Render scenes with fur

Related topics:

• Rendering fur in the Maya software renderer vs. mental ray for Maya
• Set up Fur Render Settings before rendering
• Set up Render Stats for each fur description
• Set up mental ray render settings for each fur description

You can render either a single frame, or render an animation by performing a batch render. For information, see the following:

• Render a single frame with fur
• Render an animation with fur

About rendering fur using the Maya Software renderer

When you render a scene with fur using the Maya Software renderer, Maya creates fur files and stores them in the furFiles directory. To ensure that files do not overwrite each other during a distributed render, a process ID is added to the filename prefix of the fur files. For example, if you rendered a scene called furryscene, Maya would create the following fur files:

furryscene278_1_1.0001.sbs, furryscene278_1_1.ass 
furryscene278_1_1.hair, furryscene278_1_1.shadow
furryscene278_1_1_equal.0001.sbs

where 278_1_1 is the process ID.

Render a single frame with fur

Use the following procedure to render a single frame with fur in it.

To render a scene

1. Define render settings. For information, see Render Settings window. If you haven’t specified a renderer, you can do so in the Render Settings window.

   If you’re rendering fur using mental ray for Maya, then select the Production: Rapid Fur Quality Preset in the Quality tab of the Render Settings: mental ray tabs.

2. Set up Fur Render Settings. See To set up Fur Render Settings.
3. In the Rendering menu set select Render > Render Current Frame. The image is rendered using the selected renderer and appears in Render View.

Render an animation with fur

Use the following procedure if you are animating scenes with fur. If you are animating fur attributes (see Animate fur attributes) or adding movement to fur using attractors (see Add movement to fur), this is the final step.

To render an animation with fur

1. Set up Fur Render Settings. See Fur Render Settings menu itemTo set up Fur Render Settings.
2. Modify the Render Settings for animation by selecting Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings.
3. In the Render Settings window, specify a renderer by selecting either Maya Software or mental ray from the Render Using list.
4. Click the Common tab, and do the following:
   • In the File name prefix field, type the prefix you want to use for the rendered images.
   • In the Frame/Animation ext field, select name.ext.#.
   • In the Start frame and End frame fields, type the first and last frames in the sequence you want to render.
5. If you are using Maya Software to render fur, and you want to add motion blur, click the Maya Software tab, and from the Motion Blur section, turn on Motion Blur.
6. If you are using mental ray to render fur, click the Quality tab, and do the following:
   • From the Quality Presets list, select either Production: Rapid Fur, or Production: Fine Trace.

     If you want to trace fur or hair in reflections, select Production: Fine Trace.

   • (Optional) To add motion blur, from the Motion Blur section, select either Full or No Deformation.
     Note

     The animation takes longer to render with Motion Blur turned on. If rendering a scene with motion blur using mental ray, use the following guidelines:

     • For moving objects with fur or moving fur (attractors), set Motion Blur to Full in the Quality tab of the Render Settings window: mental ray tabs.
     • If the camera is moving, set Motion Blur to either No Deformation or Full in the Quality tab of the Render Settings window: mental ray tabs.
     • If the Segments attribute is keyframed, motion blur won’t work in mental ray.

     For information about Motion Blur settings, see Motion Blur.

7. Do one of the following:
   • Select Render > Batch Render.
   • Select Render > Batch Render > . The Batch Render Animation window appears. Change the options if desired and click Batch Render.

   To view your rendered animation, launch Fcheck and then open the rendered.iff file. For more information on viewing the animation, see Open a file in FCheck.

To cancel a batch render

1. Select Render > Cancel Batch Render.

Render using distributed render

If you are performing a distributed render, or if you are splitting up the render for any reason, you must pre-generate the equalization maps. Sometimes it is also helpful to pre-generate the fur files when rendering in sections using the Maya Software renderer. See MEL scripts for Advanced Fur Rendering.