The 3Delight Shelf buttons to control renderings.
The Render button in the Render Settings.
The 3Delight menu items to control renderings.
3Delight renderings can be launched and stopped by using controls in the 3Delight Shelf, in the 3Delight menu, and in the Render Settings themselves. The Render Settings offer a button above the attributes which allows starting a new rendering job, or interrupting an ongoing one. The type of rendering job can can be changed by clicking on the down arrow at the right end of the button.
Starting a rendering job with a specific Render Settings will always set it as active in the Maya Render Settings window.
Starting a rendering job without specifying which Render Settings to use will use the one set as active in the Maya Render Settings window.
Starting an Interactive Rendering
An interactive rendering usually produces images in 3Delight Display or the Maya Render View, and optionally produces image files. Rendering a frame sequence is possible; 3Delight Display will show every rendered frame but the Maya Render View will only show the last rendered one.
An interactive rendering can be launched by doing one of the following:
- Clicking the
button in the 3Delight Shelf. - Clicking the Render button in the Render Settings.
- Choosing the 3Delight → Render menu item.
- Pressing the
;key.
If the scene contains several Render Settings, you can choose which one will be used by right-clicking on or by using the 3Delight → Render With menu.
Maya may require you to do additional steps so that 3Delight for Maya can define the ; hotkey.
3Delight for Maya will attempt to define the ; hotkey when the plug-in is loaded. However, Maya will not allow hotkey definition in the default hotkey set. If the ; hotkey is not working, here is how to fix it.
Create a user-defined hotkey set.
- Open the Hotkey Editor by selecting Window → Preferences → Hotkey Editor
- Duplicate the Maya Default hotkey set:
- Click the gear button next to the Hotkey Set option menu and select Duplicate...
- Name the new hotkey set when prompted.
- Make sure your new hotkey set is selected in the Hotkey Set option menu.
- Click Save and Close in the HotKey Editor and restart Maya.
The Image Layers section of the Render Settings allows you to configure what image layers are shown in 3Delight Display or the Maya Render View, and which ones are produced in files.
Starting a Live (IPR) Rendering
A live rendering continuously monitors the Maya scene and will refresh to display the scene changes. The rendered image of the current frame is shown in 3Delight Display or the Maya Render View, without motion blur. No image files are output during a live rendering. You can choose where the rendered image will be displayed in the 3Delight Preferences.
A live rendering can be started by doing one of the following:
- Clicking the
button in the 3Delight Shelf (right-clicking will allow choosing which Render Settings will be used for the rendering). - Clicking the Live Render (IPR) button in the Render Settings.
Starting a Batch Rendering
A batch rendering only produces image files. To start a batch rendering, use the 3Delight → Batch Render With: menu.
Alternately, the Maya Render → Batch Render menu item can be used; this in this case the scene must be saved and the actual rendering is done in a separate Maya process, where the scene is opened then rendered. This may represent a significant overhead.
The Image Layers section of the Render Settings allows you to configure which image layers are produced in files.
Aborting an Ongoing Rendering
You can abort an ongoing rendering by doing one of the following:
- Clicking
in the 3Delight Shelf. - Clicking the Abort button in the Render Settings being rendered.
- Choosing the relevant item under the 3Delight → Abort Render menu.
Rendering form the Command Line
Renderings can be done using Maya's Render command line utility. Renderings launched in this contexts are batch renderings. For more details about the command line options, see Batch Rendering.