output pass, the output pass filename is appended to the scene
render filename set in the Render Settings window. See Step 6 for more
information.
5 Open the Render Settings window. Enter a filename for the scene render
output. In the Renderable Cameras section, select the camera for which
you created your output passes.
6 Batch render your scene.

Your render output includes one image for your scene and one image for
each of your output passes. For each output pass, the output pass filename
is appended to the scene render output filename.
For example, if you create two output passes, with the filenames
output_pass_1 and output_pass_2, and your scene render file name is
scene_render, then your batch render output will include the following
images: scene_render, scene_render_output_pass_1 and
scene_render_output_pass_2.
Appendix C:Additional mental ray for Maya

rendering commands
Custom render region support
The image rectangle of the region render command can be controlled

externally. You can do this in one of two ways.
1 Mayatomr command line option:

'-rr/regionRectangle <left,bottom,right,top>' (integer)
Appendix C:Additional mental ray for Maya rendering commands | 293

and mental ray render globals attributes:
■ 'regionRectX' (integer)
■ 'regionRectY' (integer)
■ 'regionRectWidth' (integer)
■ 'regionRectHeight' (integer)
The command option takes precedence over the globals attributes.

The attributes have to be created manually on the render globals node
(mentalrayGlobals). To render the specified region using the custom attributes,
simply issue the 'region render' command. The extra attributes must be deleted
from the globals to return to normal behavior.
Appendix D: Render layer presets

If you are using the mental ray for Maya renderer, it is recommended that you
use the render pass set workflow. However, render layer presets are still
supported if you are using the Maya software renderer.
Work with layer presets

Presets for layers set layer overrides. You can apply an existing preset to a
layer, or create your own presets which you can then apply to new layers.
To apply a layer preset
2 Select the layer in the Attribute editor, click the Preset button, and select
a preset.
To save a layer preset
1 In the Render Layer editor, select a layer whose overrides you want to
save.
2 Select the layer in the Attribute editor, click the Preset button, and select
Save Preset.

3 In the Save Settings as Preset dialog box, enter a name for the preset.
To delete a layer preset
1 From the Preset button in the Attribute editor for a layer, select Delete
Preset.
Examples of presets
The following examples show different presets applied from the automotive
example discussed in Render layers example: automotive preview on page 298
in the What’s New in Maya guide.
Maya comes with the following presets:
Preset Description Example
Luminance A grayscale render

Depth based upon the depth
(distance) from the
camera. This produces
an anti-aliased gray-
scale image for use in
determining depth
priority in a composit-
ing application.
Work with layer presets | 295

Occlusion Uses the mental ray

renderer to produce
an open sky-type
render. Other names
for this type of pass
are Fake GI or Dirt
shader. This pass
works well with a
white background.
Normal map Renders a tangent

space normal map
from the renderable
camera. This map can
be used post 3D
(compositing soft-
ware) to catch high-
lights off the pre-
rendered geometry.
Based on the amount
of red, green or blue,
this map defines the
rendered image's nor-
mal direction per-pixel
within the color chan-
nels’ output.
Geometry Matte A color version (black

and white) of geo-
metry's alpha or silhou-
ette. Also known as a
Mask. The Geometry
Matte does not re-
spect transparency in-
formation, as can be
seen in this example
(the car’s windows are
transparent).

Diffuse Only diffuse shading is

performed (that is, no
shadow or specular in-
formation). The diffuse
pass contains the dif-
fuse and ambient in-
formation and is mod-
ulated by color, trans-
parency, and Diffuse
Coeff (diffuse coeffi-
cient).
Specular Only specular shading

is performed. The
specular component is
modulated differently
depending on the
type of material associ-
ated with the object.
Phong, PhongE, Blinn,
and Anisotropic mater-
ials produce specular
contributions differ-
ently. On a Phong
material, the specular
pass can be modu-
lated using cosine
power, and specular
color.
No mask or alpha
channel is produced
for the Specular Pass;
therefore, additive
compositing of a
specular pass is recom-
mended.
Work with layer presets | 297

Shadow Produces only the

shadow component of
the image in the alpha
channel. No color in-
formation is produced.
Render layers example: automotive preview

Consider an example of a preview image for automotive design. The idea is
to make the image look as realistically-lighted as possible, while also providing
color choices for the car model. As well, it should be easy to change the
background image for a variety of looks.
This can be accomplished in Maya and image-editing software using render
layers.
In Maya, this scene has a variety of reflective surfaces and environment lighting
placed around it for optimum rendering.
While working on the scene, a variety of layers are created and previewed.
The final image is saved out to PSD layered format. For more details on saving

to PSD layered format, see Render layers to PSD format on page 115. The final
image contains nine composited layers:
■ There are two Beauty layers, one showing the car model with a red color,
and the other showing a blue color. This can be easily done in Maya by
switching the material assignment on the car objects per-layer. This allows
you to quickly and easily create final images with a different car color, as
all other layer contributions to the final image are the same.
■ There is a black background image (easy to replace). The beauty and

background layers are ordered properly with the Normal blend mode so
the beauty layers appear ‘on top’ of the background image.
■ There are luminance depth, shadow, occlusion, and specular layers created
using the Maya render presets. Each contributes to the realistic lighting of
the image. For more details on these presets and how they affect the final
rendered image, see Work with layer presets on page 294:
Render layers example: automotive preview | 299

For more details on blend modes, see Layer blend modes on page 112.
■ Finally, there is a reflection layer, that is combined in image-editing

software with a geometry matte layer to produce a reflection only where
the car does not cover it.
The final image shows very realistic lighting as the various passes contribute
their effects: the specular layer makes reflections and glow more prominent,
the occlusion layer creates realistic darkening in crevasses and under geometry,
and the luminance depth layer darkens parts of the image that are farther
away from the camera. The shadow layer adds shadows to the car image and
around the image. Finally, the reflection layer adds reflections to the model.

Appendix E: Render Passes for Maya software
renderer
Work with render passes

The following information is included for reference. If you are using the Maya
Software renderer, we recommend that you use render layers instead of render
passes. For more information see Render layer overview on page 68. If you are
using the mental ray renderer, we recommend that you use multi-render
passes. See Multi-render passes on page 187 for more information.
When you render in passes, you render attributes of your scene differently.
Rendering in passes gives you precise control over the color of objects and the
shadows that fall on them.
Typically you render in passes to render various attributes, such as color,
shadows, highlights, of your scene separately. You can fine-tune a scene
without re-rendering it by modifying different passes in a compositing
program.
Beauty pass
This is the default pass. You can select your render pass from the Attribute
Editor of your render layer.
Appendix E: Render Passes for Maya software renderer | 301

It produces a complete rendering of the components produced by a shadow
pass and a color pass. Because the color pass produces a complete rendering
of the components produced by a diffuse pass and a specular pass, a beauty
pass ends up producing a complete rendering of all possible components.
If you need to tweak shadows independently in a compositing package or

paint application, run the color and shadow passes separately.
Color pass
Produces only the color component of the image. No shadow information is

produced.
A color pass is subdivided into a diffuse and specular pass.
Shadow pass
Produces only the shadow component of the image. No color information is

produced.
Diffuse pass
Only diffuse shading is performed. The diffuse pass contains the diffuse and
ambient information and is modulated by color, transparency, and Diffuse
Coeff (diffuse coefficient).

Specular pass
Only specular shading is performed. The specular component is modulated

differently depending on the type of material associated with the object.
Phong, PhongE, Blinn, and Anisotropic materials produce specular
contributions differently. On a Phong material, the specular pass can be
modulated using cosine power, and specular color.
NOTE No mask or alpha channel is produced for the Specular Pass, additively
compositing a specular pass is recommended.
Custom shadow and reflection passes
You can also create custom shadow and reflection passes with the
useBackground material which catches shadow and, or reflections. When the
shadow pass is rendered, a black image is created with mask channel that
contains the shadow information. A compositor can work with this channel
to blur, lighten, darken, and so on, the look of the shadows. When the
reflection pass is rendered, an RGB image is created with a white mask in the
mask channel.
To use the Use Background material to catch shadows and reflections, see
Catch shadows for an alpha channel in the Lighting guide.
Appendix F: mental ray user framebuffers
mental ray for Maya user framebuffers

In mental ray for Maya, you can use an unlimited number of user framebuffers.
Framebuffers in mental ray for Maya are rendering attributes (color, alpha,
depth, and so on) that control which image channels are passed to the shader
Appendix F: mental ray user framebuffers | 303

and in what format. For example, a 2D blur output shader might require 8-bit
color, floating-point alpha, and motion vector channels.
Typically, framebuffers are used in conjunction with output passes.
Framebuffers can be useful to split a render into component passes that you
can later composite. mental ray camera output passes can use user framebuffers
to output to file.
Related topics
■ Create, edit and delete user framebuffers on page 304
■ User Buffer Attributes on page 307
■ Appendix B: Creating camera output passes with mental ray for Maya on
page 291
■ Render passes on page 301
Create, edit and delete user framebuffers

To create mental ray user framebuffers
1 In the Attribute Editor for the miDefaultOptions node, open the Frame
Buffers section.
2 Click Create.
A new mentalrayUserBuffer node appears in the Attribute Editor.

3 Adjust the attributes for the new framebuffer as required. (See User Buffer
Attributes on page 307.)
The framebuffer that you’ve just created appears in the Framebuffers list
in the Attribute Editor for the miDefaultOptions node.
4 Repeat the previous steps as many times as necessary.
NOTE mental ray user framebuffers can be used in mental ray camera output
passes to output to file. For more information, see Appendix B: Creating
camera output passes with mental ray for Maya on page 291.
To edit a mental ray user framebuffer
1 Select, and right-click the framebuffer you want to edit from the
Framebuffers list.
2 From the shortcut menu, select Append.

The selected framebuffer appears in the Attribute Editor.
3 Adjust the attributes as required. (See User Buffer Attributes on page 307.)
To delete a mental ray user framebuffer
1 Select the framebuffer you want to delete from the Framebuffers list.

■ Click Delete.
■ Right-click the framebuffer, and select Delete from the shortcut menu.
The selected framebuffer is removed from the Framebuffers list.
Create, edit and delete user framebuffers | 305

miDefaultOptions node
This node is used to access the mental ray for Maya user framebuffer
functionality.
See the following for more information:
■ mental ray for Maya user framebuffers on page 303
String options support
Many features can be controlled by string options, which minimizes parse

errors. You can enter the string options through the String Options section
in the miDefaultOptions Attribute Editor.
Each item has 3 children name, type, and value, all of type string, which
provide the required information for the mental ray option.
You can add more attributes by clicking the Add New Item button and a new
item appears.
The following keywords are recognized in the type and value fields:
miBoolean "bool[ean]" 'on' 'off' 'true' 'false' '0' '1'
miInteger "int[eger]" integer value

miScalar "scal[ar]" floating-point value
miScalar "float" floating-point value
miVector "vec[tor]" 3 floats
miColor "col[or]" 4 floats
miString "[string]" string
IMPORTANT Use the miDefaultOptions node to access user framebuffer

functionality and string options only. Do not use the other available settings. To
set other render settings, see the Render Settings: mental ray tabs on page 404.
mentalrayUserBuffer node attributes

The mentalrayUserBuffer node contains attributes that control user
framebuffers. See the following sections for information on how to use
framebuffers:
■ mental ray for Maya user framebuffers on page 303
User Buffer Attributes
Data Type Specifies the type of information the framebuffer contains. Select
a data type from the drop-down list. For more information, see the mental ray
for Maya reference in the Maya Help.
Interpolate Samples This option causes mental ray for Maya to interpolate
sample values between two known pixel sample values. If interpolation is
turned off, the last sample value in each pixel is stored, and pixels without
samples get a copy of a neighboring pixel. When this option is turned on, the
resulting image has a higher quality, but takes more time to process.
This option is on by default.
mentalrayUserBuffer node attributes | 307

mentalrayOutputPass node
The mentalrayOutputPass node contains attributes that control camera output
passes. For more information on mental ray camera output passes, see
Appendix B: Creating camera output passes with mental ray for Maya on page
291.
Output Pass Options
Renderable When on, specifies that this output pass is rendered. This option
is on by default.
Frame Buffer Type Specifies the type of information the pass contains. Select
a data type from the drop-down list.
Use User Buffer When on, specifies that a user framebuffer is used in the
output pass, and activates the User Buffer drop-down list. Select the user
framebuffer you want to use in this output pass.
This option is off by default.
User Buffer This drop-down list is available when Use User Buffer is turned
on. Select the user framebuffer you want to use in this output pass.
File Mode When on, specifies that the output pass is written to an image file,
and activates the Image Format drop-down list and File Name Postfix field.
Image Format Specifies the image format for the output pass, when File Mode
is turned on. Select an image format from the drop-down list.
File Name Postfix Specifies the operator that is appended to the end of the
file name, when File Mode is turned on.
Output Shader Specifies an output shader for this output pass.

Rendering menus
9
File
File > Export All, Export Selection (mental ray)
File > Export Selection, Export All >
File Type
When you select mentalRay from the File Type drop-down list, the many options
appear.
File Type Specific Options
Export Selection Output

If objects do not change, reprocessing before exporting to .mi is not required,
and the export process is significantly shortened as a result.
Renderable Scene This is the default.
Maya exports all scene entities (lights, cameras, shaders, globals, and so on) that
are necessary to render the selected geometry. The resulting scene will be
renderable using the mental ray standalone.
Render Proxy (Assembly)
309
Export selection as a mental ray file so that it can be used as a render proxy
in your scene. Use this option to export your complex geometry into a mental
ray file, then replace it in your scene with a placeholder object that references
this file. See Using render proxies in your scene on page 242 for more
information.
Scene Fragment (Custom) Maya exports only the nodes that are selected.
This mode can be used to export particular lights, cameras, shaders, or
geometry. The resulting .mi file will most likely not be directly renderable, so
it is called a Scene Fragment.
Export materials In addition to the selected nodes, this setting also exports
any materials that they are connected to. This applies to selected geometry
and shading nodes.
Export material Assignments
In addition to the selected nodes, this setting also exports any material
assignment that they are connected to. For example, if your selected geometry
is assigned to a Phong shader, selecting this option as well as the Export
Materials option will export the geometry, its association with the Phong
shader, and the Phong shader itself.
This option is most useful when exporting render proxies to a .mi file. See
Using render proxies in your scene on page 242Managing your scenes using
render proxies on page 242for more information regarding the use of render
proxies.
This option supports material propagation from Maya with render proxies.
For example, if you generate a render proxy without assigning to it any material
or shading group, and then assign this render proxy to a shape placeholder,
then any material assigned at the placeholder level (Maya shape node /
instances) is automatically propagated to all objects in the render proxy file.
This option allows for the separation of geometry from materials or shading
groups.
Export all incoming shaders In addition to selected shading nodes, also

exports all inputs to those nodes. For example, if a surface shader is selected,
this mode causes any texture networks feeding into the shader to be exported
along with the shader.
310 | Chapter 9 Rendering menus

Export entire child DAG This option specifies that in addition to selected
geometry, any children of that geometry should also be exported.
The standard export filters (enabled by turning on Export Selected Items Only)
are also applied to the nodes identified for export. This allows you to prevent
the export of unwanted node types.
Root Group Name Use this option to specify the name of the assembly root.
If you choose Use Filename, the root group name is derived from the file name.
For example, if the render proxy file name is test.mi, the assembly root group
name is test. Alternatively, you can specify your own root group name.
File Format In ASCII mode, all data in the exported .mi file will be
human-readable ASCII text. In binary mode, certain floating-point data (points,
normals, texture coordinates, and so on) will be output in binary format to
reduce the size of the exported file. The ASCII mode tabulator size determines
the amount of indentation in the .mi file.
Output File Per Frame When animation is enabled, Maya exports all data
required to render all the frames specified by the Render Settings animation
range settings. With Output File Per Frame off, data for all the frames is output
to a single .mi file. With this option on, a separate file is output for each frame.
Frame Extension When Output File Per Frame is enabled, this option
determines the convention for naming each frame’s output file.
Frame Padding When Output File Per Frame is enabled, determines the
amount of padding applied to the frame numbers. Setting the padding to 2
means each frame number is at least 2 characters long (01, 02, 03, ...), setting
it to 3 means each frame number will be at least 3 characters long (001, 002,
...), and so on.
Output File Per Layer The information from multiple render layers cannot
be contained within a single .mi file. Enabling this option allows you to export
one .mi file per render layer.
If your scene contains multiple render layers, you must turn on this option.
If this option is turned off and you export to .mi format, your scene will not
render properly.
Export File Paths Use this option to set the file path for each category.
For each option, there are three choices:
■ None. The filename does not contain a path. For example, hat.jpg.
■ Absolute. The filename contains an absolute path. For example, c:/My

Documents/maya/projects/default/sourceimages/hat.jpg.
File > Export All, Export Selection (mental ray) | 311

■ Relative to project. The relative path to the project directory is used. For
example, sourceimages/hat.jpg.
Link Library
Path option for shader libraries. For example, decides the path options for
mayabase.so, base.so, etc.
Include File
Path option for shader declaration files (mi) such as mayabase.mi, etc.
Texture File
Path option for texture files; for example, hat.jpg.
Light Map
Path option for lightmap files generated (if lightmap shader is used).
Light Profile
Path option for light profile files.
Output Image
Path option for output image files.
Shadow Map
Path option for shadow map files.
Finalgather Map
Path option for final gather map files.
Photon Map
Path option for photon map files.
Render Proxy Placeholder
Path option for the render proxy placeholder.
Export Selected Items Only

This option allows detailed control over precisely which mental ray entities
are exported into the .mi file. See the mental ray User Manual, available from
the Maya Help, for descriptions of the various entity types that can be
exported.
Predefined Export Filters

Provides several useful preset combinations of entity types for export.

Modify
Modify > Convert > Displacement to Polygons

Lets you convert a displacement mapped subdivision surface to polygons to
see the tessellation triangles.
Create
Create > Cameras > Camera

Creates a a one-node camera, which is a basic camera.
For more information on the types of cameras, see Maya camera types on page
14.
Create > Cameras > Camera
Create > Cameras > Camera >
Camera Properties
The camera viewing tools (tumble, track, and dolly) use this value to determine
the “look at” point when the camera is a Basic camera.
Center of Interest The distance from the camera to the center of interest,
measured in the scene’s linear working unit.
Lens Properties
Focal Length Also available in the camera’s Attribute Editor. The focal length
of the camera, measured in millimeters.
Increasing the Focal Length zooms the camera in and increases the size of
objects in the camera’s view. Decreasing the Focal Length zooms the camera
out and decreases the size of objects in the camera’s view. The valid range is
2.5 to 3500. The default value is 35.
For more information about focal length in general, see Focus and blur on
page 15.
Modify | 313
Lens Squeeze Ratio The amount the camera’s lens compresses the image
horizontally. Most cameras do not compress the image they record, and their
Lens Squeeze Ratio is 1. Some cameras (for example, anamorphic cameras),
however, compress the image horizontally to record a large aspect ratio (wide)
image onto a square area on film. The default value is 1.
Camera Scale Scales the size of the camera relative to the scene. For example,
if Camera Scale is 0.5, the camera’s view covers an area half as large, but objects
in the camera’s view are twice as large. If the Focal Length is 35, the effective
focal length for the camera would be 70.
Film Back Properties
Don’t edit these attributes unless you are bringing in live action footage.
Horizontal Film Aperture, Vertical Film Aperture The height and width of
the camera’s aperture or film back, measured in inches. The Camera Aperture
attribute determines the relationship between the Focal Length attribute and
the Angle of View attribute. The default values are 1.417 and 0.945.
Horizontal Film Offset, Vertical Film Offset Vertically and horizontally

offsets the resolution gate and the film gate relative to the scene. Changing
the Film Offset attribute produces a two-dimensional track. Film Offset is
measured in inches. The default setting is 0.
Film fit Controls the size of the resolution gate relative to the film gate. If the
resolution gate and the film gate have the same aspect ratio, then the Film Fit
setting has no effect. The default setting is Fill.
Fill Fits the resolution gate within the film

gate.
Horizontal Fits the resolution gate horizontally within

the film gate.
Vertical Fits the resolution gate vertically within the

film gate.
Overscan Fits the film gate within the resolution

gate.
You can also set Film Fit in the camera view’s View > Camera Settings submenu.

Film Fit Offset Offsets the resolution gate relative to the film gate either
vertically (if Film Fit is Horizontal) or horizontally (if Film Fit is Vertical). Film
Fit Offset has no effect if Film Fit is Fill or Overscan. Film Fit Offset is measured
in inches. The default setting is 0.
Overscan Scales the size of the scene in the camera’s view only, not in the
rendered image. Adjust the Overscan value to see more or less of the scene
than will actually render. If you have view guides displayed, changing the
Overscan value changes the amount of space surrounding the view guides,
making them easier to see. The default value is 1.
1 The view guide fills the view. The edges of

the view guide may be exactly aligned with
the edges of the view, in which case the
view guide is not visible.
>1 The higher the value, the more space is

outside the view guide.
Clipping Planes
For information on clipping planes, see Clipping planes on page 21.

Near Clip Plane, Far Clip Plane For Hardware rendering, Vector rendering,
and mental ray for Maya rendering, this represents the distance of the near
and far clipping planes of perspective or orthographic cameras. The default
setting for Near Clip Plane is 0.1 and for Far Clip Plane is 1000.
For Maya software rendering, by default Auto Render Clip Plane is on (see
Auto Render Clip Plane on page 345), and the Near Clip Plane and Far Clip
Plane values do not determine the position of the clipping planes. See Auto
Render Clip Plane on page 345.
If the distance between the near and far clipping planes is much larger than
is required to contain all the objects in the scene, the image quality of some
objects may be poor. Set the Near Clip Plane and Far Clip Plane attributes to
the lowest and highest respective values that produces the desired result.
TIP The objects you want to render are usually within a certain range from the
camera. Setting the near and far clipping planes just slightly beyond the limits of
the objects in the scene can help improve image quality.
Create > Cameras > Camera | 315

NOTE The ratio of far:near clipping planes determines the depth precision. Try
to keep that ratio as small as possible for better results.
Since most of the depth precision is concentrated around the near clip plane,
try to avoid a lot of detail on distant objects.
This concept is crucial for hardware rendering because it has only 24 bits of
depth precision, as opposed to software rendering which has 32 bits.
Motion Blur
Shutter Angle The Shutter Angle influences the blurriness of objects of motion
blurred objects. The larger the Shutter angle setting, the more blurry objects.
Shutter Angle is measured in degrees. The valid range is 1 to 360. The default
value is 144.
The Camera Shutter Angle option is a multiplier for the time range of the blur.
Similar to traditional film and video cameras, the camera shutter angle
determines the length of the exposure. However, for the purposes of motion
blur, it only alters the absolute time range of the exposure based on the
following equation:
Blur range = (Camera Shutter Angle / 360 degrees) x Blur by Frame
(In real-world film cameras, this is calculated at 180 degrees; during the other
180 degrees of rotation, the film is advanced to the next frame for exposure.
Computer graphics cameras have no film.)
For information on a real-world camera’s shutter angle and exposure in general,
see Focus and blur on page 15.
NOTE For the shutter angle setting to take effect (that is, for motion blur to
appear), Motion Blur must be set for the following:
■ for the scene in the Render Settings window (for the particular renderer
you are using).
■ for at least one object in the object’s Render Stats section of the Attribute
Editor.
Orthographic Views
By default, when you create a camera from the Create menu, the view is
perspective. If you want an orthographic camera view, click the Orthographic
check box and change the Orthographic Width if necessary.

The Orthographic Views attributes control whether a camera is perspective or
orthographic (top, front, or side), and also lets you control the field of view
for orthographic cameras. See also Viewing cameras vs. rendering cameras on
page 13.
Orthographic If on, the camera is an orthographic camera. If off, the camera
is a perspective camera. Orthographic is off by default.
TIP The default cameras are aligned to the major axis. You can create an off-axis
orthographic camera by rotating the orthographic camera or changing the default
tumble options and using the tumble tool.
To rotate an orthographic view, in the Tumble tool’s option window, make
sure the Locked setting turned off. See View > Camera Tools > Tumble Tool
on page 354.
Orthographic Width The width (in inches) of the orthographic camera. The
width of an orthographic camera controls how much of a scene the camera
can see. Changing the width of an orthographic camera has the same effect
as zooming a perspective camera.
TIP If you want to create a new perspective camera and get out of orthographic
view mode, select Edit > Reset Settings, then click Apply.
Create > Cameras > Camera and Aim

Creates a two-node camera, which is a basic camera plus an aim-vector control
for aiming the camera at a specified “look at” point.
14.
Create > Cameras > Camera and Aim >
See Create > Cameras > Camera on page 313.
Create > Cameras > Camera,Aim, and Up

Creates a three-node camera, which is a basic camera with the aim-vector
control plus an up-vector control for rotating the camera.
Create > Cameras > Camera and Aim | 317

14.
Create > Cameras > Camera,Aim, and Up >
See Create > Cameras > Camera on page 313.
Window
Window > Rendering Editors > Render View

Opens the Render View.
For information about Render View, see Render View rendering on page 52.
Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render

Buffer
Opens the Hardware Render Buffer.
For information about Hardware Render Buffer, see Hardware Render Buffer
window on page 484.
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings

Opens the Render Settings window.
For information about Render Settings, see Render Settings window on page
376.
Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade

Opens the Hypershade.
For information about Hypershade, see Hypershade window in the Shading
guide.

Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags
Opens the Rendering Flags window.
For information about the Rendering Flags window, see Rendering Flags
window on page 482.
Window > Rendering Editors > Shading Group

Attributes
Opens the Attribute Editor for the selected object.
For information about the Attribute Editor, see Attribute Editor in the Basics
guide.
Window > Rendering Editors > Multilister

Opens the Multilister.
Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray >

Approximation Editor
Opens the mental ray for Maya Approximation Editor where you can set
tessellation settings for mental ray for Maya.
Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Custom

Text Editor
Opens the mental ray Custom Text Editor.
For information about the Custom Text Editor, see Custom mental ray text
in the Shading guide.
Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags | 319

Render
Some menu items are renderer-specific. For example, IPR menu items appear
only for Maya software and mental ray rendering.
Render > Render Current Frame

Opens the Render View window and renders the current scene.
Render > Render Current Frame >
Messages
Verbosity Level Controls the verbosity level for messages related to mental
ray rendering. Messages equal to or below the selected verbosity are displayed.
Messages are displayed in the console window.
Parallelism
Auto Render Threads If Auto Render Threads is enabled, Maya automatically

calculates the number of threads that should be used to best take advantage
of the CPUs (or cores) on your workstation. This option is on by default.
Render Threads Specifies the number of rendering threads to be used by

mental ray for Maya for rendering. Use a thread for each CPU you utilize on
the local host.
Auto Tiling Turn on this option to automatically determine the optimal tile
size at render time.
Task Size Pixel width and height of render tiles.
Memory
Auto Memory Limit If Auto Memory Limit is enabled, Maya dynamically

calculates the memory limit prior to the start of rendering. This feature can
be enabled at all times to obtain better performance.
TIP For limited memory situations, this setting is recommended.

To view the calculated value, ensure that Export Verbosity is set to Info
Messages in the Verbosity Level section. The calculated Memory Limit is then
displayed in the Script Editor.
Memory Limit Soft limit for the memory used by mental ray. A soft limit
implies that mental ray may actually use more memory than indicated.
Calculate The Calculate button computes the memory setting for mental ray
in the current situation, including the scene elements and their preview options
and so forth. This attribute helps customers to obtain a rough estimate of the
optimal memory limit for mental ray.
Network
Used for network rendering only.
Select one of these options to determine whether the local machine renders
the scene, or whether the slaves render the scene.
Render on the local machine Select this option so that the local machine
participates in rendering the scene.
Render on network machines Select this option so that the networked

machine(s) participate in rendering the scene. This is useful in reducing the
workload on the master machine while Maya is also running.
TIP To render on all available machines, select both the Render on the local
machine and Render on network machines options.
Render > Redo Previous Render

Opens the Render View window and re-renders the scene from the previous
view.
Render > IPR Render Current Frame
Opens the Render View window and IPR renders the current scene. See
Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) on page 47 for more details.
If you are using mental ray for Maya rendering, opens the mental ray IPR
Render Options dialog box to let you set your IPR options. For descriptions
of these options, see below.
Render > Redo Previous Render | 321

For more information on IPR rendering, see Batch renders from within Maya
(UI) on page 52 in Rendering guide.
Render > IPR Render Current Frame >
Messages
Messages are displayed in the mental ray log file.
Parallelism


the local host.
Network


Render > Redo Previous IPR Render
Opens the Render View window and re-IPR renders the scene from the previous
view. See Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) on page 47 for more details.
Render > Test Resolution

The resolution at which the image renders in the Render View window. Use
a reduced resolution to test render the scene to decrease rendering time.
Camera Panel Renders at the resolution of the current

view.
Render Settings Renders at the Resolution set in the Render

Settings window on page 376. The default
setting is 640x480.
10% Globals Renders at 10% of the Resolution set in the

Render Settings window on page 376. The
default setting is 64x48.



110% Globals Renders at 110% of the Resolution set in

the Render Settings window on page 376.
The default setting is 704x528.
Render > Redo Previous IPR Render | 323


Render > Run Render Diagnostics

Runs the Run Render Diagnostics tool. See Run diagnostics on page 166 for
more information.
Render > Batch Render

Runs a batch render. For more information, see Batch renders from within
Maya (UI) on page 52.
opens the Batch Render option dialog box to let you set options to render
an animation on a local or remote computer, or on a computer with several
processors. For descriptions of these options, see below.
For more information on batch rendering, see Batch renders from within Maya
Render > Batch Render >
For Windows
Use all available processors If on, rendering uses all processors available on
the local computer.
If off, rendering only uses the number of processors indicated by Number of
Processors to Use. Use all available processors is off by default.
Number of Processors to Use The number or processors used for rendering

when Use all available processors is off. The default value is 1.

For Linux
Rendering CPU Determines whether rendering takes place on the local

computer (Local) or on another computer across a network (Remote). If you
select Remote, set Remote Machine name to the name of the computer you
want to render on. The default setting is Local.
Remote Machine Name When set to Remote, type the name of the computer
on which the rendering takes place and press Enter. If you do not, the render
occurs on the local machine.
For mental ray rendering
Messages
Messages are displayed in the mental ray log file.
Parallelism


the local host.
Memory
Auto Memory Limit If Auto Memory Limit is enabled, Maya dynamically

calculates the memory limit prior to the start of rendering. This feature can
be enabled at all times to obtain better performance.
TIP For limited memory situations, this setting is recommended.
To view the calculated value, ensure that Export Verbosity is set to Info
Messages in the Verbosity Level section. The calculated Memory Limit is then
displayed in the render log.
Render > Batch Render | 325

Memory Limit Soft limit for the memory used by mental ray. A soft limit
implies that mental ray may actually use more memory than indicated.
Network

Render > Cancel Batch Render

Cancels the batch render that was launched in the current Maya session.
Render > Show Batch Render

Opens an fcheck display window and displays the last rendered image.
Render > Render Using > Maya Hardware

Changes the rendering mode to use the Maya Hardware renderer.
For more information about Maya’s Hardware renderer, see Maya Hardware
renderer on page 5.

Render > Render Using > Maya Software
Changes the rendering mode to use the Maya Software renderer.
For more information about Maya’s Software renderer, see Maya Software
renderer on page 4.
Render > Render Using > Maya Vector

Changes the rendering mode to use the Maya Vector renderer.
For more information about Maya’s Vector renderer, see Maya Vector renderer
on page 8.
Render > Set NURBS Tessellation

Render > Set NURBS Tessellation >
With this window:
■ Maya can automatically optimize NURBS surface tessellation throughout

an animation range (select Automatic (default) on page 328).
This method is exceptionally powerful for scenes in which the distance
between the camera and the object changes (animation), and lets you save
memory (and time) and enhance performance by preventing
overtessellation.
■ You can manually adjust tessellation for objects that require non-default
settings (select Manual on page 328).
NOTE This feature only supports Maya software NURBS tessellation settings.
It does not support mental ray tessellation settings.
Apply Tessellation
Select one of the following options:
Selected Surfaces, All Surfaces
Lets you change the tessellation attributes for Selected Surfaces or All
Surfaces at one time. Selected Surfaces is on by default.
Render > Render Using > Maya Software | 327

Tessellation Mode
Maya automatically sets the optimal tessellation settings based on an
object’s distance from the renderable camera(s), or lets you set them.
To adjust tessellation settings, you need to switch to Manual Mode.
NOTE Set the desired Resolution in Render Settings window on page 376 before
using the Automatic Tessellation mode. Maya uses the Resolution settings to
determine what tessellation level is needed to avoid nickeling.
Automatic (default)
Tessellation is based on the coverage and distance of the surface from the
camera and the Automatic Mode settings on page 328.
Objects that are either close to the camera or occupy a significant amount
of screen space are automatically tessellated with more triangles. Objects
that are further from the camera or are smaller have fewer triangles.
Maya takes into consideration that distance changes over time if the surface
or camera is animated, and tessellation is computed for a the range of
frames set in Use Frame Range. Tessellation is evaluated and optimized at
each frame, and the worst-case tessellation scenario requirements are
determined and applied.
In automatic mode, the tessellation can be computed for the current frame
or the frame range from the render settings or time slider.
Manual
Tessellation is based whether you select Basic on page 330 or Advanced on
page 330 in Manual Mode. This is the same as if you opened the Attribute
Editor for each surface, and set the tessellation settings.
Automatic Mode settings
Some of these settings appear and work for the Basic on page 330 settings of
Manual Mode too.
Use Frame Range
Available only in Automatic (default) on page 328 Mode.
The tessellation computed by Automatic Tessellation depends on the distance
of the surface from the camera. When the surface or camera is animated, this
relationship changes over time.
Generally, when the surface is closest to the camera you need the best
tessellation (the most triangles). If you know which frame this is, use Current
Frame on page 329. Otherwise, Maya computes this for you by running up the
animation for a specified frame range, evaluates the tessellation at each frame,
and sets the tessellation attributes to provide optimal tessellation.

A progress bar at the bottom left of Maya’s window indicates the runup
progress. You can also interrupt the runup for the tessellation evaluation by
pressing the Esc key. During the interruption, the tessellation values are set
and are valid up until the frame at which it was interrupted.
Render Settings Maya uses the frame range set in Render Settings window
on page 376.
Time Slider Use the time slider to adjust the frame range as necessary.
Current Frame Evaluates the best tessellation for the current frame.
Compute From
Available only in Automatic (default) on page 328 Mode.
All Renderable Cameras The default. Computes the automatic tessellation
from the point of view of all renderable cameras.
Current View Computes the automatic tessellation from the current view
only.
Curvature Tolerance
You can determine how smooth the nickeling of the tessellation needs to be.
When you adjust this setting, Maya automatically sets the Chord Height Ratio
on page 332 (an Advanced setting that is hidden, but automatically set in both
Automatic (default) on page 328 Mode and Manual Basic Mode).
In more complex scenes with many small objects, set the smaller objects to
Low Quality. (This table applies only for manual mode; automatic mode sets
the chord height, depending on the distance from the camera.)
Low Quality Chord Height ratio = 0.987
Medium Quality (default) Some nickeling may occur, but a significantly

lower polygon count is produced. Chord Height ratio = 0.990
High Quality Chord Height ratio = 0.994.
Highest Quality The result is very smooth edges with no nickeling. Chord
Height ratio = 0.995.
No Curvature Check No attempt to smooth out nickeling is made and only

the initial sampling for the tessellation is done.
U Division Factor, V Division Factor Before adjusting these settings, adjust

Curvature Tolerance to get the results you want.
When you adjust this setting, Maya automatically multiplies the values by
the Per surf # isoparms in 3D (an Advanced on page 330 setting that is hidden,
Render > Set NURBS Tessellation | 329

but automatically set in both Automatic (default) on page 328Mode and Manual
Basic Mode).
The higher the values, the more polygons produced. The U Divisions Factor
and V Divisions Factor attributes should contain approximately the same
value.
Use Smooth Edge Use this to increase the number of triangles only along the
boundary of an object. This lets you smooth the edges or prevent cracks
between shared curves of adjacent surfaces without tessellating across the
entire object, which incurs a high rendering time.
The higher the ratio, the smoother the edges and the higher the polygon
count.
If you get artifacts in highlights along curved parts of the surface close to an
edge, don’t use this attribute.
Smooth Edge Ratio Adds more triangles where required in areas of curvature
along the edges of the surface. The edge is the boundary of the NURBS surface,
where one of the U or V parameters takes on its most extreme value. (This
does not address the silhouette edges based on how the object is viewed from
the camera.)
While extra triangles are primarily added along the edge, some are also added
to the interior of the surface as needed to prevent cracking at T-junctions
within the surface.
The ratio is the length of the tessellated triangle and the curve of the boundary.
Edge Swap Helps to divide quadrilateral surface spans into optimal triangles
by swapping the two vertices on a quadrilateral used to create triangles. This
is a secondary criteria, but it uses minimal resources.
Manual Mode
Basic Basic settings appear when you select this option. For descriptions of
these settings, see Automatic Mode settings on page 328.
When you adjust Basic settings, Maya automatically sets the Advanced settings
(which are hidden for simplicity) as follows (see Advanced Tessellation settings
on page 331 for details):
Advanced Advanced settings appear when you select this option. For
descriptions of these settings, see Advanced Tessellation settings on page 331.

Advanced Tessellation settings
Available only in Manual on page 328 mode with the Advanced on page 330
option selected. If you have set the Curvature Tolerance (in either Automatic
(default) on page 328mode or Manual on page 328 Basic on page 330 mode) to
the highest setting and the object is still not smooth enough, use these settings
to have more control over tessellation.
Mode U, Mode V
These are Primary Tessellation attributes (see Primary vs. secondary tessellation
passes on page 40). These settings tell Maya how to tessellate the surface. The
U and V values represent the U and V parametric dimensions of the NURBS
surface. You can set these values differently to produce tessellation for each
direction of your surface.
Per Surf # of Isoparms Ignores the number of surface spans and lets you
specify the number of subdivisions you want to create. The result is a sparser
number of isoparms on the surface than number of spans. Essentially, this
setting pretends that everything is equally spaced.
Per Surf # of Isoparms in 3D Same as Per Surf # of Isoparms, but attempts to

space the isoparms equally in 3D space (instead of parametric space). Good
for converting NURBS to polygons. This mode produces more evenly
distributed triangles than other modes.
Per Span # of Isoparms This is the most common mode. Divides each span,
no matter how large or small, into the same number of subdivisions. Very
small spans are divided into the same number of subdivisions as very large
spans. The default setting is 3. Per span settings help to prevent cracks between
joined surfaces where the spans match, which is particularly important for
character building with multiple surfaces.
Best Guess Based on Screen Size Creates a bounding box around the NURBS
surface, projects it into screen space, and calculates the number of pixels in
the space. Maya uses this number to guess at the per surface # of isoparms.
The maximum value is 40. With this mode, the more screen space the object
uses, the higher the value.
This is not good for animation if the camera or the object is moving because
the bounding box would change constantly. If the bounding box changes so
does the tessellation and texture jitter as a result. (Problems with highlights
may occur as well.)
NOTE If you have a complicated NURBS surface and have Display Render
Tessellation turned on, this setting could delay the update of the display, so be
patient.

Number U, Number V The actual values associated with Mode U, Mode V.
Use Chord Height Turn on to enable the Chord Height on page 332slider
value.
NOTE Use the Chord Height on page 332 or Chord Height Ratio on page 332or
Min Screen on page 333option, but not a combination of them.
Chord Height Chord height is a physical measurement based on object space

units; it’s perpendicular distance at the centre of a triangle edge to the curve
that defines the surface. If the actual distance measured is greater that the
Chord Height value, the triangle is subdivided. Once it is subdivided, it will
be checked again against the same criteria and the process will continue until
the criteria is met. Chord height is measured in Object Space. The default is
0.1.
Chord Height is based on a default unit and doesn’t always work well for very
small models as the chord height values on a small model will be smaller still.
When chord heights are calculated, if any are larger than 0.1, Maya subdivides
the triangles and recomputes. This subdivision process continues until all
triangles meet this criteria. The smaller the chord height, the better the
approximation of the triangle to the surface curve. (This may be useful for
industrial designers concerned with the accuracy of a model in relation to a
prototype model.)
NOTE Do not build models too small. Chord height is measured in Object Space.
If you build models on a very small scale and then scale them up, the chord length
is always relative to the object, not to World Space, which means tessellation
criteria can be very expensive on small objects. For small or scaled objects, select
Chord Height Ratio on page 332.
Specifies the maximum distance the center of a tessellated span can be from
the actual NURBS surface.
Use Chord Height Ratio Turn on to enable the Chord Height Ratio on page
332 slider value.
Chord Height Ratio Specifies the maximum ratio between the length of a
span and the distance the center of that span is from the actual NURBS surface.

Takes the ratio between the chord height (d) and the Distance (D) between
the two points where the triangle intersects the surface, and subtracts it from
1, as shown in the equation:
Chord Height Ratio = 1 - d/D
A Chord Height Ratio value of 0.997 and above produces very smooth
tessellated surfaces. The default is 0.9830, which means d is very small
compared to D (for example, 0.9830 = 1 - d/D). The closer to 1, the tighter the
fit of the triangle to the surface.(This is best used in animations.)
Use Min Screen Turn on to enable the Min Screen on page 333 box.
NOTE
■ Use the Chord Height on page 332or Chord Height Ratio on page 332 or Min
Screen on page 333 option, but not a combination of them.
■ Don’t turn on Use Min Screen for surfaces that are moving toward or away
from the camera during an animation. Min Screen on page 333 causes the
tessellation to change over time and can cause unwanted displacement or
texture ‘popping’.
Min Screen Bases tessellation on a minimum screen size (default, 14 pixels).

All triangles created during tessellation must fit within this screen size. If they
don’t, the are further subdivided until they do. This option is good for still
images with a setting off 11.0. This option is not recommended for animations
because the tessellation will constantly change when an object is moving,
causing textures to jitter or jump because the shading for a particular pixel
will have different tessellations to deal with on each frame.
NOTE If you have a complicated NURBS surface and have Display Render
Tessellation turned on, this setting could delay the update of the display, so be
patient.
Tessellates a surface based on how far it is from the camera and uses the screen
space to determine how much tessellation is required (instead of object or
world space).
All triangles must fit within the specified area. The default is 14 pixels, which
means all triangles must fit within a 14X14 pixel area on the screen. Triangles
that do not meet this criteria are subdivided iteratively until they fall within
the specified area. The smaller you set this value, the smaller the triangles
must be to satisfy the criteria. Lowering this value can dramatically increase
memory, so use caution.

Render > Render Using > mental ray
Changes the rendering mode to use the mental ray for Maya renderer.
For more information about the mental ray for Maya renderer, see About the
mental ray for Maya renderer on page 173.
Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007

Exports a composite of all layers in your scene from Maya to Autodesk Toxik.
Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007>
Toxik User Settings
The User Name, Server Name, Port Number and Database Name fields directly
correspond to settings within Toxik. Enter the same information for these
fields as you do in Toxik. For more information, see your Toxik user
documentation.
Toxik Scene Settings
Composition Name The unique name for the composition created by the
plug-in. You can use a new name to create a new composition, or use an
existing name to update the existing composition.
Project Name The name of the Toxik project you want to use.
Destination Folder The name of the Toxik destination folder you want to
use. The destination folder contains the media you create when you publish
a result.
Render Directory Enter a file path or click the Browse button to select a
location for the rendered output on the Toxik machine.
Output Settings
Output Mode
Specifies one of two output modes you can use depending on your Toxik
setup. The default output mode is Update Toxik.
Export Toxik IMSQ File Use this setting if you are not running Toxik on the
same machine that Maya is running on, you should work in the Save Toxik

Script mode; allowing you to save the Toxik script and run it on another
machine where your Toxik database resides.
Specify a file name and location in the File Name field.
Update Toxik Use this setting if you are running Toxik and Maya on the same
machine. The Update Toxik mode automatically updates the Toxik database
and makes the Toxik composition available immediately. To work in Update
Toxik mode, Python 2.4 is required. For more information on Python, see
http://www.python.org.
Specify the location of the Python executable file (python.exe) in the Python
Location field.
File Name Specifies the file name and location for the saved output of the
plug-in export results. Only available for use with the Save Toxik Script output
mode.
Toxik Location Specifies the location of the Toxik executable file (toxik.exe).
Only available for use with the Update Toxik output mode.
Python Location Specifies the location of the Python executable file

(python.exe). Only available for use with the Update Toxik output mode.
Python Script Specifies the location of the python script to be used. By default
the python script provided with Maya is used. You should only change the
python script if you have a custom script for exporting to Toxik.
Python Script Arguments Specifies any python arguments that you want to
use when the script is executed. For example, you can use --verbose if you
need to debug, or use --help to get all the available flags. The output of the
python script arguments appears in the Maya Script Editor.
Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007

Exports a composite of selected layers (in the Render Layer Editor) in your
scene from Maya to Autodesk Toxik.
Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 >
For a description of the options, see Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007
on page 334.
Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 | 335

Render > Export to Toxik 2008
Exports a composite of all layers in your scene from Maya to Autodesk
Toxik.Beginning Toxik 2008, you will no longer export an IMSQ file. Instead,
you will export to a Toxik project file.
Note the following:
■ In order to use this functionality, Toxik 2008 must be installed along with
Maya 2008 on the same system.
■ Both Toxik and Maya should be of the same architecture. If the version of
Toxik you are running is 32-bit, then the version of Maya you are running
must also be 32-bit, and likewise for 64-bit.
■ If you load the Toxik 2007 plug-in in Maya also, there will be two additional
menu items under the Render menu: Render > Export All Layers to Toxik
2007 and Render > Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007. However, these
two menu items can only be used with Toxik 2007 and are not compatible
with Toxik 2008.
Render > Export to Toxik 2008 >
Toxik Export Options
You can leave all fields blank with the exception of Toxik Install Directory.
By default, Maya will give the Toxik project file the same name as your scene
file and save it to the same folder as your scene file.
Toxik Scene Settings
Toxik Project File Specifies the file name and location for the saved output
of the plug-in export results.
Composition Name The unique name for the composition created by the
plug-in. You can use a new name to create a new composition, or use an
existing name to update the existing composition. The composition contains
all cameras, locators and so forth. This folder is not saved to disk. It is only
seen by Toxik.

Destination Folder The name of the Toxik destination folder you want to
use. The destination folder contains all the compositions you have created.
This folder is not saved to disk. It is only seen by Toxik.
Render Layers Foldery The name of the Toxik render layers folder you want
to use. The render layers folder contains all the media you have created. This
folder is not saved to disk. It is only seen by Toxik.
Export Cameras Choose to export all cameras or none of the cameras.
Export Layers Choose to export all layers or none of the layers.
Export Locators Select this option to export locators.
Configuration
Toxik Install Directory Specify the parent directory of the location of the
Toxik 2008 executable file (toxik.exe). You must specify this directory in
order for the export feature to work.For example, on a typical Windows
installation, toxik.exe is saved to:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Toxik 2008\program
You should therefore specify the Toxik Install Directory as:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Toxik 2008
Temporary File Directory Specify the location for a temporary file if you
want to export to a separate Maya scene file.
Render Directory Specify the location to which the frames are rendered. Toxik
will search for rendered frames in this directory.
Import Script Arguments Reserved for future development.
Render > Export Pre-Compositing
Select to export your render layers, passes and cameras to Toxik 2009. This
option exports your elements using the same filename and settings as your
previous export. If you have not performed an export previously, the default
filename is scenename.precomp, and all render layers, passes and cameras in
your scene are exported.
Render > Export Pre-Compositing | 337

Render > Export Pre-Compositing >
Select this option to open the Export Pre-Compositing editor. Using this
window, you can:
■ Export all render layers, render passes and cameras to a precomp file in
Toxik
■ Export selected render layers, render passes and cameras to a precomp file
in Toxik
The Export Pre-compositing editor is divided into three tabs: Cameras, Render
Layers, and Render Passes. Select the appropriate tab depending on the
elements that you want to export.
Use the icon to expand the render layer, render camera, or render pass
hierarchy.
Exporting the elements
A icon indicates that all elements are being exported. A icon indicates
that only partial elements are being exported.
In the following example, only the diffuse and incandescence passes are
exported. Therefore, the icon beside Bob (render layer) indicates that only
partial elements are being exported.
NOTE Changing the camera parents (parenting and unparenting) changes the
camera unique name, and breaks the precompositing workflow.

Click the Export All or Export Selection button to export your render layers,
passes and cameras to Toxik. The Export PRECOMP file window opens that
allows you to enter a filename for your exported file.
Pre-Compositing Scene Anchor
Use the Pre-Compositing Scene Anchor to connect the Maya scene to a Toxik
master composition (scene composition). All elements in your scene are
associated with a scene anchor. Unlike the scene name, which can change,
for example, from version one to version two, the scene anchor does not
change. All elements that belong to the same composite, for example, cameras,
render passes, render layers, and so forth, should have the same scene anchor.
After selecting Export All or Export Selection from the Export Pre-Compositing
window, Toxik tries to find the scene composition with the specified anchor
name. If such a composite does not exist, a new one is built. If the composite
exists, then it is updated (depending on the import options in Toxik; there
are different update/creation/recreate modes).
Render > Export Pre-Compositing | 339

NOTE You cannot perform an export without having a proper scene anchor
defined. If you click the Export All or Export Selection buttons without entering a
name in the Pre-Compositing Scene Anchor field, you are prompted to either
define one, or use the scene name as the anchor. You should avoid using the scene
name as your scene anchor since it breaks the unique connection between your
Maya scene and your scene composition in your Toxik project. An exception to
this rule is if you only plan to export once and do not intend to update your
composition in the future. For example, if you only want to create a
pre-compositing template in Toxik, then the scene anchor file is not required,
since the scene anchor is only used to update an existing scene composition.
Scene Pre-Compositing Notes
Use this section to identify the changes in the precomp file.
Panel menus
View
View > Select Camera

Selects the view’s corresponding camera. The attributes for this camera appear
in the Channel Box and the Attribute Editor.
TIP Selecting the camera is useful if you want to edit the look-at and camera up
nodes associated with the camera.
View > Camera settings

Perspective If on, the camera is a perspective camera. For more information
on perspective cameras, see Maya camera types on page 14.
Undoable Movements If on, all camera movements, such as tumble, track,

and zoom, are written to the Script Editor (MEL journal) which lets you undo
or redo camera movements or copy camera movements to use them for other
cameras or scenes.

Undoable Movements is off by default, but you can still use [ and ] to undo
and redo camera moves.
No Gate Turns off the Film Gate and Resolution Gate display.
Displays no frustum (viewable volume) when not you are not looking through
the camera. This is the default.
The frustum is the area or space the camera can see. Any object within the
camera’s frustum shows up in images rendered from that camera’s view. See
Clipping planes on page 21 for an diagram of the frustum.
Film Gate Displays a border indicating the area of the camera’s view a
real-world camera records on film. The dimensions of the film gate represent
the dimensions of the camera aperture.
The film gate does not represent the render region. You can customize the
render region using the Camera Aperture and Film Fit attributes in the camera
Attribute Editor. You can also set the rendering resolution using the Image
Size options in the Render Settings window, and choose to lock the Device
aspect ratio, or set the Device aspect ratio attribute.
The film gate view guide indicates the area of the camera’s view that renders
only if the aspect ratios of the camera aperture and rendering resolution are
the same.
View | 341
Displays the viewable frustum according to the film back size. The aspect ratio
of the window (or rendering resolution) determines what you actually see.
Also sets the camera Overscan attribute to 1.5. The following illustration shows
the film gate representing the maximum viewable (or renderable) area.

Resolution Gate The dimensions of the Resolution Gate represent the
rendering resolution (the region to be rendered). The rendering resolution
values are displayed above the Resolution Gate in the view. You can change
these dimensions in the Image Size section of the Render Settings window.
Enabling this option displays the renderable area for the current resolution
specified in Render Settings window. This often specifies a more exact rendered
image than the Film Gate option. Also sets the camera Overscan attribute to
2.0, so that more area outside the specified resolution can be viewed.
NOTE If the aspect ratio between the film back and the resolution is the same,
then the two resulting rendered images match.
Gate Mask Turn Gate Mask on to change the opacity and color of the area
outside a Film Gate or Resolution Gate. You can only view the effects of a
Gate Mask when the Film Gate or Resolution Gate is on. You can adjust the
gate mask’s opacity and color in the camera’s attributes under the Display
Options.
View | 343
Field Chart Turn Field Chart on to display a grid that represents the twelve
standard cell animation field sizes. The largest field size (number 12) is identical
to the rendering resolution (the resolution gate). Render Resolution must be
set to NTSC dimensions for this option to be meaningful.
Safe Action Turn this option on to display a box defining the region that you
should keep all of your scene’s action within if you plan to display the rendered
images on a television screen.
For more information on Safe Action, see Safe display regions for TV production
on page 20.
Safe Title Turn this option on to display a box defining the region that you
should keep all of your scene’s text (titles) within if you plan to display the
rendered images on a television screen.
Render Resolution must be set to NTSC or PAL dimensions for this option to
be meaningful.
For more information on Safe Title, see Safe display regions for TV production
on page 20.
Fill, Horizontal, Vertical, Overscan (for advanced users)

The following options control the size of the Resolution Gate relative to the
Film Gate. If the resolution gate and the film gate have the same aspect ratio,
these settings have no effect. The default setting is Fill.
Fill Fits the resolution gate within the film gate.
Automatically selects a horizontal or vertical fit so that the selected image fills
the render frame.
Horizontal Fits the resolution gate horizontally within the film gate.
Selects a horizontal fit for the selected image in the render frame.
Vertical Fits the resolution gate vertically within the film gate.

Selects a vertical fit for the selected image in the render frame.
Overscan Fits the film gate within the resolution gate.

Selects a slightly larger fit for the selected image in the render frame.
View > Camera Attribute Editor

Opens the camera’s Attribute Editor.
Camera attributes
TIP If you click the boxes at the right of some of the attributes in this editor, the
Create Render Node window appears, which means you can map certain render
nodes to the camera attributes. For more information on the Create Render Node
window, see Create > Create Render Node in the Shading guide.
Controls See Maya camera types on page 14 for information about the type
of cameras: Camera; Camera and Aim; and Camera, Aim, and Up.
Angle of view For more information on angle of view and how it’s affected
by the focal length of the camera, see Angle of view (focal length) on page
19.
TIP Try to avoid using a perspective camera with a very small angle (less than 5
degrees). Doing so may result in a much decreased depth precision, resulting in
depth-fighting artifacts. Instead, try using an orthographic camera for a similar
look.
Focal length See Focal Length on page 313.
Camera scale See Camera Scale on page 314.
Auto Render Clip Plane For Maya software only. If this is on, the near and
far clipping planes are automatically set so they enclose all objects within the
camera’s view. (For the hardware renderer and mental ray for Maya renderers,
you must set the near clip plane and far clip plane manually. You can set the
planes manually for Maya software rendering too.)
All objects render and depth precision problems are eliminated. Clipping
planes are not visible in the views.
If off, the near and far clipping planes are set to the Near Clip Plane and Far
Clip Plane attribute values.
Auto Render Clip Plane is on by default.
View | 345
Turn off Auto Render Clip Plane (and set the Near Clip Plane and Far Clip
Plane) in the following cases:
■ to limit which objects render based on their distance from the camera if
you are compositing based on depth
Near Clipping Plane, Far Clipping Plane
See Near Clip Plane, Far Clip Plane on page 315.
Stereo
The sections Stereo, Stereo Adjustments, and Stereo Display Controls contain
the attributes for the stereoscopic camera (stereoCameraCenterCamShape
node):
Stereo
Select the method for computing the zero parallax plane from one of the
following modes:
Off Disables any eye separate, InteraxialSeparation, and Zero Parallax plane
calculations on the node. This option disables the stereo effect.
Converged Computes the zero parallax plane by toeing in the cameras. You
can compare this effect to our focusing on an object by rotating our pupils
inwards. However, a dangerous side effect may occur where you get a keystone
effect on the pairs of render images, causing visual confusion in other elements
in the scene. In a rendered image, our focus tends to saccade over the entire
image and we are not focusing on a single object, which is not true in real
life. You should only use Converged when an object is at the center of the
screen with no scene elements at the render borders on either the left or right
camera frustum.
Off-axis (Default) Computes the convergence plane by shifting the frustum

using camera film back. This is the safer way to compute stereo image pairs
and avoids keystone artifacts.
Parallel A parallel camera setup where there is effectively no convergence

plane. This is useful for landscape settings where objects exist at effectively
infinity.
Interaxial Separation Distance between left and right cameras.
Zero Parallax Distance on the camera view axis where the zero parallax plane
occurs, in other words, the point where objects appear off screen. If an object

is in front of the zero parallax plane, it has negative parallax and if an object
is behind the zero parallax plane, it has positive parallax.
In general, your object should be behind the zero parallax plane. in other
words, the camera distance should be greater than the zero parallax plane
value. The zero parallax value, the camera separation, and focal length are all
used to determine the shift that must be applied to film back on the respective
left and right cameras. The zero parallax distance is only applicable when in
Off-Axis or Toe-In modes.
Stereo Adjustments
Toe In Adjust Use this attribute to offset the computed toe-in effect when
you are in Converged mode. This value is specified in degrees and acts as an
offset to the computed toe-in.
Film Offset Right Cam Controls the film offset for the right camera.
Film Offset Left Cam Controls the film offset for the left camera.
Stereo Display Controls
Display Near Clip Display method for the near clipping plane. Valid values
are:
0: None. Display is disabled.
1: Left. Display left camera clipping plane.
2: Right. Display right camera clipping plane.
3: LeftRight. Display left and right camera clipping planes.
4: Center. Display center camera clipping plane.
5: All. Display all camera clipping planes.
Display Far Clip Display method for far clipping plane. See Display Near
Clip for valid values.
Display Frustum Display method for frustum. See Display Near Clip on page
347for valid values.
Display Zero Parallax Plane Enable this option to disable the display of the
zero parallax plane.
Zero Parallax Plane Color Use this attribute to set the zero parallax plane
color.
Parallax Plane Transparency Use this attribute to set the zero parallax plane
transparency.
View | 347
Display Safe Viewing Volume Enable this option to disable the display of
the viewing volume.
Safe View Volume Color Use this attribute to set the viewing volume color.
Safe View Volume Transparency Use this attribute to set the viewing volume
transparency.
Safe Stereo The intersection of the left and right viewing frustum. The scene
elements visible by both frustums belong in the intersection. In general, do
not place a object that can only be seen by one camera.
Film Back
The Film Back attributes control the basic properties of a camera (for example,
the camera’s film format: 16mm, 35mm, 70mm).
Film Gate Lets you select a preset camera type. Maya automatically sets the
Camera Aperture, Film Aspect Ratio, and Lens Squeeze Ratio. To set these
attributes individually, set Film Gate to User. The default setting is User.
Camera Aperture The height and width of the camera’s Film Gate setting,
measured in inches. The default values are 1.417 and 0.945. This setting has
a direct effect on the camera’s angle of view (see Angle of view on page 345).
NOTE The Camera Aperture setting has no effect on the fStop. For more
information on fStop, see Focus and blur on page 15.
Film Aspect Ratio The ratio of the camera aperture’s width to its height. Maya
automatically updates the Film Aspect Ratio (and vice versa). The valid range
is 0.01 to 10. The default value is 1.5.
Lens Squeeze Ratio See Lens Squeeze Ratio on page 314.
Fit Resolution Gate Film fit on page 314.
Film Fit Offset Film Fit Offset on page 315.
Film Offset Vertically and horizontally offsets the resolution gate and the
film gate relative to the scene. Changing the Film Offset produces a
two-dimensional track. Film Offset is measured in inches. The default setting
is 0.
1 The view guide fills the view. The edges of

the view guide may be exactly aligned with
the edges of the view, in which case the
view guide is not visible.

>1 The higher the value, the more space is
outside the view guide.
Shake Enabled / Shake Use the Shake attributes to apply some amount of
2D translation to the filmback. A curve or expression could be connected to
the Shake attribute to specify a realistic shaking effect. The Shake Enabled
toggle can be used to turn the effect of the shake on and off.
The Shake and Shake Overscan attributes duplicate and combine functionality
with the Film Offset attributes and API. They are off by default.
Shake Enabled allows the Shake attribute setting to be factored into the camera
calculation. By default it is off.
Shake specifies a translation on the filmback. The value is specified as a separate
horizontal and vertical shake field, both of which default to zero, and are only
utilized in the camera calculations when the Shake Enabled attribute is enabled.
For camera calculation purposes, Shake and Film Offset provide the exact same
effect. Shake provides an additional set of filmback translation inputs on the
camera, with the additional feature that Shake can be turned on and off via
the Shake Enabled attribute.
Use the following MEL command to turn on Shake Enabled:
setAttr perspShape.shakeEnabled 1;
Use the following MEL command to set the Shake attribute:
setAttr perspShape.shake 0.5 0.5;
Shake Overscan Enabled / Shake Overscan Shake Overscan Enabled allows

the Shake Overscan attribute to be factored into the camera calculation. It is
disabled by default.
Shake Overscan specifies a multiplier to the film aperture. This overscan is
used to render a larger area than would be necessary if the camera were not
shaking. This attribute will affect the output render. The Shake Overscan
attribute is only used when the Shake Overscan Enabled attribute is set to
true. By default, Shake Overscan is set to one.
Use the following MEL command to turn on Shake Overscan Enabled:
setAttr perspShape.shakeOverscanEnabled 1;
Use the following MEL command to set the Shake Overscan:
setAttr perspShape.shakeOverscan 1.25;
Pre Scale The Pre Scale value is used in 2D effects. This value indicates the
artificial 2D camera zoom. Enter a value into this field. The value is applied
before the film roll.
View | 349
Film Translate The Film Translate value is used in 2D effects. This value
indicates the artificial 2D camera pan. Enter a value into this field.
Film Roll Pivot The horizontal pivot point from the center of the film back.
The pivot point is used during rotation of the film back. The pivot is the point
where the rotation occurs around. This double precision parameter corresponds
to the normalized viewport. This value is a part of the post projection matrix.
Vertical pivot point used for rotating the film back. This double precision
parameter corresponds to the normalized viewport. This value is used to
compute the film roll matrix, which is a component of the post projection
matrix.
Film Roll Value This specifies, in degrees, the amount of rotation around the
film back. The rotation occurs around the specified pivot point. This value is
used to compute a film roll matrix, which is a component of the
post-projection matrix.
Film Roll Order

Specifies how the roll is applied with respect to the pivot value.
Rotate-Translate The film back is first rotated then translated by the pivot
point value.
Translate-Rotate The film back is first translated then rotated by the film
roll value.
Post Scale The Pre Scale value is used in 2D effects. This value indicates the
artificial 2D camera zoom. Enter a value into this field. The value is applied
after the film roll.
Depth of Field
These attributes provide control over the camera’s focus.

For more information on depth of field, see Aperture determines Depth of
Field (DOF) on page 16.
TIP The more out of focus an image is, the longer it takes to generate the final
rendered image (that is, the post-render blur takes longer).
Depth Of Field If on, some objects in the scene are sharply focused and others
are blurred or out of focus, based on their distance from the camera. If off, all
objects in the scene are sharply focused. Depth Of Field is off by default.
Focus Distance The distance from the camera at which objects appear in
sharp focus, measured in the scene’s linear working unit. Decreasing the Focus

Distance also decreases the depth of field. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The
default value is 5.
F Stop The range of Camera Aperture settings which affect the Depth of Field.
The lower the fStop (for example, f4) the lower amount of Depth of Field. The
higher the fStop value (for example, f32) the greater amount of Depth of Field.
For more information about fStop, see fStop (aperture) and shutter speed/angle
on page 15.
Focus Region Scale Scales the Focus Distance value. The valid range is 0 to
infinity. The default value is 1.
Output Settings
Controls whether the camera generates an image during rendering, and what
types of images the camera renders.
Renderable If on, the camera can create an image file, mask file, and, or depth
file during rendering; that is, it is able to render. By default, Renderable is on
for the default perspective camera, and off for all other cameras.
This option is affected by the Renderable Camera option in the File Output
section of the Render Settings window. For more information on the Render
Settings window, see Render Settings window on page 376.
Image If on (and Renderable is on), the camera creates an image file during
rendering. The default setting is on.
Mask If on (and Renderable is on), the camera creates a mask during rendering.
A mask is an 8-bit channel (the alpha channel) in the image file that represents
objects in shades of gray. Black areas represent areas where there are no objects
(or fully transparent objects), and white areas represent areas where there are
(solid) objects. Masks are used primarily for compositing.
For image formats that do not support mask channels, the mask is stored as
a separate image.
For more information on mask channels, see Mask and depth channels on
page 78.
Depth If on (and Renderable is on), the camera creates a depth file during
rendering. A depth file is a type of data file that represents the distance of
objects from the camera.
Depth files are used primarily for compositing. When on, the Depth Type
attributes (next) are enabled.
For image formats that do not support depth channels, the depth is stored as
a separate image.
View | 351
For more information on mask channels, see Mask and depth channels on
page 78.
Depth Type
Determines how to compute the depth of each pixel.
Closest Visible Depth Uses the closest object to the camera. When transparent
objects are located in front of other objects, turn on “Transparency Based
Depth” to ignore the transparent object.
Furthest Visible Depth Most often used when a particle effect is occluded by
an opaque object. Maya uses the Furthest Visible Depth to create a Depth file.
Transparency Based Depth Turns on Threshold, which determines which

object is closest to the camera, based on transparency. Transparency Based
Depth is only enabled when you select Closest Visible Depth.
TIP When transparent objects are located in front of other objects, you can turn
on Transparency Based Depth to ignore the transparent object.
Threshold Used when compositing multiple layers of transparency (which

varies from 0 to 1). For example, if Threshold is 0.9 (the default), when
transparent surfaces add up to 0.9 or larger, the surface becomes opaque.
Pre-Compositing template
Use this attribute for Toxik pre-compositing. You can specify a pre-compositing
template for each render layer in the Passes tab of the Render Settings window.
See Toxik pre-compositing template for <layer> on page 406 and Exporting the
multi-render passes for compositing in Toxik on page 233 for more information.
The pre-compositing template on a layer assembles the passes. The
pre-compositing template on a camera, however, assembles the layers. The
default behavior, if no template is specified, is to stack the layers in a linear
chain of blend nodes that follow the order and blend nodes in Maya.
Environment
Control the appearance of the scene’s background as seen from the camera.
Different cameras can use different backgrounds.
Background Color The color of the scene’s background. The default color is
black.

NOTE The background color of a camera cannot be texture mapped. If a
procedural background is required, use an image plane instead.
Image Plane For Maya software and mental ray for Maya rendering.
Creates an image plane and attaches it to the camera. Clicking the Create
button automatically changes the focus of the Attribute Editor to include
attributes for an image plane.
For more information on image planes, see Create, edit, or position an image
plane in the Shading guide.
Special Effects
Shutter Angle Controls the blurriness of motion blurred objects. In a real-world

camera, the shutter is actually 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 are more blurred.
Shutter Angle is measured in degrees. The valid range is 1 to 360. The default
value is 144.
See Shutter Angle on page 316for more information.
NOTE Motion Blur must be on in the Render Settings window. For Maya software
rendering, motion blur must also be set in at least one object’s Attribute Editor
for the Shutter Angle to have any effect.
Display Options
Controls the display of view guides in the camera’s view, and provides options
for moving the camera. You can also access most of these attributes in any
panel’s View > Camera Settings menu.
Display Film Gate Film Gate on page 341.
Display Resolution Displays a rectangle that indicates the area of the camera’s
view that renders. The dimensions of the resolution gate represent the
rendering resolution. The rendering resolution values are displayed above the
resolution gate. See Resolution Gate on page 343 for more information.
Display Gate Mask Gate Mask on page 343
Gate Mask Opacity The amount of the scene you can see through the masked
area of a Gate Mask. This option is only available when Gate Mask is on.
View | 353
Gate Mask Color The color of the masked area of a Gate Mask. This option
is only available when Gate Mask is on.
Display Field Chart Field Chart on page 344.
Display Safe Action Safe Action on page 344.
Display Safe Title Safe Title on page 344.
Display Film Pivot Displays of the film pivot guide when looking through
the camera.
Display Film Origin Displays the film origin guide when looking through
the camera.
Overscan Overscan on page 315
Movement Options
Undoable Movements Undoable Movements on page 340.
Center of Interest The distance from the camera to the center of interest,
measured in the scene’s linear working unit.
Tumble Pivot The point the Tumble tool pivots the camera about when
Tumble Camera About is set to Tumble Pivot in the Tumble Tool settings
window.
Use Pivot As Local Space Enable this attribute so that the tumble tool does
a local axis tumble, using the camera's tumble pivot as a relative tumble point.
Orthographic Views
See Orthographic Views on page 316 for more information.
View > Camera Tools

Selects one of the camera tools. For information on the camera tools, see
Camera tools on page 17.
View > Camera Tools > Tumble Tool
View > Camera Tools > Tumble Tool >
For a description of the Tumble tool, see Tumble on page 17.

Tumble scale Scales the speed of the camera movement. The slider range is
Tumble camera about

Center of Interest The camera tumbles about its center of interest. Tumble
camera about is set to Center of interest by default.
Tumble Pivot The camera tumbles about its pivot point. This tumble pivot
can also be set in the camera’s Attribute Editor (see “Tumble Pivot” for details).
These values are stored in world space coordinates.
View operations such as Frame Selection, Frame All, Look at Selection, Default
Home, and Bookmarks all set the tumble pivot.
Orthographic views
Locked If on, you cannot tumble an orthographic camera. If off, you can
tumble an orthographic camera. Locked is on by default.
Stepped If on, you can tumble an orthographic camera in discrete steps. The
Stepped operation lets you easily return to the Default Home positions. If off,
you can tumble an orthographic camera smoothly. Stepped is only available
if Locked is off. Stepped is on by default.
Ortho step The angle of steps (in degrees) that you can tumble an orthographic
camera when Locked is off and Stepped is on. The valid range is 0.01 to 180.
View > Camera Tools > Track Tool >
For a description of the Track tool, see Track on page 17.
TIP You can also press Alt+middle-drag to use the Track tool. Press the Shift key
to constrain movement in horizontal or vertical directions.
Track Geometry If off, as the camera moves an object moves at a speed that
may be different than the speed of the cursor. This problem occurs with objects
far from the camera. Track Geometry is off by default.
If on, as the camera moves, an object moves at the same speed as the cursor.
The object selected at the beginning of the Track operation remains under
the cursor. Tracking is slower (especially if there are many objects in the scene)
if Track Geometry is on.
View | 355
Track Scale Scales the speed of the camera movement. The slider range is 0
to 100. The default value is 1.
View > Camera Tools > Dolly Tool >
For a description of the Dolly tool and tips on how to use it, see Dolly on page
17.
Scale Scales the speed of the camera movement. The slider range is 0.01 to
10. The default value is 1.
Dolly
Local If on, drag in the camera’s view to move the camera toward or away
from its center of interest. If off, drag in the camera’s view to move both the
camera and its center of interest along the camera’s sight line. Local is on by
default.
Center of Interest If Center of Interest is on, middle-drag in the camera’s

view to move the camera’s center of interest toward or away from the camera.
If off, drag in the camera’s view to move the camera toward or away from its
center of interest. drag a region and snap the center of interest to the center
of those objects. Center of Interest is off by default.
If Center of Interest (and, or Local) and Bounding box are on, when you drag
in the views, a red line with a small x at the end points to indicate the Center
of Interest.
Snap box dolly to A box dolly moves the center of interest to the marquee
region when you use the Ctrl+Alt+drag method to dolly the camera.
Surface If on, when you perform a box dolly (Ctrl+drag) on an object, the
center of interest moves onto the surface of the object. Calculating the surface
point is slower if Smooth Shade mode is off (and especially if there are many
visible objects in the scene).
Bounding box If on, when you perform a box dolly (Ctrl+drag) on an object,
the center of interest moves to the center of the object’s bounding box.
Bounding Box is on by default.
View > Camera Tools > Zoom Tool >
For a description of the Zoom tool, see Zoom on page 18.

Zoom Scale Scales the speed of the camera movement. The slider range is

View > Camera Tools > Roll Tool >
For a description of the Roll tool, see Roll on page 18.

Roll Scale Scales the speed of the camera movement. The slider range is 0.01
View > Camera Tools > Azimuth Elevation Tool
For a description of the Azimuth tool, see Azimuth Elevation on page 18.
Rotation type Controls whether the camera movement is an Azimuth

Elevation movement or a Yaw Pitch movement.
TIP Press Shift to constrain the camera’s movement.
View > Camera Tools > Yaw-Pitch Tool >
For a description of the YawPitch tool, see Yaw-Pitch on page 18.

Rotation type Controls whether the camera movement is a Yaw Pitch

movement or an Azimuth Elevation movement.
TIP Press Shift to constrain the camera’s movement.
View > Image plane

Provides you with options to import a file to use an image plane and access
the Image Plane’s attributes.
For more information on image planes, see Create, edit, or position an image
plane in the Shading guide.
Import Image Import a file to use as an image plane.
Image plane attributes Access the image plane’s attributes.
View | 357
Stereo
Stereo > Center Eye
Look through the center stereo camera. This is the default option.
Stereo > Active
Use your graphics card for stereo viewing. If you are using the NVidia Quadro
line graphics cards, and you have turned on stereo mode, the Active menu
becomes live. The CRT monitor uses the page flipping method of stereo
imaging. The settings that you have chosen for your stereo mode in your
graphics card are respected; for example, the DIN connector will send signal
to your 3D glasses.
Stereo > Horizontal Interlace
This viewing mode interlaces one row of pixels from the left camera with one
row of pixels from the right camera and so forth. You obtain half the vertical
resolution through this mode. Select this mode for polarized LCD monitors.
Stereo > Checkerboard
This viewing mode alternates between one pixel from the left camera with
one pixel from the right camera, forming a checkerboard pattern. You obtain

half the vertical resolution and half the horizontal resolution through this
mode. Select this mode for Samsung DLP 3D displays.
Stereo > Anaglyph
Maya supports the red/cyan anaglyph mode. Maya composites the color output
from the left camera with the color output from the right camera.
Stereo > Luminance Anaglyph
The Luminance Anaglyph mode is similar to the Anaglyph mode, but the
color output from the left and right cameras are first converted to greyscale
before being composited on top of each other.
Stereo > Freeview (Parallel)
Select this mode to see the left and right camera output side by side in the
same window.
Stereo > Freeview (Crossed)
This mode is similar to Freeview (Parallel), but the left camera output is
displayed on the right while the right camera output is displayed on the left.
Stereo | 359
Stereo > Background Color
Black is the default background color for stereo mode. Choose this option to
select an alternate background color from the Color Chooser.
Stereo > Set Color Using Preferences
Black is the default background color for stereo mode. Select this option to
use the background color you have set in Window > Settings/Preferences >
Color Settings instead.
Renderer
Renderer > Default Quality Rendering

Select Default Quality Rendering when you do not require a high quality
render but wish to reduce draw time in the scene view and increase efficiency.
When this option is turned on, the scene views are drawn with low quality
settings by the hardware renderer.
Renderer > High Quality Rendering

When high quality interactive shading is turned on, the scene views are drawn
in high quality by the hardware renderer. This lets you see a very good
representation of the look of the final render without having to software
render the scene.
The following is not supported:
■ motion blur
■ software multi sampling

TIP If you require faster playback or camera tumbling while using Maya’s High
Quality shading, turn on Interactive Shading (Shading > Interactive Shading).
To turn on high quality shading
1 Make sure smooth shading (or higher) is on (press 5, 6 or 7).
2 In the desired scene view, select Shading > High Quality Rendering.
Renderer > High Quality Rendering >
These are descriptions of the options in the Hardware Renderer Display Options
window.
Display Quality
Low Quality Lighting Low quality lighting is essentially per-vertex lighting,

which calculates light only on vertices, then blends the results. Renders are
faster and of reasonably good quality.
Match Viewport Lights When turned on, only as many lights as are supported
by the graphics card (typically 8 lights) are used.
Transparent Shadow Maps Those regions of an object which are fully

transparent will not cast a shadow. For example if you map the transparency
channel of a shader (on an object) to a checker texture the fully transparent
portions of the object would not cast a shadow.
Display Parameters
Occlusion Culling This option improves performance for scenes with many
objects, where one or more objects can be obscured from the viewpoint of the
active camera. When turned on, this option increases performance by
preventing out-of-view objects from being drawn.
Culling Override Every position on a surface has a normal which points in

the direction that is considered (for culling purposes) to be the "front side" of
the surface.
■ Single sided means the surface is illuminated by a light if that normal is

visible from the light.
■ Double sided means that the surface is illuminated on the front and the
back sides.
Renderer | 361
Color Texture Resolution
If hardware rendering cannot process a shading network on board the
graphics hardware, the shading network is evaluated and converted to a
file texture (2D image) that the hardware renderer can use.
This option specifies the dimension of the resulting texture. Affected
channels are color, incandescence, ambient, reflected color, and
transparency. The default value is 128, which means that any baked color
images will have a dimension of 128 by 128 pixels.
Bump Texture Resolution

If hardware rendering cannot directly process a shading network on board
the graphics hardware, the shading network is evaluated and converted
to a file texture (2D image) that the hardware renderer can use.
This option specifies the dimension of the resulting texture. The default
value for this option is 256, which means that any baked bump images
will have a dimension of 256 by 256 pixels.
Renderer > <Custom Renderer>

You now have the ability to write your own plug-in and override the scene
view renderer with the interactive renderer that you created. Once you have
loaded your plug-in via the Plug-in Manager, the name of your custom renderer
will appear under the Renderer Panel menu (for example, Renderer >
openGLViewport Renderer). If you choose to load multiple custom renderers,
they will be listed in the order that they are loaded.
Two example plug-ins have been provided with the SDK, one for OpenGL and
one for Direct 3D. (Note that these example plug-ins have not yet been
compiled and need to be compiled before they can be accessed via the Plug-in
Manager.) For more details on API classes that can be used to create these
plug-ins, see the API Guide in the Maya documentation.

Rendering Windows and
Editors 10
Approximation Editor
mental ray Approximation Editor

Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Approximation Editor
Derive from Maya The default setting for mental ray for Maya approximation
(see also Derive from Maya (default approximation) settings on page 181). This
setting uses the Fine displacement approximation setting. This advanced
technique produces memory-efficient tessellations that capture extremely fine
details in displacement maps. By default, the algorithm is set to use a
view-dependent technique that tessellates details as small as 1 pixel across.
Surface Approximation settings (Attribute Editor)

The following settings appear when an approximation node is selected in the
Approximation Editor, or when an object to which an approximation node has
been assigned is selected in the scene view.
Most of these settings are similar to other types of approximation nodes: trim
curve, and displacement approximations.
Presets
This drop-down list provides many useful preset tessellation settings.
363
You can select an item from this list to load the preset values for the
approximation node's attributes. You can use these settings as-is, or as a starting
points for tweaking. By default, the Presets tab is set to Custom, which means
that you have control over all approximation attributes.
Parametric Grid (Low/Mid/High) Quality Uses the Parametric approximation
method to tessellate a surface into triangles. With this method, each patch
(area between isoparms) is subdivided into a fixed number of triangles.
Use this preset to produce tessellations where triangles are distributed roughly
according to the spacing of isoparms on the surface, with closer isoparms
producing higher triangle densities.
Regular Grid (Low/Mid/High) Quality Uses the Regular Parametric

approximation method, where the surface as a whole is subdivided into a
fixed number of triangles (instead of each patch, as is the case with the
Parametric method).
Use this preset to ensure an even triangulation over surfaces where the spacing
of isoparms is uneven.
Angle Detailed (Low/Mid/High) Quality Uses an adaptive tessellation method

in which more triangles are added to areas of high curvature. The goal of this
method is to add triangles where they are needed to capture sharp features,
while at the same time using just a few triangles in large, flat areas where they
are not needed.
Pixel Area (Low/Mid/High) Quality Tessellates surfaces based on their size

(in pixels) in the final rendered image. Surfaces that are close to the camera
will be tessellated heavily, while surfaces that are far away from the camera
will receive coarser tessellations. The goal of this preset is to focus the most
attention on surfaces that are more significant to the final image.
Approx Style
Determines the general subdivision scheme that is used to break the surface
into triangles. For examples, see Approximation styles on page 183.
Grid Works on a grid of isolines that allows subdivision only by adding more
isolines. Since isolines always run from one edge of the surface to the opposite
edge, and since only whole isolines can be added, this produces regular triangle
meshes which can sometimes contain many more triangles than necessary.
Tree Specifies a hierarchical subdivision style that allows local subdivisions

without affecting other areas. The local subdivisions are similar to the Grid
method, but do not cross over to other surface patches.
Delaunay Specifies a mesh refinement technique based on Delaunay

triangulation, which attempts to maximize triangle compactness and to avoid
364 | Chapter 10 Rendering Windows and Editors

thin triangles. Triangle vertices are generally not restricted to rectangular
isoline grid points as in the Grid and Tree styles. The Delaunay style is
supported only for free-form surfaces (NURBS), not for polygons. The "Max
Triangles" and "Grading" attributes can be used to fine-tune tessellations using
the Delaunay style.
Fine Subdivides surfaces into a large number of roughly uniformly-sized small

triangles in order to guarantee a smooth result. To deal with the large number
of triangles resulting from this approximation style, mental ray breaks the
surface up into independent sub-objects that are each tessellated and cached
separately. This allows the tessellator to generate a large number of triangles
without incurring a huge memory cost. This approximation style is similar to
the one used by Pixar® Renderman® software, and only supports the "Spatial"
approximation method, which specifies the size of triangles to be generated.
Approx Method
Determines the criteria that the tessellator uses for determining when to
subdivide a part of the surface. Some approximation methods simply break
the surface into a fixed number of triangles, while others use adaptive criteria
to iteratively add more and more triangles until some condition is satisfied.
Parametric This method is driven solely by the "U Subdivisions" and "V
Subdivisions" attributes. Each patch is subdivided into N triangles, where
N = (U Subdivisions) * (V Subdivisions) * degree^2 * 2
Thus, with U Subdivisions set to 1.333 and V Subdivisions set to 4 on a degree-3
NURBS surface, each patch will be subdivided into 1.333*4*3*3*2 = 96 triangles.
Regular Parametric This method is also driven solely by the "U Subdivisions"
and "V Subdivisions" attributes. With this method, though, the surface as a
whole is subdivided into N triangles, where
N = (U Subdivisions) * (V Subdivisions)
With this method, the density of triangles will be constant over the entire
surface, unlike the Parametric method, which tessellates each patch
independently.
Length/Distance/Angle This is an adaptive approximation method, meaning

that the tessellator continually subdivides the surface until certain criteria are
met. There are 3 criteria:
Length: Subdivide until no triangle has an edge longer than a certain length.
The Length attribute is used to specify this desired edge length. If the View
Dependent attribute is turned on, this value is specified in pixels, otherwise
it is specified in object-space units. The Length criterion is especially useful
in conjunction with view dependency, for example a view-dependent value
of Length=0.5 means subdivide until all triangles are no bigger than half a
Surface Approximation settings (Attribute Editor) | 365

pixel in the resulting image. If the Length attribute is set to 0.0, this criterion
is ignored by the tessellator.
Distance: Subdivide until the resulting triangles are at no point further than
a certain distance away from the exact NURBS surface. The Distance attribute
is used to specify the desired distance. If the View Dependent flag is turned
on, this distance is expressed in pixels, otherwise it is expressed in object-space
units. The lower the value, the more closely the tessellated surface will match
the exact NURBS surface. Small values such as 0.1 work well (with view
dependency disabled). If the Distance attribute is set to 0.0, this criterion is
ignored by the tessellator.
Angle: Subdivide until the normals of neighboring triangles form an angle of
less than a certain tolerance. The Angle attribute specifies the angular tolerance.
The Angle value should be chosen carefully, as small values can cause the
number of triangles to increase rapidly. 45 degrees is a good starting point. If
this value is set to 0.0, then this criterion is ignored by the tessellator.
There are several other attributes that influence the Length/Distance/Angle
approximation method:
View Dependent: When enabled, means that the Length and Distance attribute
values are assumed to be expressed in pixels. Otherwise, these values are
assumed to be expressed in object-space units. The advantage of using
view-dependent values is that objects that are close to the camera will receive
many triangles, while objects that are far away (or not visible at all) will be
approximated much more coarsely.
Any Satisfied: When more than one of the Length/Distance/Angle criteria are
enabled, this flag determines when subdivision will stop. If Any Satisfied is
enabled, then subdivision stops when any one of the criteria is satisfied (for
example, triangles are smaller than a certain size or distance from the surface
is less than a certain amount or angles between triangles are less than a specified
amount). If Any Satisfied is disabled, then subdivision continues until all
criteria are satisfied (for example, triangles are smaller than a certain size and
distance from the surface is less than a certain amount and angles between
triangles are less than a specified amount).
Spatial The Spatial approximation method is the same as the Length criteria
from the Length/Distance/Angle method. Using this method, the mesh will
be subdivided until all triangles are less than a certain size, determined by the
Length attribute. This value is expressed in either pixels or object-space units,
as determined by the View Dependent flag. This method is the only one
available when using the Fine approximation type.
Curvature This approximation method is the same as the Distance and Angle
criteria from the Length/Distance/Angle method. This method is included for
backwards compatibility only.

Render Layer Editor
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Layer Editor
From the Render Layer Editor, you can create, manage, and delete layers, layer
blends, and layer overrides. You can also create render pass contribution maps
for your render layers. A render pass contribution map is a subset of the objects
in your render layer that you can create render passes for.
it moving forward.
You can open the Render Layer Editor in a separate window or view it in the
same docked area as the Channel Box. To open the Render Layer Editor in a
new window, select Layers > Floating Window.
The general workflow for using the Render Layer Editor is as follows:
Render Layer Editor | 367

Create layers
Click the icons at the top to create a new layer , or create a layer and
assign selected objects .
Ordering of layers
Render layers are ordered based on their compositing order. The bottom of
the list are the background elements, and the top of the list are the front most
elements. The render layer compositing order can only be edited from the
Render Layer Editor.
Use the up and down buttons to move render layers up and down.
The buttons are only active if a single render layer is selected. You can also
use the middle mouse button to drag the layers up and down.
Per layer overrides
Follow these guidelines to perform per layer overrides:
■ On any previously rendered layer, toggle this icon between red and
green to re-render the layer or to recycle the previously rendered image.
To reuse the last rendered image for this layer, toggle this icon to green
. To re-render the selected layer, toggle this icon to red .
NOTE
■ This feature is applicable only if the selected layer has been rendered
at least once. The recycle icon remains grey until a recyclable image is
available.
■ Render output is only held in memory for your current session of Maya.
Any render output is lost after you quit and restart Maya.
■ Click this icon (controls) to display render settings (including which

renderer is selected) for that layer. If there’s a renderer override, this icon
becomes an active controls icon.
NOTE Individual, per object overrides are not shown in this interface.

Previewing layers
■ Select a blend mode for each layer from the drop-down list.
■ The Render All Layers option (Options > Render All Layers) selects whether
all layers are composited and rendered to the Render View, or whether just
the selected layer is rendered. In the options for this command (Option >
Render All Layers > ), you can further select whether to show the
composite image, the composite image and the individual rendered layers,
or just the individual rendered layers.
■ Click the icon next to each layer to set whether a layer is renderable
or not.
Render pass contribution maps
You can create render pass contribution maps for each render layer. For
example, if your render layer consists of 5 objects and 2 lights, you can create
a diffuse pass, an ambient pass, and a specular pass for only 3 of the objects
and 1 of the lights. To do so, create a pass contribution map containing the
3 objects and the light that you would like to create your diffuse, ambient and
specular pass for. You can create multiple pass contribution maps for each
render layer. You can also share pass contribution maps between render layers.
Click the icon to expand or collapses the list of pass contribution maps
associated with the selected layer. This icon appears after you have associated
a pass contribution map with the layer.
Render Layer Editor menus
Layers menu
Create Empty Layer Creates a new render layer, depending on the selection
in the pull-down menu, with a default name, for example layer1.
Create Layer from Selected Creates a new render layer and populates it with
the selected objects.
Copy Layer >

Duplicates the selected layer.
There are two options available with this feature:

With membership and overrides Select this option to copy both the objects
and render layer properties to the new layer.
With membership Select this option to copy only the objects to the new
layer and create new overrides for the duplicated layer.
Select Objects in Selected Layers Selects the objects contained in the selected
layer(s).
Remove Selected Objects from Selected Layers Removes selected objects

from the selected layer(s)
Membership Opens the Relationship Editor for removing or adding objects

to layers.
Attributes Opens the Attribute Editor for the selected layer(s). There are some
attributes in the Attribute Editor not available through the Edit Layer window.
Delete Selected Layers Deletes the selected layer(s), but not the objects in
the layer.
Delete Unused Layers Delete layers if they have no content.
Floating Window Select this option to open a separate, floating Render Layer
Editor window.
Contribution menu
You can create your render pass contribution maps using this menu.
Create and Associate Pass Contribution Map Create a new pass contribution
map and associate it with the selected layer.
Associate Existing Contribution Map The submenu provides a list of pass

contribution maps available in the scene. Select the desired contribution map
to associate it with the current layer.
Copy Pass Contribution Map Duplicate your selected contribution map.
Select Objects in Selected Pass Contribution Maps This option indicates

which objects belong in the selected pass contribution maps. All objects in
the pass contribution map are selected.
Add Selected Objects to Selected Pass Contribution Maps Use this option
to add the selected objects to the selected pass contribution maps.
Remove Selected Objects from Selected Pass Contribution Maps Use this
option to remove objects from the selected pass contribution maps.

Delete Selected Pass Contribution Maps To remove a pass contribution map
or multiple pass contribution maps, select the map(s) and then choose this
option.
Delete Unused Pass Contribution Maps Pass contribution maps that do not
have geometries and lights assigned to them are removed with this option.
Membership Opens the Relationship Editor window.
Attributes Opens the pass contribution map Attribute Editor.
Options menu
You can set the following binary options:
■ Make New Layers Current
■ Add New Objects to Current Layer
■ Auto Overrides
■ Show Namespace
Render All Layers
Renders all the layers in the scene based on the default Render All Layers
Options.
Render All Layers >

Composite layers
Renders a composited result of all layers and displays it in the Render View.
This is the default for Render All Layers.
Composite and keep layers

Renders all your layers as individual images, but displays a composited
result.
Keep layers
Renders all your layers as individual images.
NOTE Using Keep layers significantly increases memory usage in Maya.
Consecutive use populates the Render View with more and more images. You
must clear out images manually as needed.

Auto Overrides
The Auto Overrides option simplifies the workflow for creating layer overrides
for attributes such as Casts Shadows, Receive Shadows, and Visible in
Reflections.
The Auto Overrides option is applicable to the following attributes:
■ Under the Render Stats section (of the Attribute Editor) of the object's
shape node:
■ Casts Shadows
■ Receive Shadows
■ Motion Blur
■ Primary Visibility
■ Visible In Reflections
■ Visible In Refractions
■ Under the Display section (of the Attribute Editor) of the object's transform
node:
■ Visibility
When the Auto Overrides option is on, you can simply click on each of these
attributes and an override will be created for the selected layer. Upon being
unchecked, the attribute name immediately turns orange to indicate that a
layer override has been created. This eliminates the need to right-click the
attribute and select Create Layer Override.

TIP If your scene contains a lot of surfaces, you can also use the Attribute Spread
Sheet to create a layer override. As in the case of the Attribute Editor, when the
Auto Overrides option is on, you can simply change the setting for each of the
attributes and a layer override is automatically created.
This feature is most useful when there are multiple objects/layers in the scene
for which overrides need to be created. This feature simplifies the workflow
by eliminating the need to select Create Layer Override.
Show Namespace When using namespaces, object names can sometimes get
very long. This can make it difficult to differentiate objects by name. Turning
off the display of namespaces replaces the namespace portion of a node’s
name (if any) with “...:”. The shortened name makes it easier to distinguish
between different objects in your scene.
NOTE Namespaces are the preferred method for managing naming when working
with file references in Maya. It is not recommended that you employ Maya's
renaming prefix convention when using file referencing. While the DAG path or
long name of a node may make it unique when using renaming prefixes, they do
not work consistently within file referencing and complicate the hierarchical DAG
changes, which may cause problems later on.
Render Layer Editor Context-sensitive menus
Context-sensitive menu for render layers
The following commands are available when you right-click a layer:

Add Selected Objects /Remove Selected Objects Add or remove objects from
a render layer.
Select Objects in Layer Selects objects that belong to the current layer.
Empty Render Layer Removes all objects from a layer, leaving it empty.

Copy Layer Duplicates the layer.
Delete Layer Deletes the layer.
Overrides Expand the submenu to select the desired override.
Remove Render Setting Overrides Removes any render setting overrides for
the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides on
page 102.
Remove Render Flag Overrides Removes any render flag (layer attributes)
overrides for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer
overrides on page 102.
Remove Material Override Removes the current material override for the
select object(s) on the current layer. For more information, see Work with
layer overrides on page 102.
Create New Material Override Allows you to select a new material override
for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides on
page 102.
Assign Existing Material Override Allows you to select an existing material

override for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer
overrides on page 102.
Pass Contribution Maps Expand the submenu to choose among one of the
following options.
Create Empty Pass Contribution Maps Create a new empty contribution

map for the selected layer.
Create Pass Contribution Maps and Add Selected Create a new contribution
map for the current layer containing the selected objects.
Associate Existing Pass Contribution Maps The submenu provides a list of

pass contribution maps available in the scene. Select the desired contribution
map to associate it with the current layer.
Add New Render Pass Allows you to add a new render pass to your layer.
Expand the submenu to choose among one of the available render passes.

to layers.
Attributes Opens the Attribute Editor for the selected layer(s). There are some
attributes in the Attribute Editor not available through the Edit Layer window.

Context-sensitive menu for pass contribution maps
The following commands are available when you right-click a render pass
contribution map.
NOTE Pass contribution maps can be shared between several render layers. In
this case, removing a geometry or light from a pass contribution map in one layer
also removes it from the same contribution map in the other layers. Therefore,
you should exercise caution if you change the membership of a pass contribution
map that is shared between layers. To avoid this problem, create separate pass
contribution maps for each render layer.
<pass contribution map name> Select the pass contribution map name to
display its Attribute Editor.
Add Selected Objects / Remove Selected Objects Add or remove objects from
both the render layer and the current pass contribution map.
Select Objects in Pass Contribution Map This option indicates which objects
belong in the current pass contribution map. All objects in the pass
contribution map are selected.
Remove Pass Contribution Map from Layer Remove render pass contribution
map from the current layer.
Empty Pass Contribution Map Remove all objects from render pass
contribution map.
Delete Pass Contribution Map Removes render pass contribution map from
all layers.

Active Sets the pass contribution map as active so that it is respected when
render passes are created.
Add New Render Pass Allows you to add a new render pass to your render
pass contribution map. Expand the submenu to choose among one of the
available render passes.

to layers.
Render Settings
Render Settings window

Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings
Render settings (scene settings) for the Maya Hardware renderer, the mental
ray for Maya renderer, the Maya Software renderer, the Maya Vector renderer
are consolidated into one Render Settings window.
Use the settings in this window to set scene-wide render options. Especially
when used in conjunction with per-object render settings (see the particular
object or render subject matter for details), the render settings give you a great
deal of control over quality of rendered images and the speed with which they
are rendered.
To open the Render Settings window, see Open the Render Settings window
on page 84.
Render Layer
Select from the drop-down list the layer that you want to render from.
Render Using
Select from the drop-down list the renderer that you want to use.

Common tab
The common tab contains settings that are common to all renderers. For
information on the Common tab, see Render Settings: Common tab on page
377.
Render-specific tabs
The other tab changes, depending on which renderer is selected.
■ For information on the Maya Software tab, see Render Settings: Maya
Software tab on page 388.
■ For information on the Maya Hardware tab, see Render Settings: Maya
Hardware tab on page 454.
■ For information on the mental ray for Maya tabs, see Render Settings:
mental ray tabs on page 404.
■ For information on the Maya Vector tab, see Render Settings: Maya Vector
tab on page 459.
Render Settings: Common tab
For information on the render settings, see Render Settings window on page
376.
Not all options are available for all renderers.
File Output
The name of rendered image files can consist of three separate components:
file name, frame number extension, and file format extension. A combination
of these three components is referred to as the file name syntax.
File name prefix Right-click the File name prefix attribute to add one or more
of these fields to the file name for your scene, for example, scene name, layer
name, camera name, version number, current date or current time. Each of
these fields are described in more detail below.
Render Settings: Common tab | 377

You can also create subdirectories to save out rendered images by adding a /
(slash) in your file name prefix. For more information about the file name
syntax, see Subfolders and names of rendered images on page 60.
NOTE When choosing basic file names for an animation, avoid using periods; use
underscores instead. For example, use:
xxx_yyy.iff.1
instead of
xxx.yyy.iff.1
<Scene> Select this render token to add the scene name to your output file
name.
<RenderLayer> Select this render token to add the render layer name to your
output file name.
<Camera> Select this render token to add the camera name to your output
file name.
<RenderPassFileGroup>
When rendering using passes, you can group render passes into logical file
groups. Each render pass node has an attribute Pass Group Name that allows
you to create a logical group. Select this render token to add the Pass Group
Name to your output file name.
See Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501 for more information.
NOTE The multi-render passes feature is not supported for the Maya Software
renderer and these tokens will be replaced with an empty string.
<RenderPass>
Select this render token to add the render pass node name (for example,
diffuseNoShadow) to your output file name (for mental ray rendering only).
<RenderPassType>

Many different types of render passes are available for selection using the
Render pass Attribute Editor on page 501, for example, beauty, shadow, specular,
refraction, and so forth. When you use this render token, a unique abbreviation
of the pass type, of less than 6 characters, is appended to your output file
name, for example, REFR for refraction pass.
<Extension>
Select this render token to add the extension to your output file name. In
many cases, you do not need this token, since the file extension is
automatically appended by Maya. However, you may want to create a directory
structure using the file type. For example, if you are using the.iff format,
<EXT>/<RenderLayer>_<RenderPass> can create files such as the following:
images/iff/bob_camera1_diffuse.1.iff .
<Version> Select this render token to add the version to your output file name.
You can set your version using the Version Label attribute.
current date Select to add the current date to your output file name. This
field is not dynamic and captures the date and time at the moment that the
token is inserted. Therefore, the date and time does not update once the token
has been inserted.
current time Select to add the current time to your output file name. This
field is not dynamic and captures the date and time at the moment that the
token is inserted. Therefore, the date and time does not update once the token
has been inserted.
Image format The format for saving rendered image files. See also File formats
on page 53. The default setting is Maya IFF.
NOTE Among the available multi-channel file formats, OpenEXR is the only file
format where multi-channel is being leveraged. When using the multi-render pass
feature, you can concatenate multiple render passes into a single multi-channel
.exr file. Upon selection of the OpenEXR format, the Frame Buffer Naming option
becomes active. Select the Automatic option to name each pass using the
<RenderPassType>:<RenderPass>.<Camera> tokens, or, choose Custom to select
the render tokens of your choice. See Frame Buffer Naming on page 380 for more
information.

Compression... Click this button to select the compression method for AVI
(Windows) or Quicktime movie (Mac OS X) files. When you click this button,
the Video Compression dialog box appears. Select the desired compression
method from the Compressor drop-down list. Currently, Maya only supports
the Uncompressed and Cinepack Codec compression methods.
This button only becomes active when you select AVI (Windows) or Quicktime
movie (Mac OS X) as your image format (for Maya Software renderer only).
NOTE The settings for this option are saved in the Windows registry and not in
the scene file. Copying a scene file from one machine to another does not transfer
these settings.
Frame/Animation ext The format (syntax) of rendered image file names.

This attribute can be used to determine if a static image is to be rendered or
a sequence. If the latter, several presets are available for you to choose how
the frame number is appended to the filename.
Frame padding The number of digits in frame number extensions. For

example, if Frame/Animation ext is set to name.ext, and Frame padding is 3,
Maya names rendered image files name.001, name.002, and so on. The default
value is 1.
Frame Buffer Naming
Use this field in conjunction with the multi-render passes feature. This attribute
becomes active when you select the OpenEXR file format, and when your
scene contains one or more render passes. Select the Automatic option to
name each pass using the <RenderPassType>:<RenderPass>.<Camera> tokens,
or, choose Custom to select the render tokens of your choice. Your framebuffer
name must be less than or equal to 31 characters in length. Otherwise, the
framebuffer name is truncated. See Image format on page 379 for more
information on the OpenEXR format.
Custom Naming String
Selecting the Custom option under the Frame Buffer Naming attribute to
activate this field. Use this field to select the render tokens of your choice to
customize the naming of the channels in your OpenEXR file.

Use custom extension / Extension You can use a custom file format extension
for rendered image file names by turning on Use custom extension, and
entering the extension in the Extension text field. This extension replaces the
standard extension based on file format, such as .IFF, .GIF, and so on.
Version Label You can add a version label to your render output filename.
Use this attribute to customize the <Version> token in the File name prefix
field in the File Output on page 377 section.
You can select one of the following options: a version number (for example,
1, 2, or 3), the current date, or the current time. Right-click this attribute to
add the version label you desire. The first two options available (use number:
n) are automatically updated each time you insert a numeric version number.
For example, if you have added version number 3, the first option
automatically updates to use number: 2 and use number: 4. Alternatively, you
can create your own custom version label.
Frame Range
Start frame, End frame Specifies the first (Start frame) and last (End frame)
frames to render. Start Frame and End Frame are only available if
Frame/Animation ext is set to an option containing # (see also Set file name
syntax). The default value for Start Frame is 1; the default value for End Frame
is 10.
By frame The increment between the frames you want to render. By frame is
only available if Frame/Animation ext is set to an option containing #. The
default value is 1.
If you use a value less than 1, make sure the Renumber frames using on page
381 option is turned on. Otherwise, many frames will appear to be missing
when they are just being overwritten.
Renumber frames using Lets you change the numbering of rendered image
files for an animation. The Renumber frames attributes are only available if
Frame/Animation ext is set to an option with # (such as name.#.ext).
If on, Maya uses the frame number extensions beginning at Start Number and
increasing by By Frame for rendered image file names.
Start number The frame number extension you want the first rendered image
file name to have.
By frame The increment between frame number extensions you want rendered
image file names to have.

Renderable Cameras
Renderable Cameras
Render a scene from one or more cameras. The default is to render from one
camera.
If you are rendering the scene from one camera (only), select the camera from
the drop-down list. By default, the perspShape camera is the renderable camera.
The drop-down list is divided into sections, separated by dashes:
The first section is the camera currently selected as renderable.

The second and third sections list existing cameras that you can select as
renderable, for example, stereo cameras and the front and side cameras.
NOTE If you select Stereo Pair from the list, both the left and right stereo cameras
are rendered.
The third section is the Add Renderable Camera option. If you want to add
another existing camera to the list of renderable cameras, you can select Add
Renderable Camera. When you select this option, a new Renderable Camera
section appears. Select the additional renderable camera from which you want
to render the scene from the drop-down list.
If you render from more than one camera, the rendered image output from
each camera is stored in a different directory by default. For example, if you
are rendering from camera1 and camera2, then the rendered images are stored
respectively in camera1/scene.gif and camera2/scene.gif.
You can also override the default settings by using the File Name Prefix
attribute. Right-click the File Name Prefix attribute and select Insert camera
name <camera>. This way, all rendered images are saved to the same directory
and identified with the camera name (for example, <camera>_<scene>.gif

produces camera1_scene.gif and camera2_scene.gif). See File name prefix
on page 377for more information.
For each renderable camera, you can also turn on or off the Alpha or Mask
channel for that camera.
Alpha channel (Mask) Controls whether rendered images contain a mask
channel. The default setting is on.
Depth channel (Z Depth) Controls whether rendered images contain a depth

channel. The default setting is off.
To make a camera non-renderable, remove it from the list by clicking the

button beside the camera name. You should have at least one renderable
camera in the scene. The remove button does not appear if only one renderable
camera is listed.
Override renderable camera On any render layer, you can also override the
list of renderable cameras for that layer. For example, you can set cameras 1,
3, and 5 as your renderable cameras for your master layer and then set cameras
1, 2, and 4 as renderable for layer 1. To override the settings in a layer and
render the scene from a different camera, select the layer, and then, in the
Render Settings window, right-click Renderable Camera beside the camera
name and select Create Layer Override from the drop-down menu that appears.
Renderable Camera turns red to indicate that a layer override has been
incorporated.
TIP If you accidentally delete the only renderable camera in your scene, you can
add a renderable camera by selecting the camera name from the drop-down menu
in the Renderable Cameras section.

Image Size
The Image Size attributes control the resolution and pixel aspect ratio of
rendered images.
For more information about resolution, see Resolution on page 65.
NOTE
■ The resolution limit for the Vector renderer is 1600x1600, with the
exception of EPS and AI file formats.
■ When rendering larger than 6k x 6k resolutions using the Maya Software

renderer, Maya requires large amounts of memory if the saved output
image is one of: tiff, Avid Softimage, Autodesk-PIX, JPEG, EPS, or Cineon.
In such cases, you can render to any other Maya supported image format,
and use conversion tools (such as imgcvt) to convert those images to the
desired format.
Presets Select a film- or video-industry standard resolution. When you select

an option from 7the Presets drop-down list, Maya automatically sets the Width,
Height, Device Aspect Ratio, and Pixel Aspect Ratio.
You can also add a Presets option to output to an unlisted device.
Render Resolution Width Height Device As- Pixel Aspect
pect Ratio Ratio
Custom any any any any
320x240 320 240 1.333 1.000
640x480 640 480 1.333 1.000
1k Square 1024 1024 1.000 1.000
2k Square 2048 2048 1.000 1.000
3k Square 3072 3072 1.000 1.000
4k Square 4096 4096 1.000 1.000

pect Ratio Ratio
CCIR PAL/Quantel PAL 720 576 1.333 1.066
CCIR 601/Quantel NTSC 720 486 1.333 0.900
Full 1024 1024 768 1.333 1.000
Full 1280/Screen 1280 1024 1.333 1.066
HD 720 1280 720 1.777 1.000
HD 1080 1920 1080 1.777 1.000
NTSC 4d 646 485 1.333 1.001
PAL 768 768 576 1.333 1.000
PAL 780 780 576 1.333 0.984
Targa 486 (tga) 512 486 1.333 1.265
Targa NTSC (tga) 512 482 1.333 1.255
Targa PAL (tga) 512 576 1.333 1.500
Letter 2550 3300 0.773 1.000
Legal 2550 4200 0.67 1.000
Tabloid 5100 3300 1.545 1.000
A4 2480 3508 0.707 1.000
A3 3507 4962 0.707 1.000

pect Ratio Ratio
B5 2079 2952 0.704 1.000
B4 2952 4170 0.708 1.000
B3 4170 5907 0.706 1.000
2” x 3” 600 900 0.667 1.000
4” x 6” 1200 1800 0.667 1.000
5” x 7” 1500 2100 0.714 1.000
8” x 10” 2400 3000 0.800 1.000
Maintain width/height ratio Turn on this setting when you want to scale
the image size proportionally in width and height. When you enter a value
for either Width or Height, the other value is automatically calculated.
Maintain ratio Specifies the type of rendering resolution ratio you want to
use, Pixel aspect or Device aspect.
The Pixel aspect ratio is the number of pixels in width to height, that compose
the image. Most display devices (for example, a computer monitor) have square
pixels, and their Pixel aspect ratio is 1. Some devices, however, have non-square
pixels (for example, NTSC video has a Pixel aspect ratio of 0.9).
The Device aspect ratio is the number of units wide by the number of units
high of your display. A 4:3 (1.33) display produces an image that is more
square, and a 16:9 (1.78) ratio produces an image that is more panoramic in
shape.
Width Specifies the width of the image in the unit specified in the Size units
setting.
Height Specifies the height of the image in the unit specified in the Size units
setting.
Size units Sets the unit that you want to specify the image size in. Select from
pixels, inches, cm (centimeter), mm (millimeter), points and picas.

Resolution Specifies the resolution of the image in the unit specified in the
Resolution Units setting. TIFF, IFF and JPEG formats are able to store this
information, so that it is maintained when the image is opened in a third
party application such as Adobe® Photoshop®.
Resolution units Sets the unit that you want to specify the image resolution.
Select from pixels/inch or pixels/cm (centimeter).
Device aspect ratio The aspect ratio of the display device on which you view
the rendered image. The device aspect ratio represents the image aspect ratio
multiplied by the pixel aspect ratio.
Pixel aspect ratio The aspect ratio of the individual pixels of the display
device on which you are viewing the rendered image.
For more information about the pixel aspect ratio, see Pixel aspect ratio on
page 65.
Render Options
Enable Default Light Not available for Vector Rendering.

Turn the default lighting on or off during rendering.
For more information about Maya’s default lighting, see Default lighting in
Maya in the Lighting guide.
Pre render frame MEL, Post render frame MEL A MEL command or script
to run before rendering each frame (Pre render frame MEL), or after rendering
each frame (Post render frame MEL).
For more information Pre render frame MEL scripts and Post render frame
MEL scripts, see Pre Render MEL and Post Render MEL scripts on page 68.
NOTE
■ If you need to use multiple sets of quotations in the pre frame MEL or post
frame MEL fields in render settings, be sure to use \" for every quotation
mark except the first and last. print("Time to render my Maya scene,
called\"bingo.mb\"");
■ Do not enter the .mel extension when entering the name of the script.
You get an error message similar to the following:Error: Cannot link to
"name.mel". Check number and types of arguments expected on
procedure definition.

Render Settings: Maya Software tab
376.
Anti-aliasing Quality
Controls how Maya anti-aliases objects during rendering.

For more information about anti-aliasing and image quality, see Anti-aliasing
and flicker on page 154.
Quality
Select a preset anti-aliasing quality from the drop-down list. When you select
a preset, Maya automatically sets all Anti-aliasing Quality attributes. The
default setting is Custom.
Custom When you change anti-aliasing attributes that do not match any of
preset attribute values, Maya automatically sets Presets to Custom.
Preview quality When test rendering scenes (fastest).
Intermediate quality When test rendering scenes to produce slightly better

quality than preview quality.
Production quality When testing or final rendering scenes that do not contain
3D motion blur or low-contrast scenes.
Contrast sensitive production When testing or final rendering high-contrast

scenes (such as when you raytrace a scene. Also useful for anti-aliasing noisy
bump maps).
3D motion blur production When testing or final rendering scenes that

contain 3D motion blur.
Edge anti-aliasing
Controls how the edges of objects are anti-aliased during rendering. Select a
quality setting from the drop-down list. The lower the quality, the more jagged
the object’s edges appear, but the faster the render; the higher the quality, the
smoother the object’s edges appear, but the render is slower.
When you select an Edge anti-aliasing quality from the drop-down list, Maya
automatically sets all Anti-aliasing Quality attributes (in the subsections).

Low quality Fastest anti-aliasing setting. For each rendered pixel, two points
are analyzed and used to determine which part of the object is visible,
producing low quality edge anti-aliasing.
Medium quality For each rendered pixel, eight points are analyzed and used
to determine which part of the object is visible, producing medium quality
edge anti-aliasing.
Although a little slower, produces moderately good edge anti-aliasing. This
can be good for test rendering moderately complex scenes.
High quality For each rendered pixel, 32 points are analyzed and used to
determine which part of the object is visible, producing high quality edge
anti-aliasing.
Can be used for testing as well as production rendering.
Highest quality Highest quality anti-aliasing computes the image in two

passes, looking for color contrasts within pixels and in surrounding pixels,
such as highlights. The first pass is the High quality computation—the second
pass looks for color contrast in the results of the first pass. In the regions where
color contrast is high (for example, in regions containing highlights), more
shading samples are taken.
Improves on the High quality and is excellent for picking up highlights that
may be missed by a single pass (when you use High quality).
Number of Samples
Shading The number of shading samples for all surfaces. This option works
in conjunction with Shading Samples, an attribute available from the Render
Stats section of a surface’s Attribute Editor. Shading Samples sets the number
of times Maya shades in a pixel. For details, see Render Stats and Shading
Samples.
Max Shading Not available if you choose Preview Quality from the Presets
menu as the Anti-aliasing Quality.
The maximum number of shading samples for all surfaces. This option works
in conjunction with Max Shading Samples, an attribute available from the
Render Stats section of a surface’s Attribute Editor. Max Shading Samples sets
the maximum number of times a pixel is shaded during the second pass of a
Highest Quality render. The higher the number, the longer the rendering
takes, but the more accurate the resulting image.
3D blur visib. The number of visibility samples Maya takes to accurately

compute a moving object’s visibility as it passes over another object
Render Settings: Maya Software tab | 389

TIP
■ 3D Blur Visib and Max 3D Blur Visib, are associated with Max Visib Samples
available in the 3D Motion Blur section of a surface’s Attribute Editor. For
details, see 3D Motion Blur on page 514.
■ 3D Blur Visib and Max 3D Blur Visib.are only available when you turn 3D
Motion Blur on in the Motion Blur section of the Render Settings window
on page 376.
■ Max Visib Samples is the maximum number of times a pixel is sampled

for visibility when Motion Blur is turned on.
Max 3D blur visib. The maximum number of times a pixel is sampled for
visibility when Motion Blur is turned on.
Particles The number of shading samples for particles. This option works with
Shading Samples, an attribute available from the Render Stats section of a
surface’s Attribute Editor. Shading samples sets the number of times Maya
shades each fragment in a pixel. See Render Stats and Shading Samples for
more details.
Multi-pixel Filtering
Multipixel filtering blurs or softens the entire rendered image to help eliminate
aliasing or jagged edges in rendered images, or roping or flicking in rendered
animations.
These options are only available when the “Edge Anti-aliasing” quality is set
to either High Quality or Highest Quality.
Use multi pixel filter If on, Maya process, filters, or softens the entire rendered
image by interpolating each pixel in the rendered image with its neighboring
pixels, based on the Pixel filter type and the Pixel filter width X, Y settings.
NOTE If you are rendering fields, Maya does not filter rendered images, even if
Use multi pixel filter is on.
Pixel filter type Controls how much the rendered image is blurred or softened
when Use multi pixel filter is on. There are five preset filters to choose
from—Box filter (very soft), Triangle filter (soft), Gaussian filter (only slightly
soft), Quadratic B-Spline filter (the filter used in Maya 1.0) and Plug-in filter.
The default is Triangle filter.
To use a custom filter, select Plug-in Filter.

To create a plug-in filter, Create and load a plug-in multipixel filter on page
94.
Pixel filter width X, Y Controls the filter width used to interpolate each pixel
in the rendered image when Use multi pixel filter is on. If larger than 1, it
uses information from neighboring pixels. The larger the value, the more the
image is blurred. The valid range is 1 to 3. The default value is 2.2.
TIP The Pixel filter width X and Pixel filter width Y values do not need to be the
same; however, to blur the rendered image equally in both directions, these values
should be the same.
Contrast Threshold
Determines adaptive sampling. Controls the number of shading samples taken

during the second pass computation when Edge anti-aliasing is set to Highest
quality.
Red, Green, Blue Each color channel is evaluated and if the contrast of the
neighboring pixel exceeds the threshold, more samples are taken. The valid
range is 0 to 1. The default values are 0.4 (Red), 0.3 (Green), and 0.6 (Blue). If
Presets is set to Contrast Sensitive Production, the default values are 0.2 (Red),
0.15 (Green), and 0.3 (Blue).
TIP
■ Reducing RGB values sometimes bring out interesting features in rendered
images (for example, small highlights or shadow boundaries), but can also
increase rendering times.
■ In relatively colorless images that exhibit shading aliasing (for example,

gray shadows that look ropy), try setting Red to 0.3, Green to 0.2, and Blue
to 0.5.
Coverage Only available when 3D motion Blur is on.

Controls number of Visibility Samples taken during 3D motion blur
computation. If visibility variation exceeds the threshold, more samples are
taken. For example, reducing this number helps the renderer detect the change
of visible objects in a pixel (but also increases rendering times). The valid range
is 0 to 1. The default value is 0.125.
Field Options
Use these options to control how Maya renders images as fields.

To find out more about frames and fields, see Frames vs. Fields on page 65
and Specify frame or field rendering on page 91.
Render
Controls whether Maya renders images as frames or fields, which is useful for
output to video.
NOTE You can use interlace (Linux), or fieldAssembler (Windows), or a compositing

or NLE application (Mac OS X) to interlace the fields. See interlace in the Rendering
Utilities guide for details on interlacing.
Frames Renders regular frames.
Both fields, interlaced Renders both odd and even fields (for video) and
automatically interlaces the results into a full frame.
Both fields, separate Same as above, except no interlacing occurs. The result
is a sequence of odd and even field images.
Odd fields Renders odd fields only.
Even fields Renders even fields only.
Field dominance Controls whether Maya renders Odd fields at time x and
even fields at time x+0.5, or Even fields at time x and odd fields at time x+0.5.
NOTE If the Render attribute under Field Options is set to Frames, the Field
dominance options are not available. If set to Both fields, interlaced, Maya sets
the appropriate field dominance based on the format standard (NTSC or PAL).
Zeroth scanline
(For advanced users only.)
Controls whether the first line of the first field Maya renders is at the top of
the image or at the bottom.
NOTE If the Render attribute under Field Options is set to Frames or Both Fields,
Interlaced, the Zeroth Scanline options are not available. Maya chooses the
appropriate setting based on the format standard, NTSC or PAL.
At top/At bottom At Top is on by default. If you encounter problems in an

animation where field order appears wrong (for example, objects vibrate up
and down), change the Zeroth Scanline setting and render the animation
again. If this does not solve the problem, or if objects in the animation vibrate
left to right, try different combinations of Field Dominance and Zeroth
Scanline, until the problem is solved.

Field extension
No field extension The attributes in this section do not take effect if the fields
are interlaced automatically.
No extension is added to odd and even field file names.
Default field extension (o and e) The attributes in this section do not take
effect if the fields are interlaced automatically.
Maya saves the two field image files by adding an e (for even fields) and an o
(for odd fields) onto the frame number extension or file name. For example,
name.001e.iff and name.001o.iff. This is the default setting.
Custom extension The attributes in this section do not take effect if the fields
are interlaced automatically.
Set on to specify custom extensions to add to odd and even field file names.
For example, if you type x, the result is name.001x.iff.
Odd field The extension to add to odd field file names.
Even field The extension to add to even field file names.
Raytracing Quality
Controls whether a scene is raytraced during rendering, and controls the

quality of raytraced images. When you change these global settings, the
associated material attribute values also change. The resulting value is the
smaller value of the two attribute settings.
For more information about raytracing, see Depth map and raytraced shadows
Raytracing If on, Maya raytraces the scene during rendering. Raytracing can
produce accurate reflections, refractions, and shadows (this can increase
rendering times considerably, so try to use sparingly).
Reflections The maximum number of times a light ray can be reflected. The
valid range is 0 to 10. The default value is 1. For details, see Reflection Limit.
Refractions The maximum number of times a light ray can be refracted. The
valid range is 0 to 10. The default value is 6. For details, see Refraction Limit.
TIP If refractions turn black, make sure the refraction limits is set to a high enough
value and that Visible in Refractions is turned on for the object in the Attribute
Spreadsheet (Window > General Editors > Attribute Spread Sheet) and the
Rendering Flags window (Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags).

Shadows The maximum number of times a light ray can be reflected and, or
refracted and still cause an object to cast a shadow. A value of 0 turns off
shadows.
For example, if the Shadows value is 2, only light rays that have been reflected
and, or refracted once cause an object to cast a shadow. The valid range is 0
Bias If the scene contains 3D motion blurred objects and raytraced shadows,
you may notice dark areas or incorrect shadows on the motion-blurred objects.
To solve this problem, set the Bias value between 0.05 and 0.1. If the scene
does not contain 3D motion blurred objects or raytraced shadows, leave the
Bias value as 0. The valid range is 0 to 1. The default value is 0.
Motion Blur
by blurring objects in the scene. You can turn Motion blur on or off for objects.
Maya uses the relationship between the Shutter Angle and Motion blur
attributes to determine how much blur is applied to an object.
For information about how a camera’s shutter speed/angle affect motion blur,
see Motion blur on page 16.
Motion Blur If on, the 3D Motion blur type is enabled as well as Blur by frame.
This means that moving objects appear blurred. If off, moving objects appear
sharp. Motion blur is off by default.
Motion blur type

The method Maya uses to motion blur objects.
2D 2D motion blur is a post-process; Maya blurs each object in the image after
rendering the entire image based on the object’s motion vector (its speed and
direction).
3D 3D motion blur is similar to real-world motion blur, but takes longer to

render than 2D motion blur. The default setting is 3D.
Blur by frame The amount moving objects are blurred. The higher the value
the more motion blur is applied to objects. For example, if you motion blur
by 1 frame, blur is calculated based on the motion of objects from one frame
to the next; if you motion blur by 4 frames, blur is calculated based on the
motion of objects every four frame lengths, during which time much motion
is detected, and therefore much blur is applied. The default value is 1. The
amount that moving objects are blurred is also based on the Shutter Angle of
the camera. The length of the frame is determined by:
(Shutter Angle/360) * Blur by Frame

The Shutter Angle can be modified in the Special Effects section of the Camera’s
Attribute Editor.
Blur length Scales the amount that moving objects are blurred.The valid range
is 0 to infinity. The default value is 1.
Use Shutter Open/Close Enable this option to customize the Shutter Open
and Shutter Close values.
Shutter Open /Shutter Close Shuttter open and close values. Default values
are -0.5 for Shutter Open and 0.5 for Shutter Close. The Use Shutter
Open/Close, Shutter Open and Shutter Close attributes can also be set using
the renderGlobals node. The shutter duration cannot be negative. If a user
alters the values in the Render Settings window such that the shutter duration
is negative, the values will be altered to suit a positive duration. If a negative
shutter duration is set on the renderGlobals node, the software renderer will
disregard these values and render as if the Shutter Open / Shutter Close values
have never been set.
This feature is an addition to the motion blur feature. If both Motion Blur and
Use Shutter Open/Close are disabled, then motion blur is not used in the
render. If Motion Blur is enabled but Use Shutter Open/Close is disabled, then
Maya renders with motion blur and with the shutter opening and closing at
their default values, which is [-0.5, 0.5]. If both Motion Blur and Use Shutter
Open/Close are enabled, then Maya will open and close the shutter of the
camera at the times you specified.
Blur sharpness The sharpness of motion blurred objects. The larger the Blur
sharpness, the more spread out the blur. The valid range is 0 to infinity. The
default value is 1.
Smooth
Alpha/Color Sometimes, anti-aliasing performed by the Smooth Value
attribute can fail and produce artifacts corresponding to edges in the alpha
channel of the unblurred image. For example, when bright opaque objects
pass in front of dark light fog. Turning on Alpha or Color in such cases
eliminates artifacts by additionally blurring the objects.
Smooth value The amount Maya blurs motion blur edges. The larger the
value, the more the motion blur is anti-aliased.The valid range is 0 to infinity.

TIP
■ Increasing the Smooth value may also blur the edges of static objects, so
if you do not want this effect, set Smooth value to 0.
■ You may not want extra blurring all the time, so only use this attribute
when necessary. You can also try setting Smooth value to 0, which results
in less anti-aliasing, but that may only be acceptable in some situations.
■ For objects shaded with the Ramp Shader, 2D motion blur provides better
results than 3D motion blur (artifacting), but the Smooth attribute must
be set to Color, not Alpha.
Keep motion vectors If on, Maya saves the motion vector information for all
visible objects in the rendered image but does not blur the image. This lets
you blur the rendered images using the vector data with other 2D blur software
(for example blur2d).
NOTE This only works for Maya IFF images.
If off, Maya blurs the rendered image but does not save the motion vector
information. Keep motion vectors is off by default.
Use 2d blur memory limit You can specify the maximum amount of memory
used by the 2D blur operation. Maya uses whatever memory is available to
finish the 2D blur operation.
2D blur memory limit You can specify the maximum amount of memory
the operation uses. If Motion blur is on and the Motion blur type is set to 2D,
the Use 2d blur memory limit is on by default and provides a default memory
limit of 200 MB. This default limit should be sufficient to eliminate most
problems. However, you can specify the size of the memory cap (in MB) in
the field provided.
Render Options
Post Processing
Environment fog Creates an environment fog node. Environment fog (a

Volumetric material) is used to simulate the effect of fine particles (fog, smoke,
or dust) in the air. These particles affect the appearance of the atmosphere
and the appearance of objects in the atmosphere.
For more information on Environment fog, see Environment Fog in the Shading
guide.

Apply fog in post Only render the fog as a post-process. When on, you can
set the Post fog blur.
Post fog blur When used in combination with Apply fog in post, allows
environment fog effects to appear as if they are spilling over the geometry
edges. Increase this value for more blur.
NOTE The results of this option cannot be seen in IPR.
Camera
Ignore film gate If on, Maya renders the area of the scene visible in the
Resolution Gate. If off, Maya renders the area of the scene visible in the Film
Gate and the region outside is rendered background color. See Camera Settings
and Film Gate for information on how to viewing the film gate boundary
interactively. Ignore Film Gate is on by default.
Lights and Shadows
Shadow linking You can reduce the rendering time required for your scene
by linking lights with surfaces so that only the specified surfaces are included
in the calculation of shadows (shadow linking) or illumination (light linking)
by a given light.
Use the drop-down list to select one of the three choices available with this
option:
■ Shadows obey shadow linking
■ Shadows obey light linking
■ Shadows ignore linking
The shadows in your scene can obey only one of light linking or shadow
linking and not both. Therefore, you must decide whether to incorporate light
linking or shadow linking in your scene and make your selection from the
drop-down list accordingly.
You can also render part of your scene using the default settings (instead of
obeying the links that you have created). Select Shadows ignore linking so
that all links that you have established or broken using shadow linking or
light linking are ignored.
The default is set to Shadows obey light linking.
See Shadow linking for more information regarding shadow linking. See Light
linking for more information regarding light linking.

Enable depth maps If on, Maya renders all depth map shadows for all lights
which have depth map shadows turned on. If off, Maya does not render depth
map shadows. Enable depth maps is on by default.
Color/Compositing
Gamma correction Color corrects rendered images according to the following

formulas. The default value is 1 (no color correction).
NOTE The behavior of the Gamma correction attribute for the Maya software
renderer is the reverse of that of the Gamma on page 429 attribute for the mental
ray renderer. For the Maya Software renderer, a higher gamma value lightens the
mid-tones of the image. For the mental ray renderer, a higher gamma value darkens
the mid-tones of the image.
Clip final shaded Color If on, all color values in the rendered image are kept
between 0 and 1. This ensures that no parts of the image (for example,
foreground objects) are overexposed. If off, color values in the rendered image
may be greater than 1. Clip final shaded color is on by default.
Jitter final color If on, the image color is jittered to reduce banding.
Premultiply If this option is on (default), premultiplication takes place (see

Premultiplied images on page 78). If this option is off, the premultiply
threshold option is enabled.
If off, Maya renders objects so that they are not anti-aliased against the
background. For example, a pixel on the edge of an object is not mixed with
the background color. (In TIFF terms, Maya generates unassociated alpha.) If
on, Maya anti-aliases objects against the background. Premultiply is on by
default.
TIP If you are rendering images for film or video, turn Premultiply off. If you are
rendering images for a video game, turn Premultiply on.

Premultiply threshold If this option is enabled (when the default premultiply
is turned off), per-pixel color values are output only if the pixel’s alpha channel
value is above the threshold set here.
Controls the amount of edge anti-aliasing in a matte if Premultiply is on. If
you are rendering images for use in a video game, and you are using 8 or 16
bit color, set Premultiply threshold to 1 for smooth matte edges, with no
jagged edges. The default value is 0.
Memory and Performance Options
The Memory and Performance Options attributes help you optimize rendering
to make scenes render faster.
For more information on render speed and image quality, see The speed/quality
tradeoff on page 153.
Tessellation
Helps manage how Maya handles tessellation information for surfaces.

Use file cache Enables the storing of geometry information into a “cache”
file in the directory specified by the system’s TEMP (Windows and Mac OS X)
or TMPDIR (Linux) environment variable to reduce the amount of memory
used to store geometric data. Turning on this option lets the renderer perform
its own swapping.
In the Maya.env file, enter TEMP = defaultPath, where defaultPath is the
pathname of the new temporary directory.
■ (Linux). If TMPDIR is set, Maya uses that directory unless it has write
permission problems, in which case Maya defaults to /usr/tmp. If still not
able to write to /usr/tmp, a warning message appears.
■ (Windows). If TEMP is set, it uses that directory provided it’s writable. If

it’s not writable, a warning message appears.
■ (Mac OS X). If TEMP is set, Maya checks for write permissions, and the
directory if not writable, it defaults to using the Documents/temp directory
under your Home directory. If not able to write to Documents/temp, a
warning message appears.
If the above still fails to find a temporary directory, a final attempt is made
to set the current directory you are working in as the temporary directory.

NOTE Use file cache helps to prevent maxing out memory bandwidth and disk
space when you are rendering a heavy scene on a multi-processor machine.
Before rendering very large, type:
Linux:
setenv TMPDIR NAMEOFDIR
Windows:
SET TEMP=NAMEOFDIR
where NAMEOFDIR is the location of a partition with a lot disk space.
Optimize instances If on and the scene contains several identical surfaces

(for example, instanced surfaces or identical surfaces created independently),
Maya tessellates only one of them, saving time and disk space. Optimize
instances is on by default.
Reuse tessellations If on, Maya temporarily saves tessellation information to

disk for each frame.
This is useful if a scene contains depth map shadows. For example, Maya
tessellates surfaces when generating the depth map for a light (and saves the
tessellation information to disk), and then reuses the tessellation information
when generating depth maps for other lights and when rendering the frame.
(Maya removes the tessellation information from disk, and recalculates it for
the next frame.) Reuse tessellations is on by default.
NOTE Reuse Tessellations is an I/O-bound process that can max out the bandwidth
when running multiple render jobs on the same machine. Reuse Tessellations is
useful when running up to four jobs on a multi-processor machine. You can try
turning off Render Settings > Use file cache.
Use displacement bounding box Rendering can take a long time when you
use displacement mapping because before rendering tiles, Maya tessellates all
the displacement-mapped surfaces and calculates their bounding boxes. When
you turn on Use displacement bounding box, Maya calculates the bounding
box scale that you define for all displacement-mapped surfaces. This makes
rendering faster. When off, Maya pre-tessellates all the displacement-mapped
objects before rendering. See Bounding Box Scale for details.
Ray Tracing
Helps control raytracing. For information on raytracing attributes, see

Raytracing Quality.

For more information on raytracing, see Depth map and raytraced shadows
Recursion depth Determines how many levels of recursion to use for the
raytracing voxel data structure of the rendering. For very complex scenes, this
should be set to 2 or 3. For less complicated scenes, a setting of 1 should be
fine. The default is 2.
Leaf primitives Determines the maximum number of triangles to allow in a

voxel before going to the next recursive level. The default is 200.
Subdivision power Represents the power that the number of triangles in a

voxel is raised to in order to calculate how many voxels should be created
when recursion is required. The default is 0.2500, which should be appropriate
for most scenes. For extremely complex scenes or scenes with complex parts,
this value can be increased slightly.
Multi Processing
Multi-threaded interactive rendering is available for the Render View. It

provides the same kind of performance gain for the batch renderer. The number
of CPUs to use for interactive rendering and IPR are set separately. Maya saves
the value you set with the scene.
For more information, see Network render with Maya software on page 171.
Use all available CPUs By default, all available CPUs are used. If off, the slider
below the option is enabled.
Num. CPUs to use The slider can be dragged from values 1 to 8, but larger
values up to 256 can be entered if needed. Entering a value of 0 or turning
the option on enables all CPUs for interactive rendering.
NOTE
■ If you want a Multi-Processor batch render, set the number of processors
to use in the Batch Render window, or use the -n flag (for Maya software
rendering), for command line rendering.
■ If IPR is in use, the number of CPUs cannot be changed until the current
IPR session is closed. The following warning appears:// Warning: IPR
will need to be closed before this change in CPUs will take
effect. //

IPR Options
These attributes determine which shading elements are saved to disk when
you perform an IPR render. This can save time and disk space.
For more information on IPR, see Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR)
on page 47.
Render shading, lighting and glow Determines whether to process shading,
lighting and glow characteristics of the next IPR Render.
Render shadow maps Depth map shadows are included in IPR renders.
Turn on to show depth map shadows in the scene and be able to update them
when tuning. Because generating a depth map is a time consuming and
processor-intensive operation (like a full rendering from the light’s point of
view), IPR does not automatically generate depth maps when you adjust
attributes.
NOTE
■ Attributes in the first part of the Depth Map Shadow Attributes section of
a light’s Attribute Editor affect how the depth map is created; you must
select IPR > Update Shadow Maps to see the effect of changes you make
to these attributes.
■ Attributes in the second part of the Depth Map Shadow Attributes section
of a light’s Attribute Editor affect how the depth map is used; you can
adjust these attributes, and see the results immediately in your IPR session.
Render 2D motion blur Turn on to adjust 2D motion blur for the next IPR
Render. Only 2D motion blur is tunable.
Paint Effects Rendering Options
For more information about Paint Effects, see What is Painting in Maya? in
the Paint Effects and 3D Paint Tool guide.
The following describes only render options for the Paint Tool.
Enable stroke rendering Turn on to render the Paint Effects strokes in the
scene. If off, the scene renders without strokes. This option is turned on by
default.
Oversample Renders the Paint Effects at double resolution for better

anti-aliasing.

Oversample post filter Applies a weighted filter to the oversampled image
for better smoothing.
NOTE The Oversample and Oversample post filter options are particularly useful
when rendering Paint Effects fur or hair. Also the new Mesh Brush Type requires
oversample be used to anti-alias the tube edges if you don’t convert the Paint
Effects to Polygons.
Only render strokes Turn on to render only the Paint Effects strokes in the
scene. You may want to render the strokes separately from the rest of the
scene, then composite the strokes with the scene. See For more information
about Paint Effects, see What is Painting in Maya? in the Paint Effects and 3D
Paint Tool for details.
Read this depth file If compositing the rendered scene with rendered Paint
Effects strokes, type the location and name of the depth file for the rendered
scene. Use the absolute path name (for example, /h/username/rainyday.iff
(Linux), or c:\username\rainyday.iff (Windows), or /username/rainyday.iff
(Mac OS X)).
NOTE When you render strokes only, you must also specify an .IFF file in the Read
this depth file field (see next). The file can be empty. It does not have to have
depth.
If rendering an animation and have an animated input file, place the #

character where the frame number is in the source input files. For example,
for files foo1.iff, foo2.iff, and so on, enter foo#.iff. For files foo1, foo2,
and so on, enter foo#. When you render, the # character is replaced with the
current frame number.
For more information about Paint Effects strokes, see What is Painting in
Maya? in the Paint Effects and 3D Paint Tool guide.
NOTE It is best to supply a depth file and allow Maya Paint Effects to do the
compositing rather than attempt to composite Paint Effects as a post process using
a compositor. Maya Paint Effects uses a multi-layer depth and RGB buffers to
perform the compositing with the scene and can achieve a much better composite
than a post process compositor can achieve.
Also, if you do not supply a depth file (an .IFF file with depth information),
Paint Effects strokes that are behind objects in your scene are rendered. Maya
does not overwrite your existing images supplied as a depth file—the output
is named as shown at the top of the Render Settings window on page 376.

Render Settings: mental ray tabs
For information on other render settings, see Render Settings window on page
376.
The mental ray tabs consists of five tabs: Passes tab on page 404, Features tab
on page 406, Quality tab on page 415, Indirect Lighting tab on page 432, and
Options tab on page 444.
Passes tab
Use this tab to do the following:
■ create, edit and delete a render pass
■ create, edit and delete a render pass set. A render pass set is a group of
render passes.
■ create, edit and delete a render pass contribution map
■ manage the list of render passes for the current layer
■ manage the list of render passes for each of the pass contribution maps in
your current layer
NOTE See Multi-render passes on page 187 for more information regarding render
passes.
Render Passes
Use the and buttons to add a new render pass or a new render
pass set to the current layer.
New Pass Click to open the Create Render Passes window. See Create
Render Passes window on page 470 for more information.

New Set Click to create a new render pass set.
Edit Click to open the Attribute Editor for the selected render pass or
render pass set. Alternatively, you can double-click a pass or pass set in the
Scene Passes, Associated Passes, or Passes Used by Contribution Map sections
to open its Attribute Editor.
Delete Deletes the selected render pass(es).
Pass Set Relationship Editor Click to open the Relationship Editor.

You can use the Relationship Editor to manage the membership of each pass
set.
Scene Passes Lists all the render passes and render pass sets that are available
to be assigned to the current layer. After a render pass or render pass set is
assigned to the render layer, it no longer belongs to the Scene Passes list. In
other words, this list shows only passes that not assigned to the current render
layer.
Associated Passes Use the left and right arrow buttons to associate and
de-associate render passes from the current active render layer.
NOTE You can also right-click a render pass/pass set to set it as renderable; or,
create an override for the pass/pass to make it renderable.
Associated Pass Contribution Map Use this section to manage the render
passes for each pass contribution map. Select the pass contribution map that
you want to manage from the drop-down list. See Render Layer Editor on page
367 and Render pass contribution maps on page 190for more information
regarding pass contribution maps.
New pass contribution map Click to create a new render pass

contribution map.
Edit pass contribution map Click to open the Attribute Editor for
the selected pass contribution map.
Render Settings: mental ray tabs | 405

Delete pass contribution map Delete the selected pass contribution
map.
Passes Used by Contribution Map Use the up and down arrow buttons to
manage the list of passes for the current pass contribution map.
NOTE Any pass in the Associated Passes section that is not affiliated with a pass
contribution map is generated for the layer.
Toxik
Toxik pre-compositing template for <layer> Use this section for Toxik
pre-compositing. Each render layer can have an optional toxik pre-compositing
template file associated with it. This pre-compositing file (enter a file path
and file name) is used when Render > Export Pre-Compositing is selected. If
this field is left empty, a Toxik composite is constructed without a template
and provides only the passes that have been rendered. The user must then
wire the render passes to create a composite. A default template is provided
which covers all render passes available in Maya. See Exporting the multi-render
passes for compositing in Toxik on page 233for more information.
Features tab
Render Mode

Normal Render all features set in the Render Settings window.
Final Gathering Only Performs final gather computation only. Use this mode
to create or update an final gather map file associated with the render layer.
It can also be used to create a final gather map file for each frame or for specific
frames. Once the final gather map has been created, the user can switch back
to Normal mode, and reuse the pre-computed final gather map files for final
gather rendering.
Shadow Map Only Each light can, optionally, enable shadow maps (normal
or detailed). During a normal render, shadow maps are computed "on demand"
for the portion of the shadow map required. The Shadow Map Only mode is
designed to pre-compute shadow map files without triggering any other
rendering process. This can greatly help rendering speed since the
pre-computed shadow maps can be used by several other machines on the

render farm. A shadow map is dependent on light position and object position;
if any of these elements are to be moved, the shadow map is most likely to
require a recomputation. This mode does not detect which lights needs to be
updated, but instead systematically re-computes all lights with shadow map
statements.
Light Map Only Light maps are used for two purposes: custom baking
(requires a special shading network for each object) and for subsurface
scattering. The Light Map Only mode is most useful for forcing all lights maps
to be computed without triggering any other rendering process. By doing so,
this mode allows you to precompute light map based shading such as
sub-surface scattering. The user can precompute all light maps and subsurface
scattering maps as pre-render passes. Rendering on the farm is therefore much
more efficient, since the sub-surface scattering maps have already been
computed.
Primary Renderer
Scanline Scanline rendering is faster for smaller scenes. When rendering large
and complex scenes, use the rasterizer or raytracer as the primary renderer
instead. Scanline requires extra memory requirements during rendering which
raytracer and rasterizer do not.
Rasterizer (Rapid Motion) A substantially faster motion blur algorithm

alternative. Formerly named Rapid Scanline.
The rasterizer offers a much greater control over rendering quality without
impacting rendering times. For example, if you render using scanline rendering
with the Min Sample Level and Max Sample Level set to 0 and 1, then, if there
are artifacts due to bad aliasing, you would increase the min and max sample
level to 1 and 2. Doing so quadruples the number of samples in each pixel.
The rasterizer has greater control over quality. It increases quality without
systematically quadrupling rendering time; instead rendering time increases
linearly.
Raytracing Turn off the scanline renderer and force mental ray to use
raytracing for the primary rays.
NOTE
■ For small or static scenes, scenes with final gather, or scenes without much
depth complexity, scanline rendering is a faster way of rendering. However,
for large scenes, scenes with a lot of hair, or scenes with a lot of motion
blur, you should use rasterizer rendering instead.
■ Contour rendering does not currently work with the rasterizer.

■ Default quality settings for the Rasterizer are typically higher than those
of the default scanline. For example, the default value of 0 for Visibility
Samples is equivalent to a Min/Max Sample Level of 1 for scanline.
Secondary Effects
Raytracing Turns raytracing on or off. Enables reflections and refractions.
Global Illumination Turns global illumination on or off.
Caustics Turns caustics on or off.
Importons
Turns importons on or off. Importons can be used when raytracing is enabled

and in combination with global illumination, caustics and irradiance particles.
See Importons on page 437for more information regarding importons.
Final Gathering Turns final gather on or off.
Irradiance Particles
Turns irradiance particles on or off. Enabling irradiance particles also enables

importons by default. If final gathering is enabled, then irradiance particles
is disabled.
Ambient Occlusion
Turns ambient occlusion on or off.

NOTE You must enable Ambient Occlusion if you are creating an ambient occlusion
pass. See Multi-render passes on page 187 for more information.
Shadows Turns shadows on or off.
Motion Blur

Off Turns motion blur off.
No Deformation No Deformation only considers the position of objects at

the Shutter beginning and end point (open and close points). It performs
object-based interpolation and is fast but limited.
Full Full is slower to render, but gives true (that is, exact) motion blur results.
Each deformed surface is being translated "per vertex", instead of per object
transform.
Extra Features
Faces
Determines whether to render double-sided or single-sided for the entire scene.
Front Only front-facing (that is, the side whose normal vectors face away
from) are rendered.
Back Only back-facing are rendered.
Both Works especially well if volume effects are used.
Turn these options off, to globally disable the following features in your scene:
■ Geometry Shaders
■ Light Maps
■ Lens Shaders
■ Displacement Shaders
■ Displacement Pre-sample
Enables pre-computation of displacement maps to find optimal bounding
boxes.
■ Volume Shaders
Volume Samples This setting specifies the default value for the number of
volume samples for any volume effects in Maya shaders. The default value is
1.
NOTE When Auto Volume is turned on, Raytracing is automatically enabled and
greyed out.

■ Auto Volume
If enabled, mental ray manages volume levels and the volume stack
automatically.
■ Output Shaders
■ Photon Auto Volume
■ Merge Surfaces
■ Render Fur/Hair
Contours
The following attributes control the location and characteristics of contour

line rendering.
Enable Contour Rendering Turn on or off (default) contour rendering.
Hide Source When turned on, only the contour is visible (that is, the object
that causes the contour invisible).
Flood Color When Hide Source is turned on, this is the conlour used to flood
or fill the entire frame as the background color before rendering the contour.
In other words, this is the color onto which the contours caused by Hide
Source are drawn.
Over-Sample Improves the quality by processing at N times larger than

sampling down to the correct size. If this value is set to 2, the contours are
processed at twice the resolution, so the quality (anti-aliasing mostly) will be
approximately twice as good.
Filter Type The filter type used when downsampling contours to image
resolution.
Filter Support The filter support as (fractional) number of pixels.
Draw By Property Difference
Options in the detection section let you define the locations at which mental
ray for Maya detects and draws contour lines.
Around silhouette (coverage) Draw contour lines based on pixel coverage
(where rendering samples detect objects are present) based on a pixel being
covered by the object.

Around all poly faces Draw contour lines around each poly face on an object.
Around coplanar faces Draw contour lines between different normals.
Between different instances Draw contour lines between different instances.

Between different materials Draw contour lines between primitives with
different materials.
Between different labels Draw contour lines between different labels (these
are not the same as character labels).
Around render tesselation Draw contour lines between different primitives.

(Enabling this in effect draws tessellations.)

Front vs. back face contours Draw contour lines between, if the sign of the
dot product of the normal vector and the view vector differs from one sample
to the other.
Draw By Sample Contrast
Enable Color Contrast Turns on or off (default) the color contrast setting.
Color Contrast Draw contour lines between pixels that have a color difference
that is larger than the set value.
Enable Depth Contrast Turns on or off (default) the depth contrast setting.
Depth Contrast Draw contour lines between pixels whose depth difference
(in camera space) is larger than the set value.

Enable Distance Contrast Turns on or off (default) the distance contrast
setting.
Distance Contrast Draw contour lines between pixels whose distance is larger
than the set value.
Enable Normal Contrast Turns on or off (default) the normal contrast setting.
Normal Contrast Draw contour lines between pixels whose normal difference
is larger than the set value. (Normal difference is measured in degrees.)
Enable UV Contours Turns on or off (default) the UV contour setting.

UV Contours Draws contour at every Uth and Vth isoline of the primary UV
space.
Custom Shaders
You can connect mental ray for Maya base contour store and contrast shaders
here. Any shaders connected here override the integrated contour rendering
feature.
Quality tab
Quality Presets
When you select a Preset here, settings in the applicable sections in the mental
ray tabs are automatically set (for example, Preview: Global Illumination turns
on Global Illumination and sets other defaults in the Caustics and Global
Illumination section).
Use these settings as a starting point for rendering your image at a given quality
and with a certain effect.
Custom Lets you specify the mental ray for Maya quality settings
independently.
Draft Gives you a relatively good indication as to what scene will look like
while taking the least amount of processing time.
Draft: Motion Blur Gives you a relatively good indication as to what scene
will look like, with motion blur, while taking the least amount of processing
time.
Draft: Rapid Motion Gives you a relatively good indication as to what the
scene will look like, when using Rasterizer (Rapid Motion), while taking the
least amount of processing time.

Preview Slightly better than Draft, takes a little more processing time, but
achieves a good balance between quality and time.
Preview: Caustics Slightly better than draft (but includes caustics), takes a
little more processing time, but achieves a good balance between quality and
time.
Preview: Final Gather Slightly better than draft (but includes final gather),
takes a little more processing time, but achieves a good balance between quality
and time.
Preview: Global Illumination Slightly better than draft (but includes global
illumination), takes a little more processing time, but achieves a good balance
between quality and time.
Preview: Motion Blur Slightly better than draft (but includes motion blur),
takes a little more processing time, but achieves a good balance between quality
and time.
Preview: Rapid Motion Slightly better than Draft (when using Rasterizer
(Rapid Motion)), takes a little more processing time, but achieves a good
balance between quality and time.
Production Use this when testing the final rendering or rendering the final
image(s) that do not contain motion blur.
Production: Motion Blur Use this when testing the final rendering or
rendering the final image(s) that contain motion blur.
Production: Rapid Fur Production quality results using Rasterizer (Rapid

Motion) for scenes with fur.
Production: Rapid Hair Production quality results using Rasterizer (Rapid

Motion) for scenes with hair.
Production: Rapid Motion Use this when testing the final rendering, or
rendering the final image(s) when using Rasterizer (Rapid Motion).
Production: Fine Trace Production quality results for scenes with raytracing.
This preset turns on Scanline raytracing, and provides quick results.
Anti-Aliasing Quality
Controls how mental ray for Maya anti-aliases objects during rendering.
For more information about anti-aliasing and image quality, see Anti-aliasing
and flicker on page 154.

Raytrace/Scanline Quality
Sampling Mode
Fixed Sampling Use a fixed number of samples per pixel when processing an
image.
Adaptive Sampling The number of samples used per pixel varies depending
on the contrast of your scene. The Max Sample Level and Min Sample Level
will not differ by more than 2.
Custom Sampling The number of samples used per pixel varies depending
on the contrast of your scene.
Custom Sampling allows you to tune the Min Sample Level and Max Sample
Level independently, while retaining true adaptive sampling (unless the min
and max sample level are set to the same value). Custom Sampling also allows
you to set the min and max sample level to greater than two. In general, the
min and max sample level should not differ by more than 3.
Min Sample Level This is the guaranteed minimum number of samples per
pixel used when processing an image. Based on Anti-aliasing Contrast on page
418 settings, mental ray for Maya will increase these samples as needed.
You can enter a negative value for this field. Instead of super sampling,
infra-sampling is performed, where 1 pixel is sampled for each N pixels,
depending on your Min Sample Level.
Max Sample Level This is the absolute maximum number of samples per
pixel used when processing an image.
Number of Samples Indicates the actual number of samples to be calculated

based on the current settings.
NOTE When Adaptive Sampling is selected, the Max Sample Level and Min Sample
Level will not differ by more than 2. This is the recommended setting.
For advanced users: if you wish to override the default recommended setting
for per object sampling, choose Custom Sampling.
Diagnose Samples Shows how spatial supersamples were placed in the

rendered image, by producing a grayscale image signifying sample density.
This is useful when tuning the level and the contrast threshold for spatial
supersampling. More diagnostic attributes are available in the Diagnostics
section under the Options tab on page 444.

Anti-aliasing Contrast Use the slider to set your contrast threshold. Lowering
this value increases sampling (up to the Max Sample Level on page 417), which
results in higher quality but longer processing time. Depending on the actual
contrast of the image, you may not be able to get better results (that is, results
are limited by the amount of contrast).
NOTE This attribute was previously named Contrast Threshold, with one slider
for an RGB value and one slider for an alpha value. The single slider sets RGBA to
the same value under the hood. If you want different values for RGBA, you can do
this through scripting or through the miDefaultOptions node.
Rasterizer Quality
Visibility Samples This value indicates the number of samples used for
anti-aliasing. The default value is 0.
Shading Quality This value indicates the number of shading samples per
image pixel. The default value is 1.0 and the minimum value is 0.001.
Multi-Pixel Filtering
Filter
This is processing performed on the results of the sampling to blend pixels
into a coherent entity. Black and white = noisy. Filtering looks at neighboring
info and unifies the two.
It is better to apply filtering in the renderer, since there is more information
(samples) to work with and filtering can offer better control when applied to
samples than as a post-process and applied to pixels.
Box (default) The fastest way to get relatively good results.
NOTE See mental ray for Maya reference documentation, Scene Description
Language section, Scene Entities sub-section, Options page for more information
on various filter methods.
Triangle More processor intensive than box, but offers even better results.
Samples at the center of the pixel will have the highest contribution weight.
As samples move further away from the center of the pixel, their contribution
weight fall off linearly. This causes samples and details at the center of the
pixel to be more "present" in the final computed pixel in the framebuffer.
Gauss Produces the best results, but is the slowest to render. Gauss uses a
curved fall-off for sample contributions. Almost all samples at the center of
the pixel have virtually the same contribution weight, but rapidly falloff

(smooth). Gauss requires a minimum filter size of 3 and this filter mode is
know to make the images more blurry.
Mitchell, Lanczos Mitchell (clip) and Lanczos (clip) are alternatives to

Gaussian that offers slight variations in contrast (tends to increase). Mitchell
increases less than Lanczos.
Because “plain” Lanczos and Mitchell may produce negative values the new
filter types are “clipped” variants to ensure positive values. The filtered result
samples are clipped to the min/max range of input samples. The final pixel
in the image will therefore not contain any out-of-range values _produced by
the filter_, as might be the case for regular Mitchell and Lanczos filters.
These filters tends to sharpen the final computed pixels. Therefore, if you
want to enhance the image details, choose Mitchell and Lanczos as your filter
method.
Filter Size Controls the filter size used to interpolate each pixel in the rendered
image. The larger the value, the more info from neighboring pixels. The larger
the value, the more the image is blurred. The value should be at least 1,1.
Filter size and filter mode are disabled whenever the Min Sample Level and
Max Sample Level settings are below -1 0. mental ray for Maya does not filter
when rendering using a Min Sample Level and Max Sample Level below these
threshold values.
Sample Options
Jitter Reduces artifacts by introducing systematic variations into sample

locations. Without jittering, samples are taken at the corners of pixels or
subpixels; jittering displaces the samples by an amount determined by lighting
analysis.
Sample Lock Locks the location in which you sample within pixels. When
turned on, this option ensures that the sub-pixel samples occur at the same
location within in each pixel, which is important to help eliminate noise and
flickering results. Turn it off only if you get sampling problems, such as moire
patterns.
Raytracing
Raytracing Select raytracing as the secondary renderer so that, when the

primary renderer (scanline or rasterizeror raytracing) detects that refractions
or reflections are needed, it will switch to raytracing only mode. Raytracing
can produce the most physically accurate reflections, refractions, shadows,
global illumination, caustics and final gather.

Reflections The maximum number of times a ray can be reflected off reflective
surfaces.
See also Max Trace Depth on page 420.
NOTE Maya performs unlimited transparencies, but limited refractions. Refraction

limits do not control transparency limits. The rasterizer has a special transparency
control to either limit or expand transparency levels. This is particularly useful for
sprite and hair/fur rendering.
Refractions The maximum number of times a ray can be refracted through

non-opaque surfaces.
See also Max Trace Depth.
TIP If refractions turn black, make sure Refraction is set to a high enough value.
Max Trace Depth While the Reflections on page 420 setting and Refractions
on page 420 setting each set the maximum number of times a ray can reflect
or refract (respectively), this setting sets total number of penetrations that can
occur regardless of whether the penetration is a result of reflection or refraction.
For example, if reflections = 5, refractions = 5, but max depth trace = 4, then
any combination of reflection and refraction bounces can take place, up to a
maximum of 4.
TIP The Max Trace Depth attribute applies only to refraction and not to
transparency. Transparency is unlimited while refraction is limited by the Max
Trace Depth. When raytracing is turned off, refraction becomes transparency and
the Max Trace Depth is not applicable.
Shadows The maximum number of times a shadow ray will penetrate a

transparent or refracting object.
Consider, as an example, a glass sphere and a metal sphere. The shadow of
the glass sphere is not as dark as the shadow of the metal sphere because some
light passes through the glass sphere.
In mental ray, this model is represented by a shadow ray penetrating the glass
sphere. The shadow ray only stops when one of the following is reached: 1)
all light is blocked, 2) the number of times that the ray has penetrated the
sphere is equal to the value of this attribute.
Reflection/Refraction Blur Limit Determines the blurriness of secondary

reflections or refractions. The higher the Reflection/Refraction Blur Limit, the
more the secondary reflections/refractions are blurred.

Acceleration
Acceleration Method
Regular BSP
The BSP (binary space partitioning) acceleration method recursively subdivides

3D space into a nested set of voxels, small boxes with triangles in them. It is
efficient, but careful attention should be given to the size and depth
parameters, which can have a large impact on speed and memory usage.
See also Use average BSP (mental ray for Maya) settings on page 248.
Large BSP Use for very large scenes. It breaks the scene into small data blocks
that do not need to be stored in memory at all times. However, it may increase
rendering time.
BSP2
This is the default. BSP2 stands for Binary Space Partition, second generation.
It enables a new BSP raytracing acceleration designed to cope with large scenes.
BSP2 does not need to adjust any attributes like the old generation BSP and
Large BSP, which frees the user from the tedious tuning required to achieve
optimal rendering performance. BSP2 can be used whenever instances are
heavily used in a scene. If you choose the grid acceleration method, which is
no longer exposed in mental ray for Maya but is still accessible from the mental
ray standalone command line, mental ray defaults back to BSP2 internally.

BSP
BSP Size Determines the maximum number of triangles in one bsp voxel. If
you decrease this number, you will have more voxels and a heavier bsp
structure, resulting in higher memory usage and better performance.
BSP Depth Determines the maximum number of voxel subdivisions.
Separate Shadow Bsp This option enables mental ray for Maya to use a
secondary Bsp tree for objects that have low-detail shadow stand-ins to improve
performance.
Diagnose Bsp Shows the cost of creating and traversing the BSP tree used for
raytracing. Both the depth and the leaf size can be visualized. If the diagnostic
image shows that mental ray has been operating near the limit in large parts
of the image (indicated by red or white pixels), this helps tuning the BSP
parameters in the options block.
Rasterizer
Rasterizer Transparency
If set to a positive value, then the transparency compositing for the rasterizer
ends at the specified depth. This can be used to tune performance for scenes
where it is known that the main color information is provided by the first few
depth layers.
It also allows you to limit the amount of hair/fur being rendered. You should
exercise caution as you lower the transparency depth, since it is possible for
the final pixel intensity to shift as less surfaces are contributing to the final
pixel.
Shadows
Shadow Method
Disabled Select this option to turn shadows off. This option is automatically
selected if shadows are disabled under the Quality tab.
Simple (Unsorted Occluders) Enables simple shadows, which are standard

for the provided libraries. This is the most efficient of the three shadow modes.

If shadows overlap because multiple objects obscure the light source, the order
in which these objects are considered (and their shadow shaders are called)
is undefined. If one object completely obscures the light, no other obscuring
objects are considered.
NOTE When you use Simple shadows, you are limited to only one shadow ray
per light source. Therefore, if you want to create soft shadows, which require more
than one shadow ray to be cast, you should use Segments shadows instead.
Sorted (Presorted Occluders) Enables shadow sorting.

Similar to Simple, it ensures that the shadow shaders of obscuring objects are
called in the correct order, object closest to the illuminated point first. This
mode is slightly slower but allows custom shadow shaders to record
information about obscuring objects. If no such custom shader is used, this
mode offers no advantage over simple shadow on.
Segments (Traced Occluders) Like Sorted, the shadow shaders are called in
order. Shadow rays are traced much like regular rays, passing from one
obscuring object to the next, from the light source to the illuminated point;
each such ray is a shadow segment.
Use this mode if you want volume effects (like fluids, particles, fur and smoke)
to cast shadows.
This mode requires support from the shadow shader, which must use the
mi_trace_shadow_seg function to cast the next shadow ray segment.
For more information about the mi_trace_shadow_seg node, see the mental
ray Shaders Guide in the Maya Help.
NOTE The Shadow Method is set to Simple by default. Simple shadows are not
compatible with volume effects such as fluids, volume fur, particles and volume
shaders and therefore may not render shadow volume effects correctly.
Shadow Linking You can reduce the rendering time required for your scene
by a given light.
NOTE You can also use render pass contribution maps for light and shadow linking.
For instance, if you have a scene with 150 lights associated to your render layers,
and you create a simple pass contribution map where only one light is associated
with it, only that light is evaluated by the shader. For more information regarding
render pass contribution maps, see Multi-render passes on page 187
option:

■ On
■ Obeys Light Linking
■ Off
obeying the links that you have created). Select Off so that all links that you
have established using shadow linking or light linking are ignored.
The default is set to Obeys Light Linking.
Shadow Maps
Format
Shadow Maps Disabled Select this option to turn off shadow maps.
Regular (OpenGL Accelerated) Causes mental ray for Maya to use OpenGL
acceleration (if available with your graphics hardware) when rendering shadow
maps.
The same limitations apply as mentioned with the Scanline on page 407option.
Shadow maps rendered with this option contain slightly different information
from those generated with the regular (On) algorithm, and the soft areas of
shadows tend to be smaller. Some areas may incorrectly be determined to not
be in shadow.
When OpenGL rendering of shadow maps is enabled, only the local
workstation (master) participates since the computation cost of the map is so
small that the networking overhead would be more costly.
Detail / Regular The Detail shadow map option is a combination of features

from regular shadow maps and raytraced shadows, meaning that it collects
more information about shadow-casting objects.
Unlike the regular shadow map, a detail shadow map also takes into account
surface and lighting properties, such as transparency. Detail shadow maps
store a list of depth values together with the light transmission coefficients

at each depth. This provides similar quality shadows as raytraced shadows,
but at processing times similar to depth map shadows.
Detail shadow maps may require more time to calculate because they compute
and store more per-pixel information.
NOTE Detail shadow maps are more sensitive to the Softness attribute (in the
Attribute Editor, Shadow Map Attributes section for the light shape node). A large
Softness value results in a penumbra spread well beyond the shadow area.
Rebuild Mode
Determines whether all shadow maps are recomputed.
Reuse Existing Maps Shadow maps are loaded from files or reused from
previously rendered frames if possible. Otherwise, created from new.
Rebuild All and Overwrite Shadow maps are recomputed and the existing
points are overwritten by the recomputed points. This is the default option.
Rebuild All and Merge Specifies that shadow maps should be loaded from
files, if available. The default shadow map calculations are still performed and
the existing points are overwritten by the recomputed points, but only if the
new points are closer to the light source.
This option is useful for building shadow maps for use in multi-pass rendering
because it allows shadow maps from a previous render pass to be reused for
the current pass. Only shadow map changes are recalculated, not the entire
shadow map.
Motion Blur Shadow Maps Determines whether shadow maps should be

motion blurred so that moving objects cast shadows along the path of motion.
Turning this option off (default is on) can cause shadow maps to render slightly
faster.
NOTE Since shadow maps do not deal with transparent objects and motion
blurring introduces a form of transparency at the edges, shadow map shadows
can appear too large in the direction of motion if the object moves quickly.
Rasterizer Pixel Samples
Controls the anti-aliasing quality when computing shadow maps with the
rasterizer. This attribute sets the samples collect option for shadow map
rendering to the specified value. A value of 0 uses the rasterizer default for
shadow map rendering.

Motion Blur
See also mental ray for Maya motion blur on page 180.
Motion Blur
Off Turns motion blur off.
No Deformation No Deformation only considers the position of objects at

the Shutter beginning and end point (open and close points). It performs
object-based interpolation and is fast but limited.
Full Full is slower to render, but gives true (that is, exact) motion blur results.
Each deformed surface is being translated "per vertex", instead of per object
transform. Select this method for motion blur of objects being deformed by
animation, such as jiggling arms and jello-like motions, where the vertices
are moving and jiggling as the animation occurs.
Motion Blur By This is a multiplier used to amplify the motion blur effect.
Increasing this value reduces the realistic results achieved, but may produce
an enhanced effect if that’s what you want to achieve.
The higher the value, the longer the time interval used in the motion blur’s
computation.
Shutter Open, Shutter Close Defines the point in time at which the shutter
opens and closes within the frame interval to control motion blurring.

The defaults for Shutter Open and Shutter Close are 0.0 and 1.0, respectively.
If the values for Shutter Open and Shutter Close are equal, motion blurring
is disabled; if Shutter Close is greater than Shutter Open, motion blurring is
enabled. The normal range is (0, 1), which uses the full length of the motion
vectors or motion vector paths. It can be useful to set both to 0.5, which
disables motion blurring but renders with an offset of one half frame, which
allows bidirectional post-blurring in an output shader.
NOTE The mental ray for Maya renderer draws its shutter setting from this section
in the Render Settings window, unlike the Maya renderer (for which the shutter
setting is on the camera).
Motion Blur Shadow Maps Determines whether shadow maps should be

motion blurred so that moving objects cast shadows along the path of motion.
Turning this option off (default is on) can cause shadow maps to render slightly
faster.
NOTE Since shadow maps do not deal with transparent objects and motion
blurring introduces a form of transparency at the edges, shadow map shadows
can appear too large in the direction of motion if the object moves quickly.
Quality
See also mental ray for Maya motion blur on page 180.
Displace Motion Factor
Controls the fine displacement quality according to the amount of visual

motion. Allows a reduction in tesselation density as objects move faster. This
option is compatible with all renderer types: raytracing, scanline and rasterizer.
For moving polygonal objects with displacement, this attribute automatically
controls the quality of displacement according to the amount of visual motion.

For fast moving objects, images with comparable visual quality may require
fewer displacement tessellation details as compared to static or slow moving
objects. Although it is also possible to tweak displacement approximation on
a per-object basis, this process is tedious and is rarely done in practice.
Per-object granularity may also not be fine enough to accommodate objects
with different amount of motion in different parts.
This attribute provides an automatic way of adjusting the displacement quality
according to the amount of motion for a given object part. For view-dependent
fine poly displacement, the adaptive subdivision checks for the motion length
in screen space. The measured motion length is used to modify the use of the
approximation constant. Geometry is reduced only in the areas of the object
with strong motion.
This attribute modifies the amount of geometry reduction as compared to the
static case. A value of 0 disables the feature. 1 is the default and higher values
provide more reduction. The simplification of geometry has an effect on
motion of approximately 16 pixels. For slower motion, higher values should
be used. For example, the factor value of 8 reduces geometry in areas with
objects moving at the speed of 2 pixels per frame.
Motion Quality Factor When you use the rasterizer with motion blur, you
must decide between using higher values, which yield better quality, and
lower values, which yield a faster render. Setting this attribute to values larger
than 0.0 automatically lowers shading samples for fast-moving objects, at a
rate proportional to the magnitude of the setting and the speed of the instance
in screen-space. You should exercise caution when tuning this value, but 1.0
(the default) provides a good starting point. A value of 0.0 disables the setting.
Motion Steps See also diagram in Shutter Open, Shutter Close on page 426.
If motion blurring is enabled, mental ray can create motion paths from motion
transforms, much like multiple motion vectors on vertices can create motion
paths.
This option specifies how many motion path segments should be created for
all motion transforms in the scene. The number must be in the range 1 to 15.
The default is 1.
Time Samples Primary control for the quality of motion blur. This attribute
defines the number of temporal shading samples per spatial sample. Increasing
the number of samples gives better quality of motion blur. However, increasing
the number of samples also increases rendering times.
Spatial samples are samples taken from the perspective of the xy plane of the
image. For still images, spatial samples are affected by the Anti-Aliasing Quality
controls. At each spatial sample location, mental ray can take a number of
temporal samples. Temporal samples are samples that are taken at different

times between shutter open and close and add an extra dimension, time, to
the x and y dimensions of spatial samples. Each spatial sample at location x,y
is a combination of multiple temporal samples, each taken at a different time.
Time Contrast These settings determine a threshold for adaptive time

sampling. Lower values cause more time samples, which result in more accurate
motion blur but increased render times.
NOTE This attribute is not for use with the rasterizer. In general, use of the Time
Samples attribute should be enough to control the quality of motion blur.
Motion Offsets
Custom Motion Offsets Turn on this option if you want to set values for
Motion Back Offset and Static Object Offset. Use these custom motion offsets
to define the time steps where motion blur information is captured. This
option is off by default.
Motion Back Offset This value determines the start point of the time interval
used for motion blurring. It is an offset to the current time in frames. The
default value is 0.5, and corresponds to Maya.
Static Object Offset This value determines the time used to render static
objects. The default value is 0, and corresponds to Maya.
Framebuffer
Primary Framebuffer
Data Type Select the kind of information the framebuffer contains.

Each image file format supports one or more data types. In addition, each file
format is associated with a default data type. If you select a data type that is
not supported by the file format that you have chosen, then mental ray for
Maya will use the default data type associated with the file format instead.
For example, if you have chosen to save the image as a tif file, but you have
selected RGBA (Half) 4x16 Bit as your data type, then mental ray for Maya
will render as an 8-bit RGBA (the default data type) instead, since RGBA (Half)
4x16 Bit is not supported by the tif format. For a list of data types supported
by each file format, refer to the mental ray documentation.
NOTE When creating multi-render passes, this is the MasterBeauty pass.
Gamma Use this setting to apply gamma correction to rendered color pixels
to compensate for output devices with a nonlinear color response. Inverse

gamma is applied to textures as well. The reverse correction is applied to all
quantized texture images.
All R, G, B, and alpha component values are raised to 1overgamma_factor.
The default gamma factor is 1.0, which turns gamma correction off.
NOTE The behavior of the Gamma correction on page 398 attribute for the Maya
software renderer is the reverse of that of the Gamma attribute for the mental ray
renderer. mental ray Gamma is basically an un-gamma, where it removes Gamma
correction to ensure it is in linear space prior to computing raytracing. Therefore,
mental ray Gamma is not a display gamma, but an ungamma feature. For the
Maya Software renderer, a higher gamma value lightens the mid-tones of the
image. For the mental ray renderer, a higher gamma value darkens the mid-tones
of the image.
Colorclip
Controls how colors are clipped into a valid range [0, 1] before being written
to a non-floating point frame buffer or file.
In all modes, the RGB components are clipped as specified by the desaturate
option. The RGB and alpha modes ensure that the resulting color is a valid
premultiplied color.
Clipping occurs only in 8-bit integer and 16-bit integer frame buffers. if you
are using float and half-float, no clipping occurs.
RGB RGB is first clipped to [0, 1] and alpha subsequently to [max(R, G, B), 1].
Use RGB if the alpha channel is considered less important than preserving
the RGB color and intensity.
Alpha Alpha is first clipped to [0, 1] and RGB subsequently to [0, A]. Alpha
mode is intended for alpha compositing, where the alpha channel is more
important than the absolute color value to preserve correct transparencies.
Raw (default) RGB and A are both clipped to [0, 1] independently of each
other. Use Raw mode only if no layering based on alpha is going to take place.
This mode turns Premultiply on, so use it with care because shaders might
receive colors that cannot be composited in standard ways.

Desaturate If a color is output to a frame buffer that does not have 32-bit
(floating-point) and half-float (16-bit float) precision, and its RGB components
are outside the range [0, max], mental ray clips the color to this legal range.
If desaturation is turned off (on by default), the individual components are
simply clipped into range. Otherwise, mental ray tries to maintain the
brightness of the color by moving it towards the grayscale axis of the color
cube, until the RGB components are in the legal range. The max is determined
by the colorclip mode.
Premultiply If this option is on (default), premultiplication takes place (see

Premultiplied images on page 78).
If on, mental ray for Maya renders objects so that they are not anti-aliased
against the background. For example, a pixel on the edge of an object is not
mixed with the background color. (In TIFF terms, Maya generates unassociated
alpha.)
The premultiply off option instructs mental ray to always store colors
unpremultiplied into frame buffers and files. When this option is off, mental
ray does not premultiply the textures or the output frame buffers. This option
is ignored if the colorclip raw mode is in effect.
Dither mental ray for Maya supports 8, 16, or 32 bits per color component.
In some cases, 8 bits per pixel, as supported by all popular picture file formats,
can cause visible banding when the floating-point color values calculated by
the material shader are quantized to the 8-bit values used in the picture file.
Dithering mitigates the problem by introducing noise into the pixel such that
the round-off errors are evened out. Note that this can cause run-length
encoded picture files to be larger than without dithering. Dithering is turned
off by default.
Rasterizer use opacity
When using the rasterizer, enabling this setting enforces transparency/opacity

compositing to be performed on all color user framebuffers (in other words,
non-primary color buffers) regardless of the individual setting on the
framebuffer. By default, only the primary color frame buffer and explicitly
marked user buffers are considered for rasterizer compositing. This option
may be used in combination with the user framebuffer interface in Maya 2008
or below.
You must enable this option to ensure that the rasterizer renders passes that
are identical to those rendered using raytracing/scanline (primary renderer).

Contrast All Buffers
Use in conjunction with the multi-render passes feature. See Multi-render

passes on page 187for more information.
Occasionally, you may notice aliasing on the edges of your render passes that
does not exist in your overall beauty pass. Mental Ray's adaptive sampling
algorithm analyzes the local contrast in the rendered image to determine
whether or not a given image region requires finer sampling. This is a
performance optimization technique that allows mental ray to sample the
image more coarsely in regions of uniform color, and finely in areas that
contain detail, such as object edges and intricate textures. Therefore, this
algorithm may yield aliasing in render passes that contain high contrast detail
in areas where the master beauty pass is smooth. Enable this option so that
the adaptive sampling algorithm analyzes the contrast in all color frame buffers
being rendered, rather than for just the master beauty pass.
The render may be faster when the option is turned off, at the risk of
compromising image quality when the multi-render pass workflow is used.
Indirect Lighting tab
Environment
Image Based Lighting
When you click the Create button, a new IBL node is created, replacing any
currently connected node. (Though multiple IBL environments can exist in
a scene, only one can be used at a time.)
For more information, see Image-based lighting (sky-like illumination) and
also Render infinitely distant (sky-like) illumination and reflection in the
Lighting guide.
For descriptions of the attributes in the IBL node, see Image based lighting
node attributes in the Lighting guide.
Physical Sun and Sky
When you click the Create button, a network containing the mia_physicalsky,
mia physicalsun, mia_exposure_simple and directionalLight is created. Maya
automatically connects all the necessary attributes from the four nodes for
you. This network is connected to all existing renderable cameras.

The Attribute Editor for the mia_physicalsky shader also contains two buttons
that allow you to edit your camera connections. Choose between Update
Camera Connections and Remove Camera Connections.
For more information, see Simulating the sun and sky and Adding sun and
sky to your scene of the Lighting guide.
NOTE Image based lighting and physical sun and sky are not designed to work
together at the same time. It is therefore recommended that you either use one
or the other.
Global Illumination
Global Illumination Use this to turn on or off (default) Global illumination,

a process that allows for indirect lighting and effects like color bleeding. The
default is off.
Global illumination is computed only for light sources for which photon
emission is enabled.
Accuracy Change the number of photons used to compute the local intensity
of global illumination. The default number is 64; larger numbers make the
global illumination smoother but increase render time.
Scale Use this setting to control the influence of indirect illumination effects
for global illumination. You can select a color with the Color Chooser or use
the slider to set the Scale value. Scale is off by default.
Radius Controls the maximum distance at which mental ray for Maya
considers photons for global illumination. When left at 0 (the default), mental
ray for Maya calculates an appropriate amount of radius, based on the
bounding box size of the scene. If the result is too noisy, increasing this value
(to 1 to start, then by small increments up to 2) decreases noise but gives a
more blurry result. To reduce the blur, you must increase the number of global
illumination photons (Global illumination Accuracy) emitted by the light
source.
Merge Distance
The photons within the specified world-space distance are merged. For scenes
with uneven photon distribution, this attribute can greatly reduce the size of
your photon map.

Caustics
Caustics Turn caustics on or off (default). Caustics are produced only by light
sources for which photon emission is enabled. The material shader (which
must have a non-zero diffuse component) that receives the caustics must be
set to receive caustics.
Accuracy Controls the number of photons used to estimate the caustic

brightness. The default is 64. Higher settings (up to 100 to start, tested in small
increments) larger numbers make the caustic smoother.
Scale Use this setting to control the influence of indirect illumination effects
for caustics. You can select a color with the Color Chooser or use the slider to
set the Scale value. Scale is off by default.
considers photons for caustics. When left at 0 (the default), mental ray for
Maya calculates an appropriate amount of radius, based on the bounding box
size of the scene. If the result is too noisy, increasing this value (to 1 to start,
then by small increments up to 2) decreases noise but gives a more blurry
result. To reduce the blur, you must increase the number of caustic photons
(Accuracy) emitted by the light source.
Merge Distance
The caustic photons within the specified world-space distance are merged.
This attribute can greatly reduce the size of your caustic photon map.
Caustic Filter Type

Controls the sharpness of the caustics.
Filtering increases the weight of photons that are close to the point of interest,
and reduces the amount of blur at the edges of a caustic.
Box Generally makes caustics looks sharper. It is faster, but less precise.
Cone Generally makes caustics looks smoother. It is more precise, but slower.
Gauss
Caustic Filter Kernel The bigger the kernel, the softer the caustic.

Photon Tracing
Photon Reflections Use this to limit the number of times a photon will reflect
in a scene (after the first bounce, which is taken care of by direct illumination).
It works in conjunction with Max Photon Depth on page 435.
Photon Refractions Use this to limit the number of times a photon will refract
in a scene (after the first bounce, which is taken care of by direct illumination).
It works in conjunction with Max Photon Depth on page 435.
Max Photon Depth Use this to limit the number of times a photon will
bounce around (reflect or refract) after the first bounce (which is taken care
of by direct illumination) in a scene.
Default is 5, but correct value depends on how many surfaces the photon
must go through or bounce off of before hitting a diffuse surface to stop. For
example, if a photon goes through 6 transparent surfaces, the default 5 would
produce incorrect results. After the depth trace limit has been met, photons
are not re-emitted and instead are absorbed.
Custom shaders may override these values.
Photon Map
Rebuild Photon Map If a filename is specified for the photon map (in Photon
Map File on page 435), the map is loaded and used (providing the file exists).
If this option is turned on, any existing file will be ignored, and the photon
map will be recomputed and an existing file will be overwritten. The default
is off. In other words, if you want to build a map, turn this option on; if not,
turn this option off and specify the file to be used in Photon Map File on page
435.
Photon Map File Specify the photon map file that mental ray for Maya should
use as the current photon map. It will be loaded and used without computing
a new photon map. If the photon map file does not exist, one will be created
and saved.
Enable Map Visualizer Causes Maya to create a visualization of stored photon

and final gather maps. The visualization appears in the scene view immediately
after rendering is complete. See Final Gathering Map on page 439.
Direct Illumination Shadow Effects This should be turned ON if you use

transparent shadows with Global illumination and, or caustics.
The attribute does not affect performance if the scene does not use any shadow
effects (for example, material shaders setting shadow attenuation).

By default, mental ray automatically detects if additional shadow shaders
should be exported to render shadow effects such as attenuation and colored
shadows.
For global illumination, this procedure is disabled by default, since shadowing
should already result from indirect lighting and caustics with photons. But
the shadow attenuation effect through transparent objects is not easily
achievable with global illumination.
This option enables shadow effects detection, and produces shadow effects
from direct lights in addition to indirect shadowing from photons.
Diagnose photon
Density When photon maps are used, select this option to replace all material
shaders in the scene with an internal shader that produces a false-color
rendering of the photon density.
Irradiance When photon maps are used, select this option to replace all
material shaders in the scene with an internal shader that produces a false-color
rendering of the average of the red, green and blue irradiance components.
Photon density Shows a false color rendering of photon density on all

materials. This is useful when tuning the number of photons to trace in a
scene, and to select the optimum accuracy settings for estimation of global
illumination or caustics. It also works well in combination with the Grid Mode.
Photon Volume
Photon Auto Volume Check this option to enable a volume-tracking mode

that keeps track of the volumes that the camera is in and takes over
inside/outside decisions. This option helps render a camera passing through
volumes such as light cones from streetlights.
Accuracy Controls how the photon map is used to estimate the intensity of
caustics or global illumination within a participating medium. It applies to
photon volume shaders, which compute light patterns in 3D space, such as
volume caustics created by focused shafts of light cast by objects acting as
lenses.
considers photons for a participating medium.
Merge Distance

The volume photons within the specified world-space distance are merged.
For scenes with uneven photon distribution, this attribute can reduce the size
of your volume photon map.
Importons
Importons
Enable this option to turn on importon emission.Importons are particles

similar to photons. However, they are shot from the camera and traverse the
scene in the opposite order. Instead of energy, they hold a quality which is
an importance of the contribution to the final image. The information from
importons is used by the kernel for distribution of rendering efforts according
to the final contribution to the rendered image, in other words,
importance-driven sampling. Importons are thus a foundation for new
view-dependent indirect illumination techniques.
Density Number of importons shot from the camera per pixel. The minimum
value for this attribute is 0.02, which is approximately 1 importon per 50
pixels. The default and recommended value is 1. Lower values speed up
importon emission but could also decrease final image quality.
Merge Distance The importons within the specified world-space distance are
merged. The default value is 0, which means that merging is disabled.
Max Depth Controls the diffusion of importons in the scene. If set to zero,
importons will not scatter on the diffuse bounces. The default is zero. In some
cases you may need to use more than a single diffuse bounce, for example,
when you are using final gather, or when the Traverse option is disabled.
Traverse Enable this attribute so that importons are not blocked by even
completely opaque geometry. Instead, they are stored for all intersections with
geometry on the ray from the camera to infinity. This leads to a significantly
higher number of importons stored in the scene. However, it removes the
discontinuity in the distribution of the importons originated from the visibility
to the camera function.
Final Gathering
Final Gathering Use this to turn Final Gathering for global illumination on
or off. The default is off. Final gathering is a different means of calculating

indirect illumination. For more information, see Final gather in the Lighting
guide.
Accuracy Controls how many rays are shot in each final gathering step to
compute the indirect illumination. The default is 100 per sample point. Higher
values are required for final renders. Increasing the value reduces noise but
also increases the rendering time.
NOTE When the Final Gather Accuracy is changed, the Primary Final Gather File
on page 439is always ignored and new Final Gather rays are emitted.
You can see, in the Output window, when this happens:
■ RCFG 0.2 info: finalgMap/test1:final gather options differ from ones

currently used, content ignored.
■ RCFG 0.2 info: overwriting final gather file "finalgMap/test1".
Point Density Controls the number of final gather points to be computed,

performing the full and time-consuming final gather tracing.
Point Interpolation The number of final gather points to be considered for

interpolation at a shading sample during rendering. Higher values smooth
the final gathering result at little cost.
Primary Diffuse Scale The Scale value allows you to easily control the intensity
and color of the final gather contribution on a global scene level. You can use
the Color Chooser or use the slider to set the Scale value.
Secondary Diffuse Scale Scale the contribution of final gathering secondary

bounce to the final render result.
Secondary Diffuse Bounces Use this attribute to set multiple diffuse bounces
for final gathering. This option controls whether indirect diffuse lighting
contributes to final gather, up to a sum of the Final Gather Reflection and
Final Gather Refraction values. Use this attribute to add more light and color
bleeding to your final gather results. Also, use this option to prevent unnatural
darkening of corners in your scene. The higher the value, the longer the final
gather computation process.

Final Gathering Map
Rebuild
If this is on (default), any previously generated Final Gather file is ignored
and all final gather points are recomputed. See Primary Final Gather File on
page 439for more information about the file.
If this file is off, Final Gather is forced to use the results from a previous Final
Gather render. Existing final gather points are not recalculated, and any new
final gather points are appended to the existing file.
Freeze The Freeze option stops any new data from being written to the final
gather file. It is useful to reduce light flickering in your animation. See
Troubleshoot final gather causes flicker on page 283.
TIP
■ If you are rendering out a still image and are not changing the Final Gather
settings, turn this attribute off to save rendering time.
■ If you are rendering out a camera animation sequence, you may be able
to use previous frames’ Final Gather results (that is, you can turn this
attribute off), depending on how the irradiance changes during the
animation. However, if objects in the scene move, this option must be on.
Primary Final Gather File This is the file that stores the Final Gather results
that mental ray for Maya can use for irradiance lookups. You can reuse Final
Gather results from a frame rendered earlier, or from a previous scene render:
■ If no filename is specified and Rebuild is turned on, rendered results are
placed in a default file.

■ If you specify previously non-existent filename, the rendered results are
placed in the file with that name.
■ If you specify an existing filename here, and Rebuild is turned on, the
specified file is overwritten with the newly rendered Final Gather results.
■ If you specify an existing filename here, and Rebuild is turned off, the
newly rendered results are appended to the existing file. (This means that
the file may grow without bounds.)
Secondary Final Gather File
You can provide several final gather map files as lookup map files for the
rendering. You can therefore use the final gather map rendered from different
cameras and combine the lookups at render time. Also, a secondary final
gather map can be used to lookup final gather map files from different frames.
For example, you can make the primary final gather map file lookup the final
gather map file for the current frame T, and the secondary final gather map
file to look up other final gather map files from other frames such as T+1 and
T-1 (assuming that you have pre-generated a final gather map file using the
Render Mode Final Gathering Only).
Enable Map Visualizer Causes Maya to create a visualization of stored photon

and final gather maps. The visualization appears in the scene view immediately
after rendering is complete. See Photon Map on page 435.
Preview Final Gather Tiles If turned on, this setting lets you see tiles as they
render. That is, you can see the image as it renders.
Precompute Photon Lookup This option (which also turns on Final Gather)
causes photon tracing to compute and store an estimate of the local irradiance
at every photon location. This means that far fewer final gathering points are
required because the photon map carried a good approximation of the
irradiance in the scene—mental ray for Maya can estimate irradiance with a
single lookup, instead of many photons. In this case, photon tracing takes
longer than before and requires slightly more memory, but rendering is faster.
Diagnose finalgather This option allows you to render by final gathering

points in green for initial raster-space, and in red for render-time final gathering
points. This is useful in fine tuning final gather settings to distinguish between
view dependant and non-view dependant results to better distribute final
gather points. This option is off by default.

Final Gather Quality
Filter Use this to control how Final Gather uses a speckle elimination filter
to prevent samples with extreme brightness from skewing the overall energy
stored in a Final Gather sampling region.
Neighboring samples are filtered so that extreme values are discarded in the
filter size. By default, the filter size is 1. Setting this to 0 disables speckle
elimination, which can add speckles but will better converge towards the
correct total image brightness for extremely low accuracy settings. Size values
greater than 1 eliminate more speckles and soften sample contrasts. Sizes
greater than 4 or so are not normally useful.
Falloff Start, Falloff Stop Use these settings to limit the reach of indirect light
for Final Gather (but not photons). If no object is found within a distance of
start, the ray defaults to the environment color. Objects farther away than
stop from the illuminated point will not cast light. An extra advantage is that
this speeds up final gather computation, since final gather does not evaluate
all visible surfaces, but only the ones visible within defined ranges.
Final Gather Tracing
Reflections Use this to limit the number of times subrays will reflect in a
scene. It works in conjunction with Max Trace Depth on page 441.
Refractions Use this to limit the number of times subrays will refract in a
scene. It works in conjunction with Max Trace Depth on page 441.
Max Trace Depth Use this option to specify the number of subrays for the
final gather render. The default is 0, which means that indirect illumination
computed by final gathering cannot pass through glass or bounce off mirrors,
for example. A depth of 1 would allow a single refraction or reflection.
Typically, a depth greater than 2 is not necessary.
Optimize for Animations Enable multi-frame final gather mode to reduce

flickering in animation. The accuracy of the render may suffer in some parts
of the animation because a constant number of final gather points is used for
the entire animation and therefore some parts of the scene may not contain
the sufficient number of points.
This option sets the final gather mode to multiframe. See Final Gathering
Modes in the mental ray for Maya reference guide for more information.
Use Radius Quality Control Switch back to the first generation final gather
algorithm where the radius is used to control final gathering sampling and
interpolation.

Min Radius, Max Radius Max Radius and Min Radius control the size of the
sampling region within which Final Gather rays search for irradiance
information from other surfaces.
With the default values, Maya calculates values that seem appropriate based
on scene dimensions to speed up the render, but this calculation doesn’t allow
for complex geometry. Generally, enter a value that is 10% of scene’s overall
dimension for the Max Radius, then enter 10% of that for Min Radius. Make
further adjustments based on scene geometry detail, how the geometry is
arranged in the scene, and how the render looks. For example, use these
settings to achieve better diffuse detailing in nooks and crannies in your scene.
View (Radii in Pixel Size) This option causes the Min Radius and Max Radius
of final gather rays to be calculated in pixel size, rather than in object space.
This allows you to set the visual quality in pixel size, without knowing the
object or scene bounds.
Irradiance Particles
Irradiance particles is a global illumination technique which is sometimes

superior to final gather and/or photon mapping in terms of image quality,
usability and performance.
Before rendering, importons are shot to the scene from the camera. Data
regarding their hit positions with information on the amount of direct (and
possibly indirect) illumination coming at their position (hence the name
"irradiance particles") are combined into a map. One or more passes of indirect
illumination can be computed.
During rendering, Irradiance Particles are used to estimate the irradiance for
every shading point. If only direct illumination is collected for irradiance
particles, then this is equivalent to one bounce of indirect lighting. Irradiance
can also be interpolated from precomputed values at particle positions.
Irradiance Particles cannot be used in combination with global illumination
and final gathering However, Irradiance Particles are compatible with caustic
photons.
Irradiance Particles Select to enable irradiance particles.
Rays The number of rays shot while estimating the irradiance. This attribute
is similar to the number of rays used for final gathering, but instead, it specifies
the maximum number of rays and delivers better quality than final gathering

does with the same number of rays. The minimum value is 2 and the default
value is 256.
Indirect Passes The number of possible passes of indirect lighting. If >0, then
a sequence of passes is computed to collect the irradiance coming from multiple
indirect illumination bounces and irradiance Particles would have both direct
illumination and indirect illumination information. If =0, then Irradiance
Particles will only have direct illumination information. The default value is
0.
Scale Global scale factor applied to the intensity of the irradiance during
rendering. Values other than the default do not lead to a physically correct
rendering but are useful for artistic purposes. The value is expanded to a color
having the same R, G and B components. The default value is 1.0.
Interpolate Controls the use of interpolation. Choose among no interpolation,

interpolating always, or interpolate only for secondary rays (that is, no
interpolation for eye rays and interpolation for reflections, retractions, and
so forth). The default is always.
Interpoints The number of irradiance particles used for the lookup

interpolation. The default value is 64.
Environment Enables the use of the environment maps for irradiance

computation. A separate particle map is built for the environment (if an
environment shader is present) and used during rendering for image based
lighting.
Env. Rays The number of rays used for the computation of irradiance coming
from the environment map. The default for Env. Rays is the same as the
number of Rays set for the Irradiance Particles option. For outdoor scenes, the
default works fine, but increase this value for indoor scenes.
Env. Scale Global scale factor applied to the irradiance contribution of the
environment. The scaling factor is relative because it applies to the
environment irradiance only. The environment irradiance can be further
scaled (multiplicatively) if the user specifies a global scaling factor with the
Scale option. The default value 1.
Rebuild If enabled, mental ray for Maya computes the irradiance particle map
even if a file with the specified name already exists. If disabled, mental ray
reads the irradiance particle map from the specified file, or, it reuses the
irradiance particle map that comes from the previous frame rendered.
Disabling this feature is useful for animations, which are flicker-free. However,
the irradiance particle map may lose quality if the objects and camera are
moving, so this is only recommended for fly-throughs. In addition, since the

particle map is view dependent, inaccuracies may show up on the frame image
borders. This option is enabled by default.
Map File Specifies the map file for the irradiance particle map.
If the specified file exists, mental ray for Maya tries to read the irradiance
particle map from this file (unless Rebuild is enabled). If the irradiance particle
map is not successfully read from the file, mental ray for Maya computes it
and saves it to a file with the given name. This behavior is consistent with
the photon maps option.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion
Enable ambient occlusion support. Computation is performed on demand of

shaders only.
NOTE You must enable ambient occlusion if you are creating an ambient occlusion
render pass. See Multi-render passes on page 187for more information regarding
render passes.
Rays Number of ambient occlusion rays used for the computation of each
ambient occlusion value. mental ray shaders using ambient occlusion API can
override this value internally.
Caching Control creation of the ambient occlusion cache in memory. If

caching is disabled but the feature is enabled, then ambient occlusion is
performed on demand only when shaders call for its computation.
Cache Density Upper bound to the number of ambient occlusion points per
pixel.
Cache Points Number of cache points close to the lookup location used for
interpolation. Default is 64.
Options tab
Diagnostics
Diagnose samples Shows how spatial supersamples were placed in the rendered
image, by producing a grayscale image signifying sample density. This is useful
when tuning the level and the contrast threshold for spatial supersampling.

Diagnose Bsp Shows the cost of creating and traversing the BSP tree used for
raytracing. Both the depth and the leaf size can be visualized. If the diagnostic
image shows that mental ray has been operating near the limit in large parts
of the image (indicated by red or white pixels), this helps tuning the BSP
parameters in the options block
Diagnose grid Renders a grid on top of all objects in the scene, in object,
camera, or world space. Gives you an idea of the scene scale and rough
estimates of distances and areas.
Grid size Defines the size of the grid (in Diagnose grid).
Diagnose photon
Density When photon maps are used, select this option to replace all material
shaders in the scene with an internal shader that produces a false-color
rendering of the photon density.
Irradiance When photon maps are used, select this option to replace all
material shaders in the scene with an internal shader that produces a false-color
rendering of the average of the red, green and blue irradiance components.
Photon density Shows a false color rendering of photon density on all

materials. This is useful when tuning the number of photons to trace in a
scene, and to select the optimum accuracy settings for estimation of global
illumination or caustics. It also works well in combination with the Grid Mode.
Diagnose finalgather This option allows you to render by final gathering

points in green for initial raster-space, and in red for render-time final gathering
points. This is useful in fine tuning final gather settings to distinguish between
view dependant and non-view dependant results to better distribute final
gather points. This option is off by default.
Preview
Contains options for specifying what to include in a preview render in Render

View.
Please refer to the mental ray User Manual, available from the Maya help, for
more information about this setting.
Preview Animation Render subsequent frames of the set animation range
and preview all intermediate images inside Render View.
Preview Motion Blur Calculate and preview render motion blur if enabled
in the Render Settings. The Preview Animation option doesn’t need to be
turned on for this to work.

Preview Render Tiles Updates the Render Preview window in regular time
intervals to show render progress. If this is turned off, only the final image is
shown at the end of rendering.
Preview Convert Tiles This option enables a plug-in conversion procedure

for previewing image tiles when the primary framebuffer type is of a type that
is not supported by Maya’s Render View (for example, floating point
framebuffers, or color framebuffers with components larger than 8 bit).
The conversion procedure involves the clipping and rescaling (desaturation)
of colors for display. This option is on by default.
Preview Tonemap Tiles and Tonemap Scale The Preview Tonemap Tiles
option previews image tiles for floating-point framebuffer types where the
color values exceed the typical 0-1 range (because the color values are RGB).
The Tonemap Scale value is used to rescale the color data of image tiles prior
to clipping. This is useful when rendering high dynamic range images. The
final rendered image is not affected by this value. The default value is 1.
mental ray Overrides
Displacement
Max Displace Specifies the maximum displacement applied to object control

points in a normal direction. This provides control over the otherwise
automated displacement range to better focus tessellation where most needed.
Set this value if you have any displaced objects in your scene.
A Max Displace value that is too large results in a correct image, but takes
more time and uses more memory. If the Max Displace value is too small,
parts of the displaced object may be clipped. The default value of 0 means the
setting is not active.
A warning message appears if a displacement shader returns a value greater
than the Max Displace value. This can result in rendered geometry appearing
clipped.
Shadow Map
Shadow Map Bias This option applies the specified Shadow Map Bias value
to all light sources that do not have their own biases. This adds a slight offset
to the shadow depths, resulting in a slightly shifted shadow. This option is
useful in tuning shadows in specific cases, such as when rendering Fur.

The bias value should be smaller than the smallest distance between a shadow
caster and a shadow receiver. However, bias values that are too small may
cause self-shadowing.
Global Illumination/Caustics
Turn caustics and global illumination generators and receivers on or off for
the entire scene.
Tessellation
Use these options to create and assign a Surface and, or Displace approximation
globally to the scene.
Translation
Contains options for specifying the settings and items to be included when
rendering a Maya scene with mental ray for Maya.
NOTE In Maya 8.0, the Export Verbosity attribute was used to control the rendering
verbosity. In Maya 2009, this control has been moved to the mental ray Render
Option editor and the mental ray Batch Render Option editor. See Render > Render
Current Frame on page 320 and Render > Batch Render on page 324 for more
information.
Export Exact Hierarchy Tries to preserve the DAG hierarchy during

processing. This produces additional mental ray instgroup entities. There are
certain unresolved material inheritance issues in this mode, but it works well
in the general case. Deeply nested DAG hierarchies may be translated much
faster compared to the standard Maya iterator mode that always flattens the
DAG. Default is off.
Export Full Dagpath Uses the full DAG path names instead of the shortest
possible name for mental ray scene entities. This is not required to generate
a valid scene, but ensures reproducible names even if DAG entity names are
reused in Maya. On the other hand, with deeply nested DAG hierarchy names,
you may exceed the maximum supported name length in mental ray. Default
is off.
Export Textures First Collects all file texture references in the scene first. This
ensures that missing texture files are reported early in the process, but may
slow down scene processing depending on the number of file textures being
used. It may also write out textures references that are never used in the

shading graph, because it doesn't perform a complete scene graph traversal
for performance reasons. Default is on.
Export Particles Lets you export particles.
Export Particle Instances Lets you export particle instances.
Export Fluids Lets you export fluids.
Export Hair
Hair Geometry Shader The geometry shader creates the hair. This option
should be used for rendering interactively in Maya and offers the best Maya
Hair translation performance.
Off Select this option if you do not want to export hair.
Hair Primitive Select this option to convert Maya hair to native mental ray
hair so that it can be rendered with mental ray standalone. This option can
be used for rendering interactively in Maya or for exporting the file to render
with standalone but better suited for mi file rendering.
Export Post Effects Lets you export post effects.
Export Vertex Colors Lets you force the export of all the CPV (color per
vertex) data for all the meshes in your scene. Exporting CPV data can be
process-intensive, so do not turn on this attribute unless necessary.
Performance
(Performance options are within the Translation section.)

Prune Objects Without Material This option ignores objects without materials
during translation so that they are not part of the final rendered scene. This
option is on by default.
Optimize Non-animated Display Visibility This option ignores non-animated

invisible scene entities during translation so that they are not part of the final
rendered scene. This option is on by default.
NOTE You should turn Optimize Non-animated Display Visibility off if an object’s
visibility is animated.
Optimize Animation Detection When this option is turned on, the

processing of non-animated geometry is significantly optimized because mental
ray for Maya detects animated nodes prior to processing the scene. This is

especially useful for scenes that contain many static objects and only a few
simply animated objects. This option is on by default.
NOTE Optimize Animation Detection is limited in several ways, as it currently can

only detect key frame animations, but not a) pre and post infinity curve cycles and
b) animations generated by expressions and pre/post RenderMel scripts.
Optimize Vertex Sharing This is to produce a more compact vertex

representation (vertex lists) for meshes that exhibit a lot of vertex sharing.
Only first-level sharing is exploited in mental ray for Maya.
Optimize Raytrace Shadows This option optimizes the algorithm used to

assign mental ray shadow shaders to materials. When turned on, mental ray
determines whether shadow shaders are necessary before assigning the shader.
Export Render Proxy
Select this option to render the proxies in your scene instead of the placeholder
geometry that you used. For more information regarding render proxies, see
Using render proxies in your scene on page 242.
Export Motion Segments This option enables detection and translation of

motion vector segments of shape nodes, a method to render non-linear motion
paths from shape animations with mental ray.
If this option is enabled, then the Motion Steps on page 428option triggers this
number of extra evaluations of the scene at equi-distant times within the
Maya shutter interval (render camera shutter * motion blur by). Any shape
deformation appearing in these time steps is expressed as a motion segment
vector in mental ray. The resulting motion trail when rendering with motion
blur matches the actual shape animation more closely, since it approximates
any non-linear movement with a set of linear segments (up to 15).
NOTE Raising the Motion Steps on page 428 value beyond 1 (the default) implies
a performance degradation of translation caused by extra subframe scene
evaluations in Maya and computations in the plug-in.
Export Triangulated Polygons This option processes all polygon meshes as

tessellated triangles, based on Maya’s tessellation. This allows more efficient
use of memory so that large scenes with large polygon meshes render with
less memory usage.

NOTE
■ The Export triangulated polygons option automatically switches back to
exporting mesh geometry if it encounters subdivision meshes in the scene.
■ In some rare cases, Export triangulated polygons may cause a decrease in

render quality. Turn this option off if this occurs.
Export Shape Deformation Compare actual geometry to determine any kind

of shape deformation during animation and motion blur, required to produce
exact motion blur information and support incremental changes in mental
ray. If none of these conditions are true, turning this off may speed-up scene
processing. Default is on.
Force Motion Vector Computation
This option forces the computation of motion transform and per vertex motion
vector. Normally, this is automatically done when you enable motion blur;
however, if you do not want mental ray to render the motion blur effect, but
you want the motion vectors and motion transforms to be available during
rendering (without blurring the image), you can enable this option so that
mental ray for Maya provides the motion data. For example, you must enable
this option if you creating the motion vector type passes (2D Motion Vector,
3D Motion Vector, Normalized 2D Motion Vector).
Export Polygon Derivatives Calculate and export first order derivatives for
polygons. This is required for bump mapping and shader filtering to produce
comparable results to Maya.
When on (default), the Maya derivatives and Smooth Polygon Derivatives
options are available.
Maya Derivatives This option uses Maya’s derivatives calculation for bump
mapping and shader filtering, providing compatibility with Maya.
This option is off by default, and is only available when Export Polygon
Derivatives is on.
Smooth Polygon Derivatives This option calculates derivatives by taking

into account vertex sharing to decide if texture seams can be ignored. This
calculation avoids artifacts due to UV seams.
This option is off by default, and is only available when Export Polygon
Derivatives is on.

Export Nurbs Derivatives Enable calculation of first order derivatives for
NURBS objects in mental ray. This is required for bump mapping and shader
filtering to produce comparable results to Maya. Default is on.
Export Objects On Demand/Threshold Use the Export Objects On Demand

option to control the processing of objects in your scene. This option is
particularly effective in scenes that have objects beyond the view of the camera.
In this case, mental ray does not process the objects beyond the camera view,
therefore reducing processing time.
When Export Objects On Demand is on, it includes a Threshold value that
lets you tune on demand translation for objects. Objects with a number of
vertices or controlled vertices greater than the threshold value are not
translated until a ray hits the bounding box. A value of 0 results in all objects
processed on demand. In this case, translation is quick, but render time may
not improve. You can select larger objects for on demand translation by raising
the Threshold value. For polygons, the Threshold value relates to the number
of vertices. For NURBS, the Threshold value relates to the number of control
points. For Hair, the Threshold value relates to the number of hair.
Customization
(Customization options are within the Translation section.)

Please refer to the mental ray User Manual, available from the Maya help, for
more information about this setting.
Render Shaders With Filtering This option causes mental ray shaders to
perform filtering in individual shaders. This option reduces texture and bump
mapping artifacts, and is on by default.
Render Shaders With Filtering requires that the Export Polygon Derivatives
option be turned on (Render Settings window, Options tab, Translation >
Performance section).
Use Legacy Maya Base Shaders
Disable this option to use render pass compliant shaders. This option is off
by default. Enable this option to use legacy Maya base shaders.
Export State Shader This should only be turned off when exporting to .mi
file and only the standard mental ray base shaders are used exclusively (for
example, when no Maya shaders are used). Default is on.

This option should be enabled when you use the multi-render pass feature.
Export Light Linker This controls the export of the Maya Light Linker node.
Default is on.
Export Maya Options This enables the export of special options as mental
ray user data, to control several advanced Maya features performed in the
mayabase shaders. Default is on.
Export Custom Colors Common mental ray shaders often use 4-component
RGBA color parameters instead of the usual 3-component Maya color
compounds. With this option enabled all custom nodes are provided with
full RGBA colors, with the alpha component set to 1.0 (fully opaque). Default
is off.
If this option is disabled, then mental ray shaders should ensure that they can
set the alpha component explicitly to reasonable values, away from mental
ray’s default, which is 0 (fully transparent).
Export Custom Text This should only be turned on for .mi file export to
recognize and translate Custom Text nodes. It is automatically turned off for
the integrated rendering if Preview Custom has been turned off.
Export Custom Data If enabled, special custom attributes on polygon meshes

are recognized and exported as vertex user vectors to mental ray.
Export Custom Vectors This option enables recognition of an optional

miCustomMotion boolean dynamic attribute on geometry shape nodes. If
such an attribute has been found then motion vectors are always generated
and exported, even if they are of zero length. This is required for certain mental
ray shaders that are allowed to perform motion blur calculation in the shader,
for example for displacement motion blur.
Custom Entities
Contains controls for creating and managing custom global text, textures,
and scene element text. Use these options to take advantage of alternate
channel computations when writing custom shaders.
Pass Custom Alpha Channel This option passes the mental ray alpha
component of the final color as the alpha channel, ignoring the Maya alpha
component. This is useful when a custom shader is producing an alpha value.
Pass Custom Depth Channel This option overrides the Maya depth channel
calculation with the default mental ray depth channel calculation. This option

is useful when you want to revert to using the mental ray depth calculation,
instead of the default Maya calculation. This option is off by default.
Pass Custom Label Channel This option passes label data untouched, rather
than allowing adjustment for Maya shaders. This option is off by default.
Custom Globals
These allow for the customized output of version, link, and include statements.
If these text boxes are empty, mental ray for Maya generates the usual default
statements that are required for rendering Maya scenes. Otherwise, it expects
a space separated list of entries, which are exported in the appropriate section
of the mi stream instead of the defaults.
In the Versions text box, the first entry is written as the min version, the second
entry as the max version statement.
The Includes text
base.mi mayabase.mi
in the text box results in:

$include "base.mi"
$include "mayabase.mi"
in the final output.

The same happens for the Links text.
Custom Scene Text
Global Text The global text control is especially useful for adding custom
link, $include and code statements. It can also be used to add texture and
shader declarations.
Within a scene many types of text nodes can be created, but just the selected
one gets exported. The contained text is written once at the beginning of the
.mi stream right before the first option block gets written. Certain modes are
available which determine how the custom text should be applied to the
generated output.
Note that incorrect .mi text could be introduced that cannot be recognized
nor corrected by mental ray for Maya processing.
Options Text Similar to Global Text, Options Text is provided to allow

customized mental ray option settings. It offers the ability to extend or replace
the generated option settings. For example, custom framebuffer statements
should be added here.

Lights, Cameras, and Scene Text These enable custom text on certain
sequentially exported sections like lights section, camera section, and scene
section, in this order. Those sections can be extended or completely replaced,
similar to the Global Text. For example, custom lights can be appended to the
generated output. This would require that the scene section be extended with
the incremental change of the new root instance group including the new
light.
Root Group Text The Root Group Text control can be used to customize the
final root group specifying all cameras and objects to be rendered. This control
is applied to the content of the root group, not the whole root group section
(like other types of scene text).
Render Text The Render Text control can be used to customize render
commands for renderable cameras. For example, it can be used to perform
operations between renderings, like file operations.
Render Settings: Maya Hardware tab

376.
Quality
For more information about render speed and image quality, see The
speed/quality tradeoff on page 153.
Presets
When you select a Preset here, settings in the applicable sections in the rest
of the tab are automatically set.
Use these settings as a starting point for rendering your image at a given quality
and with a certain effect.
At higher quality settings, objects appear smooth, but may take more time to
render. At lower quality settings, objects may appear a little more jagged, but
render quickly.
Custom Lets you specify the hardware quality settings independently.
Preview quality The Number Of Samples is set to 1. Color resolution is set

to 128.Bump resolution is set to 256.
Intermediate quality The Number Of Samples is set to 1. Color resolution

is set to 256. Bump resolution is set to 512.

Production quality The Number Of Samples is set to 9. Color resolution is
set to 512. Bump resolution is set to 1024.
Production quality with transparency The Number Of Samples is set to 9.

Color resolution is set to 512. Bump resolution is set to 1024. Allows for
transparency.
Number Of Samples Lets you select the exact number of samples per pixel
used to control the anti-aliasing of objects during rendering.
For software rendering, each pixel is sampled first in the center, then slightly
off center for subsequent samples. For hardware, each pixel is sampled in the
center. For subsequent samples, the image is then re-rendered slightly offset,
and each pixel is sampled in the center again. The images are then aligned to
produce the final image.
Frame buffer format A frame buffer is the video memory that holds the pixels
from which the video display (frame) is refreshed. Select the type of frame
buffer you want to use from the drop-down list:
■ RGBA: 8 bytes per channel
■ RGBA: 16-bit float per channel

Transparent shadow maps
Turn on if you want to use transparent shadow maps.
Transparency sorting
The method by which sorting is performed prior to rendering to improve
transparency.
Per object
Transparent objects are sorted and drawn from furthest to closest in
distance. This option provides faster results buy may not render complex
transparent objects correctly.
Per polygon
Each object's polygons are sorted and drawn from furthest to closest in
distance from the viewer. This option provides more accurate transparency
representation but may take longer to process.
Color resolution
If hardware rendering cannot directly evaluate a shading network, the
shading network is baked to a 2D image that the hardware renderer can
use. This option specifies the dimension of the baked image for supported
mapped color channels on a material. Supported channels include color,
incandescence, ambient, reflected color, and transparency. The default
value is 128, which means that any baked color images have dimensions
128 by 128 pixels.
Render Settings: Maya Hardware tab | 455

Bump resolution
If hardware rendering cannot directly evaluate a shading network, the
shading network is baked to a 2D image that the hardware renderer can
use. This option specifies the dimension of the baked image for supported
bump maps, which typically must be of a higher resolution than that used
for mapped color channels. The default value for this option is 256, which
means that any baked bump images have dimensions 256 by 256 pixels.
Texture compression
Enable or disable this option.
Disabled/Enabled
Texture compression can reduce memory usage by up to 75%, and may
increase draw performance. The algorithm used (DXT5) typically introduces
very little compression artifacts, so it's generally appropriate for a wide
range of textures.
Render Options
For more information about render layers and passes, see Render layer overview
on page 68 and Render passes on page 301.
Shading Model
Culling
Lets you control the type of culling used for rendering.
Per object The Culling option is based on the per object settings found in
the Render Stats section of the selected object’s Attribute Editor. The current
options are:
Double Sided renders double sided lighting with the current normals on the
object.
Single Sided renders with single sided lighting with the current normals on the
object.
Opposite renders with single sided lighting with the reversed normals on the
object.
All Double Sided Forces all objects to render using the All Double Sided
option, whether or not you set that option on the object. All Single Sided
offers better rendering performance than All Double Sided.
All Single Sided Forces all objects to render using the All Singled Sided options
whether or not you set that option on the object. If the Opposite suboption
is enabled then that suboption is used. All Single Sided offers better rendering
performance than All Double Sided.

Small object culling threshold
When this performance-improving option is enabled (default), opaque objects
that are smaller than the specified threshold are not drawn.
This option provides the same functionality as the Occlusion Culling option
found in High Quality Rendering mode in scene views.
Percent of image size This is the threshold suboption for the Small Object
Culling option. The threshold you provide is the percentage of the image size
that an object occupies in the output image.
If an object is less than that percentage in size then it is not drawn. Size is
measure in pixels in screen space (relative to the camera used for rendering).
The default percentage is 0 percent.
This option ignores View->Camera Settings options (such as Gate and Fill
options), which are used for image output only.
E.g. % = 10.0. Image size 100 by 100 (pixels). The threshold in pixels would
be 100X100 * .10 = 1000 pixels. If an object was less than 1000 pixels in size
then it would not be drawn.
E.g. % = 0.0 Image size 100 by 100 (pixels). The threshold in pixels would be
100X100 * 0 = 0 pixels. If an object was less than 0 pixels in size then it would
not be drawn. This can occur when one opaque object completely obscures
another object with respect to the current camera used for rendering.
Hardware geometry cache Turn on this setting to cache geometry to your

video card, when the video card memory is not being used elsewhere. In some
cases, this can improve performance. You can set the Maximum cache size
(in MB) if you want to limit the usage to a particular portion of the available
video card memory, up to 512 MB.
Hardware Environment Lookup Select Consistent with Software to interpret

the Env Ball/Env Cube map in the same way as the Maya Software renderer.
Select Respects Hardware to interpret the Env Ball/Env Cube map according
to the Maya Hardware Renderer.
Motion blur If this option is on, you can change Motion Blur by Frame option
and the Number of Exposures option.
Motion blur by frame In the hardware renderer, motion blur is achieved by

rendering the scene at specific points in time and blending the resulting sample
renders into a single image.
Blur by frame represents the absolute time range, starting from the current
frame, that is blurred. This determines the approximate start and end times
of the blur. This time range is then adjusted in accordance with the camera’s
Camera Shutter Angle attribute in the Attribute Editor.
Render Settings: Maya Hardware tab | 457

Number of exposures The number of exposures divides the above time range
determined by the Motion Blur by Frame option into discrete moments in
time, where the entire scene is re-rendered. The final image is the accumulated
average of all the exposures. So to obtain a smooth blur, a larger number of
exposures is desired. Similarly, for a motion trail, a smaller number of exposures
is preferable.
Enable Geometry Mask For hardware rendering. When this option is turned
on, opaque geometry objects mask out particle objects, and transparent
geometry is not drawn. This is especially useful when compositing particles
over software-rendered geometry.
Blend Specular With Alpha Enable this option to avoid the specular appearing
as if it is floating on top of a surface. When this option is enabled, the specular
is multiplied with the alpha and the resulting highlight only appears on the
opaque surface and not the transparent surface.
Shadow linking You can reduce the rendering time required for your scene
by a given light.
option:
■ Shadows obey shadow linking
■ Shadows obey light linking
■ Shadows ignore linking
obeying the links that you have created). Select Shadows Ignore Linking so
that all links that you have established or broken using shadow linking or
light linking are ignored.
The default is set to Shadows Obey Light Linking.

Render Settings: Maya Vector tab
To select a renderer to see the Maya Vector tab, see Select a renderer on page
11. Render Settings that apply to all renderers are in the Render Settings:
Common tab on page 377.
For information on the render settings, see Maya Vector renderer on page 8.
Image Format Options
Frame Rate (SWF and SVG only) The frame rate of the Flash Player file or
SVG file (measured in frames per second).
Flash Version (SWF only) The version of the rendered Flash Player file: Flash
3, Flash 4, or Flash 5. The rendered Flash Player file plays back in any version
of the Flash Player (and import into any version of the Flash authoring
application) that is equal to or greater than the Flash Version.
NOTE When Flash Version is Flash 4, and Fill Style is Area Gradient or Mesh
Gradient, the rendered animation contains a dummy frame at its beginning. (This
is to compensate for a limitation in the Flash 4 authoring application.) After
importing your animation into the Flash 4 authoring application, delete this extra
frame.
Open in Browser (SWF only) Displays the vector image or animation in your
default browser after it is rendered (using Render > Render Current Frame,
Render > Batch Render, or mayaVectorRender).
NOTE You must have the Flash browser plug-in installed on your system in order
to display the rendered image or animation.
Combine Fills and Edges (SWF only) When Combine Fills and Edges is on,
outlines and fills for a surface are a single object. If you import the file into
the Flash authoring application, you cannot separate the outlines and fills
unless you break apart the object. However, the size of the rendered file is
smaller than when Combine Fills and Edges is off.
When Combine Fills and Edges is off, outlines and fills for a surface are separate
objects. If you import the file into the Flash authoring application, you can
separate the outlines and fills without breaking apart the object. However,
the size of the rendered file is larger than when Combine Fills and Edges is
on.
Svg Animation (SVG only) If Svg Animation is Native, Maya creates one SVG
file containing the frames of your animation and the scripting that drives it.
Render Settings: Maya Vector tab | 459

If Svg Animation is HTML Script, Maya creates an SVG file containing the
frames of your animation and an HTML file containing the JavaScript that
drives it.
If your animation is long (approximately 40 frames or more), file size increases
when Svg Animation is Native.
Compress (SVG only) Compresses the rendered SVG file, significantly reducing
its file size.
If you plan to publish the SVG file directly to the web, you may want to turn
on Compress. If you plan to import the SVG file into another application and
edit it, turn off Compress. You cannot edit a compressed SVG file.
Appearance Options
Curve Tolerance A value from 0 to 15 that determines how object outlines

are represented with either curved lines or a series of straight line segments.
When Curve Tolerance is 0, object outlines are represented by a series of
straight line segments (one segment for each polygon edge). This produces
an outline that exactly matches the outline of polygons, but also produces
larger file sizes.
When Curve Tolerance is 15, object outlines are represented by curved lines.
This produces an outline that may appear slightly distorted compared to the
original object’s outline, but also produces smaller file sizes.
You may need to adjust the Curve Tolerance setting on a scene by scene basis
to produce the best compromise between outline accuracy and file size. Begin
by setting Curve Tolerance to 7.5 (the default). If the rendered file size is too
large, try increasing Curve Tolerance. If object outlines appear distorted, or
the animation appears jumpy where there are curved outlines, try decreasing
Curve Tolerance.
NOTE Adjusting the Curve Tolerance value may have no apparent effect on file
size when another setting (for example, Fill Style) is the dominant factor affecting
file size.
Secondary Curve Fitting Provides more control over the conversion of line
segments into curves by adding a second pass. Typically this results in more
linear segments converted to curves. While this option increases render time,
it can help produce better results and smaller files.
Detail Level Preset, Detail Level Determines the level of detail in the rendered
image. A High Detail Level (30) produces a more detailed image and a more
accurate render than a Low Detail Level (10), but takes longer to render and

increases file size. (When the Detail Level is Low, small polygons are combined
with adjacent polygons.)
You may need to adjust the Detail Level on a scene by scene basis to produce
the best compromise between image quality and file size. Begin by setting
Detail Level to Low, and increase it as necessary to produce acceptable image
quality.
Set Detail Level to Automatic to allow Maya to choose the appropriate level
of detail for your scene.
Set Detail Level to Custom and use the numeric field or slider to set the Detail
Level to any value between 1 and 50. (Setting Detail Level to 0 is the same as
choosing the Automatic preset.)
NOTE
■ Doubling the Detail Level value produces twice as much detail in the
rendered image.
■ Setting Detail Level less than 4 is not recommended.
Fill Options
Fill Objects Surfaces are shaded based on the Fill Style. To render surfaces as
unfilled outlines, turn off Fill Objects and turn on Include Edges.
Fill Style The style of shading used to fill surfaces in the rendered image.
For all fill styles (except Single Color) the fill color is based on surface material
color and lighting from point lights only; all other types of lights are ignored.
If your scene does not contain point lights, a default point light (located at
the camera) is automatically created during rendering (and removed after
rendering).
NOTE Surface fills are re-calculated for each frame and may appear to change,
shift or jump during an animation.
Single Color Fills each surface with one solid color based on the surface
material color.

Single Color can produce nice cartoon-like results, especially when your model
is composed of separate surfaces that each have a different colored material.
NOTE The Single Color fill color is actually based on the surface material color
and an ambient light (located at the camera) that is automatically created during
rendering (and removed after rendering). Therefore, the fill color may not exactly
match the surface material color. The fill color should not change during an
animation.
TIP For better definition of surface edges, turn on Edges.
Two Color Fills each surface with two solid colors based on the surface material
color and on scene lighting.
Two Color produces results that look slightly more 3D than Single Color, but
also produces larger file sizes.
TIP For geometric objects that consist of many flat planes (for example, a cube),
Two Color may produce unnatural looking results (that is, each flat surface is filled
with two solid colors). For such objects Average Color is usually more appropriate.
Four Color Fills each surface with four solid colors based on the surface
material color and on scene lighting.

Four Color produces results that look even more 3D than Two Color or Single
Color, but also produces much larger file sizes.
TIP For geometric objects that consist of many flat planes (for example, a cube),
Four Color may produce unnatural looking results (that is, each flat surface is filled
with four solid colors). For such objects Average Color is usually more appropriate.
Full Color Fills each polygon on a surface with one solid color based on the
surface material color and on scene lighting.
Full Color produces realistic 3D results, but also produces very large file sizes.
(The greater the number of polygons in your model, the greater the file size.)
TIP If you want to produce a high level of detail, and file size is not an issue, Mesh
Gradient usually produces better results than Full Color.
NOTE Full Color is the highest quality fill style available when rendering to AI and
EPS formats.
Average Color Fills each surface with one solid color based on the surface
material color and on scene lighting.

TIP For objects that are divided into surfaces with hard edges, Average Color often
produces the best combination of 3D effect and modest file size, especially when
the object is animated.
For smooth, organic objects that have few surfaces defined by hard edges,
Average Color does not usually produce results that are any better than Single
Color.
Area Gradient (SWF and SVG only) Fills each surface with one radial gradient
based on the surface material color and on scene lighting.
Area Gradient can produce nice 3D effects with a small increase in file size.
TIP
■ For scenes that contain faceted objects (objects composed of many distinctly
defined surfaces), Area Gradient produces very good results.
■ For scenes that contain a combination of flat and smooth surfaces, Area
Gradient produces a nice balance of fills. The smooth surfaces are filled
with gradients, and the flat surfaces are filled with a more even color.
■ For scenes that contain only smooth surfaces, Area Gradient may produce
an overwhelming number of gradient fills.
NOTE This option is only available when File Format is SWF or SVG.
Mesh Gradient (SWF and SVG only) Fills each polygon on a surface with a
linear gradient based on the surface material color and on scene lighting.

Mesh Gradient produces very realistic 3D results, but also produces very large
file sizes. (The greater the number of polygons in your model, the greater the
file size.)
Mesh Gradient is the highest quality fill style available when rendering to
SWF and SVG formats.
NOTE In certain rare situations shading may be incorrect when Fill Style is Mesh
Gradient. For example, a plane having a ramp texture applied to it may render
with an area of solid color. Try adjusting the texture very slightly and re-rendering.
Show Back Faces Surfaces with normals facing away from the camera are
rendered as if they were facing the camera. When Show Back Faces is off,
surfaces with normals facing away from the camera are not rendered.
NOTE Surfaces with normals facing away from the camera may not be visible,
even if Show Back Faces is on, if another surface is between it and the camera.
TIP Turning off Show Back Faces may decrease rendering times and file size.
Shadows (SWF and bitmap formats only) Object shadows are rendered
(based only on shadow-casting point lights in your scene). Shadows can greatly
enhance the 3D effect. However, shadows also increase file size and
significantly increase render time.
When Shadows is turned on, shadows are rendered for all objects. You cannot
render shadows only on certain objects (for example, by turning off Casts
Shadows or Receive Shadows for an object).
Shadows are only rendered if there is a shadow-casting point light in your
scene (that is, a point light that has Use Depth Map Shadows or Use Ray Trace
Shadows turned on).
NOTE
■ You cannot set the shadow color.
■ Shadows are not cast onto surfaces with transparent materials.

Highlights (SWF and bitmap formats only) Specular highlights are rendered
(based only on point lights in your scene and on surface material shininess).
(When Fill Style is Single Color, specular highlights are based on the position
of point lights in your scene. Changing the intensity or color of point lights
does not change the appearance of highlights.)
Regions of surfaces that are close to being perpendicular to a point light are
filled with a number of concentric solid color regions (based on surface material
Specular Color and on the Highlight Level value) that are lighter than the rest
of the surface.
For this material... Surface shininess is based only on...
Anisotropic Roughness
Blinn Eccentricity
Phong Cosine Power
Phong E Roughness
NOTE
■ This option is only available when Fill Style is Single Color, Average Color
or Area Gradient.
■ Highlights are only rendered if there is a point light in your scene that has
Emit Specular turned on.
■ If a surface material’s Specular Color is mapped with a texture, the color

of the highlight is based on the texture’s Default Color. If a surface
material’s Specular Color is mapped with a utility node, the color of the
highlight is white.

Highlight Level (SWF and bitmap formats only) The number of concentric
solid color regions used to represent specular highlights. The valid range is 1
NOTE This option is only available when Highlights is on.
Reflections (SWF and bitmap formats only) Surface reflections are rendered
(based on the surface material Reflectivity).
Reflection Depth (SWF and bitmap formats only) The maximum number
of times a surface can inter-reflect with other surfaces. The valid range is 1 to
NOTE This option is only available when Reflections is on.
Edge Options
Include Edges Surface edges and silhouettes are rendered as outlines.

TIP To render surfaces as unfilled outlines, turn off Fill Objects and turn on Include
Edges.
Edge Weight Preset, Edge Weight The thickness of surface outlines (measured
in points).
NOTE When File Format is SWF, changes in Edge Weight less than 1 Point are not
noticeable unless you zoom into the outline.
Edge Style When Edge Style is Outlines, surface edges and silhouettes are
rendered as outlines. (Use Detail Edges to also render sharp polygon edges as
outlines.)
When Edge Style is Entire Mesh, all polygon edges are rendered as outlines.
Entire Mesh produces very large file sizes. (The greater the number of polygons
in your model, the greater the file size.)
Edge Color The color of surface outlines.

Hidden Edges Surface edges that are behind another surface are visible in the
rendered image. (This may make certain objects look transparent or make
models appear as wireframes.)
Hidden Edges increases rendered file size because of the extra vector
information.
TIP If you are rendering a model with many polygons, avoid turning on Hidden
Edges and setting Edge Style to Entire Mesh; too many lines will likely appear in
the rendered image.
Edge Detail Sharp edges between polygons are rendered as outlines. The Min
Edge Angle controls which polygon edges are rendered as outlines.
Edge Detail can help define the shape of a 3D object, especially when the
object is composed of few surfaces, but also produces larger file sizes.
NOTE This option is only available when Edge Style is Outlines.
Outlines at Intersections When you turn this attribute on, an outline appears
along the point where two objects intersect. Use the Edge Priority setting to
resolve edge outline conflicts (when depth does not automatically do so). This
attribute is also located in the Render Settings, Maya Vector tab, in the Edge
Options section.
Min Edge Angle Determines which polygon edges are rendered as outlines
when Edge Detail is on. Min Edge Angle is the minimum angle (measured in

degrees) that two adjacent polygons’ normals must have in order for their
common edge to be rendered as an outline.
Decreasing the Min Edge Angle produces larger file sizes because of the extra
vector information in the rendered file.
NOTE This option is only available when Edge Style is Outlines.
Render Optimizations
The Render Optimization setting specifies how the Vector renderer optimizes
the current frame to reduce file sizes. You can select one of the following types
of optimizations:
Safe Removes redundant geometry in areas of high detail, especially geometry
that is only visible by zooming in on the area. Redundant edges occur on the
at the intersection of the visible and invisible areas of the scene, and are always
safe to remove.
Good Removes redundant geometry in areas of high detail, and removes

sub-pixel geometry that is not visible unless zooming into a high detail area.
Aggressive Removes redundant geometry, sub-pixel geometry, and geometry

that is slightly above the single pixel level, in high detail areas. This setting
reduces file size by up to 30%.
NOTE Using Aggressive optimization makes it possible to visibly detect the missing
geometry without zooming in on the area. It may also result in inconsistent
geometry (like unclosed shapes).
Create Render Passes window
You can access the Create Render Passes window by selecting mental ray as
your renderer, then selecting the Passes tab, and clicking the New Pass
button.
Pass List Select, from the list, the render passes that you want to create. You
can multi-select render passes by shift-clicking or control-clicking.
All render pass presets that you have created are also available from this list.

Name Presets
Pass Prefix / Pass Suffix Add a prefix or suffix to the render pass names of
the passes that you are creating.
Create Pass Set / Pass Set Name Select the Create Pass Set option to create a
new pass set. All render passes that you created simultaneously with the render
pass set are automatically associated with the set.
Create and Close / Create Click the Create and Close button to create the
selected render passes and close the Create Render Passes window. Click the
Create button to keep the Create Render Passes window open and create
multiple versions of the selected passes.
Custom Stereo Rig Editor
The Custom Stereo Editor is used when you want to create a custom stereocopic
camera rig with MEL or Python scripting.
Modifying existing rigs - displays all the editable rigs you’ve created in the
scene.
Registering a new rig - creates a new rig for the scene. Enter in the Custom
Rig Name, select the type of Language used: MEL/Python from the drop down
menu and the enter the procedure you want to occur for the rig. Click Add
New Rig to create the new rig.
Custom Stereo Rig Editor | 471

Render View
Window > Rendering Editors > Render View
In scene view: Panels > Panel > Render View
Render View menu bar

You can access the following items from pop-up menus by right-clicking in
the panel.
Some menu items are renderer-specific. For example, IPR menu items do not
appear for Maya hardware rendering.
For more information on Render View, see Render View rendering on page
52.
File menu
Open Image Loads one image from disk into Render View. Images usually
end with suffixes indicating their image format.
Save Image Saves the image to disk in the /images directory (as specified by
your current project management settings).
Open IPR File Opens the file browser to the iprImages directory from where
you can open a saved IPR file into Render View.
NOTE Make sure the IPR file you load corresponds to the current scene file. If the
name of a surface in the IPR file does not match a corresponding surface in the
current scene, you are unable to adjust the shading characteristics of that surface.
Save IPR File Saves the current IPR file to the iprImages directory.
Close IPR File Closes the IPR file on which you are working and ends the
current IPR session.
Load Render Pass

Use this option to preview your multi-render pass output. Select the desired
render pass output from the submenu.
Render Diagnostics The Script Editor window appears providing you with
valuable information about how to improve performance or avoid certain
limitations. You can run the diagnostics while experimenting with different
settings, or before you start final rendering.
Keep Image in Render View Keeps the current image so you can view it later
and compare it against newly rendered images. When you keep more than
one image, a slider displays at the bottom of the window letting you bring a
specific image into view without loading the image. The images are lost when
you end your Maya session.
Remove Image from Render View Dismisses the current image (and the
memory needed by it) from Render View. Select the image that you want to
remove using the slider.
Remove All Images from Render View Dismisses all images (and the memory
these images need) from Render View so that only the most recently rendered
image remains.
If you are viewing one of the saved images in the Render View window, this
option still removes all saved images, including the currently displayed image.
View menu
Frame Image Frames the image you are rendering to fit Render View.
Frame Region Frames the region you marquee to fit Render View.
Real Size Automatically adjusts the view so the zoom factor is 1.0, and each
pixel of the image occupies one pixel on the display.
Show Region Marquee Displays the red render region marquee.
Reset Region Marquee Resets the render region marquee to surround the
entire image.
Grab Swatch to Hypershade/ Visor Use to customize Hypershade swatches.

A customized swatch lets you quickly access a scene and all its associated
attributes.
Render View menu bar | 473

Render menu
Redo Previous Render Renders the same view you last rendered. If you
rendered a region the last time, Redo Previous Render renders the entire image.
Render Region When you draw a marquee around an area in Render View,
select this option to render only that area. This is useful if you’ve made a
change to part of the surface on which you want to perform a quick test render.
Render All Layers

Toggle to render all layers or only the selected layer.
Render All Layers >

Renders all the layers in the scene based on the options set in the Render All
Layers Options window.
Composite Layers Renders a composited result of all layers is shown in the
Render View. This is the default for Render All Layers.
Composite and Keep Layers Renders all your layers as individual images, but
displays a composited result.
Keep Layers Renders all your layers as individual images.
Render Selected Objects Only Allows you to render only specified objects.
Select the objects that you wish to render and choose this option. This was
formerly the "Renderable Objects" option in the Common tab of the Render
Settings window.
Render

Opens a menu from which you can choose the view to render, for example,
persp, front, side, top or any of your stereo cameras.
Snapshot Does not work when IPR rendering. Opens a menu from which you
can choose the view. A wireframe snapshot is taken of the view you select and
loaded as a background into Render View. You can then marquee a region to
render in front of the snapshot’s background and select the Render Region
icon.
TIP Zoom into the view you select if you want to see the results up close.
IPR menu
For Maya software and mental ray rendering only.

For details on IPR, see Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) on page 47.
Redo Previous IPR Render IPR renders the same view last IPR rendered.
IPR Render Opens a menu, from which you can choose the view to IPR render.
Update Shadow Maps Regenerates shadow maps and updates the IPR image.
You cannot interactively adjust shadow maps.
Update Image Planes/Background Updates the marquee IPR region with

any changes you make to the image plane. If you don’t select this option after
you make changes to an image plane, the effects of the changes are not visible
in IPR until you either perform a new IPR render or marquee a new tuning
region.
Refresh IPR Image Completely updates (re-shades) the entire image based
on all changes you have made. The refresh occurs a bit at a time because
loading all samples for the entire image often uses too much memory.
IPR Quality
Selects quality settings for the IPR.
Preview If selected, a good balance between quality and time is achieved.
Preview Raytrace If selected, the IPR quality is slightly better than the IPR
quality in the Preview setting due to Raytracing.
Render Settings If selected, the quality presets specified in the Render Settings
Window are used.
IPR Tuning Options

Specifies what characteristics of the scene update interactively as you adjust.
These options are related to the IPR Options in the Render Settings window.

For example, if you turn off Render Shading, Lighting, and Glow in Render
Settings window on page 376, you cannot adjust them.
Update Shading and Lighting If on, the IPR image updates whenever you
adjust an attribute for shading networks, lights, or when you make shading
group assignments or move lights.
Update Shader Glow If on, the IPR image updates whenever you adjust a
shader glow (post-process) attribute.
Update Light Glow If on, the IPR image updates whenever you adjust lighting
or light glow attributes, or move a light.
Update 2D Motion Blur If on, the IPR image updates whenever you adjust
2D motion blur attributes. Modifying the scene’s animation (for example, to
make an object move faster and increase the blur) does not affect the IPR
image’s motion blur because modifying the animation changes the information
that was generated during the initial IPR render (motion vectors are changed),
which is a change to the visibility calculation. You have to perform a new IPR
render to see the results.
Pause IPR Tuning Pauses the updating of the selected IPR region in the Render
View.
Options menu
Some menu items are renderer specific. For example, the Ignore Shadows
menu item does not appear for Maya hardware rendering.
Render Settings Opens the Render Settings window on page 376 when
test-rendering (not IPR).
Render using Select the type of renderer you use to render the image: Maya
Software, Maya Hardware, Maya Vector, mental ray.
Test Resolution Select the resolution at which you want to render the image.
Use a reduced resolution to test render the scene if possible. See also Test
render a low-res still or frame on page 127 or Test render a low-res animation
on page 128
Auto Resize Allows Render View to resize the image each time you render.
When on, always displays the rendered image in the center of Render View,
and at real size if the image fits (one to one pixel matching). When off, the
image always displays in the same place according to the last view.
Auto Render Region When on, renders the image as soon as you finish
dragging a marquee in Render View. This can make rendering a region a

one-step process: drag a render region, and when you release the mouse button
the region is immediately rendered.
Ignore Shadows Tells Maya not to test render any shadows in the scene. This
can speed up test rendering.
Ignore Glows Tells Maya not to test render any glows in the scene. This can
speed up test rendering.
Display menu
Red Channel, Green Channel, Blue Channel Displays the red, green, or blue
channels only.
All Channels Displays RGB channels.
Luminance Displays a weighted average of R, G, and B planes that define the

luminance level of the image.
Alpha Channel Displays the alpha channel only.
Stereo Display
After you have rendered your scene using the stereo camera (by selecting
Render > Render > stereoRig), you can view your render output in different
stereo modes such as Anaglyph and Freeview (Parallel), or, from only the left
or right camera. For more information regarding the stereo modes, see Stereo
on page 358.
Render Info
Select the type(s) of render information you want displayed in the Render
View.
Frame Number Displays the frame number of the image.
Render Time Displays the time it took to render the image, for example 0:05
(five seconds).
Camera Name Displays the name of the camera used to render the image.
Layer Name If the scene has render layers, the name of the layer used in the
image is displayed.

Custom Comment Add custom text to your rendered image. When the
Custom Comment dialog box appears, enter your text into the field, and click
OK. Custom comments appear at the bottom of the image.
Dithered Turn off Dithered to display the best version of a image. Turn on
Dithered to display a dithered image (does not flicker when displayed).
Dithered is on by default.
Toolbar Shows/hides the Render View toolbar. Toolbar is on by default.
Render View toolbar

You can use the rendering buttons in the Status Line in Maya’s main window,
or use the buttons in the Render View toolbar to perform various operations.
Some tools are renderer specific. For example, the IPR tools appear only for
Maya software and mental ray rendering.
For more information on Render View, see Render View rendering on page
52.
Redo Previous Render
Renders the same view you rendered last. If you rendered a region the last
time, Redo Previous Render renders the entire image.
Right-click this button to select a camera. All cameras, default and user-defined,
are available.
Render Region
Renders only the region with a marquee. This is useful if you’ve made a change
to part of the surface on which you want to perform a quick test render. See
Render a region of your scene on page 130 for details.
Snapshot
Opens a menu from which you can choose the view. A wireframe snapshot
is taken of the view you select and loaded as a background into Render View.

You can then marquee a region to render in front of the snapshot’s background
and select the Render region icon.
are available.
NOTE This option does not work when IPR rendering.
Redo Previous IPR Render
IPR renders the same view last IPR rendered.

are available.
Refresh the IPR Image
Completely updates the entire image based on all changes you have made.
The refresh occurs a bit at a time—loading all the samples for the entire image
may use large amounts of memory.
Open Render Settings Window
Opens the Render Settings window on page 376.
Display RGB Channels
Displays the image with RGB channels. This is the default display mode.
Right-click this button to select individual channels. Each channel has a
corresponding icon:
Channel Icon
RGB Channels
Render View toolbar | 479

Channel Icon
Red
Green
Blue
Luminance
Display Alpha Channel
Displays the image’s alpha channel only. See Use Background and Matte
Opacity for a few examples of how the alpha channel is used.
Display Real Size
Displays the image at its exact pixel resolution. See also Test render a low-res
still or frame on page 127.
Keep Image
Keeps the current image so you can view it later. When you keep more than
one image, a slider displays at the bottom of the window. Drag this slider to
view a previously “kept” image.

You can also keep rendered images with any annotation you’ve added.
Right-click the Keep Image button, and select the Keep Image with Comment
option. When the Custom Comment dialog box appears, enter your text into
the field, and click OK. Custom comments appear at the bottom of the image.
NOTE The stored (“kept”) images are lost when you end your Maya session.
Remove Current Image / Remove All Images
Right-click the icon to select either the Remove Current Image or Remove All
Images option.
These options can also be selected via the File > Remove Image from Render
View and File > Remove All Images from Render View menus in the Render
View window. See Render View menu bar on page 472 for more information.
Remove Current Image Releases the current image (and the memory it uses)
from Render View. Select the image you want to remove using the slider at
the bottom of the window.
Remove All Images Releases all images (and the memory these images use)
from Render View so that only the most recently rendered image remains.
If you are viewing one of the saved images in the Render View window, this
option still removes all saved images, including the currently displayed image.
Only the most recently rendered image is kept.
TIP Only “kept” images can be removed. If you are viewing a newly rendered
image in the Render View window that has not been kept, selecting this option
will display an error message that the current image cannot be removed.
Show Render Diagnostics in the Script Editor
Render View toolbar | 481

Click the icon after you adjust objects, and before you re-render. The Script
Editor that displays provides valuable information about how you can improve
performance. You can run the diagnostics while experimenting with rendering
settings, or before you start the final render.
Renderer Select a renderer from the drop-down list: Maya Software, Maya
Hardware, Maya Vector, mental ray and any additional 3rd party renderers
you have installed.
Pause IPR Tuning
Pauses the updating of the selected IPR region in the Render View.
Close IPR File and Stop Tuning
Closes the current IPR file and ends the current IPR session.
Rendering Flags
Rendering Flags window

Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags
The Rendering Flags window lets you list the elements in your scene and
provides you with a way to set the attributes for the nodes you select.
Rendering Flags Show list
Click the down arrow to display the Show menu, then select an item or items
for which you want a list of attributes.
The attributes for these items are listed in the right panel where you can change
and set them, much like in the Channel Box.

Rendering Flags window panels
The Rendering Flags window contains two panels. The left panel lists the items
you select from the Show menu, and the right panel lists the attributes for
the selected items. In the left panel, click the list item for which you want to
change or set the attributes and the details display in the right panel.
To set attributes for multiple nodes in the Rendering Flags window
1 You can change or set attributes for several related objects by selecting
them in the left panel, and setting the attribute value in the right panel.
For example, if you want to turn the visibility off for two NURBS spheres
in the scene, select both spheres from the left panel and type off beside
Visibility in the right panel.
Once you change an attribute for a selected item, the heading changes
color in the list reminding you of the change.
Rendering Flags window | 483

Hardware Render Buffer
Hardware Render Buffer window

Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer
NOTE The Hardware renderer, with its greater capabilities, is now recommended
to perform hardware rendering. See Maya Hardware renderer on page 5.
The Hardware Render Buffer lets you render an animation using your
computer’s display graphics card. Hardware rendering is much faster than
software rendering, although the result may be of lower quality. You can use
the Hardware Render Buffer to preview animations, or to render specific types
of particle effects.
Render Sequence will not render particles successfully if the Render Passes and
“Motion Blur” options (found in the Multi-Pass Render Options section of the
Hardware Render Buffer Attribute section) are equivalent integers. For example,
if Render Passes is set to 3 and Motion Blur is set to 3, hardware particle
rendering will not work.
Set them to non-equivalent values or to use the Disk Cache option (Solvers >
Create Particle Disk Cache).
NOTE When the overscan attribute of the camera is anything other than 1.0,
image planes are positioned incorrectly in the hardware render buffer (as can be
seen compared to the correct placement in software rendering).
To work around this limitation, temporarily set the overscan to 1.0 when
hardware buffer rendering.
To open the Hardware Render Buffer
1 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer.
NOTE On Mac OS X, the Hardware Render Buffer does not open in a panel;
the panel is blank when you select it.
To set options for the Hardware Render Buffer
1 In the Hardware Render Buffer, click Render > Attributes. For a description
of the options, see Hardware Render Buffer menus on page 491.

IMPORTANT The Hardware Render Buffer renders images based on your
monitor’s display (using screen captures). Before rendering from the Hardware
Render Buffer, make sure the Hardware Render Buffer fits on your monitor,
make sure no other window overlaps the Hardware Render Buffer, and disable
your computer’s screen saver.
To determine hardware rendering quality
1 In the Shading menu in the view panel, make sure Smooth Shade All and
Hardware Texturing are selected.
2 In Hypershade, double-click the material swatch you want to preview to

open its Attribute Editor.
3 In the Hardware Texturing section of the material’s Attribute Editor, the

Textured channel menu contains the attributes you can hardware render.
Select the Textured channel you want to view from the menu.
NOTE
■ You can only view one channel at a time.
■ To view an attribute, it must be mapped to a texture. Attributes that

are not mapped are dimmed.
■ Some channels, such as Bump Map, do not provide hardware textured

results. You must use Render View to see the results.
4 Select the resolution you want from the Texture resolution menu.
Hardware Render Buffer window | 485

Use the flipbook
(Linux and Windows only)

The Flipbook lets you play back a rendered sequence of images. The sequence
is displayed using the fcheck utility.
To play back a rendered sequence of images
1 Select the sequence from the Flipbooks menu. The sequence is displayed
using the Fcheck utility.
Hardware Render Buffer global settings

Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer (in Hardware Render
Buffer window) Render > Attributes.
Image Output Files
Filename The base name for all hardware rendered image files. The default
file name is im.
Extension The format of the extension(s) added to the base name for all
rendered image files. Options with ext include the Image Format in the
extension. The default setting is name.001.
Start Frame, End Frame The first and last frame to render. The default value
for Start Frame is 1. The default value for End Frame is 10.

By Frame The increment between frames you want to render. For instance,
if By Frame is set to 1, the Hardware Render Buffer renders frames 1, 2, 3, and
so on. If set to 2, it renders 1, 3, 5, and so on. The default value is 1.
Image Format The format for saving hardware rendered image files. The
default setting is Maya IFF.
Resolution The resolution of hardware rendered image files. Click the Select
button to select a preset image resolution.
Alpha Source The type of alpha information saved with the hardware rendered
images. Alpha information represents the opacity of each pixel, and is used
for compositing images using compositor software. (Alpha information is also
referred to as alpha channel, mask, matte, or alpha buffer.) If you do not plan
to composite hardware rendered images, set Alpha Source Off. The default
setting is Off.
Write ZDepth If Write ZDepth is on, the hardware rendered contains depth
information (the distance of objects from the camera). Write ZDepth is off by
default.
TIP Depth information is sometimes necessary when compositing images (for

example, compositing hardware rendered particles that pass behind a software
rendered transparent object). If you do not plan to composite hardware rendered
images, or do not require depth information for compositing, turn off Write
ZDepth.
Alpha Source table
Off Alpha information is not included in hard-

ware rendered images.
Hardware Alpha Assigns each pixel an alpha value based on

its opacity, regardless of its brightness or
color. The more opaque a pixel is, the
more opaque it appears in the image’s al-
pha channel.Setting Alpha Source to
Hardware Alpha only has an effect if your
computer has a hardware alpha buffer. If
it does not have a hardware alpha buffer
and you set Alpha Source to Hardware Al-
pha, the alpha channel of hardware
rendered images is fully opaque.
Hardware Render Buffer global settings | 487

Luminance Assigns each pixel an alpha value based on
its brightness. The brighter a pixel is, the
more opaque it appears in the image’s al-
pha channel.
Red Channel Assigns each pixel an alpha value equal to

the value of its RGB red component. The
higher a pixel’s red value is, the more
opaque it appears in the image’s alpha
channel.
Green Channel Assigns each pixel an alpha value equal to

the value of its RGB green component. The
higher a pixel’s green value is, the more
channel.
Blue Channel Assigns each pixel an alpha value equal to

the value of its RGB blue component. The
higher a pixel’s blue value is, the more
channel.
Clamp Assigns each rendered pixel an alpha value

of 1 (fully opaque), and each unrendered
pixel an alpha value of 0 (fully transparent).
Inverse Clamp Assigns each rendered pixel an alpha value

of 0 (fully transparent), and each un-
rendered pixel an alpha value of 1 (fully
opaque).
Render Modes
Lighting Mode
Controls how objects are lit during hardware rendering. The default setting
is Default Light.
Default Light A default directional light illuminates the scene in the direction
that the camera faces.

All Lights The lights in the scene (up to a maximum of eight lights) illuminate
the scene.
Selected Lights The lights in the scene that you’ve selected (for example, in
the Outliner) illuminate the scene.
Draw Style
Controls how objects are hardware rendered. (If Geometry Mask is on, Draw
Style has no effect.) The default setting is Smooth Shaded.
Points NURBS surfaces are rendered as points evenly spaced along surface,
polygonal surfaces are rendered as points (corresponding to vertices), and
particles are rendered as points.
Wireframe Surfaces are rendered in wireframe.
Flat Shaded Surfaces are rendered as flat shaded polygons.
Smooth Shaded Surfaces are rendered as smooth shaded polygons using a

Phong material.
Texturing If on, textures are hardware rendered. Texturing is on by default.
Line Smoothing If on, sharp, jagged edges on surfaces and streaks on Streak
or MultiStreak particles are softened. Line Smoothing is off by default.
Full Image Resolution If on and Resolution is greater than the monitor’s

resolution (the hardware rendered images cannot fit on the screen), the
Hardware Render Buffer divides the image into tiles, renders each tile
separately, then assembles the tiles together when it saves the image to disk.
If you are rendering an animation, the Hardware Render Buffer displays each
tile as it renders it.
If off and Resolution is greater than the monitor’s resolution, the Hardware
Render Buffer only renders the part of the image displayed on the monitor.
Geometry Mask When off, surfaces are hardware rendered. When on, Maya
masks out all geometry by setting the mask values to 0. Pixels of the rendered
image belonging to any geometry have a zero opacity in the image’s alpha
channel. Geometry Mask is off by default.
Display Shadows Turn this on to display shadows from directional and spot
lights for geometry (NURBS, polygons, subdivision surfaces) and particles
(points, multipoints, and spheres only). This is available only when All Lights
or Selected Lights are specified in the Lighting Mode drop-down list.
Hardware Render Buffer global settings | 489

NOTE These hardware shadows can be calculated and displayed on graphics cards
with drivers that support the ARB_multitexture and EXT_texture_env_combine
OpenGL extensions (such as graphic cards with Nvidia®GeForce®or Quadro GPU,
or ATI Radeon 8800).
Multi-Pass Render Options
Multi Pass Rendering If off, the Hardware Render Buffer renders each frame
using one pass. If on, the Hardware Render Buffer renders each frame using
more than one pass (based on the Render Passes setting, next). This softens
or blurs particles with a MultiStreak or MultiPoint Render Type. Multi Pass
Rendering is off by default.
Render Passes The number of passes the Hardware Render Buffer uses to
render each frame. The more passes per frame, the greater the softening or
blurring of particles with a MultiStreak or MultiPoint Render Type (and a
longer rendering time). Render Passes is only available if Multi Pass Rendering
is on. The default setting is 3.
TIP If the Motion Blur value is greater than 0, set the Render Passes value to at
least the Motion Blur value minus 1. For example, if the Motion Blur value is 4,
set the Render Passes value to at least 3.
Anti-Alias Polygons If on, sharp, jagged surface edges are softened

(anti-aliased) during hardware rendering. This option only works if Multi Pass
Rendering is on and the computer hardware supports anti-aliasing. Anti-Alias
Polygons is off by default.
Edge Smoothing Controls how much sharp, jagged surface edges are softened
(anti-aliased) during hardware rendering when Anti-Alias Polygons is on. The
higher the value, the softer the edges.
Set Edge Smoothing to 1 for clear, smooth edges. If Edge Smoothing is too
large (for example, 5), surface edges are excessively blurred. An Edge Smoothing
value of 0 has the same effect as turning off Anti-Alias Polygons. The default
value is 1.
Motion Blur Controls how much objects are motion blurred. The higher the
Motion Blur value, the greater the motion blur effect. A Motion Blur value of
0 means no motion blur. A value of 0.5 means the shutter is open for half the
frame duration. The default value is 0.
TIP If the Motion Blur value is greater than 0, set the Render Passes value to at
least the Motion Blur value minus 1. (For example, if the Motion Blur value is 4,
set the Render Passes value to at least 3.)

Display Options
Controls which icons are hardware rendered, and the background color for
hardware rendered images.
Grid If on, the grid is hardware rendered. Grid is off by default.
Camera Icons If on, any camera icons visible in the Hardware Render Buffer
are rendered. Camera Icons is off by default.
Light Icons If on, any light icons visible in the Hardware Render Buffer are
rendered. Light Icons is off by default.
Emitter Icons If on, any emitter icons visible in the Hardware Render Buffer
are rendered. Emitter Icons is off by default.
Field Icons If on, any field icons visible in the Hardware Render Buffer are
rendered. Field Icons is off by default.
Collision Icons If on, any collision icons visible in the Hardware Render Buffer
are rendered. Collision Icons is off by default.
Transform Icons If on, any transform icons (from the translate, rotate, or
scale tools) visible in the Hardware Render Buffer are rendered. Transform
Icons is off by default.
Background Color The background color for hardware rendered images. The
default color is black.
TIP If you plan to composite hardware rendered images, set the Background Color
to black.
Hardware Render Buffer menus

File menu
Contains the Close option. Either click the box at the top right of the window
or select this option to close the Hardware Render Buffer window.
Render menu
Contains options for setting rendering attributes, rendering a frame or sequence

of frames, and controlling the display of the Hardware Render Buffer.
Attributes Opens the Attribute Editor and displays Hardware Render Buffer
Render Settings. For details, see Hardware Render Buffer window on page 484.
Hardware Render Buffer menus | 491

Test Render Test-renders the current frame in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Render Sequence Select to render the current animation.
Scale Buffer Scales the size of the Hardware Render Buffer so the rendered
image is 100%, 70%, 50%, 30%, or 10% of the Resolution.
TIP
■ Set Scale Buffer to 100% for the final render.
■ Scaling down the size of the rendered image decreases the amount of
rendering time required and increases the speed of playback.
■ A dimmed Scale Buffer option (percentage) means that the rendered image
would either be too large to display on the screen, or too small to see
adequately.
Time Slider Displays the time slider and transport controls at the bottom of
the Hardware Render Buffer. Click to turn the Time Slider at the bottom of
the window on or off.
TIP In the Hardware Render Buffer window, Render > Attributes... window,
unsupported image file formats appear in the Image Format drop-down list. The
following are the supported image file formats: Tiff, Tiff16, SGI, MayaIFF, JPEG,
Maya16IFF, Targa, Windows Bitmap, MacPaint, Photoshop, PNG, QuickDraw, and
Quick Time Image.
When you select another (unsupported) format from the drop-down list, Maya
renders the image as an .iff file.

Cameras menu
The view in the Hardware Render Buffer is actually a copy of the corresponding
camera view. For example, if the camera view displays the resolution gate, the
Hardware Render Buffer view also displays the resolution gate.
The Cameras menu contains a list of all cameras in the scene. Select a camera
view by selecting it from the Cameras menu. For example, if you select camera
1, the Hardware Render Buffer displays the view as seen from the camera. If
side, it displays the side view.
You can select and move objects in the Hardware Render Buffer view just as
you would in a regular view. You can also adjust the camera in the Hardware
Render Buffer using the Alt (Linux and Windows) or Option (Mac OS X) key
and the left, middle or right mouse buttons.
When you playback an animation in the Hardware Render Buffer, it also plays
back in the corresponding view. To make an animation play back only in the
Hardware Render Buffer, click anywhere in the Hardware Render Buffer view
while the animation is playing.
IMPORTANT
Make sure nothing on the screen covers any part of the Hardware Render
Buffer during rendering. (Hardware rendering uses screen captures to create
rendered frames.)
Flipbooks menu
The Flipbooks menu contains the list of sequences you rendered in the
Hardware Render Buffer (if you selected Render Sequence from the Render
menu) as well as the Clear Flipbook Menu option and Flipbook Flags.

The Flipbooks Options control how sequences of images rendered from the
Hardware Render Buffer display and displays the Flipbook Options window.
Flipbook Options
These options control how sequences of images rendered from the Hardware
Render Buffer are displayed.
Options
Enter fcheck options to be used when playing back a hardware rendered

sequence of images (by selecting the sequence from the Flipbooks menu of
the Hardware Render Buffer).
Clear Flipbook Menu Removes any rendered sequences of images from the
Flipbooks menu.
Flipbook Flags Displays the Flipbook Options window. This option in available
for only Linux and Windows.
See also “fcheck” in the Rendering Utilities online documentation for
information on fcheck options.
Time slider and transport controls
The time slider and transport controls in the Hardware Render Buffer are
similar to the time slider and transport controls in the main Maya window.

See the Animate > Create Animated Sweep in the Animation guide for details
about the Time Slider.

496
Rendering nodes
11
Render Layer attributes
Render Layer render attributes

Render Layer Options
Find this section in each render layer’s Attribute Editor. Right-click the desired
layer and select Attributes from the right-mouse menu to display the render
layer’s Attribute Editor.
Renderable Determines whether the select layer is renderable. When a layer is
rendered, it is processed into a final image or image sequence.
Global Converts the selected layer into a Global layer. A Global layer is a render
layer that does not have membership. Instead it contains all the objects in the
scene. By converting a layer into Global, all the objects in your scene
automatically appears in the layer.
A sample application of this attribute is if you have created a model and wanted
to test different colors for the model. For example, if you have modeled a car,
and wanted to test out different colors of paint, you can create five global layers,
and in the Attribute Editor for the shader, override the color attribute for each
paint color and then batch render all layers.
Number Render layer index number. Use this attribute to merge layers when
importing files with render layers. You can choose to merge by layer name or
layer number. Set your layer number in this field.
You can also merge layers when importing files with display layers. See Display
Layer editor in the Basics guide for more information.
497
Member Overrides
Casts Shadows Turns on the shadow casting ability of the surface. To make
shadows render faster, for surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off
Casts Shadows. Consider the following:
■ If you want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object casts
onto other objects—make sure Casts Shadows is on.
■ If you do not want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object
casts onto other objects—turn Casts Shadows off.
NOTE
■ If you render shadows separately, use the mask channel of the rendered
shadow image in your compositing software to reduce the brightness
of another image.
■ When you render from the Render View window, you can render only
the selected objects by selecting Render>Render Selected Objects Only.
Receive Shadows
Turns on the shadow-catching ability of the surface.
Motion Blur
Turns on motion blur for the surface. You must also turn on Motion Blur
in the Render Settings window on page 376.
Primary Visibility
When on, the surface is visible in the view and renders.
TIP A surface’s shadow renders, however, if its Primary Visibility is off and Cast
Shadows is on. This also applies to reflections and refractions.
Smooth shading
If this is on, each vertex uses its own normal vector - meaning smoother
transition between two faces. If this is off, one normal vector is used for a
face; 3 vertices in a triangle uses a same normal vector, resulting flat looking
shading.
Visible In Refractions
When on, the surface refracts in transparent surfaces. This is supported by
mental ray for Maya.
Visible In Reflections
498 | Chapter 11 Rendering nodes

When on, the surface reflects in reflective surfaces. This is supported by
Double Sided
Determines if the surface is double-sided. If single-sided, you can decrease
memory use and use the Opposite option.
Opposite
Opposite flips the surface normals. Double-Sided must be off to set Opposite.
Depth Jitter
If you set Volume Sample Override on, you can turn on Depth Jitter option.
Randomizes the samples of the volume with depth which replaces banding
artifacts in volume renders with noise. The noise can be dramatically
reduced by increasing the volume samples and anti-aliasing levels.
Ignore Self Shadowing

When on, the object does not cast shadow onto itself.
Override Geometry Anti-aliasing

When on, the surface overrides the geometry anti-aliasing settings.
TIP Motion-blurred objects ignore any changes to the Override Geometry

Anti-aliasing settings. The blur generally hides any aliasing artifacts.
Level
Level 1
The default. It takes 32 visibility samples.
Level 2
Takes 96 visibility samples.
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Takes 800 visibility samples. Level 5 gives the best edge anti aliasing quality,
but it is also the most expensive (in both memory and speed).
Override Shading Samples

When on, the surface overrides the global shading sample settings in the
Render Layer render attributes | 499

Shading Samples
Sets the minimum number of times Maya samples each pixel. For example,
if set to 1, Maya samples each pixel once; if set to 8, Maya samples each
pixel 8 times. The number of shading samples taken per pixel is limited
by the number of visibility samples performed by the Edge Anti-Aliasing
computation. So, if you use Medium Quality (which performs 8 visibility
samples per pixel), you cannot get more than 8 shading samples regardless
of the Shading Samples attribute setting.
Since Shading Samples computation is very expensive, you should try
adjusting the Max Shading Samples first. See Max Shading Samples on
page 513.
Max Shading Samples

Sets the maximum number of times a pixel is sampled during the second
pass of a Highest Quality render (adaptive shading pass). The higher the
number, the longer the rendering takes, but the more accurate the resulting
image is.
Max Shading Samples has an effect only when used in conjunction with
Highest Quality edge anti-aliasing. Also, depending on the requirements
to compute an accurate solution, the number of Shading Samples taken
can be less than the number of Max Shading Samples.
TIP
■ Occasionally, when an object is moving, the object’s textured edges
look distorted. To resolve this, try increasing the number of Max
Shading Samples.
■ Sometimes, skinny highlights can exhibit roping or flickering artifacts.

Try increasing the Max Shading Samples setting. You may also need to
increase the Shading Samples setting, but you can set it on a per-object
basis.
Override Visibility Samples

Activate the layer override on the global maximum number of motion
blur visibility samples to be taken for surfaces during rendering.
Level
Sets the number of visibility samples for the layer override.
Override Volume Samples

When on, the object overrides the global volume shading settings and you
can turn on the Depth Jitter option in Render Settings window.
Level

Sets the number of volume samples for the layer override.
Render Pass Options (legacy for mental ray)
For a description of each render pass, see Render passes on page 301.
mental ray (legacy for mental ray)
Select this option to render a global illumination pass for this layer. For more
information on global illumination, see Global illumination.
Render pass nodes
Render pass Attribute Editor
Use this node to set your options for your render pass.
Render Pass Options
Renderable Select this option to set the render pass as renderable. When set
as renderable, the render pass (frame buffer) is defined in mental ray and
written to disk upon rendering completion.
Type Select the desired render pass type from the drop-down list.
Numbers of Channels Set the number of channels for your render pass output.
Some render passes support all types of channels, while some others only
support a limited number of channels.
Frame Buffer Type Select the framebuffer type from the drop-down list.
Filtering Enable this option to use the same filter settings as selected in the
Render Settings window. This option should be enabled in most cases.
Pass Group Name Use this attribute to sort your render passes into logical
file groups. The pass group name that you enter in this field is appended to
the image file name when you include the <RenderPassFileGroup> render
token in your File name prefix attribute in the File Output section in the
Render Settings: Common tab on page 377.
Render pass nodes | 501

For example, group your diffuse, specular and shadow passes into a pass group
called Illumination. When rendering with openEXR, add the
<RenderPassFileGroup> render token to your File name prefix attribute. All
passes with Pass Group Name set to Illumination are concatenated under the
Illumination exr file.
A render pass node may also have several of the following attributes, depending
on the pass type:
NOTE The terms hidden and visible refer to whether or not an object is associated
with the pass through one or more pass contribution maps.
Use Transparency When this option is disabled, all objects in the scene turn
opaque.
Holdout Allows hidden objects to occlude. This option is useful for some
compositing workflows.
Hidden Geometries Visible in Reflections Enable this option to make hidden

objects appear through visible reflective objects.
Hidden Geometries Visible in Refractions Enable this option to make hidden

objects appear through visible refractive objects.
Hidden Geometries Produce Reflections Renders the reflections of visible

objects through hidden objects.
Hidden Geometries Produce Refractions Renders the refractions of visible

objects through hidden objects.
Attenuate According to Transparency Framebuffer values are modulated by

material transparency. Only available for render pass types where it is pertinent.
For example, if you render a 50% transparent surface and the object behind
it is opaque, the diffuse for the opaque object is dimmed by 50% and written
as is, since the object is being seen through a transparent surface.
Min Reflection Level / Max Reflection Level The minimum and maximum
number of times a light ray can be reflected. The maximum value is clamped
by the Max Trace Depth value set in the Render Settings window, Quality tab.
Min Refraction Level / Max Refraction Level The minimum and maximum
number of times a light ray can be refracted. The maximum value is clamped
by the Max Trace Depth value set in the Render Settings window, Quality tab.
Normalized 2D Motion Vector render pass attributes
The Normalized 2D Motion Vector pass node also includes these attributes:

Automatic Max Pixel Disp. / Max Pixel Disp. If the Automatic Max Pixel
Disp. option is selected, Maya calculates the maximum image resolution. For
example, if the image resolution is 640x480, the biggest axis of the image,
640, is used.
Otherwise, if the Automatic Max Pixel Disp. option is disabled, Maya uses the
value specified in Max Pixel Disp.
Min. Disp. Range / Max. Disp. Range Specify how the motion vector should
be remapped. For example, the default is 0 for the minimum and 1 for the
maximum, with a maximum displacement of 256. Therefore, any value less
than 0 is remapped to 0. Any value greater than 256 is remapped to 1, and a
displacement of 128 is remapped to 0.5.
Extract Magnitude If enabled, the length of the 2D vector is placed in the

z-component. The length is also normalized; so, if the length is 256, the value
written in blue channel would be 1 (assuming that the displacement value is
256).
Camera Depth render pass attributes
The Camera Depth pass node also includes these attributes: Near clipping
plane / Far clipping plane, and Minimum buffer value and Maximum buffer
value.
Use the attributes to normalize the camera depth value. For example, using
the default values, any value less than 0 is normalized to 0 and any value
greater than 1000 is normalized to 1. Alternatively, you can also use these
attributes to clip objects out of the scene. You must enable the Remap Depth
Values option in order for the near and far clipping planes and minimum and
maximum buffer values to take effect.
Render pass set Attribute Editor
A render pass set is a group of render passes.

Render Pass Set Options
Renderable Select this option to make the render pass set renderable. By
making a render pass set renderable, you are also making its member passes
renderable.
Render pass set Attribute Editor | 503

Open Relationship Editor Click this button to open the Relationship Editor
to manage the list of render passes in this render pass set.
Render pass contribution map Attribute Editor
A pass contribution map associates a subset of the lights and renderable objects
in the scene to one or more render passes. When rendering a given render
layer, only the pass contribution maps linked to the layer are applied. Render
passes that are not connected to any objects through pass contribution maps
are implicitly associated to all objects.
Pass Contribution Map Options
Active Enable this attribute to use the pass contribution map.
Open Render Settings Click this button to open the Render Settings window.
mental ray for Maya Dynamic Attributes for

Rendering
Dynamic Attributes for Rendering

The following dynamic attributes are designed to work on Maya shape nodes.
Some of these attributes are not always visible by default in the Maya user
interface. However, once you have created the attribute, you can view and
edit the value in the Extra Attributes section in the Attribute Editor.
mental ray Derivatives
Use this attribute if you want to use mental ray derivatives for NURBS and
subdivision surfaces (to interact with shaders), instead of the default mental
ray for Maya derivatives.
Create this attribute on the shape node as follows:
addAttr -ln "miDerivatives" -at "enum" -en "none:first:second:both"
-dv 0 pSphereShape1;

Values within the range of 0 to 3 are supported for -miDerivatives.
■ 0 = no derivatives
■ 1 = first order derivatives
■ 2 = second order derivatives
■ 3 = first and second order derivatives
mental ray Ray Offset
Use this attribute to specify how much to offset a ray from the geometry. Ray
Offset is useful in scenes with raytraced self-shadowing artifacts.
Create this attribute on the shape node as follows:
addAttr -ln miRayOffset -at "float" -dv 0.0 pSphereShape1;
This attribute is often used to help resolve shading artifacts such as the
tessellation that appears in shadows or raytracing effects.
Transform node mental ray attributes
Transform node mental ray rendering attributes
Find this section in some selected objects' transform node Attribute Editor.
Flags
Use these flags to override your global settings.
Derive From Maya Select this option to follow the global settings in the
Hide Select this option to hide the object in your render.
Visible Use this flag to control the visibility of the selected object.
Trace Use this flag to turn raytracing on or off for the selected object.
Shadow Use this flag to enable or disable shadows for the selected object.
Caustic Use this flag to enable or disable caustics for the selected object.
Transform node mental ray attributes | 505

GlobIllum Use this flag to enable or disable global illumination for the selected
object.
Render Proxy
Renderable
If you are using render proxies to manage your scene, use this option to set
your render proxy as renderable so that it is rendered instead of your base
geometry.
This is a per instance flag. Therefore, if you have five instances of your base
geometry, and you only want to replace three of them with your render proxy,
you can use this flag to set the three instances as Renderable.
Render proxies allow for more efficient renders. Using this flag, you can choose
not to load and render complex geometry that you do not need in your scene.
For more information regarding render proxies, see Using render proxies in
your scene on page 242.
Geometry Shader
Enable Geometry Shader Use this option to override your geometry with a
mental ray geometry shader or a user defined mental ray shader.
Object-specific mental ray attributes -

Attribute Editor
mental ray
Find this section in the selected object’s shape node. Expand the mental ray
section of the shape node’s Attribute Editor to see these options.
The following options are on by default: Visible In Transparency, Transmit
Transparency, Trace Reflection, Transmit Refraction, Final Gather Cast, and
Final Gather Receive.

In most cases, you want to leave these options on. For example, you want
transparency and refraction rays to be transmitted through your object, or
you want reflection rays to reflect through your scene several times.
In some cases, however, you may want to customize your scene by switching
off one or more of these options. Refer to the descriptions below for the effects
that can be obtained by unchecking each of these attributes.
Visible In Transparency Uncheck this option so that the object is not be
visible if behind a transparent object.
Transmit Transparency Uncheck this option so that transparency rays do

not transmit through the object and treats the object as if it were opaque.
Trace Reflection Uncheck this option so that reflection rays stop immediately
after they hit the object instead of bouncing in a scene several times.
Transmit Refraction Uncheck this option so that transparency rays are

transmitted through the object but refractive rays are not. Use in conjunction
with Refractive Index under the Raytrace options section of the object’s shader
node.
Final Gather Cast Uncheck this option so that object does not contribute
any light to final gather.
Final Gather Receive Uncheck this option so that object does not receive any
final gather light.
NOTE Areas surrounding the selected object may appear darkened or shadowed
even if both Final Gather Cast and Final Gather Receive are unchecked for the
object. This effect occurs because although the object does not contribute any
light to final gather, final gather rays still hit the object and interpret the object
as dark.
Render Proxy
Select your render proxy .mi file to render your render proxy instead of your
base geometry placeholder.
For each instance of your base geometry, you can make the selection between
rendering the base geometry or replacing it with the render proxy. Use the
per-instance Renderable flag. See Renderable on page 506for more information.
Bounding Box Update

Proxy and geometry bounding boxes
mental ray | 507

Update the placeholder object with both the render proxy bounding box
attributes and the render proxy geometry. This is the default.
Proxy bounding box only
Update the placeholder object with only the render proxy bounding box
attributes but not the render proxy geometry.
Geometry bounding box only
Update the placeholder object with only the render proxy geometry but not
the render proxy bounding box attributes.
None
Does not update the placeholder object.
Anti-aliasing Sampling Override Use the Min Sample Level and Max Sample
Level attributes to set the range of samples used for the selected object. Note
that the min and max sample level values set for each object are bound by
the global min and max sample level values. See Anti-Aliasing Quality on page
416 for more information regarding the global sample level values.
Min Sample Level This is the object specific minimum number of samples
per pixel used when processing an image. This value is clamped to the global
min sample level value. For example, if the object specific min sample level
is set to -1 and the global min sample level is set to 1, then the global setting
of 1 will be used. Based on the Anti-aliasing Contrast on page 418 (adaptive)
settings, mental ray for Maya will increase these samples as needed.
Max Sample Level This is the object specific maximum number of samples
per pixel used when processing an image. This value is clamped to the global
max sample level value. For example, if the object specific max sample level

is set to 3 and the global max sample level is set to 2, then the global setting
of 2 will be used.
Rasterizer Shading Quality Override / Shading Quality This attribute

controls the rasterizer’s shading samples on a per-object basis. See Rasterizer
Quality on page 418 for more information.
Final Gather Override When on, the object overrides the global final gather
settings that you have set in the Render Settings window.
Final Gather Rays Controls how many rays are shot in each final gathering
step to compute the indirect illumination. The default is 1000 per sample
point, but this tends to be high for test renders (renders can take hours). Test
rendering at lower values, usually 100 or 200, is sufficient; higher values are
required for final renders. Increasing the value reduces noise but also increases
the rendering time.
Min Radius, Max Radius Max Radius and Min Radius control the size of the
sampling region within which Final Gather rays search for irradiance
information from other surfaces.
With the default values, Maya calculates values that seem appropriate based
on scene dimensions to speed up the render, but this calculation doesn’t allow
for complex geometry. Generally, enter a value that is 10% of scene’s overall
dimension for the Max Radius, then enter 0.0 for Min Radius. Make further
adjustments based on scene geometry detail, how the geometry is arranged
in the scene, and how the render looks. For example, use smaller radii to
achieve better detailing in nooks and crannies in your scene.
View (Radii in Pixel Size) This option causes the Min Radius and Max Radius
of final gather rays to be calculated in pixel size, rather than in object space.
This allows you to set the visual quality in pixel size, without knowing the
object or scene bounds.
Filter Use this to control how Final Gather uses a speckle elimination filter
to prevent samples with extreme brightness from skewing the overall energy
stored in a Final Gather sampling region.
Neighboring samples are filtered so that extreme values are discarded in the
filter size. By default, the filter size is 1. Setting this to 0 disables speckle
elimination, which can add speckles but will better converge towards the
correct total image brightness for extremely low accuracy settings. Size values
greater than 1 eliminate more speckles and soften sample contrasts. Sizes
greater than 4 or so are not normally useful.
Global Illumination Override When on, the object overrides the global
global illumination settings that you have set in the Render Settings window.
mental ray | 509

Global Illum Accuracy Change the number of photons used to compute the
local intensity of global illumination. The default number is 64; larger numbers
make the global illumination smoother but increase render time.
Global Illum Radius Controls the maximum distance at which mental ray
for Maya considers photons for global illumination. When left at 0 (the
default), mental ray for Maya calculates an appropriate amount of radius,
based on the bounding box size of the scene. If the result is too noisy,
increasing this value (to 1 to start, then by small increments up to 2) decreases
noise but gives a more blurry result. To reduce the blur, you must increase the
number of global illumination photons (Global illumination Accuracy) emitted
by the light source.
Caustics Override When on, the object overrides the global caustics settings
that you have set in the Render Settings window.
Caustic Accuracy Controls the number of photons used to estimate the caustic
brightness. The default is 64. Higher settings (up to 100 to start, tested in small
increments) larger numbers make the caustic smoother.
Caustic Radius Controls the maximum distance at which mental ray for Maya
considers photons for caustics. When left at 0 (the default), mental ray for
Maya calculates an appropriate amount of radius, based on the bounding box
size of the scene. If the result is too noisy, increasing this value (to 1 to start,
then by small increments up to 2) decreases noise but gives a more blurry
result. To reduce the blur, you must increase the number of caustic photons
(Caustic Accuracy) emitted by the light source.
Override Maximum Displace When on, the object overrides the global Max
Displace settings that you have set in the Render Settings window.
Maximum Displace Specifies the maximum displacement applied to object

control points in a normal direction. This provides control over the otherwise
automated displacement range to better focus tessellation where most needed.
Set this value if you have any displaced objects in your scene. See Max Displace
on page 446for more information.

Object-specific render attributes - Attribute
Editor
Render Stats
Find this section in some selected objects’ Attribute Editor, from the Attribute
Spread Sheet (Window > General Editors > Attribute Spread Sheet) or the
Rendering Flags window (Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags).
The Render Stats section lets you turn on or off various rendering options for
selected objects.
NOTE Render Stats for IBL (image-based lighting) nodes are described in Image
based lighting node attributes in the Lighting guide.
Casts Shadows Turns on the shadow casting ability of the surface. To make
shadows render faster, for surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off
Casts Shadows. Consider the following:
■ If you want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object casts
onto other objects—make sure Casts Shadows is on.
■ If you do not want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object
casts onto other objects—turn Casts Shadows off.
NOTE
■ If you render shadows separately, use the mask channel of the rendered
shadow image in your compositing software to reduce the brightness
of another image.
■ When you render from the Render View window, you can render only
the selected objects by selecting Render>Render Selected Objects Only.
Receive Shadows
Turns on the shadow-catching ability of the surface.
Motion Blur
Turns on motion blur for the surface. You must also turn on Motion Blur
in the Render Settings window on page 376.
Primary Visibility
Object-specific render attributes - Attribute Editor | 511

When on, the surface is visible in the view and renders.
TIP A surface’s shadow renders, however, if its Primary Visibility is off and Cast
Shadows is on. This also applies to reflections and refractions.
Smooth Shading
If this is on, each vertex uses its own normal vector - meaning smoother
transition between two faces. If this is off, one normal vector is used for a
face; 3 vertices in a triangle uses a same normal vector, resulting flat looking
shading.
Visible In Reflections
When on, the surface reflects in reflective surfaces. This is supported by
Visible In Refractions
When on, the surface refracts in transparent surfaces. This is supported by
Double Sided
Determines if the surface is double-sided. If single-sided, you can decrease
memory use and use the Opposite option.
Opposite
Opposite flips the surface normals. Double-Sided must be off to set Opposite.
Geometry Anti-aliasing Override

When on, the surface overrides the geometry anti-aliasing settings.
TIP Motion-blurred objects ignore any changes to the Geometry Anti-aliasing

Override settings. The blur generally hides any aliasing artifacts.
Antialiasing Level
Level 1
The default. It takes 32 visibility samples.
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

Takes 800 visibility samples. Level 5 gives the best edge anti aliasing quality,
but it is also the most expensive (in both memory and speed).
Shading Samples Override

When on, the surface overrides the global shading sample settings in the
Shading Samples
Sets the minimum number of times Maya samples each pixel. For example,
if set to 1, Maya samples each pixel once; if set to 8, Maya samples each
pixel 8 times. The number of shading samples taken per pixel is limited
by the number of visibility samples performed by the Edge Anti-Aliasing
computation. So, if you use Medium Quality (which performs 8 visibility
samples per pixel), you cannot get more than 8 shading samples regardless
of the Shading Samples attribute setting.
Since Shading Samples computation is very expensive, you should try
adjusting the Max Shading Samples first. See Max Shading Samples on
page 513.
Max Shading Samples

Sets the maximum number of times a pixel is sampled during the second
pass of a Highest Quality render (adaptive shading pass). The higher the
number, the longer the rendering takes, but the more accurate the resulting
image is.
Max Shading Samples has an effect only when used in conjunction with
Highest Quality edge anti-aliasing. Also, depending on the requirements
to compute an accurate solution, the number of Shading Samples taken
can be less than the number of Max Shading Samples.
TIP
■ Occasionally, when an object is moving, the object’s textured edges
look distorted. To resolve this, try increasing the number of Max
Shading Samples.
■ Sometimes, skinny highlights can exhibit roping or flickering artifacts.

Try increasing the Max Shading Samples setting. You may also need to
increase the Shading Samples setting, but you can set it on a per-object
basis.
NOTE The following attributes are only applicable to volume primitives and
fluid shapes. They only appear in the Attribute Editor of the shape node of a
volume primitive or fluid shape.
Render Stats | 513

Volume Samples Override
When on, the object overrides the global volume shading settings and you
can turn on the Depth Jitter option in Render Settings window.
Volume samples
Adjusts the number of samples placed inside the fog volume.
Depth Jitter
If you set Volume Sample Override on, you can turn on Depth Jitter option.
Randomizes the samples of the volume with depth which replaces banding
artifacts in volume renders with noise. The noise can be dramatically
reduced by increasing the volume samples and anti-aliasing levels.
3D Motion Blur
Max Visibility Samples Override / Max Visib Samples Override, for the
selected shape node, the global maximum number of motion blur visibility
samples to be taken for surfaces during rendering.
Smooth Mesh Render
Find these attributes under the Smooth Mesh section and Subdivision Levels
sub-section on the polyShape node for the selected mesh.
Use Preview Level for Rendering / Render Division Levels You can set up
a smooth preview in the 3D viewport and then render it.
The division level controls the number of times the original version of the
mesh is subdivided. The slider range is between 0 and 4. A value of 0 indicates
no smoothing, in other words, rendering the hull, while a value of 4 is the
highest smoothing within the range of the slider. You can input values higher
than 4, up to a maximum of 7, in the text field. You should exercise caution
when tweaking this attribute, however, because each time you increase the
level, you multiply the number of quads by 4.
By default, the same division level is used for both preview and render. To use
a different Render Division Level from the Preview Division Level, unselect
the Use Preview Level for Rendering option and use the Render Division Levels
slider or text field to enter the desired division level for your render.

NOTE
■ This feature can only be used with the mental ray for Maya renderer.
■ In order to obtain smooth render effects, you must enable the Export
Triangulated Polygons option in the Render Settings: mental ray tabs,
Options tab on page 444 under the Translation section and Performance
sub-section.
Vector Renderer Control

Find this section in the Attribute Editor for material nodes (Anisotropic, Blinn,
Lambert, Phong, and Phong E). For information on how to set these attributes,
see Set per-material vector rendering options on page 99.
Hidden Edges On Transparent When you turn this attribute on, you can
render edges that would usually be obscured by the object. The edges are
rendered as if they are masked by the transparency.
Outlines At Intersections When you turn this attribute on, an outline appears
along the point where two objects intersect. Use the Edge Priority setting to
resolve edge outline conflicts (when depth does not automatically do so). This
attribute is also located in the Render Settings, Maya Vector tab, in the Edge
Options section.
Edge Priority The Edge Priority value determines which outline style is
rendered at the intersection when the intersecting objects have different
outline style settings, or when edges come very close to intersecting.
Typically, if objects are at differing depths, the edge priority makes no
difference because the object that is closer to the camera supersedes, and its
outline style is rendered. This setting is useful when the depth of the objects
are the same, or very close. In this situation, the edge priority can determine
which object’s outline style is rendered. The higher the value, the higher its
priority.
Texture Map
Find this section in the Attribute Editor for NURBS, under the shape node.
Vector Renderer Control | 515

Texture Map
Provides you with various adjustable attributes as well as a way to fix texture
warp on objects with 2D textures. This is especially useful, for example, waving
fabric, like a flag.
Fix Texture Warp The Texture Map attributes only apply to NURBS surfaces.
NOTE Convert to File Texture does not support Fix Texture Warp If the surface
uses Fix Texture Warp, it is ignored when converting the material.
If you are rendering in mental ray for Maya, Fix Texture Warp may use
significant memory and result in large .mi output file size. In addition, you
may notice that rendered results in mental ray for Maya are different than
those in Maya Software.
Fix Texture Warp adjusts a texture’s UV parameters so the texture does not
rely on a NURBS object’s UV parameterization, which alleviates texture warp
on objects with 2D textures. For example, if you want to create and animate
a flag with a Checker texture, you can create a NURBS plane on which to map
the Checker texture, transform the CVs, and turn Fix Texture Warp on in the
object’s Attribute Editor.
When you animate the flag by moving some of the CVs to simulate the wind
blowing the flag, the checker pattern on the flag expands and shrinks
appropriately.

TIP
■ To see the textured surfaces update, you must view them in Render View
(Render > Render Current Frame). Re-render the scene to see the fixed
texture.
■ Because computing exact arc-lengths is very expensive, Fix Texture Warp

is a compromise used to achieve well spaced UV texture values with chord
length (which measures the length of a line drawn between two points on
the surface). Use this feature to apply textures more evenly on surfaces
with uneven parameterization.
■ Fix Texture Warp is applied on a per-NURBS surface basis.
Setting the grid size

When Fix Texture Warp is on, Maya texture maps a 2D NURBS surface based
on the chord length of a grid placed on the surface. You can determine the
size of the grid by the value you specify in the Grid Division Per Span U and
Grid Division Per Span V, and the corresponding number of spans on the
surface. The default grid size is 4, and the result is a multiple of 4.
Grid Div Per Span U Specifies the number of divisions per span of the Chord
Length grid along the U parameter.
Grid Div Per Span V Specifies the number of divisions per span of the Chord
Length grid along the V parameter.
Tessellation
NURBS objects tessellation

Display render tessellation Shows or hides (default) the tessellation triangles
so that you can have more control while adjusting settings.
NOTE This option does not display displacement mapping.

In the main Maya window, select Modify > Convert > Displacement to
Polygons to preview the effect of your tessellation and displacement together,
then discard the generated polygon object when you are finished previewing.
Tessellation | 517
Refresh tessellation When advanced tessellation with min screen is on, the
tessellation only updates when refresh is pressed.
Triangle count This is the number of render triangles in the surface when a
tessellation is displayed.
Curvature tolerance See Curvature Tolerance on page 329.
U Division Factor, V Division Factor See U Division Factor, V Division Factor

on page 329.

Index
.mi files Alpha Source attribute 487
exporting 186, 241 Ambient Occlusion (Render
.mi format Settings) 444
exporting to 186 Angle of view 20
angle of view, cameras 19
2D Blur memory Limit attribute 396 animation
2D motion blur batch rendering 52
artifacts 145 command line rendering 53, 133,
rendering problems 144 186, 239
3D Blur Visib attribute 389 low-res rendering 128
3D Motion Blur 16 rendering single frame 52
3D Motion Blur Production attribute 388 swimming 143
troubleshooting 143
Animation
A mental ray for Maya 176
animations
Acceleration Method attribute 421 test render 128
Accuracy (Caustics) attribute 434 Anti-alias
Accuracy (Final Gather) attribute 438 Anti-aliasing Quality, Render
Accuracy (Global Illumination) Settings 388
attribute 433 Hardware Render Settings 490
Accuracy (Photon Volume) attribute 436 anti-aliasing
Adaptive Sampling attribute 417 about 154
Adobe Illustrator image format 54 adjusting 157
Advanced Tessellation blobby surfaces 143
for surfaces 331 Anti-aliasing Sampling Override
aliasing 146, 283 mental ray 508
All Channels Antialiasing Level
Render View 477 Render Stats 499, 512
All Double sided attribute 456 aperture (fstop) 15
All Renderable Cameras Apply Fog in Post
for tessellation 329 Render Options 397
All Single sided attribute 456 Apply Fog in Post, IPR 151
All Surfaces Apply tessellation, NURBS 327
for tessellation 327 approximation
Alpha Channel about 39, 181
Render View 477 controlling fine 208
Alpha Channel (Mask) 383 default settings 181
alpha channels fine 183
enabling 89 vs. tessellation 39
premultiplication 78 approximation node
Alpha mode attribute 430 creating 203
519 | Index
deleting 206 Background Color
approximation nodes 182 Display Options 491
approximation settings 181 Background Color attribute
overriding 207 Environment attributes 352
Approximation settings 209 Basic camera 14
approximation styles 183 Batch Render 324
Area Gradient (SWF and SVG only) 464 about 52
Area Lights advantages 52
mental ray 175 and IPR 125
artifacts cancel 326
2D motion blur 145 error handling 177, 251
about 155 show 326
clipping plane 155 Batch Render Frame window 132
fixing 157 Best Guess Based on Screen Size
troubleshooting 143 primary tessellation 331
aspect ratio Bias
pixel 65, 88 Raytracing Quality 394
At Top/At Bottom attribute 392 bitmap
atmosphere 396 image file format 59
Attribute Editor Blend Specular with Alpha option 458
Rendering Flags 176 blobby surface
surface settings 363 anti-aliasing problem 143
Attributes block ordered textures 163
option in Hardware Render Blue Channel
Buffer 491 Render View 477
Auto Memory Limit 320, 325 Blur
Auto Render Region By Frame, Motion Blur 394
in Render View 476 Length, 2D Motion Blur 395
Auto Render Threads 320, 322, 325 Sharpness, 2D Motion Blur 395
Auto Resize Blur by Frame attribute 457
in Render View 476 BOT 163
Auto Tiling 320, 322, 325 BOT files 163
Autodesk Pix format 54 Both attribute 409
Automatic Both Fields
tessellation mode 328 Interlaced 392
Average Color 463 Separate 392
AVI image format 54 Bounding Box
azimuth Dolly camera setting 356
description 18 Box attribute 434
Box Filter attribute 418
BSP Depth attribute 422
B BSP settings 248
Back attribute 409 BSP Size attribute 422
background BSP2 Attribute 421
rendering problems 144 Bump mapping 279
Bump Resolution attribute 456
520 | Index
Bump Texture Resolution 456 Gate Mask color 354
By Frame Gate Mask opacity 353
Hardware Render Settings 487 horizontal 344
Image File Output 87, 381 looking through 26, 29–30
Renumber Frames, Render making renderable 23
Settings 381 oversan 345
perspective 340
resolution gate 343
C rolling 18
Cache Density (Ambient Occlusion) safe action 344
attribute 444 safe title 21, 344
Cache Points (Ambient Occlusion) save movements 30
attribute 444 selecting current 26
cache size limit, for approximation 208 tilt 18
Caching (Ambient Occlusion) tracking 17
attribute 444 tumbling 17
Calculate 321 types of 14
Calculation attribute 427 undoable movements 340
camera viewing vs. rendering 13
Center of Interest option 313, 354 yaw 18
Camera zoom 18
optimizing, render faster 162 Cancel Batch Render 326
Select Camera option 340 cancelling
Camera and Aim 14 IPR 124
Camera Aperture 348 Casts Shadows
Camera Icons attribute 491 Render Layer Member Overrides 498
Camera Properties attributes 313 Render Stats 511
Camera Settings option, View menu 340 Casts Shadows attribute
camera tools 17 Render Stats attributes 498, 511
Camera Tools option, View menu 28 Caustic
Camera, Aim, and Up 14 Rendering Flag 176
cameras Caustic Accuracy
adjusting attributes 22 mental ray 510
aiming 17, 27 Caustic Filter Kernel attribute 434
azimuth 18 Caustic Filter Type attribute 434
changing settings 340 Caustic Radius
creating 22 mental ray 510
dollying 17 causticPhotonsEmit 267
elevation 18 caustics
field chart 344 troubleshooting 162
fill 344 Caustics attribute 434
film gate 341 Caustics Override
fly 19 mental ray 510
frustrum 341 Caustics/Global Illumination
gate 341 attribute 447
gate mask 343 Center of interest 313, 354
Index | 521
channels Cone Angle 161, 250
about 67, 78 Cone attribute 434
premultiplication 78 Console 177, 251
Chord Height Ratio attribute 332 Contours 217, 410
Chord Height Ratio, Use 332 Contrast Sensitive Production
Cineon format 55, 167 attribute 388
client 200 control visibility/reflection per layer 120
client setup 252 Coverage attribute
Clip Final Shaded Color attribute 398 Anti-aliasing Quality attributes 391
clipping plane CPUs
artifacts 155 multi-thread rendering 401
clipping planes use all available for multi-thread
about 21 rendering 401
Close IPR File Culling attribute 456
Render View window 472 Culling Threshold attribute 457
Close option Current Frame
Hardware Render Buffer 491 for tessellation 329
Closest Visible Depth Current View
Depth Type 352 for tessellation 329
Collision Icons attribute 491 Curvature Tolerance
color channels Set NURBS Tessellation 329
about 67 Curve Tolerance 460
enabling 89 Custom attribute 388, 415, 454
Color Contrast attribute 429 custom element 270
Color Resolution attribute 455 Custom Extension attribute 393
Color Texture Resolution 455 Custom Globals 176
Colorclip attribute 430 Custom Globals attribute 453
Combine Fills and Edges (SWF only) 459 Custom Motion Offsets 429
command line rendering 53, 133, 186, Custom Motion Vectors 266
239, 262 Custom Sampling attribute 417
common tab Custom Scene 176, 453
Render Settings 377 Custom Scene attribute 453
component shading groups Custom Scene Text
render layers 108 Render Text 454
Composite Root Group Text 454
Threshold 399 Custom Textures 176
compositing Custom Vertex Data 176
arranging objects 79 Customization attribute 451
rendering tips 78 customizations
Compositing Interoperability Plug-in 80 mental ray for Maya 176
compositingInterop 137–138 Cutout opacity 266
Compress (SVG only) 460
Compression attribute
Image File Output attributes 380
D
Compute From Data Type 307
for tessellation 329 Data Type attribute 429
522 | Index
Default Field Extension (o and e) Diagnose Samples 251
attribute 393 Diagnose Samples attribute 417, 444
Density (Importons) attribute 437 diagnosing
Depth attribute scenes 156, 197
Output Settings attributes 351 Diagnostics 251
depth channel differences
description 79 mental ray for Maya 174
Depth Channel (Z Depth) 383 Diffuse
depth channels Render Layer Pass 302
about 67, 78 Direct Illumination Shadow Effects
enabling 89 attribute 435
depth file Disable Animation Detection 264
description, for cameras 351 Disable DG Cycle Detection 265
depth files Disk Based Dmaps 161, 250
creating 89 disk swapping 271
depth information Displace Motion Factor attribute 427
IFF files 174 displacement 279
Depth Jitter displacement mapping
Render Layer Member Overrides 499 performance 160, 249
Render Stats 514 troubleshooting 147
depth map shadows Display Alpha Channel button
optimizing 161, 250 Render View window 480
Depth of Field Display Field Chart attribute 354
rendering 25 Display Film Gate attribute 353
Depth Of Field 350 display layers
Depth Of Field attribute 350 merge when importing files 122
Depth Type Display menu
Closest Visible Depth 352 Render View window 477
Furthest Visible Depth 352 Display Options attributes
Output Settings attributes 352 cameras 353
Depth-of-field 280 Hardware Render Settings 491
depth-of-field samples override 271 Display Real Size button
derive from Maya 181, 278 Render View window 480
Desaturate attribute 431 Display Resolution attribute 353
Detail Level 460 Display RGB Channels button
Detail Level Preset 460 Render View window 479
Detail Shadow map 424 Display Safe Action attribute 354
Device Aspect Ratio attribute 387 Display Safe Title attribute 354
Diagnose Bsp 422 Display Shadows attribute 489
Diagnose BSP attribute 445 distributed rendering 169, 199
Diagnose finalgather 440, 445 Dither attribute 431
Diagnose Grid 251 Dithered option
Diagnose Grid attribute 445 Render View window 478
Diagnose Photon 251 Dmap Filter Size 161, 250
Diagnose Photon attribute 436, 445 Dmap Focus attribute 161, 250
Diagnose Photon Density 251 Dmap Resolution 161, 250
Index | 523
dofLensSamples 271 Env. Scale (Irradiance Particles)
Dolly attribute 443
Bounding Box camera setting 356 Environment (Irradiance Particles)
camera settings 356 attribute 443
Local camera setting 356 Environment attributes 352
Snap box dolly to camera Environment Fog attribute 396
settings 356 error handling
Surface camera setting 356 mental ray for Maya 177, 251
dollying, cameras 17 errors, rendering 166
Double Sided Even Field 392–393
Render Layer Member Overrides 499 Exact 176, 180
Render Stats 512 examples
Draft attribute 415 render layers 71
Draft motion blur attribute 415 export
DraftRapidMotion attribute 415 to mi 241
Draw Style attribute 489 to mi using the command line 242
duplicate render layers 118 Export All Incoming Shaders 310
Dynamic Attributes 263, 504 Export All Layers to Toxik 2007 334
Export Custom Colors attribute 452
Export Custom Data attribute 452
E Export Custom Text attribute 452
Edge Anti-aliasing attribute 388 Export Custom Vectors attribute 452
Edge Color 468 Export Entire Child DAG 311
Edge Detail 469 Export Exact Hierarchy attribute 447
Edge Smoothing attribute 490 Export Full Dagpath attribute 447
Edge Style 468 Export Hair 448
Edge Swap Export Light Linker attribute 452
Set NURBS Tessellation 330 Export Maya Options attribute 452
Edge Weight 468 Export Motion Segments 449
edges Export Nurbs Derivatives attribute 451
rendering problems 143 Export Objects On Demand 265
troubleshooting 146 Export Objects On Demand
elevation attribute 451
description, for azimuth elevation Export Polygon Derivatives attribute 450
tool 18 Export Render Proxy attribute 449
Emitter Icons attribute 491 Export Selected Layers to Toxik 2007 335
Enable Default Light 387 Export Shadow Shader 264
Enable Default Light attribute 387 Export Shape Deformation attribute 450
Enable Depth Maps attribute 398 Export State Shader attribute 451
Enable Map Visualizer attribute 435, 440 Export Textures First attribute 447
Enable Stroke Rendering attribute 402 Export to Toxik 2007 135, 335
End Frame attribute Export to Toxik 2008 139, 336
Image File Output attributes 87, 381 Export to Toxik 2009 337
Image Output Files attributes 486 Export Toxik IMSQ File 334
Env. Rays (Irradiance Particles) Export Triangulated Polygons 449
attribute 443
524 | Index
exporting files
.mi files 186, 241 rendering output location 64
optimizing .mi format 186 Fill Objects 461
Extension attribute 486 Fill option 344
extension, image 86 Fill Style 461
Film Aspect Ratio attribute 348
Film Back attributes 348
F Film Back Properties attributes 314
F Stop attribute 351 Film Gate attribute 348
Faces attribute 409 Film Gate option 341
Falloff Start attribute 441 Film Offset attribute 348
Falloff Stop attribute 441 Filter attribute 441
Far Clip Plane attribute 315 mental ray 509
far clipping plane 21 Filter Size attribute 419
feedback from IPR 150 final gather
Field troubleshooting 162, 283
options 392 Final Gather attribute 437
Field Chart option 344 Final Gather Cast
Field Dominance mental ray 507
Even Fields 392 Final Gather Override
Odd Fields 392 mental ray 509
render options 392 Final Gather Rays
Field Dominance attribute 144 mental ray 509
Field Extension Final Gather Receive
render options 393 mental ray 507
Field Icons attribute 491 fine approximation 183
Field Options attributes 391 controlling triangles 208
field rendering 65 setting cache limit 208
fields 66 Fine Approximation 209
description 66 Fine Displacement 209
Even 393 Fix Texture Warp 516
interlacing 92 description 50
rendering 91 Fixed Sampling attribute 417
rendering problems 144 Flash
vs. frames 65 rendering 8
File Export 174 Flash Version (SWF only) 459
file format, image 86 flicker
file formats about 154
bitmap vs. vector 54 fixing 157
rendering 53 flickering animations
File menu troubleshooting 147
Render View window 472 Flipbook Options 493–494
File Name Prefix attribute 377 Flipbooks menu
file name, image 86 Hardware Render Buffer 493
Filename attribute 486 Fly Tool 19
fly, cameras 19
Index | 525
focal length 19 frustrum 341
Focus Distance attribute 350 renderable 343
Focus Region Scale attribute 351 fstop 15
fog Full Color 463
motion blur artifacts 145 Full Image Resolution attribute 489
Fog Shadow Samples 161, 250 Furthest Visible Depth
Force Displacement Animation 267 Depth Type 352
force lights emitted photons 267
Force Motion Vector Computation
attribute 450
G
Force On-demand Translation 265 Gamma attribute 429
force triangle export of polygon Gamma Correction attribute 398
meshes 267 gate 341
format, image file Gate Mask color 354
setting 86 Gate Mask opacity 353
Four Color 462 Gate Mask option 343
frame Gauss attribute 434
rendering 52 Gaussian Filter attribute 418
Frame All option geometry
Maya View menu 30 mental ray approximation 184
Frame Image option NURBS 41
Render View window 473 Geometry Antialiasing Override
Frame Padding attribute 87, 380 Render Stats 512
Frame Range, Use Geometry Mask attribute 489
for tessellation 328 geometry shaking
Frame Rate (SWF and SVG only) 459 mental ray 276
Frame Region option geometry types
Render View window 473 mental ray for Maya 184
Frame Selection 30 gGlobal illumination
Frame/Animation Ext attribute 87, 380 troubleshooting 162
framebuffers 303 GIF format 55
create 304 Global Illum Accuracy
delete 304 mental ray 510
edit 304 Global Illum Radius
User Buffer Attributes 307 mental ray 510
frames 67 Global Illumination attribute 433
batch rendering 52 Global Illumination Override
command line rendering 53, 133, mental ray 509
186, 239 globIllPhotonsEmit 267
rendering 91 Globillum
rendering single 131 Rendering Flag 176
vs. fields 65 Grab Swatch to Hypershade and Visor
Frames button
render 392 Render View window 473
Freeze 439 Green attribute 391
Front attribute 409
526 | Index
Green Channel option Ignore Glows
Render View 477 Render View 477
Grid attribute 491 Ignore Self Shadowing
Grid Div Per Span U Render Layer Member Overrides 499
Fix Texture Warp 517 Ignore Shadows
Grid Div Per Span V Render View 477
Fix Texture Warp 517 Image attribute
Grid Size 251 Output Settings 351
Grid Size attribute 445 Image Based Lighting attributes 432
guidelines, in scene views 24 image file formats
setting 86
Image File Output attributes 377
H Image Format attribute
Hardware Environment Lookup Image File Output attributes 86, 379
option 457 Image Output Files attributes 487
Hardware Geometry Cache attribute 457 Image Output Files attributes 486
hardware rendering 3 Image Plane attribute
Render Settings 454 Environment attributes 353
HDR images 175 image plane, display options
HDRI 175 IPR 150
HDTV 167 Image Size attributes 384
Height attribute images
Image Size attributes 386 directory 88
Resolution attributes 88 extension 86
Hidden Edges 469 fields 66
High Quality attribute 389 file format 86
High Quality Renderer 360 file name 86
Highest Quality attribute 389 frames 67
Highlight Level (SWF and bitmap formats name 86
only) 467 pixel aspect ratio 88
highlights premultiplied 78
troubleshooting 148 rendering quality 153
Highlights (SWF and bitmap formats rendering speed 153
only) 466 resolution 88
Horizontal Film Aperture attribute (see images, keeping rendered
Camera Aperture attribute) 314 Render View 480
Horizontal Film Offset attribute (see Film images, removing all
Offset attribute) 314 Render View 481
Horizontal option 344 images, removing current
Render View 481
Importons 437
I Include Edges 467
Indirect Passes (Irradiance Particles)
IBL attribute 432 attribute 443
IFF image Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (see
depth information 174 IPR) 47
Ignore Film Gate attribute 397
Index | 527
interactive rendering, K
multi-threaded 401
interlacing Keep Image
description 66 Render View 480
Intermediate 454 Keep Image in Render View option
Intermediate Quality attribute 388 Render View window 473
Interpoints (Irradiance Particles) Keep Motion Vectors
attribute 443 2D Motion Blur 396
Interpolate (Irradiance Particles)
attribute 443
Interpolate Samples 307, 430
L
IPR Label 266
about 47 Lanczos attribute 419
batch rendering 125 Large BSP attribute 421
canceling 123 Layered Shader
cancelling 124 performance 160, 249
how it works 48 layers, display
limitations 49 merge when importing files 122
options 98 layers, render
pausing 123 assign component shading
rendering with 123 groups 108
saving 123 blend modes 112
troubleshooting 149 control visibility/reflection per
IPR default light 49 layer 120
IPR menu copy 118
Render View window 475 merge when importing files 122
IPR Quality name 119
Render View Window 475 overrides 102, 105
IPR Render Current Frame 321 presets 294
IPR Render option recycle render output for layers 119
Render View window 475 working with 100
IPR Tuning Options Leaf Primitives attribute 401
Render View window 475 lens 19
IRP Lens Properties attributes 313
troubleshooting 145 Light Icons attribute 491
Irradiance Particles 442 Lighting Mode attribute 488
lightMapsNetwork 274
J Line Smoothing attribute 489
Linear 176, 180
Jitter attribute 419 Linux setup 252
Jitter Final Color attribute 398 Local
Journal 30 Dolly camera setting 356
JPEG format 56 Locked
Tumble camera setting 355
Logfile 177, 251
Look At Selection 29
528 | Index
Look Through Selected option, Panels Max Shading Samples
menu 26 Render Layer Member Overrides 500
Low Quality attribute 389 Render Stats 513
Luminance option Max Shading Samples attribute 389
Render View window 477 Max Trace Depth attribute 420, 441
Max Visib Samples attribute 390
Maya derivatives attribute 450
M Maya Hardware
Maintain Width/Height Ratio Render Settings 454
attribute 386 Maya IFF format 56
Manual Maya Vector
tessellation mode 328 Render Settings 459
Map File (Irradiance Particles) maya.rayhosts 201
attribute 444 maya.rayrc 202
mask Maya16 IFF format 56
description, for cameras 351 Medium Quality attribute 389
Mask attribute MEL commands
Output Settings attributes 351 run at render time 68
Mask Channel Memory and Performance Options 401
or alpha channel 79 Memory and Performance Options
mask channels attributes 399
about 78 memory exceptions 143
about, alpha channels Memory Limit 321, 326
about 67 memory mode 272
enabling 89 memoryMode 272
modifying 90, 237 mental ray
matte opacity 279 approximation 39
Matte Opacity attribute 90–91, 237–238 Area Lights 175
Matte Opacity Mode attribute 90–91, BSP settings 248
237–238 configuration files 201
matte transparency (see Matte exporting .mi files 241
Opacity) 237 exporting files 186
matte transparency, (see Matte extra Render Settings 289
Opacity) 90 geometry shaking 276
Max 3D Blur Visib attribute 390 motion blur 180
Max Depth (Importons) attribute 437 network rendering 199
Max Displace 446 output window messages 203
Max Photon Depth attribute 435 Render Settings 404
Max Radius rendering problems 277–278
mental ray 509 rendering with 241–242
Max Radius attribute 442 mental ray Derivatives 504
Max Sample Level mental ray for Maya
mental ray 508 Animation 176
Max Sample Level attribute 417 customizations 176
Max Shading attribute 389 differences 174
error handling 177, 251
Index | 529
geometry types 184 Min Sample Level attribute 417
NURBS surfaces 184 Min Screen attribute
polygonal meshes 185 Secondary Tessellation
shading networks 174 Attributes 333
subdivision surfaces 185 miPhotonsOnly 268
mental ray Ray Offset 505 miPlaceholder 265
mental ray specific image formats 177 miRayOffset 505
mentalrayOutputPass node 308 miReflection 268
mentalrayUserBuffer node 307 miRefraction 268
mentay ray miShadingSamples 270
approximation 181 miTangents 187
merge display layers when importing Mitchell attribute 419
files 122 miTransparency 268
Merge Distance (Caustics) attribute 434 miTrianles 267
Merge Distance (Global Illumination) Mode U attribute
attribute 433 Tessellation 331
Merge Distance (Importons) Mode V attribute
attribute 437 Tessellation 331
Merge Distance (Photon Volume) moire patterns 419
attribute 437 Motion Back Offset 429
merge render layers when importing motion blur
files 122 about 16
Mesh Gradient (SWF and SVG only) 464 artifacts 145
miAnimated 264 troubleshooting 148
miCustomMotion 266 Motion Blur 176, 180
micutAwayOpacity 266 2D troubleshooting 144
miData 263 creating 96, 239
miDefaultOptions node 306 diagnostics 166
miDeformation 187 Render Layer Member Overrides 498
miDerivatives 504 Render Stats 511
miDiskSwapDir 271 Tips 396
miDiskSwapLimit 271 Motion Blur attribute 394, 408, 426, 457
miDisplaceAnimation 267 Multi-Pass Render Options 490
miElement 270 Motion Blur attributes
miExportCCMesh 268 Create Camera Options 316
miExportElement 270 Render Settings window 394
miExportMaterial 270 Motion Blur By attribute 426
miExportShadowShader 264 Motion Blur Shadow Maps
miLabel 266 attribute 425, 427
miMaterial 270 Motion Blur Type attribute 394
Min Edge Angle 469 motion picture
Min Radius rendering fields 65
mental ray 509 Motion Quality Factor attribute 428
Min Radius attribute 442 Motion Steps attribute 428
Min Sample Level Movement Options attributes
mental ray 508 cameras 354
530 | Index
Multi Pass Rendering attribute 490 Number of Processors to Use
Multi Processing 401 attribute 132, 324
Multi-Pass Render Options attributes 490 Number of Samples 455
multi-pixel filter 94 Number of Samples attribute 417, 455
multi-processor rendering 132 Number U attribute
multi-render pass Tessellation 332
pass contribution maps 369 Number V attribute
render pass contribution map Tessellation 332
node 504 NURBs
multi-render passes 188, 218, 224, 233 multi-uv rendering problems 141
Create Render Passes window 470 NURBS
file output 60 approximation 184
Render Layer Editor 367 display tessellation 43
render pass contribution map surfaces 41
node 504 NURBS surfaces
render pass node 501 mental ray for Maya 184
render pass set node 503
Render Settings Passes tab 404
multi-thread interactive rendering 401
O
multiple processors 98 objects
framing with camera 29–30
N mental ray approximation 184
rendering 85
name tesselation settings 41
images, setting 86 vibrating 144
naming render layers 119 when to tessellate 43
Near Clip Plane attribute 315 Odd Field attribute 393
near clipping plane 21 Odd Fields 392
Network 321–322, 326 Only Render Strokes attribute 403
network baking Open Image option
turn off 274 Render View window 472
network rendering 169, 199, 262 Open in Browser (SWF only) 459
troubleshooting 284 Open IPR File
No Field Extension attribute 393 Render View window 472
No Gate option 341 Open Render Settings Window 479
nodeCycleCheck 265 Opposite
nodes Render Layer Member Overrides 499
approximation 182 Render Stats 512
creating approximation 203 Optimize Animation Detection 449
mentalrayOutputPass, output pass Optimize Animation Detection
mental ray node 308 attribute 448
NTSC 144 Optimize for Animations attribute 441
NTSC video 66, 167 Optimize Instances 159, 248
Number of CPUs to use 401 Optimize Instances attribute 400
Number of Exposures attribute 458 Optimize Non-animated Display
Visibility 448
Index | 531
Optimize Raytrace Shadows 449 Pause IPR Tuning
Optimize Vertex Sharing 449 Render View window 476
optimized texture format 197 Per object attribute 455–456
optimizing Per polygon attribute 455
cameras 162 Per Span # of Isoparms
scenes 158, 247 primary tessellation 331
shadows 161, 250 Per Surf # of Isoparms
Options attribute 494 primary tessellation 331
Options menu Per Surf # of Isoparms in 3D
Render View window 476 primary tessellation 331
Ortho step Performance attribute 448
Tumble camera setting 355 Perspective option 26, 340
orthographic camera Photon Auto Volume attribute 436
width of 317 Photon Density attribute 436, 445
Orthographic Camera 317 Photon Map File attribute 435
Orthographic views photon only lights 268
camera settings 355 Photon Reflections attribute 435
Orthographic Width 317 Photon Refractions attribute 435
Outlines at Intersections 469 Photoshop format 57
Output Settings 334 Pix format 54
Output Settings attributes 351 pixel aspect ratio 88
Output Window 177, 251 about 65
Override Geometry Anti-aliasing Pixel Aspect Ratio attribute 88, 387
Render Layer Member Overrides 499 Pixel Filter Type attribute 390
Override Shading Samples Pixel Filter Width X attribute 391
Render Layer Member Overrides 499 Pixel Filter Width Y attribute 391
Override Visibility Samples pixels 48, 65, 67
Render Layer Member Overrides 500 plug-ins
Override Volume Samples multi-pixel 94
Render Layer Member Overrides 500 PNG format 57
overriding attributes per layer 109 polygonal meshes
Overscan camera attribute 343 mental ray for Maya 185
Overscan option 345 polygonal surfaces 50
polygons
approximation 184
P port number
PAL 144 troubleshooting 284
PAL video 66, 167 Post Fog Blur
parallel rendering 199 Render Options 397
particle rendering Post Fog Blurt
mental ray 280 Render Options 397
Particles attribute 390 Post Render MEL attribute 92
Pass Custom Depth Channel 452 Pre Render MEL attribute 92
Pass Custom Label Channel 453 Precompute Photon Lookup
passes attribute 440
about 301 preemultiplied images, defined 78
532 | Index
Presets Per Surf # of Isoparms in 3D 331
Render Resolution 384 Primary Visibility
Presets attribute 415 Render Layer Member Overrides 498
presets, mental ray Render Stats 512
Custom 415 problems
Draft 415 messages 166
DraftMotionBlur 415 rendering 166
DraftRapidMotion 415 processor, multiple 98
Preview 416 Production 455
PreviewCaustics 416 Production attribute 416
PreviewGlobalIllum 416 Production Quality attribute 388
PreviewMotionBlur 416 Production Quality with
PreviewRapidMotion 416 Transparency 455
Production 416 ProductionMotionBlur attribute 416
ProductionMotionBlur 416 ProductionRapidFur attribute 416
ProductionRapidFur 416 ProductionRapidHair attribute 416
ProductionRapidHair 416 ProductionRapidMotion attribute 416
ProductionTraceDetail 416 ProductionTraceDetail attribute 416
Preview 454 projection textures
Preview Animation attribute 445 troubleshooting 143
Preview attribute 416 Prune Invisible Parts 448
Preview Convert Tiles 446 Prune Objects Without Material 448
Preview Final Gather Tiles attribute 440
Preview Motion Blur attribute 445
Preview Quality attribute 388
Q
Preview Render Tiles attribute 446 quality
Preview Tonemap Tiles 446 raytracing 96
preview workflow Quantel format 57
render layers 70 QuickDraw format 57
preview, renders 1 Quicktime image format (UNIX only) 57
PreviewCaustics attribute 416
PreviewFinalGather attributepresets,
mental ray R
PreviewFinalGather 416
PreviewGlobalIllum attribute 416 Radius (Caustics) attribute 434
previewing Radius (Global Illumination)
Resolution Gate 24 attribute 433
previewing render layers 111 Radius (Photon Volume) attribute 436
PreviewMotionBlur attribute 416 Ramp Shader
PreviewRapidMotion attribute 416 Motion Blur tips 396
Primary Final Gather File attribute 439 Rasterizer attribute 407
primary tessellation 40 Rasterizer Pixel Samples 425
Primary Tessellation rasterizer shading samples override 270
Best Guess Based on Screen Size 331 Rasterizer Transparency 422
Per Span # of Isoparms 331 Rasterizer use opacity 431
Per Surf # of Isoparms 331 Raw attribute 430
Ray Depth Limit 162, 251
Index | 533
Ray Tracing attribute 419 Regular BSP attribute 421
Rays (Ambient Occlusion) attribute 444 Remote Machine Name attribute 325
Rays (Irradiance Particles) attribute 442 Remove All Images from Render View
rayserver option
troubleshooting 284 Render View window 473
raytraced shadows Remove Image
optimizing 162, 251 Render View 481
raytracing Remove Image from Render View
setting quality 96 option
Raytracing Render View window 473
description 96 remove material overrides
Raytracing attribute 393, 407 render layers 105
Raytracing Quality attributes 393 Render 2D Motion Blur attribute 402
Real Size option Render All Layers option
Render View window 473 Render View window 474
Rebuild (Irradiance Particles) Render Current Frame 320
attribute 443 Maya Render menu 131
Rebuild attribute 439 Render Diagnostics 166, 324
Rebuild Mode attribute 425 Render Diagnostics attribute 473
Rebuild Photon Map attribute 435 Render Division Levels 514
Receive Shadows Render Info
Render Layer Member Overrides 498 Render View 477
Render Stats 511 Render Layer editor 367
Recursion Depth attribute 401 render layers
recycle rendered images 119 batch 116
Red attribute 391 command-line 116
Red Channel option control visibility/reflection per
Render View 477 layer 120
Redo Previous IPR Render option copy 118
Maya Render menu 323 examples 71
Render View window 475 layer blend modes 112
Redo Previous Render 131 layer presets 294
Redo Previous Render option merge when importing files 122
Maya Render menu 321 name 119
Render View window 474 overriding attributes 109
Reflection Depth 467 preview workflow 70
Reflection Limit 160, 249 previewing render layers 111
Reflections attribute 393, 420 recycle render output for layers 119
Reflections attribute (final gather) 441 workflow 69
Refraction Limit 160, 249 Render menu
Refractions attribute Render View window 474
Raytracing Quality attributes 393, tearing off 281
420 Render Mode 289
Refractions attribute (final gather) 441 Render Modes attributes 488
Refresh IPR Image Render Optimizations 470
Render View window 475 Aggressive 470
534 | Index
Good 470 vector 8
Safe 470 rendering
Render option active objects 85
Render View window 475 at low-res 128
Render Options attributes 387, 396 background problems 144
Render pass set node 503 BOT files 163
Render Passes attribute 490 cameras 13
render proxies 243 command line 262
Bounding Box Update attribute 508 depth of field 25
Render Proxy attribute 507 errors 166
Renderable attribute 506 exporting .mi files 186, 241
Render Proxy (Assembly) 310 extra mental ray render settings 289
Render Region option fields 91
Render View window 474, 478 file formats 53
Render Resolution 88 file output location 64
Render Selected Objects Only option final rendering 84
Render View window 474 final renders 1
Render Settings Flash 8
common tab 377 frames 91, 131
for tessellation 329 hardware 3
Render Settings option hardware render settings 454
Render View window 476 image output location 88
Render Settings window 84, 236 image resolution 65
Render Shading, Lighting and Glow layers and passes 301
attribute 402 looping forever 149
Render Shadow Maps attribute 402 MEL scripts 68
Render Stats 511 mental ray BSP settings 248
Render Threads 320, 322, 325 mental ray problems 277–278
Render utility 128, 133–135, 240–241 mental ray render settings 404
Render View multi-processor 132
about 52 multiple scenes 135
Render View window network 169, 199
menus 472 network (mental ray) 199
Renderable attribute 351 object vibration in 144
renderable cameras 167 over a network 262
Renderable Cameras previewing 1, 47
attributes in Render Settings 382 problems 166
Renderable Scene 309 render settings window 84, 236
renderer resolution 88
choosing 12 safe region for TV 20
setting default 12 single frames 131
renderers software 2
Maya hardware 5 speed 155
Maya software 4 speed vs. quality 153
mental ray for Maya 173 test animation 128
selecting 11 testing 1, 47
Index | 535
tips 2 Save Image option
typical workflow 81 Render View window 472
vector 4, 8 Save IPR File
vector render settings 459 Render View window 472
with command line 133, 239 Save IPR File option 125
with IPR 47 Scale (Caustics) attribute 434
with Maya 262 Scale (Global Illumination) attribute 433
with mental ray 241–242, 262 Scale (Irradiance Particles) attribute 443
with Render View 52 Scale attribute (final gather) 438
with the command line 53, 186 Scale setting 356–357
Rendering CPU attribute 325 Scanline attribute 407
Rendering Flags Scanline Only Rendering 278
Attribute Editor 176 Scene Fragment 310
Renumber Frames Using attribute 381 scene views
Reset Region Marquee option guidelines 24
Render View window 473 selecting camera 26
resolution view lighting 126
image 88 view shading 126
low-res rendering, Render View scenes
low-res rendering 128 diagnosing 156
of rendered images 65 diagnosing (mental ray) 197
Resolution attribute 487 finding problems
Image Size attributes 387 Render Diagnostics 156, 197
Resolution Gate attribute 24 framing with camera 30
Resolution Gate option 343 optimizing 158, 247
Resolution Units attribute rendering multiple 135
Image Size attributes 387 Secondary Bounce Scale attribute 438
Reuse Existing Dmap(s) 161, 250 Secondary Curve Fitting 460
Reuse Tessellations attribute 400 Secondary Diffuse Bounces attribute 438
RGB 78 Secondary Final Gather File attribute 440
RGB (default) attribute 430 secondary tessellation 40
RGBA 78 Segments attribute 423
RGBAZ 78 Select Camera 340
RLA format 57 Selected Surfaces
Roll Scale setting 357 tessellation 327
rolling, cameras 18 Separate Shadow Bsp attribute 422
Root Group Name 311 server 200
Rotation type setting 357 server setup 252
service file
troubleshooting 284
S Set NURBS Tessellation 42
Safe Action option 344 setting 88
Safe Title option 21, 344 setup
Sample Lock attribute 419 client 252
Sampling Mode attribute 417 server 252
SGI format 58
536 | Index
SGI Movie format (UNIX only) 58 shutter setting
SGI16 format 58 mental ray vs. Maya 427
shaders 176 shutter speed 15
Shading attribute 389 Simple attribute 422
shading networks Single Color 461
mental ray for Maya 174 Size Units attribute
Shading Quality 418 Image Size attributes 386
Shading Samples Small Object Culling Threshold
Render Layer Member Overrides 500 attribute 457
Render Stats 513 Smooth
Shading Samples attribute 389–390 2D Motion Blur 395
Shading Samples Override Smooth Alpha
Render Stats 513 2D Motion Blur 395
Shading Samples Override attribute 148 Smooth Color
Shadow 176 2D Motion Blur 395
Shadow attribute 420 Smooth Edge Ratio
Shadow Map Bias 446 Set NURBS Tessellation 330
shadow mapping 279 Smooth Polygon Derivatives
Shadow Rays attribute 162, 251 attribute 450
shadows smooth polygon mesh
optimizing 161, 250 render 215, 514
Shadows (SWF and bitmap formats Smooth shading
only) 465 Render Layer Member Overrides 498
Shadows attribute 394, 420 Render Stats 512
Shadows Ignore Linking attribute 397, Smooth Value
424, 458 2D Motion Blur 395
Shadows Obey Light Linking tip, Motion Blur 396
attribute 397, 424, 458 Snap box dolly to
Shadows Obey Shadow Linking camera settings 356
attribute 397, 424, 458 Snapshot
Shake attribute 349 in Render View 129–130
Shake Enabled attribute 349 Snapshot option
Shake Overscan attribute 349 Render View window, Render
Shake Overscan Enabled attribute 349 menu 475
Show Back Faces 465 SoftImage format 58
Show Batch Render 326 software rendering 2
Show menu memory and performance 97
Rendering Flags window 482 Sort attribute 423
Show Region Marquee option Special Effects attributes
Render View window 473 cameras 353
shutter angle 15 Specular
Shutter Angle Render Layer Pass 303
description, for cameras 316 Start Frame attribute
Shutter Angle attribute 353 Image File Output attributes 87, 381
Shutter Close attribute 426 Image Output Files attributes 486
Shutter Open attribute 426 Start Number attribute 381
Index | 537
Static Object Offset 429 tessellation 146
Stepped about 39
Tumble camera setting 355 display for NURBs 43
Stereoscopic display for subDs 44
Edit 33 memory and performance 97
Registering custom rig 35 primary 40
Render 34 problems with 143
Scripting 34 secondary 40
stereoscopic camera 14 span-based 44
create 32 strategies for 40
stereoscopic cameras surface types 41
custom rig 471 viewing settings 41
stereo menu 358 vs. approximation 39
String options 272, 306 when to adjust 39
Subdivision Power attribute 401 Tessellation attribute 447
subdivision surfaces Tessellation Mode 328
mental ray for Maya 185 tessellation passes
subDs about 40
approximation 184 test render 1
display tessellation 44 Test Resolution 476
obtaining quads for Test Resolution option 323
approximation 207 Render View window 127
Surface Texture Compression attribute 456
Dolly camera setting 356 Texture Map 515–516
surfaces Texture resolution menu 485
background showing through 144 Textured channel menu 485
identical 159, 248 textures
mental ray approximation 184 popping 333
performance 160, 249 troubleshooting 143
polygonal 50 Texturing attribute 489
single-sided 160, 249 Threshold
tessellation settings 41 Output Settings attribute 352
troubleshooting 146, 148, 283 Threshold attribute 451
Svg Animation (SVG only) 459 Tiff format 59
Tiff16 format 59
tilt, cameras 18
T Time Contrast
Targa format 58 Motion Blur 176, 180
Task Size 320, 322, 325 Time Contrast R attribute 429
tear off menu Time Samples attribute 428
Render menu 281 Time slider
television Hardware Render Buffer 494
safe region rendering 20 Time Slider
tessellate for tessellation 329
strategies 43 Tonemap Scale 446
538 | Index
Toolbar option Orthographic views camera
Render View window 478 settings 355
Toxik Export Options (Toxik 2008) 336 Stepped camera setting 355
Toxik pre-compositing 233, 337, 406 Tumble camera about camera
Toxik Scene Settings 334 settings 355
Toxik User Settings (Toxik 2007) 334 Tumble pivot camera setting 355
Trace 176 Tumble scale camera setting 355
Trace Reflection Tumble camera about
mental ray 507 camera settings 355
Track Geometry setting 355 Tumble pivot
Track Scale setting 356 Tumble camera setting 355
tracking, cameras 17 Tumble Pivot attribute 354
Transform Icons attribute 491 tumble, cameras 17
translate polygon meshes as subdivision tuning
base mesh primitives 268 region 123
Transmit Refraction TV production
mental ray 507 safe region rendering 20
Transmit Transparency Two Color 462
mental ray 507
transparency
channels 67
U
matte (see Matte Opacity) 90, 237 U Divisions Factor
premultiplication 78 Set NURBS Tessellation 329
Transparency Based depth U Divisions Factor attribute 146
Output Settings attributes, for Undoable Movements attribute 354
cameras 352 Undoable Movements option 340
Transparency sorting attribute 455 Update 2D Motion Blur
transparent objects on or off for IPR 476
motion blur problems 145 Update Image Planes/Background
Transparent Shadow maps attribute 455 option
Traverse (Importons) attribute 437 IPR menu 50
Triangle (default) attribute 418 Render View window 475
troubleshooting 284 Update Light Glow
caustics 162 on or off for IPR 476
displacement maps 147 Update Shader Glow
edges 146 on or off for IPR 476
final gather 162 Update Shading and Lighting
flickering 147 on or off for IPR 476
global illumination 162 Update Shadow Maps option
highlights 148 IPR menu 50
image quality and render speed 153 Render View window 475
motion blur 148 Update Toxik 335
surfaces 148 Use 2d Blur memory Limit
Tumble 2D Motion Blur 396
Locked camera setting 355 Use all available CPUs 401
Ortho step camera setting 355
Index | 539
Use all available processors vector rendering 4
attribute 132, 324 per-material attributes 99
Use Chord Height attribute 332 Render Settings 459
Use Chord Height Ratio 332 verbosity 177, 251
Use Custom Extension attribute 87, 381 Verbosity Level 290, 320, 322, 325
Use Displacement Bounding Box Verbosity Level attribute 320, 322, 325
attribute 400 Version Label attribute 381
Use Dmap Auto Focus 161, 250 Vertical Film Aperture attribute (see
Use File Cache attribute 399 Camera Aperture attribute) 314
Use Frame Range Vertical Film Offset attribute (see Film
for tessellation 328 Offset attribute) 314
Use Legacy Maya Base Shaders Vertical option 344
attribute 451 video 65
Use Min Screen attribute frame rendering 65
Secondary Tessellation video fields 66
Attributes 333 View (Radii in Pixel Size) 442
Use Multi Pixel Filter attribute 390 mental ray 509
Use Pivot As Local Space attribute 354 View menu
Use Preview Level for Rendering 514 Render View window 473
Use Radius Quality Control attribute 441 Visibility Samples 418
Use Smooth Edge Visible 176
Set NURBS Tessellation 330 Visible in Reflections
Use X- Dmap attribute 250 Render Layer Member Overrides 499
Use X- Map attribute 161 Render Stats 512
Use X+ Dmap attribute 250 Visible in Refractions
Use X+ Map attribute 161 Render Layer Member Overrides 498
Use Y- Dmap attribute 250 Render Stats 512
Use Y- Map attribute 161 Visible In Transparency
Use Y+ Dmap attribute 250 mental ray 507
Use Y+ Map attribute 161 visualization
Use Z- Dmap attribute 250 IPR rendering 123
Use Z- Map attribute 161 rendering 83
Use Z+ Dmap attribute 250 visualization, renders 1
Use Z+ Map attribute 161 Volume Samples
User Data 263 Render Stats 514
UVs 50 Volume Samples attribute 409
Volume Samples Override 514
voxels, example of 421
V
V Divisions Factor W
Set NURBS Tessellation 329
V Divisions Factor attribute 146 walk throughs 19
vector file formats, bitmap file Width attribute
formats 54 Image Size attributes 386
vector renderer 8 Resolution attributes 88
Vector Renderer Control 515
540 | Index
Windows Bitmap Z
image file format 59
Windows setup 252 Z buffer channel 79
workflow Z depth channel 79
render layers 69 Zeroth Scanline attribute 144, 392
working with render layers 100 Zoom Scale setting 356
Write ZDepth attribute 487 zooming, cameras 18
Y
yaw, cameras 18
Index | 541
542

Rendering

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Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2 Camera set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 3 Tessellation and Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Chapter 5 Quality, render speed, diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Chapter 6 Network rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Chapter 7 mental ray for Maya rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 8 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Chapter 9 Rendering menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Chapter 10 Rendering Windows and Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Chapter 11 Rendering nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Rendering is the final stage in the 3D computer graphics production process.

Visualization vs. the final render

The key to successful rendering

The key to rendering is finding a balance between the visual complexity

Hardware, software, and vector rendering

2 | Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers

■ The Maya software renderer

■ mental images® mental ray® for Maya®

■ The Maya hardware renderer

Hardware, software, and vector rendering | 3

■ The Maya vector renderer

Maya Software renderer

4 | Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers

Highlights of supported features

■ Direct input of normal maps

■ Integrated rendering workflow and interface

Maya Hardware renderer | 5

■ Multiple textured channels

■ Point, Directional, Spot, and Ambient Light types

■ Any number of lights

■ 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

■ RBG color, alpha matte (mask), and Z depth output

■ Command line rendering

■ Render diagnostics, such as warnings for unsupported primitives, shaders,

Supported hardware and platforms

Only specific hardware and platform combinations are supported by hardware

6 | Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers

■ The Maya hardware renderer does not support subdivision surfaces.

■ Only the Rectangle mental ray area light shape is supported.

■ Basic light parameters such as Color, Intensity, Decay Rate are

■ An approximation of shadows is supported.

Light linking for instanced lights

Hardware rendering supports per light-instance light linking. For example,

Maya Hardware renderer | 7

Maya Vector renderer

■ Adobe® Flash® (non-interactive) version 3, 4 or 5 (SWF)

■ Adobe® Illustrator® version 8 (AI)

■ Encapsulated PostScript Level 2 (EPS)

■ Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).

8 | Chapter 1 About rendering and renderers

■ Due to some limitations in technology, (upon which the vector renderer

Maya Vector renderer | 9

Maya Feature Notes

Bump maps Not rendered.

Displacement maps Not rendered. Use Modify > Convert >

Image planes Not rendered.

Lights Only point lights are used during render-

Maya® Fur™ Not rendered.

Multiple UVs Not rendered.