Rendering Shots
IDS252: Computer Animation Production, Fall 2007

Your animation may require a switching between number of different cameras and/or switching between different Maya scene files. For each of these switches you must perform a separate render. This may become cumbersome after awhile. You can make the process more efficient by putting together a script file.

• Before doing anything else, make a chart of your shots as follows:

  Shot	description	camera	Frames	Maya file
  1	duck lands	duckCam	1 - 50	duck.mb
  2	duck quacks	persp	51 - 65	duck.mb
  3	chicken pecks	chickenCam	1 - 15	chicken.mb
  4	duck quacks again	persp	66 - 73	duck.mb

• You next need to create a file containing the commands to render the above shots. To do this, open up a blank notepad file. For the above sequence of shots, you would enter into the notepad file, the following set of commands

  Render -cam duckCam     -im shot1  -s 1  -e 50  -rd "H:\maya\myproj" -of avi duck.mb
  Render -cam persp       -im shot2  -s 51 -e 65  -rd "H:\maya\myproj" -of avi duck.mb
  Render -cam chickenCam  -im shot3  -s 1  -e 15  -rd "H:\maya\myproj" -of avi chicken.mb
  Render -cam persp       -im shot4  -s 66 -e 73  -rd "H:\maya\myproj" -of avi duck.mb
  

  where the options are

  -cam	specifies camera
  -im	base name of output file
  -s	start frame
  -e	end frame
  -rd	location of Maya file
  -of	format of output file

  Notes:
  • The last item listed in the Render command is always the name of the Maya file (e.g. duck.mb).
  • There are many more options that you can specify. To see the entire list, go to Maya help from within Maya and do a search on Batch render flags.
  • If the .bat file is in the same folder as the Maya file, you don't need to specify the path.
  • Some of the settings can be taken from the Maya file. For example, if you have set the resolution (e.g. 640x480) in duck.mb, then the Render command will use these values. However, you may also over ride them in the Render command by using the command options, e.g. Render -x 640 -y 480 ....
  • The above Render commands can be typed directly onto a command line rather than run from a .bat file. Just open up a command window form Windows (Programs;Accessories;Command Prompt), change to the directory containing your Maya file, and on the command line type your Render command exactly as it appears in the .bat file.
  • The order of the Render commands doesn't really matter since each one just generates its own avi file. Numbering the shots, however, is useful so that you know what order to place them in MovieMaker.

• Once you have entered the commands into the notepad file, save the notepad file (e.g. to somewhere in your project folder) and give it an extention ".bat". For example, I might call my file above "renderPoultry.bat". The .bat extension tells Windows that this is a batch file, and that Windows should execute the commands that are in it.

• To execute this batch file in Windows, go to the folder containing renderPoulty.bat and double click on it. A console window should appear and you should see the output from Maya as it renders your animation.

• When the file is done executing, you should have a sequence of avi files. You can use MovieMaker to combine them into a single avi file.