Find this section in some selected objects’ Attribute Editor, from the Attribute Spread Sheet (Window > General Editors > Attribute Spread Sheet) or the Rendering Flags window (Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags).

The Render Stats section lets you turn on or off various rendering options for selected objects.

Casts Shadows

Turns on the shadow casting ability of the surface. To make shadows render faster, for surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off Casts Shadows. Consider the following:

• If you want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object casts onto other objects—make sure Casts Shadows is on.
• If you do not want the object’s shadow to render—the shadow the object casts onto other objects—turn Casts Shadows off.
  Note

  • If you render shadows separately, use the mask channel of the rendered shadow image in your compositing software to reduce the brightness of another image.
  • When you render from the Render View window, you can render only the selected objects by selecting Render>Render Selected Objects Only.

  Receive Shadows

  Turns on the shadow-catching ability of the surface.

  Motion Blur

  Turns on motion blur for the surface. You must also turn on Motion Blur in the Render Settings window.

  Primary Visibility

  When on, the surface is visible in the view and renders.

  Tip

  A surface’s shadow renders, however, if its Primary Visibility is off and Cast Shadows is on. This also applies to reflections and refractions.

  Smooth Shading

  If this is on, each vertex uses its own normal vector - meaning smoother transition between two faces. If this is off, one normal vector is used for a face; 3 vertices in a triangle uses a same normal vector, resulting flat looking shading.

  Visible In Reflections

  When on, the surface reflects in reflective surfaces. This is supported by mental ray for Maya.

  Visible In Refractions

  When on, the surface refracts in transparent surfaces. This is supported by mental ray for Maya.

  Double Sided

  Determines if the surface is double-sided. If single-sided, you can decrease memory use and use the Opposite option.

  Opposite

  Opposite flips the surface normals. Double-Sided must be off to set Opposite.

  Geometry Anti-aliasing Override

  When on, the surface overrides the geometry anti-aliasing settings.

  Tip

  Motion-blurred objects ignore any changes to the Geometry Anti-aliasing Override settings. The blur generally hides any aliasing artifacts.

  Antialiasing Level

  Select one of the following options:

  Level 1

  The default. It takes 32 visibility samples.

  Level 2

  Takes 96 visibility samples.

  Level 3

  Takes 288 visibility samples.

  Level 4

  Takes 512 visibility samples.

  Level 5

  Takes 800 visibility samples. Level 5 gives the best edge anti aliasing quality, but it is also the most expensive (in both memory and speed).

  Shading Samples Override

  When on, the surface overrides the global shading sample settings in the Render Settings window.

  Shading Samples

  Sets the minimum number of times Maya samples each pixel. For example, if set to 1, Maya samples each pixel once; if set to 8, Maya samples each pixel 8 times. The number of shading samples taken per pixel is limited by the number of visibility samples performed by the Edge Anti-Aliasing computation. So, if you use Medium Quality (which performs 8 visibility samples per pixel), you cannot get more than 8 shading samples regardless of the Shading Samples attribute setting.

  Since Shading Samples computation is very expensive, you should try adjusting the Max Shading Samples first. See Max Shading Samples.

  Max Shading Samples

  Sets the maximum number of times a pixel is sampled during the second pass of a Highest Quality render (adaptive shading pass). The higher the number, the longer the rendering takes, but the more accurate the resulting image is.

  Max Shading Samples has an effect only when used in conjunction with Highest Quality edge anti-aliasing. Also, depending on the requirements to compute an accurate solution, the number of Shading Samples taken can be less than the number of Max Shading Samples.

  Tip

  • Occasionally, when an object is moving, the object’s textured edges look distorted. To resolve this, try increasing the number of Max Shading Samples.
  • Sometimes, skinny highlights can exhibit roping or flickering artifacts. Try increasing the Max Shading Samples setting. You may also need to increase the Shading Samples setting, but you can set it on a per-object basis.

  Note

  The following attributes are only applicable to volume primitives and fluid shapes. They only appear in the Attribute Editor of the shape node of a volume primitive or fluid shape.

  Volume Samples Override

  When on, the object overrides the global volume shading settings and you can turn on the Depth Jitter option in Render Settings window.

  Volume samples

  Adjusts the number of samples placed inside the fog volume.

  Depth Jitter

  If you set Volume Sample Override on, you can turn on Depth Jitter option. Randomizes the samples of the volume with depth which replaces banding artifacts in volume renders with noise. The noise can be dramatically reduced by increasing the volume samples and anti-aliasing levels.