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Choosing a Render Output option

The Render Output section enables you to output the image or animations to a file, a device, or the Rendered Frame Window. To save the output to a file, click the Files button and select a location in the Render Output File dialog box. Supported formats include AVI, BMP, DDS, Postscript (EPS), JPEG, Kodak Cineon (CIN), Open EXR, Radiance Image File (HDRI), QuickTime (MOV), PNG, RLA, RPF, SGI's Format (RGB), Targa (TGA), and TIF. The Device button can output to a device such as a video recorder. If the Rendered Frame Window option is selected, then both the Files and Devices buttons are disabled. (The Rendered Frame Window is discussed later in this chapter.)

Tip

Each of these output formats has its advantages. For example, Targa files are good for compositing because they have an alpha channel. TIF and EPS files are good for files to be printed. JPEG, PNG, and GIF files are used for web images. DDS images are used in many game engines. •

You also have an option to Put Image File List in Output Path, which creates a list of image files in the same location as the rendered file. You also have the choice of choosing Max's IFL standard or the Autodesk ME Image Sequence File (IMSQ). The Create Now button creates an image list instantly.

Cross-Reference

More on using Image File Lists is covered in Chapter 21, “Understanding Animation and Keyframes.” •

The Net Render option enables network rendering. The Skip Existing Images option doesn't replace any images with the same filename, a feature that you can use to continue a rendering job that has been canceled.

Cross-Reference

For more information on network rendering, see Chapter 48, “Batch and Network Rendering.” •

E-mail notifications

The process of rendering an animation (or even a single frame) can be brief or it can take several days, depending on the complexity of the scene. For complex scenes that will take a while to render, you can configure Max to send you an e-mail message when your rendering is complete or if it fails. These options are in the Email Notifications rollout, shown in Figure 23.5.

In addition to the options, you can enter whom the e-mail is from, whom it is to, and an SMTP Server.

FIGURE 23.5

The Email Notifications rollout includes options for sending an e-mail message to report on rendering status.

Adding pre-render and post-render scripts

The Scripts rollout includes File buttons for adding pre-render and post-render scripts. The scripts must be .ms scripts and are executed before and after the rendering of each file. These scripts can be used to compile information about the render or to do some post-processing work. Above each script file button is an Execute Now button that can be used to check the script before rendering.

Assigning renderers

Max performs rendering operations in several different places: The Render Scene dialog box renders to the Render Frame Window or to files; the sample slots in the Material Editor also are rendered; and the ActiveShade windows show another level of rendering.

The plug-in nature of Max enables you to select the renderer to use to output images. To change the default renderer, look in the Assign Renderers rollout in the Common panel of the Render Scene dialog box (F10). You can select different renderers for the Production, Material Editor, and ActiveShade modes. For each, you can select from the Default Scanline Renderer, the mental ray Renderer, Quicksilver Hardware Renderer, and the VUE File Renderer.

Note

The VUE File Renderer is used to create a VUE file, which is an editable text file that holds all the details of the scene. •

The lock next to the Material Editor option indicates that the same renderer is used for both Production and Material Editor.

Scanline A-Buffer renderer

The Default Scanline Renderer rollout, found in the Renderer panel and shown in Figure 23.6, is the default renderer rollout that appears in the Render Scene dialog box. If a different renderer is loaded, then a different rollout for that renderer is displayed in