Navigate to Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Layer Editor. This editor is only available when Maya is set to use the legacy render layer system.
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.
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:
Click the icons at the top to create a new layer , or create a layer and assign selected objects .
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.
Follow these guidelines to perform per layer overrides:
Individual, per object overrides are not shown in this interface.
Creates a new render layer, depending on the selection in the pull-down menu, with a default name, for example layer1.
Creates a new render layer and populates it with the selected objects.
Duplicates the selected layer.
There are two options available with this feature:
Select this option to copy both the objects and render layer properties to the new layer.
Select this option to copy only the objects to the new layer and create new overrides for the duplicated layer.
Selects the objects contained in the selected layer(s).
Removes selected objects from the selected layer(s)
Opens the Relationship Editor for removing or adding objects to layers.
Opens the Attribute Editor for the selected layer(s). There are some attributes in the Attribute Editor not available through the Edit Layer window.
Deletes the selected layer(s), but not the objects in the layer.
Delete layers if they have no content.
Select this option to open a separate, floating Render Layer Editor window.
You can create your render pass contribution maps using this menu.
Create a new pass contribution map and associate it with the selected layer.
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.
Duplicate your selected contribution map.
This option indicates which objects belong in the selected pass contribution maps. All objects in the pass contribution map are selected.
Use this option to add the selected objects to the selected pass contribution maps.
Use this option to remove objects from the selected pass contribution maps.
To remove a pass contribution map or multiple pass contribution maps, select the map(s) and then choose this option.
Pass contribution maps that do not have geometries and lights assigned to them are removed with this option.
Opens the Relationship Editor window.
Opens the pass contribution map Attribute Editor.
You can set the following binary options:
Renders all the layers in the scene based on the default Render All Layers Options.
Select one of the following options:
Renders a composited result of all layers and displays it in the Render View. This is the default for Render All Layers.
Renders all your layers as individual images, but displays a composited result.
Renders all your layers as individual images.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
The following commands are available when you right-click a layer:
Add or remove objects from a render layer.
Selects objects that belong to the current layer.
Removes all objects from a layer, leaving it empty.
Duplicates the layer.
Deletes the layer.
Expand the submenu to select the desired override.
Removes any render setting overrides for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides.
Removes any render flag (layer attributes) overrides for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides.
Removes the current material override for the select object(s) on the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides.
Allows you to select a new material override for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides.
Allows you to select an existing material override for the current layer. For more information, see Work with layer overrides.
Expand the submenu to choose among one of the following options.
Create a new empty contribution map for the selected layer.
Create a new contribution map for the current layer containing the selected objects.
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.
Allows you to add a new render pass to your layer. Expand the submenu to choose among one of the available render passes.
Opens the Relationship Editor for removing or adding objects to layers.
Opens the Attribute Editor for the selected layer(s). There are some attributes in the Attribute Editor not available through the Edit Layer window.
The following commands are available when you right-click a render pass contribution map.
Select the pass contribution map name to display its Attribute Editor.
Add or remove objects from both the render layer and the current 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 render pass contribution map from the current layer.
Remove all objects from render pass contribution map.
Removes render pass contribution map from all layers.
Sets the pass contribution map as active so that it is respected when render passes are created.
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.
Opens the Relationship Editor for removing or adding objects to layers.