How to Render

Rendering Methods
How to Render: Interactive or Batch
Rendering Options

Rendering Methods

RenderMan supports several ways of rendering scene files, both interactive and batch. The best method will often depend upon on whether the rendered image is an iterative preview or frames for a final animation. RenderMan for Maya supports these methods (which are quite similar to Maya's own):

Interactive renders from Maya, using the render menu.
Best for preview rendering
Batch rendering via the Maya UI.
Best for rendering final images, especially animation, of an open Maya file.
Batch rendering from a shell or command line.
Best for launching jobs on any number of Maya files.
Spooling renders via Alfred
This is another method of distributing Maya batch renders, but it also offers additional RIB-spooling features for RenderMan for Maya Pro users.

How to Render

The following instructions outline the various workflows available for rendering with RenderMan for Maya.

Interactive Preview Rendering:
Pick an active window as your camera in your current Maya scene.
From Maya's Render menu select:
 
	Render> Render Current Frame
The image renders into the Render View.
Batch Rendering from Maya
Ensure that the camera (and other settings) are set correctly in the Render Globals.
From Maya's Render menu select:
    Render> Batch Render
The batch job will begin as a background process.
Batch Rendering from the Command Line

From a command line use the following format:
 
  Render -r rman sceneFile
If no project is specified, the current project is used.

Spooling Jobs via Alfred

Spooling renders via Alfred require Alfred and the Alfred maitre d' to be installed. Additionally, Alfserver and RfM (or RfM Pro) need to be installed on the remote render nodes. Spooled RIB jobs require RenderMan Pro Server on the remote render nodes.

Open the Batch Render options window.
Check the Alfred Spool option box.
RenderMan for Maya users have two spooling options:

mayabatch local executes a batch render on the local client.
mayabatch remote distributes your batch renders to remote render clients.

RenderMan for Maya Pro users have three additional options:

immediate rib, local render generates RIB files and renders them on the local client.
deferred rib, remote render generates RIB locally (via a new Maya process) and distributes the RIB files to remote render clients for rendering.
remote rib, remote render executes the ribgen and the render on remote render clients.

Rendering Options

Multithreading

You can specify the number of “threads” to use via the Render Current Frame and Batch Render option boxes. The default setting, 0, means use all available processors. Note that the licensing policy permits four “threads” per license.

Batch Render Flags

The following flags are supported for Batch Renders via the command line (i.e. Render -r rman foo.ma):

Common options:

-help
Print help
-test
Print Mel commands but do not execute them
-verb
Print Mel commands before they are executed
-keepMel
Keep the temporary Mel file
-listRenderers
List all available renderers
-renderer string
Use this specific renderer
-r string
Same as -renderer
-proj string
Use this Maya project to load the file
-log string
Save output into the given file

Specific options for -r rman (the RenderMan renderer):
All purpose flags:

-setAttr string string
This flag can be used to set any of the global attributes listed in RenderMan_for_Maya.ini. It takes a name value pair. Attribute values which have multiple data elements should be surrounded by quotes. The flag can be used multiple times. Example:
Render -r rman -setAttr ShadingRate 5 -setAttr PixelSamples "3 3" -setAttr motionBlur 1 -setAttr Format:resolution "320 240" filename

-setPref string string
This flag can be used to set any of the preferences listed in RenderMan_for_Maya.ini. It takes a name value pair. Attribute values that have multiple data elements should be surrounded by quotes. The flag can be used multiple times. For example:
Render -r rman -setPref BatchCompileMode zealous filename

General purpose flags:

-rd path
Directory in which to store image files
-fnc string
File Name Convention:
name, name.ext, name.#.ext, name.ext.# name.#, name#.ext, name_#.ext

As a shortcut, numbers 1, 2, … can be used.

-im filename
Image file output name
-of string
File format of output images: Alias, Cineon, MayaIFF, OpenEXR, SGI8, SGI16, SoftImage, Targa, Tiff8, Tiff16, Tiff32

Frame numbering options:

-s float
Starting frame for a sequence
-e float
End frame for a sequence
-b float
By frame/step for a sequence
-pad int
Number of digits in the frame number included in the output image file name
-rfs int
The initial (renumbered) frame number for the first frame when rendering
-rfb int
The step by which frames are renumbered (used in conjunction with -rfs).

Camera options:

-cam name
The name of the camera from which you are rendering
-rgb boolean
Enable/disable RGB output
-alpha boolean
Enable/disable Alpha output
-depth boolean
Enable/disable Depth output
-iip
Disable all image planes before rendering
-res int int
Specify the resolution (X Y) of the rendered image
-crop float float float float
Specify a crop window for the rendered image

Render Layers:

-rl boolean|name(s)
Render each listed layer separately

MEL callbacks:

-pre string
MEL code executed before each frame
-post string
MEL code executed after each frame

MEL callbacks for Maya 7.0

-preRender string
MEL code executed before rendering
-postRender string
MEL code executed after rendering
-preLayer string
MEL code executed before each render layer
-postLayer string
MEL code executed after each render layer
-preFrame string
MEL code executed before each frame
-postFrame string
MEL code executed after each frame

Bake Options:

-bake int

0: Don't bake, but do regular rendering
1: Bake texture maps
2: Bake texture maps and do regular rendering

-bakeChannels string
Comma delimited list of one or more channels: _ambient,_diffuse,_diffuse_noshadow, _incandescence,_indirect,_indirectdiffuse, _irradiance,_occlusion,_reflection,_refraction, _shadow,_specular,_subsurface,_surfacecolor, _translucence
-bakeResolution int int
Set X Y resolution of baked maps
-bakeCamera string
Camera to use while baking
-bakeFileFormat string
File format of output images: Alias, Cineon, It, MayaIFF, OpenEXR, SGI8, SGI16, SoftImage, Targa, Tiff8, Tiff16, Tiff32
-bakeFileDepth string
Depth of output images: byte, short, float

Other:

-rep boolean
Do not replace the rendered image if it already exists
-n int
Number of processors to use. 0 indicates use all available.
-compile boolean
Forces compilation of all shaders, even if they already exist.

Remember to place a space between option flags and their arguments.
Any boolean flag will take the following values as TRUE: on, yes, true, or 1.
Any boolean flag will take the following values as FALSE: off, no, false, or 0.

Additional options available in RenderMan for Maya “Pro” can be found in the RfM and RIB section of the RenderMan Studio documentation. Additionally, a complete list of the options can also be seen by running the Render -r rman -h command.

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