Menu Cells

Render

For more information on rendering, see the Rendering User's Guide.

Parameters

Rendering Type

Note:

When rendering with the Depthcue, SGI Hardware Renderer, Ghost, Rotoscope (Wire), or Rotoscope (Shade) rendering types, you can use any of the displayed window views. Rendering with the other rendering types must be done in window B with the Perspective view.

To select the window you want to render, simply click the letter identifier (A, B, C, or D) icon in the upper-left corner of the window's title bar before choosing the Render menu cell. The selected window is outlined in red. If no window is selected, rendering is done in window B.

Wire Frame

Hidden Line (Faceted and Smoothed)

• If you select the Faceted option, the renderer draws lines for all the object's surface polygon edges. This makes the object look like a typical wireframe object, except that the hidden lines are removed.

• The Smoothed option also removes hidden lines, but draws lines only at the object's edges, which creates an outline of the object with no interior lines.

Depthcue

Since the alpha channel is not calculated in the Depthcue window, compositing must be done using an external compositor, such as SOFTIMAGE® Eddie.

Tip:

When transforming a model for optimum viewing in a particular orthographic window, save a temporary keyframe (SaveKey -> Object -> Transformation command.

SOFTIMAGE Renderer

SGI Hardware Renderer

Note:

Remember to disable your screen saver while rendering with the SGI. This process takes a snapshot of the screen when the image is rendered.

Ghost

Rotoscope (Wire) and Rotoscope (Shade)

The 2D background can be a static picture or a sequence of images. The scene can be zoomed and panned while maintaining perfect registration with the background.

When zooming in window B, you must use the rectangle zoom option (Z Supra key) to define the zoom area; this takes a snapshot of the rectangular area and magnifies it to fill the screen. The camera position does not change. You can then use the zoom option (z Supra key) to pan, zoom in, and zoom out on the defined area. When you pan, it has the effect of moving the snapshot in front of a still camera.

When you select one of the Rotoscope options, the Rotoscopy dialogue box is displayed, as well as the window type in which you are displaying the scene.

• Select opens the browser so that you can search for the file you want as background. The selected file name is displayed in the Name text box. If you know the name of the file, type it directly in this text box.

• Static: Select this option if the background is a single image. Static is activated by default.

• Sequence: Select this option if the background is a sequence of images.

• Use Frame specifies the start and end frames of the background sequence.

• Step specifies the frame step increments of the background sequence to be rendered. For example, if you select 4, every fourth frame is rendered.

• Sync Frame sets the frame number of the actual scene where the background scene starts.

mental ray

After selecting mental ray from the Rendering Type list, you can set the parameters specific to it. These are accessed by selecting the Antialiasing and Motion Blur options, as well as the Options button.

Sequence

This increment allows you to skip frames. For example, if you select 4, every fourth frame is rendered.

Resolution

Note:

The higher the resolution, the longer it takes to render. There is no limit for image resolution, but if a resolution is greater than the monitor screen (x = 1280), it cannot be displayed on screen while rendering.

Y according to Format

Specify Y

Pixel Ratio (X/Y)

Some devices use rectangular rather than square pixels, so Pixel Ratio ensures compatibility of images with these devices.

Scripts

Pre-Frame

Post-Frame

Line Status

Output Images

Picture File

Db List

File Format

Select Filename

Global Switches

• All on/All off activates/deactivates all switches in the Global Switches dialogue box.

• Selective shows that selected switches are active.

• Set displays the Global Switches dialogue box and allows you to set the switches on or off.

Render Subregion

If you want to render in a particular subregion, select the Subregion option to activate the Set button. The subregion only needs to be defined once, since the Preview and Render processes share the same subregion definition.

Click Set and the Define Subregion dialogue box is displayed. You can select the exact area to be rendered by entering either the pixel coordinates or by typing the coordinates as percentages.

For example, if you want to test some material parameters, but only want to preview the area affected by change and don't want to redefine the subregion for each test, you can set the pixel or percentage coordinates for this area.

Note:

The pixel values are dependent on the resolution. For example, if you set the subregion area with pixel coordinates and the resolution changes (becomes larger or smaller), the area that is rendered still uses those pixel coordinates. However, the percentage values are independent on the resolution. If you set the subregion area with percentage coordinates, the pixel values change as the resolution changes (if you set the percentage values to 10 percent, you always see 10 percent of the image being rendered).

Draw Always

Resize the cropping rectangle by clicking on a corner or side, and then dragging the mouse.

• Move the rectangle by clicking inside it and dragging.

• Middle-click to render the image.

Settings

Antialiasing

For a complete explanation on antialiasing, see the Antialiasing section of the Rendering User's Guide.

Bartlett Window

Adaptive Supersampling

Antialiasing for mental ray

Active

Min Samples

Max Samples

Note:

This is similar to Bartlett antialiasing, except that Bartlett antialiasing calculates and averages all points in a pixel to set the pixel colour. For more information on antialiasing and the Bartlett Window, see the Antialiasing section of the Rendering User's Guide.

Filter Type

• None is selected by default. This option specifies that no filtering type is used.

• Gaussian weights the sample using a Gaussian curve, which is cut off at an ellipse centered on the pixel: its curve has a spherical shape.

• Box sums up all samples in the filter area with an equal weight.

• Triangle: Its curve has the shape of a pyramid centered on a pixel.

• Width defines the width of the filtering type area in pixels. The default is 1. Larger values result in softer images. Typical values are 1 for Box filters, 2 for Triangle filters, and 3 for Gaussian filters. Filter sizes should not be smaller than 1.

• Height defines the width of the filtering type area in pixels. The default is 1. Larger values result in softer images. Typical values are 1 for Box filters, 2 for Triangle filters, and 3 for Gaussian filters. Filter sizes should not be smaller than 1.

Tip:

Filter types other than Box, as well as large filter values, may reduce rendering speed.

• Adaptive Supersampling activates the adaptive supersampling filtering method. This method determines if there is a large contrast between adjacent pixels before starting the sampling processing. If a large contrast does exist, a higher sample rate is used. A very high sampling rate affects rendering time.

• The Red, Green, and Blue sliders allow you to set the contrast threshold for the adaptive oversampling method.

Field Rendering

The mental ray renderer generates full frames for each field. You have to use the interleave standalone to recombine the fields.

For more information on using field rendering and an example, see the Field Rendering section of the Rendering User's Guide.

When you select the Field Rendering option, the Field dialogue box is displayed.

Select the Active option to activate field rendering and then select the EVEN field or ODD field option to correspond to your dominant field environment:

• Even field is used for PAL output. This is the output used by the UK and most European countries.

• Odd field is used for NTSC output. This is the output used by North America, Japan, and parts of South America.

Dithering

Select the Active option to activate dithering, then set the Noise values. Noise allows you to add a random component to non-background pixels. Values are integers. At 0 there is no noise; values over 200 yield almost total noise.

Motion Blur

For more information on working with motion blur, see the Blurring a Moving Object section of the Rendering User's Guide.

Select the Active option to activate motion blur, then set these two values:

• Shutter Speed allows you to set the length of time the shutter is open. Values are measured in frames.

• Min. Movement sets the sampling rate while the shutter is open and the minimum amount of movement to be blurred. The value is measured in pixels. A low value increases the sampling rate and the memory required. The default value is 5.

Motion Blur for mental ray

When you select mental ray from the Rendering Type list and select the Motion Blur option, the mental ray Motion Blur dialogue box is displayed.

Select the Active option to activate motion blur, then set the shutter speed value. Shutter Speed allows you to set the length of time the shutter is open. A value of zero automatically turns all motion blur calculations off. The default value is 0.7, with the range of acceptable values between 0 and 1. The value is in time, emulating the shutter on a camera being open for a percentage of time between frame x and x + 1. A large number means a slower shutter speed.

Time/Date Stamp

Active

Corners

TEXT

• White on transparent background (the default)

• Black on transparent background

• White on black background

• Black on white background

Information

As a scene is being rendered, the sun's time and date is displayed in this format hour: month/day/year. If there is no sun in the scene, the message "NO SUN!" is displayed.

Options

Ray Tracing

• Raytraced depth: The default setting is 1, which allows for one bounce of the light rays. For a transparent refractive object such as glass, this value should be set to 3 or 4.

Note:

If the raytraced depth value is set to less than the number of bounces made by the rays, a black default may occur resulting in an incorrect dark interior.

• Triangles per leaf allows you to optimize the raytracing process by limiting the number of triangles per leaf that are rendered. Object surfaces are divided into triangles to simplify rendering.

• Max Tree Depth allows you to optimize the raytracing process by limiting the level of rendering that occurs. The Max Tree Depth option defines the limit on the number of subdivisions. For example, if you have a sphere where 40 triangles touched at the top and the Triangles per Leaf is set to 10, SOFTIMAGE 3D continues subdividing space around this point, trying to find a box that contains only 10 triangles and failing. Max Tree Depth stops subdividing even though there are more than 10 triangles in the box.

Statistics

• Time allows you to print the preprocessing time and rendering time (in seconds) for each frame to the "stats" file.

• Memory allows you to print the amount of memory used for the various data structures to the "stats" file (for the first frame only).

• BSP tree: Binary Space Partition tree is a technique for subdividing 3D space to reduce the number of computations required for intersection computation. The number of leaves containing a given number of triangles and the number of leaves at a given tree depth is printed to the stats file.

Render Z Channel

Render Tag Channels

Back Culling

Complete Unfinished Frames

Options for mental ray

Optimization

• Front renders only front-facing polygons.

• Back renders only back-facing polygons.

• Both renders both front and back-facing polygons.

• Trace activates the raytracer for primary rays. The raytracer is automatically turned on if a lens shader is active.

• Shadow activates shadow computation. If deselected, no shadow computation occurs, even if the model's shadow is activated in the Render Setup dialogue box which is accessed by choosing the Info -> Selection command.

Think of each new branch as a layer: if you add the total number of a ray's layers, it represents the depth of that ray. The Ray Depth option allows you to define the depth of a ray, which means you are actually defining the maximum number of times a ray can be reflected or refracted in the scene. The various branches of rays in a scene constitute a ray tree.

• Reflected ray depth allows you to specify the maximum number of a ray's reflective branches in a scene. For example, in a totally reflective scene, the ray continuously bounces around in the scene creating an infinite number of branches. This option lets you set an upper limit on these calculations.

• Refracted ray depth allows you to set the maximum number of times a ray can be refracted in a scene.

• Sum adds the total number of a ray's reflections and refractions in the scene. If the total exceeds the number you have specified, the ray is not cast.

• Ray Classification: The ray classification method relies on ray coherency in the scene to subdivide the space of rays. In doing so, this algorithm is using a fixed amount of memory allocated to the acceleration data structures and defaults to approximately 6 megabytes per CPU. Even very large scenes with over one million triangles work at maximum speed with no more than 12 megabytes per CPU for acceleration data structures. For more information, see the Raytracing Using Mental Ray section of the Rendering User's Guide. The optimal subdivision is estimated by mental ray, but may be adjusted using the Ray Classification Setup dialogue box.

• Visible allows you to specify the number of divisions for all rays. The rendered image is not affected.

• Shadow allows you to specify the number of shadow ray space divisions. Positive numbers increase the number of divisions, and negative numbers reduce the number of divisions, reducing rendering time. The rendered image is not affected.

• Memory Limit is a safety device that allows you to specify the maximum amount of memory to be used for the data structures. The default value is 10 megabytes.

• BSP tree: Binary Space Partition tree. This acceleration method operates by building a hierarchical spatial data structure by recursively subdividing the bounding volume of the scene. The resulting binary tree consists of branch nodes that correspond to a subdivision of a bounding volume (voxel) in 2 subvoxels and leaf nodes that contain the geometric primitive (triangles).

• Maximum depth allows you to optimize the raytracing process by limiting the level of rendering that occurs. The default is 24.

• Maximum size allows you to optimize the raytracing process by limiting the number of triangles per leaf that are rendered. The default is 4.

Tip:

The BSP tree method is generally faster than Ray Classification, but consumes more memory for large scenes.

Output Shaders

This method of rendering defines surfaces by contrast rather than by geometry and produces antialiased contour lines between surfaces, as well as in areas where surface normals show discontinuity. Contour line rendering is particularly useful for cartoon animation because the contour lines produced look similar to the line drawings of traditional animation, and the output can be painted cel by cel.

When you click the OFF/ON button beside this option, the Contour Rendering Parameters dialogue box is displayed:

• Activate makes the Contour Rendering option active. Deselect it to deactivate the option.

• Line Width defines the width of the contour lines in pixels. The default is 0.5.

• Contour Depth is used to give a tolerance to distinguish between objects that are in almost the same position in space. The default is 0, which means it distinguishes between all objects.

Note:

You cannot use contour rendering with the BSP tree acceleration method selected. If you do so, SOFTIMAGE 3D switches the Ray Classification method to render the contour images.

Activates depth picture output and creates an output file with the extension .Zpic. This method is similar to Normal encoding, except that it is the distance between the camera and the nearest triangle that is stored instead of the RGB value.

Displays current output shaders with their status (active or inactive). This allows you to apply one or more output shaders to the scene after it is finished rendering. Since you can have more than one shader active at the same time, it makes a difference how you order them in the scroll box. The shaders are processed starting from the top of the scroll box. You can even use the same shader more than once, perhaps slightly modifying it each time it is used.

• Select allows you to select a new output shaders to add to the current list of shaders. When you click this button, the output shader database browser is displayed in which you can select a shader.

If you need to search for a shader, double-click the .. (two dots) at the top of the browser and select the appropriate chapter.

• Edit displays the dialogue box containing the parameters that define the shader you have selected. You can then edit the parameters of that shader. For example, if you are using the same shader two or more times in the list, you can modify the parameters slightly for each time it is used.

• Active makes the shader active or inactive, depending on the current state of the shader. If a shader is active, it is highlighted.

• Move Up lets you rearrange the order of the shaders when you have more than one active shader in the scroll box. Since you can have more than one lens shader active at the same time, it makes a difference how you order them in the scroll box. The shaders are processed starting from the top of the list.

• Delete deletes the currently selected shader from the shader list.

• Set Name lets you change the name of a lens shader. To change names, select a shader from the scroll box, modify the name in the Name text box, and click Set Name. This creates a new shader with the new name, but with the current parameters. You can edit these parameters in the dialogue box that is displayed when you click Edit (see the previous description of Edit). The new shader can then be saved and recalled by name in other scenes.

• Name lets you save a shader by another name (see Set Name above).

Image Options

Activates the desaturation colour clipping method that looks at each RGB colour component to identify any pixels which may have a value greater than 1. If any exist, the values of all other pixels are reduced proportionally. If this option is not selected, the component clipping method is used instead, which modifies only pixels with a value greater than 1 by first identifying them and then reducing their values.

Allows you to specify the gamma correction value to be applied to the output colour. Gamma correction is necessary for providing the proper contrast to a rendered image according to the recording device used. The default value of 1 is adequate for most purposes.

Allows you to write the commands received by the raytracer to a file instead of actually rendering the scene.

To do this, enter the complete path file name or a relative path name in the text box; the file is written to the current working directory. This output can then be edited and manually sent to the mental ray renderer using the irix command. For example, if you're using IRIX version 5.3 and the rendered image file name is mental_lee.mi, type:

ray.irix5 mental_lee

• Output to File per frame works like the Output to File option, except that you can specify which frames to render. Each output file name corresponds to the frame number (such as output.1.mi, output.2.mi, etc.) and can be modified/rendered separately. This allows post-scripts to modify the .mi file and use the tracer, and then remove it to save disk space.

Default Link/Code

Click Edit to display the Custom Script Lines dialogue box.

• Edit allows you to edit a command line. When selected, the Custom Script Lines dialogue box is displayed again. Make your modifications and click Ok to close the dialogue box.

• Add allows you to add a new command to the script. When selected, the Append New Line dialogue box is displayed.

Note:

If no existing command line is selected before you click Add, the new line is added to the end of the command line list. If you select an existing command line before clicking Add, the new line is added before it.

You can add a maximum of 50 command lines.

• Delete allows you to delete a command line from the script.

Render Sequence

Accept