“Batch rendering” is a term used to describe the process of rendering a series of tasks or jobs that have been assigned to a queue. Batch rendering is useful when you need to render images without supervision or when you want to render a number of test studies showing different day or night lighting, or for producing shadow studies of various sun angles. Batch rendering can also be used when you want to see how your project looks from different camera viewpoints.
Several methods for setting up batch rendering are available in 3ds Max. These methods entail using the Batch Render tool or network rendering with Backburner, or a combination of the two.
The three available methods for setting up batch rendering are as follows:
- Build a queue of camera tasks that are managed by the Batch Render tool.
If you have a MAX file that contains one or more cameras and saved scene states, you can set up a camera queue to render different camera viewpoints. Each camera can be set to automatically load a scene state to give you several visualizations of your model.
- Set up a series of jobs as network rendering assignments to be coordinated by Backburner.
If you have a number of separate scenes that are part of a single project or part of several projects, use network rendering even if you're rendering to a single computer. Use this method also if you have scenes that don't have a camera set up and you want to render a Perspective, Front, Left or Right viewport view.
- Use the Batch Render tool to set up a queue of camera tasks to render different views and pass them to Backburner for rendering management.