Chapter 11: Maya Rendering
Rendering is the last step in creating your CG work. It’s the process by which the computer calculates the surface properties, lighting, shadows, movement, and shape of objects, and it saves a sequence of images. Although the computer does all the thinking at this point, you still need to set up your cameras and the render to get exactly what you want.
This chapter will show you how to render out your scene using Maya’s software renderer and how to create reflections and refractions. It will also introduce you to Maya’s other rendering methods. In this chapter, you’ll use a wine bottle and a still life from previous chapters, and you’ll animate a camera to render out a sequence.
Topics in this chapter include:
- Rendering setup
- Previewing your render: the Render View window
- Reflections and refractions
- Using cameras
- Motion blur
- Batch rendering
- Rendering the wine bottle
- mental ray for Maya
- Render layers
- Final Gather
- Ambient occlusion
- HDRI
- Rendering the decorative box: displacement mapping, image-based lighting, and depth of field