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Explore rendering methods & project management in Maya, covering rendering quality, output formats, batch rendering, project organization, file referencing, and more. Enhance your skills for efficient animation production.
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Arts Col 753, Animation Production with CSE 682, Computer Animation Winter 2010 Professors: Maria Palazzi and Rick Parent Technical Group Reports--- Rendering and project management Group Members: Jane Drozd, Adam Kane, Kang-che Lee, Shengying Shen, Ross Wang
Outline • Rendering: • playblast • controlling rendering quality • software v. hardware rendering • render output: image formats, channels, etc. • batch rendering • the ACCAD render-farm • render layers • Project management • groups • sets and partitions • making an object unselectable (template) • display layers • copies v. instances • file referencing • proxy references
Playblast • A fast way to render in Maya • Use screen capture to make animation • Make sure the area to be displayed is not obstructed
Playblast Steps • Window -> Playblast
Rendering Quality • Window -> Rendering Editors -> Render Settings
Software VS Hardware Rendering • Software • Computation done by the computer instead of special hardware • It is flexible programming • Slower than hardware since it needs more time for calculation • Hardware • Computation done through video card and drivers • It is faster than software rendering • Usually it produce a lower quality than software rendering
Render Output • Formats • Default: Maya Image File Format (IFF) • Two main types: • Raster: pixel based format • TIFF, BMP, JPG… • Vector: line/curve based format • AI, SWF, SVG…
Render Output • Channels: • Four main channels per pixel • 3 color channels • Red • Green • Blue • Alpha channel, used for transparency. • Depth channel may be used to record how far away a given pixel is.
Batch Rendering • Allows rendering of multiple images at once • Rendering an animation: • Configure options • Check Script Editor
ACCAD Render Farm • Start->Programs->Graphics 3D->Submit to ACCAD Distributed Rendering
Render Layers Example from Maya documentation.
Reasons to Composite • Creativity • Modifiability • Efficiency
Caveats • Be mindful of compositor expectations • Color and channel interpretation
Sets and Partitions • Sets – collections of objects. • Paritions – non-overlapping sets.
Display Layers visibility off
Display Layers Template – wireframe - not selectable
Reference – not selectable Display Layers
File Referencing • allows you to assemble multiple objects, shading materials, animation, and so on, into a scene without importing the files into the scene. • allows users to segment scenes as required to suit the production workflow. • not like Importing where the objects get copied over. Referencing needs an active link. • reduces file size of the composited scene.
File Referencing multi-level referencing House.ma House.ma Parent Scene Boy.ma Girl.ma Boy.ma Girl.ma Referenced Child scenes Shoes.ma Hat.ma Referenced GrandChild scenes
File Referencing Lock: prevent them from being accidentally modified when they are referenced in your scene.
File Referencing • When modified within the parent scene, the edits are recorded in a reference nodethat is created in the parent scene file. • The data in the original referenced child scene file remains unmodified. • Edits made to attributes within a parent scene have precedence over modifications made to the same attributes in the referenced child scene file lower in the hierarchy. Parent Scale in parent scene Child Scale & change color in child scene
Proxy References • substitute one or more file references by creating a set of possible substitute references, known as proxies, for a given file reference. • are used to temporarily simplify complex scenes by substituting simpler versions of the objects into the scene. • allowing you to focus on the elements you need to work on while still maintaining a spatial context of the scene’s elements. • A proxy reference can only be created for an existing file reference. http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/index.html?url=File_referencing_About_proxy_references.htm,topicNumber=d0e117929
Proxy References File Referencing 2 ‘complex’ cubes exist proxy references
Proxy References Proxy References :2 ‘simple’ sphere