Render a scene

See Environment texture, and Environment texture types.

1. Define the appearance of the surroundings for your scene using the environment and textures.

   See Assign or layer a shader, and Add or edit textures.

   Define the surface appearance of objects in your scene using shaders and textures.

   See Create a light.

   Illuminate the objects in your scene using lights.

   See Use the Multi-lister, Use the Control Window, and Change colors.

   Become familiar with the Multi-lister, the Control Window, and the Color Editor. These are the tools you use to create and edit the environment, shaders, textures, and lights.

   See Add and edit cameras.

2. Set up the camera to render a particular view of your scene.

   See Preview rendering.

3. Preview render your scene to help you visualize how it will look in the final render.

   See What are rendering parameters?.

4. Define how individual objects and the overall scene will render using rendering parameters.

   See Types of renderers.

5. Render your scene.

What if...?

Rendering takes a long time and I want to improve it.

See Optimization.

Rendering can take a long time. There are, however, several ways you can optimize your scene to minimize rendering times. It is a good idea to read the Optimization section of this book before you begin the rendering process, even before you begin modeling your scene.

I have flaws in my rendering or it does not render at all.

See Troubleshoot.

If you encounter problems, read the Troubleshooting section of this book for solutions to common problems.