A state is an object that records changes to your scene allowing you to quickly display and render them. The typical workflow is as follows:
To create states:
- Choose State Sets from the Rendering menu, or right-click in the viewport and choose Manage State Sets from the quad menu.
The State Sets dialog opens showing a State Sets item at the top of the Tree View, with State01 underneath it. This default state is also known as the base state.
- Click
to add a state.
- Click
to enable the new state.
- Click
to record.
- Make changes to the scene using standard
3ds Max tools. For example, change output resolution with the Render Setup dialog or hide an object in a viewport.
Note: State Sets does not record transforms of objects in the scene. Transforms will affect all states.
- To finish recording, click
.
The state now lists all recorded changes. You can adjust these changes by expanding any entry and modifying its values.
To toggle between the base state and a recorded state, click the state's arrow button. You can also switch between different states by clicking the corresponding arrow button. Only one state can be active at a time. If no arrows are highlighted, no state is active and the original scene is shown.
- Continue adding states and recording changes as necessary.
To perform render passes:
- From the States menu, choose Render Outputs to open the Render Outputs panel.
- Change the path and output file name as necessary, and click Set Path.
- From the States menu, choose Render All States.
State sets renders the states to files using the file pattern specified on the Render Outputs panel.
To create and export composites:
- From the Compositor menu, choose Compositor View.
State Sets opens the Compositor view containing a fully-wired schematic. Each state is represented by a node that is wired to an Output Bitmap node containing a thumbnail of the state's rendered image. All the Output Bitmap nodes are wired to the Compositor Output node, which contains a thumbnail that shows the default composition.
In Compositor view, edit the schematic and nodes to modify the composite.
- From the Compositor menu, choose an option to output the composite to either an Adobe Photoshop PSD file, or to Adobe After Effects using the Compositor Link command.