Softimage-Maya Bridge: Rendering

The following table lists the Maya equivalents for terms and workflows related to rendering in Softimage.

In Softimage ...becomes in Maya

Render Tree: 7

Material Manager: Alt + 7

Windows > Rendering Editors > Hypershade

The Hypershade allows you to build shading networks by creating, editing, and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, lights, rendering utilities, and special effects. See Hypershade window for more information.

See also About ShaderFX for information on how to create hardware shaders using ShaderFX.

Click + drag in the Render Tree to connect nodes

Middle-click + drag in the Hypershade window to connect nodes.

Render passes, partitions, and overrides

Render setup in Maya for more information.

Render region (Q)

Click to open the Render View window. Click , then draw a region in the Render View window, then click .

Tip: If your renderer supports interactive rendering, you can also use the IPR functionality. IPR follows your current Render Settings.

See Render View and About Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR) for more information.

Render > Preview

Click to open the Render View window. The Maya Render View provides functionality that is not available in Softimage; for example, exposure controls, the ability to keep images within the Render View so that you can scrub through them and compare, and loading render passes (File > Load Render Pass). See Render View for more information on these functionalities.

Rotoscopy

Image planes

Create an image plane via a camera's Attribute Editor; or, select Create > Free Image Plane. See Image planes.

Note: Watch this video to learn how to create image planes for rotoscopy: Softimage to Maya Bridge: Creating Image Planes for Rotoscopy

Image node

File node

Gradient shader

Ramp Shader

Note: Create shading or render nodes via the Hypershade window.

Constant shader

Surface Shader

Mix node

Blend Colors

Stand-in

Render proxy

Hue Offset (Overlay) blending mode

Do either of the following:

  • Combine normal maps by blending or adding the output of separate bump2D nodes prior to connecting the resulting output into the normalCamera input on the shader.
  • Use the plusMinusAverage node to combine the output of the bump2D nodes, and then use a Clamp node to clamp values greater than 1 (clamp to -1,1).
Tip: Use the Windows > General Editors > Connection Editor or Windows > Node Editor to connect your nodes.