Rendering Tab

Resolution Settings

You can set the rendering resolution of clips that are output in Action. For example, if you are working in an NTSC 8-bit project, the default output is NTSC 8 bits. However, if you want to change the output resolution to HD (1920x1080), use the Resolution menu to change the values so the final outcome will be 1920x1080.

You can choose between progressive or interlaced when rendering at video resolution. Action media automatically adjust the rendering mode of each clip. This inherent awareness also makes it possible for Action to properly mix field-based HD / PAL with NTSC and not have dominance problems.

Resolution Presets box

Select a resolution for the new clip. Select Custom to specify a non-standard resolution.

Once you make a selection from the Apply and Scale box, the resolution is set for processing clips, and is remembered between Action sessions.

Width field

Displays the custom width resolution of the clip. Editable.

Height field

Displays the custom width resolution of the clip. Editable.

Aspect Ratio Presets box

Select a standard frame aspect ratio. Select the Set to w:h option to set the clip to use square pixels. Select Custom to define a custom frame aspect ratio in the Aspect Ratio field.

Aspect Ratio field

Displays the custom render/output aspect ratio. Editable

Frame Depth box

Select the render/output frame depth of clips.

Scan Mode box

Select the scan mode of clips.

Apply and Scale box

Select whether to apply or apply and scale the defined resolution settings. All subsequent processes will use the new render settings.

Select:	To:
Apply	Specify the output resolution.
Apply + Scale	Specify the output resolution and scale a scene to the defined resolution. Use this option if you are working with a low resolution of an Action setup from a previous version of Smoke. The scaling is applied to geometries, axes, lights, and cameras as well as their coordinates. Their positions are scaled accordingly. Smoke automatically scales textures and images.

Stereo Settings

Reset To Stereo Mode button

Enable to clear any previous stereo settings in Action, and reset all stereo settings to their defaults.

In the Stereo mode, these are the default settings when you enter Action with the Front/Back/Matte input option using stereo clips:

• An FBX camera (stereo camera) is created and the default camera is hidden.
• In the FBX Camera menu, the Result Camera is set to the stereo camera.
• In the Output menu, the Mode is set to Stereo and the Camera is set to Result Cam.
• A stereo object is created with the clips you selected.

NoteIf you enter Action using mono clips, the default camera is automatically created. If you need a stereo camera, you must add it manually.

Rendering Settings

Use the Rendering settings to improve the final output quality of your image.

Z-Buffer box

Select an option to determine whether the distance from the camera eye is considered to determine the order in which objects are rendered.

Wireframe button

Enable to display each surface and 3D model as a wireframe.

This is useful if interaction with Action becomes slow because of many surfaces and 3D models. Convert objects to wireframe when you want to speed up processing or rendering times. Because lighting and textures are not computed in wireframe mode, interaction time and rendering times are reduced.

Shading button

Enable to light up the scene using added light sources. When Shading is disabled, no lighting effects appear in the scene; surfaces and 3D models appear flat.

Enable Shading for:

• Light sources
• Ambient or diffuse lighting for surfaces
• Specular highlights for surfaces and 3D models

Clamp Colours button

Enable to clamp colour and luminance in the 16-bit floating point processing pipeline.

Anti-Aliasing Settings

Software Anti-Aliasing Sample box

Select a software anti-aliasing sampling level.

The jagged lines that often occur along the edges of diagonal or curved lines when processing high-frequency images such as text are the result of aliasing. You can increase or decrease the anti-aliasing sampling level (up to 64 samples). Higher values yield smoother results at the expense of processing time.

Anti-Aliasing Softness field

Displays the softness value of the software anti-aliasing sample. Editable.

Hardware Anti-aliasing Sample box

Select a hardware anti-aliasing sampling level to accelerate edge anti-aliasing with no performance penalty. Available values are dependent on graphics card and project graphic bit depth. Hardware anti-aliasing also gives anti-aliasing during normal interaction instead of only while rendering.

You can combine hardware anti-aliasing level with software anti-aliasing to obtain the desired level of image quality. For example, with hardware anti-aliasing set to 4 samples, and with 4 samples of software anti-aliasing selected, your results should be similar to selecting 16 samples of software anti-aliasing, but with a processing time much closer to that of 4 samples. You should experiment with different combinations to determine what works best for you.

Accumulation Settings

Use the Accumulation settings to define motion blur properties.

Global Motion Blur button

Enable to use motion blur. Once enabled, specific Action object Motion Blur buttons can be enabled or disabled. See About Motion Blur for specific examples of creating motion blurs.

Samples field

Displays the quality of motion blur and the depth of field produced by the number of samples taken at each frame. Editable.

Increasing this value causes the processing time to increase linearly and affects the quality of the depth of field. The number of motion blur samples is multiplied by the number of anti-aliasing samples. To reduce the total number of passes made for each frame, reduce the level of anti-aliasing when motion blur is enabled.

Phase field

Displays the frame that motion blur is based on (before or after the current frame). Editable.

A value of -100 places the motion blur before while a value of 100 places the motion blur after. A value of 0 is centred, which evenly distributes the motion blur. The default value is 0.

Shutter field

Displays the duration of motion blur at each frame (essentially the number of frames that the shutter is open). Increasing this value does not increase the processing time. Editable

TipYou can animate the Global Motion blur button, as well as the Phase, Shutter, and Samples fields. They can be found in the Channel Editor under the motion_blur folder.

Motion Blur curve

Controls the sample weight over the scope of the motion blur.

Home button

Resets the position of the motion blur curve after panning.

Reset button

Resets the motion blur curve.