User Guide > Rendering and Render Setup > Rendering > Visualize and render images > Layers and passes >
Render passes
To render various attributes separately, for example, color, shadow, specular shading, and so forth, you may want to use render passes. If you are using the Maya software renderer, see Render passesfor more information. If you are using the mental ray renderer, see Creating a pass-compliant shader using the AdskShaderSDK and Sample workflow for multi-render passesfor more information.