Render a sequence of frames interactively

You can render a sequence of frames in three ways:

• Select Render > Render Sequence and render the animation from within Maya.

  If you do not have an Arnold license, select this option to render your sequence without a watermark.

• Batch render from within Maya by selecting Render > Batch Render.
• Batch render from the command line.

  To batch render from the command line with Arnold for Maya, see Batch Rendering with Arnold for Maya.

  If you have an Arnold license, you can also select the second and third option to render images without a watermark.

To render an animation with Render Sequence

1. Set the frames that you want to render in the Render Settings window > Common tab.

   From the Rendering menu set, select Render > Render Settings to open the Render Settings window.

   Under File Output > Metadata (name, type, value) > Frame/Animation ext, select any of the options with a #; for example: name.#.ext. This option determines the format of the rendered image file names, and activates the Frame Range > Start frame and End frame attributes in the section below.

   You can now set your frame range using these attributes.

2. Select Render > Render Sequence > to open the Render Sequence options window.

   The title bar of the Render Sequence window indicates the frames that will be rendered, for example, Frame: 1-10.

   By default, images are saved to your project's images folder. To add them to the Render View, enable Add to Render View.

   Tip:

   You can also select Render > Render Sequence > from the Render View menu or from the Render View > Render marking menu.

   You can verify the path to which your rendered images are saved via the Render Settings window > Common tab.

3. Click Render Sequence to start rendering.

   Messages will appear in the Script Editor, indicating the progress of your render.

   If you have added images to the Render View, use the slider at the bottom of the Render View window to scroll through the rendered image sequence.

Additional Render Sequence options

Render Sequence also provides the following options:

• Render from all cameras or from only a specific one
• Render a region of your scene
• Save rendered images to your project's images folder or to an alternate location
• Add rendered images from all layers or all cameras to the Render View for preview

In addition, if you are using Render Setup, you can do the following:

• Render all layers or only the current layer
• Ignore or respect local overrides

Render from all cameras or from a specific camera

To render from a specific camera, select it from the Current Camera drop-down list. Any camera you create in the scene is automatically added to this list.

To render from all renderable cameras, enable All Render-Enabled Cameras. When this option is disabled, only the Current Camera is rendered.

Tip:

If the Current Camera drop-down list appears inactive, check that you have disabled All Render-Enabled Cameras.

Render Region

Rendering a region of your scene is supported with this feature.

Marquee select the area that you want to render in the Render View, then enable Render Region in the Render Sequence options window, and click Render Sequence.

Select an output file location for your images

By default, your rendered images are saved to your project's images folder. To set an alternate location, navigate to the folder via the Alternate Output File Location attribute.

Your customized folder location is only saved for the current Maya session, and is cleared after you open a new or existing scene, or after you exit and restart Maya.

To verify the default path, see the Render Settings window > Common tab.

Save images to Render View

Enable Add to Render View to save your images to the Render View and use the slider at the bottom of the window to scroll through the rendered image sequence.

Enable Add All Layers to add rendered images for all layers and Add All Cameras to add rendered images for all cameras to the Render View. Disable these options to save only images from the active layer and the active camera.

Render all layers

If you have partitioned your scene using Render Setup, you can render all renderable layers or only the current layer. Enable All Render-Enabled Layers to render all layers. Leave it disabled to render only the active layer.

Ignore local overrides

Local render overrides are ignored during batch rendering. When rendering a sequence, you have the option of ignoring or respecting local overrides in your render. Enable or disable the Ignore Local Overrides option.

This option applies to both images saved to the Render View as well as saved image files.

Render Sequence using the current settings

To render a sequence using the last saved settings, click from the Render View toolbar or the Rendering shelf.

Render Arnold AOVs

Add AOVs to your scene, then output them and save them to disk as you render your sequence.

1. In the Render Settings window > AOVs tab, add AOVs to your scene.
2. Verify that the Render Options you have selected in the Render Sequence window are correct. These options apply to both your render sequence and your AOVs.

   For example, if you enable Render All Layers but disable Render All Cameras, then the AOVs for each of your render layers are rendered and saved to disk, but only the current camera is rendered.

3. (Optional) Save one AOV to the Render View. In the Render Settings window, select the channel you want from the AOVs > Legacy > Maya Render View > Render View AOV drop-down list.
4. Click Render Sequence to start rendering.