Output settings nodes tell the renderer what will be rendered to a file. Output settings node has to use at least one render node. Output node says what frame to render and where to save result and render node defines 'how the image will be rendered', its contents and quality (see Render Setting Node section). If more than one render node is selected more output images will be rendered and saved.

for rendering render nodes multiple render nodes, $RENDER_SETTINGS variable should be used in file path to prevent overwriting (see path variables below).

Let's say you want to render diffuse, ambient occlusion and shadows layers to separate files. Just create three render nodes with whatever settings you need and set its Output Pass (see Render Setting Node section) to diffuse, AO and shadows respectively. Select output node, select camera, output filename pattern and select the three render nodes. There will be three image files when rendered.

Output settings

Camera

Camera to be used for output rendering. Only one camera can be selected and will be used for all selected render nodes.

Output Resolution

Width and height of output image(s). There are two ways to set output resolution:

• Output node settings - output resolution will be the same for all layers, resolutions defined by render nodes will be ignored
• Maya settings - output resolution will be read from global Maya Render Settings and will be the same for all layers, resolutions defined by render nodes will be ignored

Render Region

Render only selected region from final resolution. Region is also rendered with overscan controlled by Region Overscan attribute in Render Settings Node:

• Left, Top: top left corner of region
• Width, Height: width and height of region, final region width and height is clamped to original image resolution
• Fill values from region: Select region in Render View (you can use Maya snapshot for preview) and click on this button. Top, Left, Width and Height values will be filled.
• Full Size Frame: Render region into image with full resolution, all image except selected region will be black with zero alpha.
• Alpha region: If Full Size Frame attribute is checked, then alpha channel expand from region in distance controlled by this attribute.

Render Settings Nodes To Render

Select one or more render nodes to use for rendering, see introduction at the top of this page for more details.

File Name

Path to file(s) for render output. Absolute path has to be used and a filename should be without extension as extension will be added according to file format selected (see below). There are several variables that can be used to automatically set image name and path when multiple files are to be output, see Filename And Path Variables below.

Gamma Correction

Predefined types of gamma correction for an output image.

Image Format

Output file format to save rendered images to. Note that not all formats can handle all depths (see Render Settings Node section to see how to change output bit depth). We recommend using the DDS (Microsoft DirectDraw Surface) and OpenEXR formats.

Stereo Output Type

Select one from output types. Note that this attribute can be modified only in stereo version and is affects only with stereo camera selected in Camera attribute. Saving into OpenEXR will be affected only with Image Format sets to EXR.

OpenEXR Channels

Choose a channel combination to save more channels into one EXR file. To save frame with settings set in Render Settings node use Current Output Layer. Note that this attribute only works with Image Format sets to EXR. Also note that Depth or SSAO (Ambient Occlusion) will be rendered even if Depth and SSAO aren't selected as Output Pass, or even if SSAO is disabled in Features in Render Settings Node.

Sequence

Enable this if you want to render sequence of frames instead of a single currently selected frame.

Start Frame

Use only for sequence rendering. Select the first frame to start sequence from.

End Frame

Use only for sequence rendering. Select the last frame in the sequence.

Render

Push to start rendering to output file(s).

Export Settings

Settings of export for FurryBall standalone.

Folder Name

Path to export file.

Export Textures

Enable or disable exporting of files textures into exported directory. Procedural textures are always exported.

Export

Exports file.

Nuke Settings

FurryBall can create compositing script for Foundry's Nuke. This script can be lately used to render final composition directly to maya render view window.

Folder Name

Path to export script.

Save Script

Save Nuke script. Warning: script that already exists will be overwritten.

Open Script

Open Nuke script.

Filename And Path Variables

The File Name attribute has a possibility to add several global variables to it and expand the values for every frame or settings used. Let's explain this on the following example, it is also the default filename and path:

       $MAYA_PROJECT/Images/$SCENE_NAME/$RENDER_SETTINGS####

This string tells the renderer to put the rendered files into a directory with the same name as the scene being rendered ($SCENE_NAME), this directory is under 'Images' subdirectory located in Maya project path ($MAYA_PROJECT). The file images will be named after the render settings node used ($RENDER_SETTINGS)and a 4-digit frame number (####)will be added to it. The output path and files could then look something like this:

       C:/Maya Projects/My Project/Images/My Scene/Beauty0001.tif

       C:/Maya Projects/My Project/Images/My Scene/Depth0001.tif

       C:/Maya Projects/My Project/Images/My Scene/Beauty0002.tif

       C:/Maya Projects/My Project/Images/My Scene/Depth0002.tif

       .....

If the path doesn't exist it will be created but only up to 2 levels deep in the directory tree, ie. only two last directories in the path will be created if they do not exist.

Here is the list of variables that will be automatically expanded when used:

• $MAYA_PROJECT - path to currently set project
• $SCENE_NAME - name of currently opened scene
• $RENDER_SETTINGS - name of currently active render settings node (will be expanded into, for example: "furryBallRenderSettingsDefault")
• $OUTPUT_SETTINGS - name of the output settings node that the render was started in (for example: "furryBallOutputSettings")
• $CAMERA - name of currently selected camera (for example: "persp")
• $FB_VERSION - version of FurryBall
• $STEREO - this parameter is used only with Stereo Output Type attribute will be expanded into following:

"left" - for left camera with Stereo Output Type set to Left+Right in separate files or Left+Center+Right in separate files

"right" - for right camera with Stereo Output Type set to Left+Right in separate files or Left+Center+Right in separate files

"center" - for center camera with Stereo Output Type set to Left+Center+Right in separate files

NOTHING - for other cases

• # - number of frame currently rendered, number of '#' symbols defines how many digits will be used

Advanced tip

It is possible to define custom variables by editing Python script file 'FurryBallEnvVar.py' located in 'scripts' subdirectory where FurryBall is installed.

Batch Rendering

For a tutorial on batch rendering, see the Miscellaneous section.

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