CART-209 3D Modeling Lecture Notes

Associate Professor Thomas Sakoulas

10- Rendering - Overview

Rendering refers to the final output of a model or an animation where Maya produces
a still bitmap image, a series of bitmap images, or a movie.

Rendering produces images that take into account
Shading and textures
Lighting and shadows
Cameras and animation
The rendering method
Visual Effects

Rendering produces output that cannot be edited in 3-D space any longer. You can
thing of rendering as if you are taking a picture, or a movie of your 3D space and the
objects in it. The rendered images can be edited in an image editor or a movie editor.

The final output of the rendering process can be any number of file formats. For
single frame rendered images the output can be TIFF, JPEG, TARGA, etc, while for
animations the final output can be a QuickTime movie, an AVI, or a series of single
frame images that can then be put together in a movie editor.

Maya can use either Software rendering, Hardware rendering, Mental Ray, or another
third-party rendering engine.

Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR)
o IPR offers a rendered view of the image and updates is to reflect
changes on the scene. It is a visual aid tool that allows you to fine tune
your objects.
IPR supports standard surface shading.
IPR does not support raytraced shadows, reflections, refractions,
PaintFX, particles, 3D motion blur, and other effects.
o Working with IPR
! Use the IPR button on the toolbar, or go to the Rendering menu
group and select Render > IPR render current frame.
! IPR renders in the render view window
! Select a region on the render window to observe how the object
reacts to your changes.
! Change the IPR settings from the Render View window >
Options > Render Globals.
Hardware rendering
o It uses your computers OpenGL graphics card to draw the scene.
It cannot handle shadows, depth of field, and reflections very well, but
it can render Particle systems fast. The speed of render depends on the
capabilities of your graphic card accelerator.
Software rendering
o It calculates every single piece of information on the scene, and
therefore produces very accurate rendered images.
o It supports IPR rendering
CART-209 3D Modeling Lecture Notes
Associate Professor Thomas Sakoulas

o Using software rendering
! Select Rendering menu group > Render > Render Using >
Maya Software
! It renders in the Render View window
! You can select a region to render as you work to save resources
(can set it to auto render region)
! You can change the output settings in the Render View
window > Options > Render Globals
Mental Ray for Maya
o Mental Ray is a software-based rendering engine, and it complements
Mayas native software rendering engine with some features.
o Mental Ray handles raytracing superbly
o It offers global illumination and caustics rendering methods
(they use light-emitting photons that diffuse in space to create an
atmosphere)

Global Illumination
o It renders objects that dont directly receive light and instead rely on
diffused illumination.
o It utilizes the map of photons that are emitted by the lights on the
scene, and the way they are distributed based on how objects absorb,
reflect, or refract them.
o It allows for color bleeding among objects, and it is characterized by a
diffusion of light across the scene.
Caustics
o Caustics effects work similarly to Global illumination in that it utilizes
emitted photons to calculate the light patterns created when rays pass
through a refracting surface
Raytracing
o Raytracing is the most accurate way to render clear and reflective
surfaces (like glass or chrome)
o Raytracing calculates the path of light rays from the camera to the
source, and takes into account refraction values and reflections from
the surrounding scene to accurately reproduce reflections and
refractions on the surfaces.
o At least two objects and one light source must be present in the scene.
o Raytracing is supported by software render (off by default), and by
Mental Ray for Maya (on by default).





Studio Exercise
Getting Started with Maya: Rendering (pp. 375-396)