Choose a rendering method

Tip

Before you render a scene, you should diagnose it for common problems which can affect image quality and rendering times. See Maya render diagnostics.

Visualize a scene

Though you can render a scene to see what it looks like, visualizing your scene in the following ways can be faster:

To...	Do this...
See changes to a still image or a single frame of an animation as you make them.	Use Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR). IPR updates the display to show your most recent change, but there are limitations to what you can see. For more information, see Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR).
See what a still image or single frame of an animation (or a region of it) looks like as the render occurs.	Use Render View, especially Render Region. Render View has fewer limitations than IPR, so you can see more, but it takes longer to render.Render regions of a scene to reduce the amount of time you spend visualizing the scene. For more information, see Render View rendering.
See lights, objects and textures in the scene view without rendering.	Use hardware texturing. This does not actually perform a render; it just lets you see an approximation of what your scene looks like when rendered. For more information, see See shading and lights in a scene view.
See what a fully rendered still image, single frame of an animation, or an animation looks like quickly.	Render at lower resolutions. For more information, see Test render a low-res still or frame and Test render a low-res animation.

Perform a final render

To render...	Do this...
A still image or single frame of an animation.	Use Render View. For more information, see Render a single frame.
A still image or single frame of an animation, or an animation.	Batch render. For more information, see Batch render a still or animation.
A still image or single frame of an animation, or an animation.	Command line render. For more information, see Command line rendering.

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