Pass Name

Defines a name for each render pass.

Pass Renderer

Specifies which rendering engine to use when rendering the pass:

Use Scene Render Options: renders the pass using the renderer defined in the Scene Render Options Property Editor.

mental ray: renders the pass using the mental ray renderer, according to the settings defined in the mental ray Render Options Property Editor.

Hardware Renderer: renders the scene using a hardware renderer as specified in the Hardware Renderer Property Editor.

(check)

Indicates whether the render channel is active. If there is no checkmark in the cell, the render channel will not be output with the pass.

Filename

Specifies the file name for the frames being rendered. The file name is appended to the scene output path specified in the Scene Render Options Property Editor. Together a fully resolved path is defined for the rendered sequence.

You can build the filename using Output Path Templates.

Format

Displays the file format and the image bit depth of the rendered sequence. This also determines the file-name extension.

Select a format cell and click the Edit... button to modify the image output format.

Channel

A render channel is a named description of image data for a given data type.

mental ray provides built-in render channels for depth, motion vectors, normal vectors, labels, and pixel coverage. Each channel has a specific data type. By default a “Main” render channel is declared and has a color data type.

Activate/deactivate the channels you want to output for your render pass by clicking the first cell in the row.

You can add built-in, preset, and any custom channels for the render pass by clicking the Add... button.

Show Resolved Paths

Shows the final path and file names of the files to be rendered, after tokens like [Pass] and [Framebuffer] have been replaced by their actual values.

Add...

Opens the Create Framebuffer From Render Channel Dialog Box where you can add a new framebuffer for the chosen render channel.

Edit...

Opens the Render Channel (Framebuffer) Property Editor for the selected render channel where you can modify the file name and change the output format.

Remove

Removes the selected render channel for the pass. You cannot delete the “Main” render channel.

[frame source]

Frame Range: Renders a specified frame range in the sequence as defined by the Start, End, and Step options.

Frame Set: Renders a specified set of frames in the sequence as defined by the Set option.

Timeline: Renders all frames in the sequence as defined by the scene’s timeline.

Use Scene Render Options: Uses the option set in Render Manager > Globals > Scene > Scene Globals.

Skip Frames — Skip Rendered

When enabled, rendered frames are not re-rendered.

Start

When the frame source is set to Frame Range, this option sets the first frame of the sequence to be rendered.

End

When the frame source is set to Frame Range, this option sets the last frame of the sequence to be rendered.

Step

When the frame source is set to Frame Range, this option sets the increment between rendered frames. This allows you to skip frames. For example, if you select 4, every fourth frame is rendered.

Set

When the frame source is set to Frame Set, this option defines a specific set of frames to be rendered.

Camera

Specifies which camera you want to be active for your render pass. The menu lists all of a scene’s cameras.

Inspect

Click the Inspect button to open the Camera Property Editor for the pass camera.

Override Scene Render Options

Activates the output format options for the pass, so that you can override the defaults set for the scene.

[output formats]

See the Scene Render Options Property Editor for descriptions of these output formats.

Update from Camera

Click the Update from Camera button to copy any related output formats that you may have modified in the Camera property editor for the pass. You can access the Camera property editor by pressing the Inspect button next to Camera.

Enable Motion Blur

Enables motion blur options for the pass.

Override Scene Render Options

Activates the motion blur options for the pass, so that you can override the defaults set for the scene.

[motion blur options]

See the Scene Render Options Property Editor for descriptions of these motion blur options.

Override Scene Render Options

Activates the field rendering options for the pass, so that you can override the defaults set for the scene.

[field rendering options]

See the Scene Render Options Property Editor for descriptions of these field rendering options.

Enabled

Activates the crop window options for rendering only a portion of an image.

Constrain Crop Window To Selection

When activated, the selection at the start of the render dictates the size of the crop window, so that you can re-render a portion of an image that contains an animated object for example.

Width

Sets the width (X resolution) of the crop window.

Height

Sets the height (Y resolution) of the crop window.

Offset X

Offsets the crop window in X from the lower-left edge of the image.

Offset Y

Offsets the crop window in Y from the lower-left edge of the image.

Apply Display Gamma Correction

When enabled, the render pass is output using the gamma correction values set for the global gamma correction display preference under Color Management in the Display Preferences. The images’ pixels are modified accordingly on output.

Applying a display gamma correction in the render pass is useful when you want to output a preview video of a scene in linear color space that looks correct right away without having to go into the compositor. Ideally, you shouldn't be baking in the gamma correction at render time, instead it should be applied during compositing.

For more information on the different ways to perform gamma correction in Softimage, see Displaying and Rendering Gamma Correction [Interface and Tools].

Render Selection Only

Rather than rendering all of the elements in your scene, you can choose to render only selected objects.

When enabled, only selected objects will be rendered.

Create

Activates the options on this page, and tells Softimage to create the movie specified by the various settings.

The movie file is created immediately after the last frame of the pass is rendered. A separate progress bar is displayed so you can monitor the movie creation progress.

[format]

Specifies the file format of the output movie. This can be either AVI or QuickTime. Changing the format updates the file extension in the path.

Codec

Opens the Video Compression dialog box, from which you can choose a codec for the output movie.

Write Alpha Channel

Toggle this option to output the movie file with or without an alpha channel.

If the sequence was rendered to an image format that doesn’t support alpha channels (.jpg for instance), then the alpha file is not generated, irrespective of the Write Alpha Channel setting.

In the case of AVI and QuickTime movies, note that most compressors do not support an alpha channel.

Template

Specifies the file name for the movie files being output. You can build the file name using Output Path Templates.

Resolved

Displays the fully resolved file name and output path for the movie file(s). The output path is defined in the Scene Render Options Property Editor.

Delete After Movie Creation

When activated, the rendered sequence is deleted if the movie file has been generated successfully.

Filename

The path and file name for exporting scene render archives (*.mi2 files).

By default archives are saved to the Render_Archives folder of your current project as defined by the Scene Archive Template setting in your Rendering Preferences.

Resolved

Displays the fully resolved file name and output path for the mi file(s). The output path is defined in the Scene Render Options Property Editor.

Export all frames to a single archive

When enabled, only the first frame of the sequence is completely echoed. For subsequent frames, only the difference between the current frame and the last is echoed. When you echo MI2 files incrementally, they are output as a single large file.

Because Incremental MI2 files are echoed as a single file, that file’s name tells you which frames were echoed. For example:

• If you echo frames 1-10 as myscene.#.mi2, the file name will be myscene.1_10.mi2

• If you specify a Frame Padding and echo frames 1-10 as myscene.###.mi2, the file name will be file myscene.001_010.mi2.

• If you set a Step value (N) the text “.stpN” is appended to the filename. Thus if you echo frames 1-10 as myscene.#.mi2, with a step value of 2, the file name will be myscene.1_10.stp2.mi2

• Incremental echo does support frame skipping. If you try to echo an existing sequence of frames, it is skipped entirely.

When disabled, each frame is written out to a separate mi archive.

Add

Adds a shader to the list by opening a browser. Once you have selected a shader preset, click OK.

Delete

Deletes the selected shader.

Inspect

Opens the property editor for the selected shader.

Add

Adds a shader to the list by opening a browser. Once you have selected a shader preset, click OK.

Delete

Deletes the selected shader.

Inspect

Opens the property editor for the selected shader.

Add

Adds a shader to the list by opening a browser. Once you have selected a shader preset, click OK.

Delete

Deletes the selected shader.

Inspect

Opens the property editor for the selected shader.

Lens

Allows you to add lens shaders to the pass:

• Use Only Camera Lens Shaders does not allow you to specify lens shaders for the pass. The pass uses the lens shaders applied to the camera, if any. In addition, the Lens Shader port does not appear in the render tree for the pass if this option is selected.

• Add After Camera Lens Shaders applies the lens shaders you define here after any lens shaders applied to the camera.

• Add Before Camera Lens Shaders applies the lens shaders you define here before any lens shaders applied to the camera.

• Overwrite Camera Lens Shaders applies the lens shaders you define here instead of any lens shaders applied to the camera. If you don’t add any shaders here, you can effectively remove any camera lens shaders for this pass.

Add

Adds a shader to the list by opening a browser. Once you have selected a shader preset, click OK.

Delete

Deletes the selected shader.

Inspect

Opens the property editor for the selected shader.