Render

In one line#

Light a scene and photograph it. Three renderers behind one interface, from real-time raster to full ray tracing, with the post-processing that decides how the image actually reads.

The layout#

What you do here#

Choose a renderer#

Switching is one click and changes nothing else about the scene, so the honest way to decide is to look at all three.

Light it#

The lights tab adds and edits lights; the environment tab handles the HDRI or sky that lights everything you did not light on purpose. The cameras tab holds your framing, and cameras are savable: a shot you found once is a shot you can come back to.

Tune the rendering stack#

Realistic Rendering offers one-click presets (Ultra, High, Medium, Low), and each of the following can be turned on individually:

Grade it#

The right panel is post-processing:

• Tone mapping: the mode (ACES Filmic by default) and the exposure in EV. This is the first thing to reach for, before anything else: a render that looks flat is usually exposed wrong, not lit wrong.
• Bloom.
• Ambient occlusion: SSAO, as a post pass.
• Effects: vignette and sharpen.

Animate the camera#

The transport along the bottom runs a frame range with a frame rate, so a render can be a sequence rather than a still.

Output#

Render produces the image. The snapshot buttons capture the viewport as it is, and the compare view puts two states side by side: the honest way to judge whether an effect earned its cost.

The other panels#

Denoise is the one to know about on the path tracer: a low sample count plus denoising often beats a high sample count at the same wall-clock cost.

Sky, time of day and weather#

The environment is three controls rather than one HDRI slot.

Time of day has six marks, dawn, morning, noon, golden, dusk, midnight and can run: give it a speed and a day length in seconds and the light moves while you work.

Weather is eight presets, clear, cloudy, overcast, rain, storm, snow, fog, sandstorm, each with an intensity, and underneath them the parameters themselves: precipitation, cloud cover, fog density, wind speed and direction. Instant transition switches without the crossfade, which is what you want when comparing two states rather than filming the change.

Lens carries seven focal-length presets, ultra wide, wide, wide normal, normal, portrait, telephoto, long tele, beside the aperture and the rest of the physical camera. Choosing "portrait" is the same act as typing the millimetres, and rather quicker.

Publishing a render as a link#

Share as public link publishes a read-only snapshot of the scene that anyone can open in a browser, no account required. It is the scene, not just the image: the viewer opens it and looks around.

Three things the panel tells you rather than letting you find out:

• The project has to be saved to the cloud first. A link points at a stored scene; there is nothing to point at otherwise.
• An empty scene is shared anyway, with a warning, you may well mean to.
• If a custom HDR cannot be resolved, the scene is shared without an environment map and says so, rather than shipping a link that renders black.

⚠️ Anyone with the link can view the scene. There is no password: the control you have is revocation.

Files it reads and writes#

Sending work to other studios#

Produces a 3D scene. Accepts meshes from Sculpt, Retopo and Pigment, and whole 3D scenes.

Working with someone else#

Render syncs as a document, the whole state, debounced, plus granular operations for lights, post-processing and the camera, which are the three things two people are most likely to be adjusting at once.

Limits and common snags#

• Nothing in the viewport means no mesh is loaded. Import one, or send one from Sculpt, Retopo or Pigment.
• Ray tracing is slow on purpose. Frame in Raster, judge in Hybrid, deliver in Raytracing.
• A flat image is usually the tone mapping. Check the mode and the exposure before adding lights.
• TSR reconstructs from motion. On a static frame it buys less than it does on a moving one.