ActiveShade

The ActiveShade button, available from the Render flyout, creates an ActiveShade rendering in a floating window.

• Main Toolbar > Render Production flyout > (ActiveShade)
• Keyboard > +Q (Uses the Render mode active on the toolbar: either Production or ActiveShade)

ActiveShade gives you a preview rendering that can help you see the effects of changing lighting or materials in your scene. When you adjust lights or materials, the ActiveShade window interactively updates the rendering.

You assign which renderer to use for ActiveShade rendering on the Assign Renderer rollout of the Render Setup dialog Common panel.

ActiveShade preview of material changes

Above left: Before the update

Above right: After changing the material for the fabric to a mapped material and increasing the highlights on the material for the wood

ActiveShade preview of lighting changes

Above left: Before moving a light in a viewport

Above right: After moving the light

ActiveShade Commands

When you right-click an ActiveShade window, the quad menu displays an ActiveShade menu. This menu contains a number of ActiveShade commands.

Procedures

To display a free-floating ActiveShade window:

• Choose ActiveShade from the Render flyout.
  Note: As with the Render command, the ActiveShade window respects the Output Size setting from the Render Setup dialog. To use a different render size, set it first with Render Setup, and then open the ActiveShade window.

To display an ActiveShade window in a viewport:

• Click or right-click the Point-Of-View (POV) viewport label. From the POV viewport label menu, choose ActiveShade.
  Note: You can't make a maximized viewport an ActiveShade window, or maximize an ActiveShade window.

To change an ActiveShade viewport to another kind of viewport:

1. Turn on the toolbar in the ActiveShade viewport.
2. Right-click the toolbar.
3. In the pop-up menu, choose the type of view to display.

   You can also restore the viewport to its previous status by right-clicking the viewport and choosing View (upper-left) quad Close.

To zoom and pan in an ActiveShade window:

You can zoom in and out and pan the image in the ActiveShade window. You can even do this while a scene is rendering.

1. Hold down and then click to zoom in, right-click to zoom out.
2. Hold down and then drag to pan. (The window must be zoomed in.)

If you have a three-button mouse, you can use its third button or wheel to zoom and pan:

1. Roll the wheel to zoom in or out.
2. Press the wheel, and drag to pan.
   Note: You can use any third-button pointing device to pan the image. To enable this, choose the Pan/Zoom option on the Viewports panel of the Preferences dialog.