User Guide > Rendering and Render Setup > Rendering > Rendering Windows and Editors > Render Settings >
Render Settings: Common tab
For information on the render settings, see Render Settings window.
Not all options are available for all renderers.
The name of rendered image files can consist of three separate components: file name, frame number extension, and file format extension. A combination of these three components is referred to as the file name syntax.
the File
name prefix attribute to add one or more of these fields
to the file name for your scene, for example, scene name, layer name,
camera name, version number, current date or current time. Each
of these fields are described in more detail below.
You can also create subdirectories to save out rendered images by adding a / (slash) in your file name prefix. For more information about the file name syntax, see Subfolders and names of rendered images.
When rendering using passes, you can group render passes into logical file groups. Each render pass node has an attribute Pass Group Name that allows you to create a logical group. Select this render token to add the Pass Group Name to your output file name.
See Render pass Attribute Editor for more information.
Many different types of render passes are available for selection using the Render pass Attribute Editor, for example, beauty, shadow, specular, refraction, and so forth. When you use this render token, a unique abbreviation of the pass type, of less than 6 characters, is appended to your output file name, for example, REFR for refraction pass.
Select this render token to add the extension to your output file name. In many cases, you do not need this token, since the file extension is automatically appended by Maya. However, you may want to create a directory structure using the file type. For example, if you are using the.iff format, <EXT>/<RenderLayer>_<RenderPass> can create files such as the following: images/iff/bob_camera1_diffuse.1.iff .
The format for saving rendered image files. See also File formats. The default setting is Maya IFF.
Click this button to select the compression method for AVI (Windows) or Quicktime movie (Mac OS X) files. When you click this button, the Video Compression dialog box appears. Select the desired compression method from the Compressor drop-down list. Currently, Maya only supports the Uncompressed and Cinepack Codec compression methods.
This button only becomes active when you select AVI (Windows) or Quicktime movie (Mac OS X) as your image format (for Maya Software renderer only).
Use this field in conjunction with the multi-render passes feature. This attribute becomes active when you select the OpenEXR file format, and when your scene contains one or more render passes. Select the Automatic option to name each pass using the <RenderPassType>:<RenderPass>.<Camera> tokens, or, choose Custom to select the render tokens of your choice. Your framebuffer name must be less than or equal to 31 characters in length. Otherwise, the framebuffer name is truncated. See Image format for more information on the OpenEXR format.
You can add a version label to your render output filename. Use this attribute to customize the <Version> token in the File name prefix field in the File Output section.
You can select one of the following options:
a version number (for example, 1, 2, or 3), the current date, or
the current time. 
-click this
attribute to add the version label you desire. The first two options
available (use number: n) are automatically updated each time you
insert a numeric version number. For example, if you have added
version number 3, the first option automatically updates to use
number: 2 and use number: 4. Alternatively, you can create your own
custom version label.
The increment between the frames you want to render. By frame is only available if Frame/Animation ext is set to an option containing #. The default value is 1.
If you use a value less than 1, make sure the Renumber frames using option is turned on. Otherwise, many frames will appear to be missing when they are just being overwritten.
Lets you change the numbering of rendered image files for an animation. The Renumber frames attributes are only available if Frame/Animation ext is set to an option with # (such as name.#.ext).
If on, Maya uses the frame number extensions beginning at Start Number and increasing by By Frame for rendered image file names.
Renderable Cameras
Render a scene from one or more cameras. The default is to render from one camera.
If you are rendering the scene from one camera (only), select the camera from the drop-down list. By default, the perspShape camera is the renderable camera.
The drop-down list is divided into sections, separated by dashes:
The first section is the camera currently selected as renderable.
The second and third sections list existing cameras that you can select as renderable, for example, stereo cameras and the front and side cameras.
The third section is the Add Renderable Camera option. If you want to add another existing camera to the list of renderable cameras, you can select Add Renderable Camera. When you select this option, a new Renderable Camera section appears. Select the additional renderable camera from which you want to render the scene from the drop-down list.
If you render from more than one camera, the rendered image output from each camera is stored in a different directory by default. For example, if you are rendering from camera1 and camera2, then the rendered images are stored respectively in camera1/scene.gif and camera2/scene.gif.
You can also override the default settings by using
the File Name Prefix attribute. the File
Name Prefix attribute and select Insert camera name <camera>.
This way, all rendered images are saved to the same directory and
identified with the camera name (for example, <camera>_<scene>.gif
produces camera1_scene.gif and camera2_scene.gif). See
File name prefixfor
more information.
For each renderable camera, you can also turn on or off the Alpha or Mask channel for that camera.
To make a camera non-renderable, remove it from
the list by clicking the 
button
beside the camera name. You should have at least one renderable
camera in the scene. The remove button does not appear if only one
renderable camera is listed.
On any render layer, you can also override the list
of renderable cameras for that layer. For example, you can set cameras
1, 3, and 5 as your renderable cameras for your master layer and then
set cameras 1, 2, and 4 as renderable for layer 1. To override the
settings in a layer and render the scene from a different camera,
select the layer, and then, in the Render Settings window, 
Renderable
Camera beside the camera name and select Create
Layer Override from the drop-down menu that appears. Renderable
Camera turns red to indicate that a layer override has
been incorporated.
The Image Size attributes control the resolution and pixel aspect ratio of rendered images.
For more information about resolution, see Resolution.
Select a film- or video-industry standard resolution. When you select an option from 7the Presets drop-down list, Maya automatically sets the Width, Height, Device Aspect Ratio, and Pixel Aspect Ratio.
You can also add a Presets option to output to an unlisted device.
Specifies the type of rendering resolution ratio you want to use, Pixel aspect or Device aspect.
The Pixel aspect ratio is the number of pixels in width to height, that compose the image. Most display devices (for example, a computer monitor) have square pixels, and their Pixel aspect ratio is 1. Some devices, however, have non-square pixels (for example, NTSC video has a Pixel aspect ratio of 0.9).
The Device aspect ratio is the number of units wide by the number of units high of your display. A 4:3 (1.33) display produces an image that is more square, and a 16:9 (1.78) ratio produces an image that is more panoramic in shape.
The aspect ratio of the individual pixels of the display device on which you are viewing the rendered image.
For more information about the pixel aspect ratio, see Pixel aspect ratio.
Not available for Vector Rendering.
Turn the default lighting on or off during rendering.
For more information about Maya’s default lighting, see Default lighting in Maya.
A MEL command or script to run before rendering each frame (Pre render frame MEL), or after rendering each frame (Post render frame MEL).
For more information Pre render frame MEL scripts and Post render frame MEL scripts, see Pre Render MEL and Post Render MEL scripts.
