Find this section in some selected objects’ Attribute
Editor, from the Attribute Spread Sheet (
Window > General Editors >
Attribute Spread Sheet) or
the
Rendering Flags window
(
Window > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags).
The Render
Stats section lets you turn on or off various rendering
options for selected objects.
- 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 Reflections
-
When
on, the surface reflects in reflective surfaces. This is supported
by mental ray for Maya.
- Visible In Refractions
-
When
on, the surface refracts in transparent 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.
- Geometry Anti-aliasing Override
-
When
on, the surface overrides the geometry anti-aliasing settings.
TipMotion-blurred objects
ignore any changes to the Geometry Anti-aliasing
Override settings. The blur generally hides any aliasing
artifacts.
Antialiasing 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).
- Shading Samples Override
-
- 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.
NoteThe following attributes
are only applicable to volume primitives and fluid shapes. They
only appear in the Attribute Editor of the shape
node of a volume primitive or fluid shape.
- Volume Samples Override
-
When on, the object overrides the global volume
shading settings and you can turn on the Depth Jitter option
in Render Settings window.
- Volume samples
-
Adjusts
the number of samples placed inside the fog volume.
- 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.
3D Motion Blur
- Max Visibility Samples Override / Max
Visib Samples
-
Override, for the selected
shape node, the global maximum number of motion blur visibility samples
to be taken for surfaces during rendering.