Overview
The Scene Elements group of rendering attributes specifies which scene objects will be used for rendering. A particular render can include only a subset of the scene’s objects and lights. This could be useful to render the scene in layers (foreground, background, ...) for later compositing. The attributes in tthis section control what objects to include in this render. These settings are valid regardless of the Render Mode selected in the Render Engine group of attributes. Only the scene elements that are part of the selected sets will end up being output to an image.
The Scene Elements group
Camera
Specifies the camera that will be used for rendering. For simultaneous stereo camera rendering, crate a stereo camera and select its transform for the list. At least one camera should be defined in the scene. The default camera selected for rendering is perspShape.
Environment
The Environment shape to use for rendering. This will affect indirect illumination; the environment will also affect the Reflected Color attribute of Maya shaders. It can also be used to fill the background of the rendered image (see Background Fill below). Clicking the small checker button creates an environment shape.
Objects to Render
Specifies which Maya set to use for this render. By default, this attribute is set to '<all visible objects>'.
Lights to Render
Specifies which Maya set to look for the lights to use for this render. By default, this attribute is set to ‘<all visible lights>’.