Render your liquid simulation

In this section, you render your nParticle effect using the mental ray for Maya renderer. Since rendering a particle effect can take several minutes to an hour, in this lesson, you only render selected frames of the simulation. Rendering simulated frames is the easiest way to see how some attributes affect your simulation.

To prepare your scene for rendering, you assign mental ray mia_material_x shaders to the pitcher, glass, and water meshes. Lights have been created and placed in the scene so that realistic shadows and reflections appear in the rendered frame. The scene also includes a camera named renderCam that is positioned for the rendered view. For more information about rendering, see the Rendering and Render Setup guide.

Preparing to render

To prepare your scene and workspace for rendering, you will do the following:

Cache your simulation so that you can play it or scrub through it to locate the simulated frame you want to render.
Change the view arrangement of your Maya workspace to make it easier to assign material shaders to meshes and view rendered frames of your simulation.
Show hidden light objects and the camera you use to render a simulated frame.

To cache your simulation

In the Outliner, select nParticle_Water.
Select nCache > Create New Cache > .
The Create nCache Options window appears.
In the Create nCache Options window, do the following:
- Set the Cache directory to the folder where you want your caches saved.
- Set the Cache name to LiquidSimulationCache.
- For File distribution, select One File.
- Click Create.
Go to the beginning of the playback range.

To change the view arrangement and display hidden objects

Select Windows > Saved Layouts > Hypershade/Render/Persp.
The Hypergraph, Render View, and the current perspective view are displayed. This view arrangement makes it easier to assign shaders to your objects and to view rendered frames of your simulation.
Open the Outliner in a separate window by selecting Window > Outliner.
Hide the nParticle_ Water object by selecting it in Outliner, then selecting Display > Hide > Hide Selection.
Show the Water_Mesh object by selecting it in the Outliner then selecting Display > Show > Show Selection.
In the Outliner, -click the main, rim, and fill lights, then select Display > Show >Show Selection.
The lights used for rendering the simulation appear in the scene.
In the perspective view, select Panels > Perspective > renderCam.
You now view the scene through the camera that you will use to render.