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Render Settings: Common tab |
For information on the render settings, see Render Settings window.
Not all options are available for all renderers.
Image File Output
The name of rendered image files can consist of three separate components: file name, frame number extension, and file format extension. A combination of these three components is referred to as the file name syntax.
File Name Prefix
the File name prefix attribute to add one or more of these fields to the file name for your scene: scene name, layer name, camera name, version number, current date or current time.
You can also create subdirectories to save out rendered images by adding a / (slash) in your file name prefix. For more information about the file name syntax, see Subfolders and names of rendered images.
Note
When choosing basic file names for an animation, avoid using periods; use underscores instead. For example, use:
xxx_yyy.iff.1
instead of
xxx.yyy.iff.1
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Frame/Animation Ext
The format (syntax) of rendered image file names.
Image Format
The format for saving rendered image files. See also File formats. The default setting is Maya IFF.
Compression
Click this button to select the compression method for AVI (Windows) or Quicktime movie (Mac OS X) files. When you click this button, the Video Compression dialog box appears. Select the desired compression method from the Compressor drop-down list. Currently, Maya only supports the Uncompressed and Cinepack Codec compression methods.
This button only becomes active when you select AVI (Windows) or Quicktime movie (Mac OS X) as your image format.
Note
The settings for this option are saved in the registry and not in the scene file. Copying a scene file from one machine to another does not transfer these settings.
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Start Frame, End Frame
Specifies the first (Start Frame) and last (End Frame) frames to render. Start Frame and End Frame are only available if Frame/Animation Ext is set to an option containing # (see also Set file name syntax). The default value for Start Frame is 1; the default value for End Frame is 10.
By Frame
The increment between the frames you want to render. By Frame is only available if Frame/Animation Ext is set to an option containing #. The default value is 1.
If you use a value less than 1, make sure the Renumber Frames Using option is turned on. Otherwise, many frames will appear to be missing when they are just being overwritten.
Frame Padding
The number of digits in frame number extensions. For example, if Frame/Animation Ext is set to name.ext, and Frame Padding is 3, Maya names rendered image files name.001, name.002, and so on. The default value is 1.
Renderable Cameras
Render a scene from one or more cameras. The default is to render from one camera.
If you are rendering the scene from one camera (only), select the camera from the drop-down list. By default, the perspShape camera is the renderable camera.
The drop-down list is divided into three sections, separated by dashes:
The first section is the camera currently selected as renderable.
The second section lists existing cameras that you can select as renderable.
The third section is the Add Renderable Camera option. If you want to add another existing camera to the list of renderable cameras, you can select Add Renderable Camera. When you select this option, a new Renderable Camera section appears. Select the additional renderable camera from which you want to render the scene from the drop-down list.
If you render from more than one camera, the rendered image output from each camera is stored in a different directory by default. For example, if you are rendering from camera1 and camera2, then the rendered images are stored respectively in camera1/scene.gif and camera2/scene.gif.
You can also override the default settings by using the File Name Prefix attribute. the File Name Prefix attribute and select Insert camera name <camera>. This way, all rendered images are saved to the same directory and identified with the camera name (for example, <camera>_<scene>.gif produces camera1_scene.gif and camera2_scene.gif). See File Name Prefix for more information.
For each renderable camera, you can also turn on or off the Alpha or Mask channel for that camera.
Alpha Channel (Mask)
Controls whether rendered images contain a mask channel. The default setting is on.
Depth Channel (Z Depth)
Controls whether rendered images contain a depth channel. The default setting is off.
To make a camera non-renderable, remove it from the list by clicking on the 
button beside the camera name. You should have at least one renderable camera in the scene. The remove button does not appear if only one renderable camera is listed.
Override renderable camera
On any render layer, you can also override the list of renderable cameras for that layer. For example, you can set cameras 1, 3, and 5 as your renderable cameras for your master layer and then set cameras 1, 2, and 4 as renderable for layer 1. To override the settings in a layer and render the scene from a different camera, select the layer, and then, in the Render Settings window, Renderable Camera beside the camera name and select Create Layer Override from the drop-down menu that appears. Renderable Camera turns red to indicate that a layer override has been incorporated.
Tip
If you accidentally delete the only renderable camera in your scene, you can add a renderable camera by selecting the camera name from the drop-down menu in the Renderable Cameras section.
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Advanced Image Naming
Use Custom Extension
You can use a custom file format extension for rendered image file names by turning on Use Custom Extension, and entering the extension in the Extension text field. This extension replaces the standard extension based on file format, such as .IFF, .GIF, and so on.
Renumber Frames Using
Lets you change the numbering of rendered image files for an animation. The Renumber Frames attributes are only available if Frame/Animation Ext is set to an option with # (such as name.#.ext).
If on, Maya uses the frame number extensions beginning at Start Number and increasing by By Frame for rendered image file names.
Start Number
The frame number extension you want the first rendered image file name to have.
By Frame
The increment between frame number extensions you want rendered image file names to have.
Version Label
You can add a version label to your render output filename. Use this attribute to customize the <Version> tag in the File name prefix field in the Image File Output section.
You can select one of the following options: a version number (for example, 1, 2, or 3), the current date, or the current time. 
-click this attribute to add the version label you desire. The first two options available (use number: n) are automatically updated each time you insert a numeric version number. For example, if you have added version number 3, the first option automatically updates to use number: 2 and use number: 4. Alternatively, you can create your own custom version label.
Image Size
The Image Size attributes control the resolution and pixel aspect ratio of rendered images.
For more information about resolution, see Resolution.
Presets
Select a film- or video-industry standard resolution. When you select an option from the Presets drop-down list, Maya automatically sets the Width, Height, Device Aspect Ratio, and Pixel Aspect Ratio.
You can also add a Presets option to output to an unlisted device.
Maintain Width/Height Ratio
Turn on this setting when you want to scale the image size proportionally in width and height. When you enter a value for either Width or Height, the other value is automatically calculated.
Maintain Ratio
Specifies the type of rendering resolution ratio you want to use, Pixel Aspect or Device Aspect.
The Pixel Aspect ratio is the number of pixels in width to height, that compose the image. Most display devices (for example, a computer monitor) have square pixels, and their Pixel Aspect Ratio is 1. Some devices, however, have non-square pixels (for example, NTSC video has a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 0.9).
The Device Aspect ratio is the number of units wide by the number of units high of your display. A 4:3 (1.33) display produces an image that is more square, and a 16:9 (1.78) ratio produces an image that is more panoramic in shape.
Width
Specifies the width of the image in the unit specified in the Size Units setting.
Height
Specifies the height of the image in the unit specified in the Size Units setting.
Size Units
Sets the unit that you want to specify the image size in. Select from pixels, inches, cm (centimeter), mm (millimeter), points and picas.
Resolution
Specifies the resolution of the image in the unit specified in the Resolution Units setting. TIFF, IFF and JPEG formats are able to store this information, so that it is maintained when the image is opened in a third party application such as Adobe® Photoshop®.
Resolution Units
Sets the unit that you want to specify the image resolution. Select from pixels/inch or pixels/cm (centimeter).
Device Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the display device on which you view the rendered image. The device aspect ratio represents the image aspect ratio multiplied by the pixel aspect ratio.
Pixel Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the individual pixels of the display device on which you are viewing the rendered image.
For more information about the pixel aspect ratio, see Pixel aspect ratio.
Render Options
Enable Default Light
Not available for Vector Rendering.
Turn the default lighting on or off during rendering.
For more information about Maya’s default lighting, see Default lighting in Maya.
Pre Frame MEL, Post Frame MEL
A MEL command or script to run before rendering each frame (Pre Frame MEL), or after rendering each frame (Post Frame MEL).
For more information Pre Frame MEL scripts and Post Frame MEL scripts, see Pre Render MEL and Post Render MEL scripts.