Render Layer Options
Find this section in
each render layer’s Attribute Editor. Right-click
the desired layer and select Attributes from the right-mouse menu
to display the render layer’s Attribute Editor.
- Renderable
-
Determines whether the
select layer is renderable. When a layer is rendered, it is processed
into a final image or image sequence.
- Global
-
Converts the selected
layer into a Global layer. A Global layer
is a render layer that does not have membership. Instead it contains
all the objects in the scene. By converting a layer into Global, all
the objects in your scene automatically appears in the layer.
A sample application
of this attribute is if you have created a model and wanted to test different
colors for the model. For example, if you have modeled a car, and
wanted to test out different colors of paint, you can create five global
layers, and in the Attribute Editor for the shader,
override the color attribute for each paint color and then batch
render all layers.
- Number
-
Render layer index number.
Use this attribute to merge layers when importing files with render layers.
You can choose to merge by layer name or layer number. Set your
layer number in this field.
You can also merge layers
when importing files with display layers. See
Display Layer editor for
more information.
Member Overrides
- Casts Shadows
-
Turns
on the shadow casting ability of the surface. To make shadows render
faster, for surfaces that do not need to cast shadows, turn off Casts
Shadows. Consider the following:
- If you want the object’s shadow to
render—the shadow the object casts onto other objects—make
sure Casts Shadows is on.
- If you do not want the object’s shadow
to render—the shadow the object casts onto other objects—turn Casts
Shadows off.
Note
- If you render shadows separately, use
the mask channel of the rendered shadow image in your compositing
software to reduce the brightness of another image.
- When you render from the Render
View window, you can render only the selected objects
by selecting Render>Render Selected Objects Only.
- Receive Shadows
-
Turns on the shadow-catching
ability of the surface.
- Motion Blur
-
- Primary Visibility
-
When on, the surface is visible
in the view and renders.
TipA surface’s shadow
renders, however, if its Primary Visibility is
off and Cast Shadows is on. This also
applies to reflections and refractions.
- Smooth shading
-
If this is on, each vertex uses
its own normal vector - meaning smoother transition between two
faces. If this is off, one normal vector is used for a face; 3 vertices
in a triangle uses a same normal vector, resulting flat looking
shading.
- Visible In Refractions
-
When on, the surface refracts
in transparent surfaces. This is supported by mental ray for Maya.
- Visible In Reflections
-
When on, the surface reflects
in reflective surfaces. This is supported by mental ray for Maya.
- Double Sided
-
Determines
if the surface is double-sided. If single-sided, you can decrease
memory use and use the Opposite option.
- Opposite
-
Opposite
flips the surface normals. Double-Sided must be off to set Opposite.
- Depth Jitter
-
If
you set Volume Sample Override on,
you can turn on Depth Jitter option. Randomizes
the samples of the volume with depth which replaces banding artifacts
in volume renders with noise. The noise can be dramatically reduced
by increasing the volume samples and anti-aliasing levels.
- Ignore Self Shadowing
-
When on, the object does
not cast shadow onto itself.
- Override Geometry Anti-aliasing
-
When on, the surface overrides
the geometry anti-aliasing settings.
TipMotion-blurred objects
ignore any changes to the Override Geometry Anti-aliasing settings. The
blur generally hides any aliasing artifacts.
Level
Select
one of the following options:
- Level 1
-
The default. It takes
32 visibility samples.
- Level 2
-
Takes 96 visibility samples.
- Level 3
-
Takes 288 visibility
samples.
- Level 4
-
Takes 512 visibility
samples.
- Level 5
-
Takes 800 visibility
samples. Level 5 gives the best edge anti aliasing quality, but
it is also the most expensive (in both memory and speed).
- Override Shading Samples
-
- Shading Samples
-
Sets the minimum number of times
Maya samples each pixel. For example, if set to 1, Maya samples
each pixel once; if set to 8, Maya samples each pixel 8 times. The
number of shading samples taken per pixel is limited by the number
of visibility samples performed by the Edge Anti-Aliasing computation.
So, if you use Medium Quality (which performs
8 visibility samples per pixel), you cannot get more than 8 shading
samples regardless of the Shading Samples attribute
setting.
Since Shading
Samples computation is very expensive, you should try
adjusting the Max Shading Samples first. See
Max Shading Samples.
- Max Shading Samples
-
Sets the maximum number of times
a pixel is sampled during the second pass of a Highest Quality render
(adaptive shading pass). The higher the number, the longer the rendering takes,
but the more accurate the resulting image is.
Max
Shading Samples has an effect only when used in conjunction
with Highest Quality edge anti-aliasing.
Also, depending on the requirements to compute an accurate solution, the
number of Shading Samples taken can be less
than the number of Max Shading Samples.
Tip
- Occasionally, when an object is moving,
the object’s textured edges look distorted. To resolve this, try
increasing the number of Max Shading Samples.
- Sometimes, skinny highlights can exhibit
roping or flickering artifacts. Try increasing the Max
Shading Samples setting. You may also need to increase
the Shading Samples setting, but
you can set it on a per-object basis.
- Override Visibility Samples
-
Activate the layer override on
the global maximum number of motion blur visibility samples to be
taken for surfaces during rendering.
- Level
-
Sets the number of visibility
samples for the layer override.
- Override Volume Samples
-
When on, the object overrides
the global volume shading settings and you can turn on the Depth
Jitter option in Render Settings window.
- Level
-
Sets the number of volume
samples for the layer override.
Render Pass Options (legacy
for mental ray)
For a description of
each render pass, see
Render passes.
mental ray (legacy
for mental ray)
Select this option to
render a global illumination pass for this layer. For more information
on global illumination, see
Global illumination.