Maya batch render options

These are as of v7.0, note that there's even more options per-renderer. These are for the maya software renderer:

Usage: render [options] filename
       where "filename" is a Maya ASCII or a Maya binary file.

Common options:
  -help              Print help
  -test              Print Mel commands but do not execute them
  -verb              Print Mel commands before they are executed
  -keepMel           Keep the temporary Mel file
  -listRenderers     List all available renderers
  -renderer string   Use this specific renderer
  -r string          Same as -renderer
  -proj string       Use this Maya project to load the file
  -log string        Save output into the given file

Specific options for renderer "default": Maya software renderer

General purpose flags:
  -rd path              Directory in which to store image files
  -im filename          Image file output name
  -fnc int              File Name Convention: any of name, name.ext, ... See the                
                        Render Settings window to find available options. Use namec and
                        namec.ext for Multi Frame Concatenated formats. As a shortcut,
                        numbers 1, 2, ... can also be used
  -of string            Output image file format. See the Render Settings window to find available formats

  -s float              Starting frame for an animation sequence
  -e float              End frame for an animation sequence
  -b float              By frame (or step) for an animation sequence
  -pad int              Number of digits in the output image frame file name
                        extension
  -rfs int              Renumber Frame Start: number for the first image when
                        renumbering frames
  -rfb int              Renumber Frame By: step used for renumbering frames
  -se int               Obsolete flag identical to -rfs. Used only for backward
                        compatibility
  -be int               Obsolete flag identical to -rfe. Used only for backward
                        compatibility

  -cam name             Specify which camera to be rendered
  -rgb boolean          Turn RGB output on or off
  -alpha boolean        Turn Alpha output on or off
  -depth boolean        Turn Depth output on or off
  -iip                  Ignore Image Planes turn off all image planes before
                        rendering

  -x int                Set X resolution of the final image
  -y int                Set Y resolution of the final image
  -percentRes float     Renders the image using percent of the resolution
  -ard float            Device aspect ratio for the rendered image

More advanced flags:

Anti-aliasing quality:
  -eaa int              The anti-aliasing quality of EAS (Abuffer). One of:
                        highest(0), high(1), medium(2), low(3)
  -ss int               Global number of shading samples per surface in a pixel
  -mss int              Maximum number of adaptive shading samples per surface
                        in a pixel
  -mvs int              Number of motion blur visibility samples
  -mvm int              Maximum number of motion blur visibility samples
  -pss int              Number of particle visibility samples
  -vs int               Global number of volume shading samples
  -ufil boolean         If true, use the multi-pixel filtering; otherwise use
                        single pixel filtering
  -pft int              When useFilter is true, identifies one of the following
                        filters: box(0), triangle(2), gaussian(4), quadratic(5)
  -pfx float            When useFilter is true, defines the X size of the filter

  -pfy float            When useFilter is true, defines the Y size of the filter

  -rct float            Red channel contrast threshold
  -gct float            Green channel contrast threshold
  -bct float            Blue channel contrast threshold
  -cct float            Pixel coverage contrast threshold (default is 1.0/8.0)

Raytracing quality:
  -ert boolean          Enable ray tracing
  -rfl int              Maximum ray-tracing reflection level
  -rfr int              Maximum ray-tracing refraction level
  -sl int               Maximum ray-tracing shadow ray depth

Field Options:
  -field boolean        Enable field rendering. When on, images are interlaced
  -pal                  When field rendering is enabled, render even field
                        first (PAL)
  -ntsc                 When field rendering is enabled, render odd field
                        first (NTSC)

Motion Blur:
  -mb boolean           Motion blur on/off
  -mbf float            Motion blur by frame
  -sa float             Shutter angle for motion blur (1-360)
  -mb2d boolean         Motion blur 2D on/off
  -bll float            2D motion blur blur length
  -bls float            2D motion blur blur sharpness
  -smv int              2D motion blur smooth value
  -smc boolean          2D motion blur smooth color on/off
  -kmv boolean          Keep motion vector for 2D motion blur on/off

Render Options:
  -ifg boolean          Use the film gate for rendering if false
  -edm boolean          Enable depth map usage
  -g float              Gamma value
  -premul boolean       Premultiply color by the alpha value
  -premulthr float      When premultiply is on, defines the threshold used to
                        determine whether to premultiply or not

Memory and Performance:
  -uf boolean           Use the tessellation file cache
  -oi boolean           Dynamically detects similarly tessellated surfaces
  -rut boolean          Reuse render geometry to generate depth maps
  -udb boolean          Use the displacement bounding box scale to optimize
                        displacement-map performance
  -mm int               Renderer maximum memory use (in Megabytes)

Render Layers and Passes:
  -rl boolean|name(s)   Render each render layer separately
  -rp boolean|name(s)   Render passes separately. 'all' will render all passes
  -rs boolean           Obsolete flag. Used only for backward compatibility
  -sel boolean|name(s)  Selects which objects, groups and/or sets to render
  -l boolean|name(s)    Selects which display and render layers to render

Mel callbacks
  -preRender string     Mel code executed before rendering
  -postRender string    Mel code executed after rendering
  -preLayer string      Mel code executed before each render layer
  -postLayer string     Mel code executed after each render layer
  -preFrame string      Mel code executed before each frame
  -postFrame string     Mel code executed after each frame
  -pre string           Obsolete flag
  -post string          Obsolete flag

Other:
  -rep boolean          Do not replace the rendered image if it already exists
  -reg int int int int  Set sub-region pixel boundary of the final image:
                        left, right, bottom, top
  -n int                Number of processors to use (0 indicates use all
                        available)
  -mf boolean           Append image file format to image name if true
  -sp boolean           Generate shadow depth maps only
  -amt boolean          Abort renderer when encountered missing texture
  -ipr boolean          Create an IPR file
  -keepPreImage boolean Keep the renderings prior to post-process around

*** Remember to put a space between option flags and their arguments. ***
Any boolean flag will take the following values as TRUE: on, yes, true, or 1.
Any boolean flag will take the following values as FALSE: off, no, false, or 0.

    e.g. -x 512 -y 512 -cam persp -im test -of jpg -mb on -sa 180 file

-- MattEstela? - 20 March 2006

Local paths on command line

When calling render commands via command line you can specify the project that maya should work in using the -proj flag. This is good to use always because it allows maya to automatically find relative paths to textures, caches, references, and other important source data your scene might use.

In addition to that, it allows you to specify relative paths on the command line. For example:

Render -proj c:\maya\projects\myProject -s 1 -e 10 -b 1 -cam persp -im test myscene.ma 

will automatically look for the path c:\maya\projects\myProject\scenes\myscene.ma no matter what location you happen to be in. So you don't have to specify the entire path to the scene file for the Render command, and you don't have to cd into the scenes directory before running the Render command, so it finds the file as an arguement. Also, as I said above, it will automatically force maya to look at c:\maya\projects\myProject\sourceimages for textures and automatically render to c:\maya\projects\myProject\images if you don't specify a different -renderDirectory flag.

This is ideal when setting up multiple render commands in a command script. Or if you have scenes that are burried deep withing subdirectories of your projects scenes directory. Such as this example:

My project path is c:\maya\projects\myProject and my full scene path is: c:\maya\projects\myProject\scenes\take2\sub_version001\midGround\scene.ma

say I have multiple scenes to render with similar paths, when writing my render command script i can use relative paths when specifying the -proj which makes it easier to read and easier to type:

Render -proj c:\maya\projects\myProject -s 1 -e 10 -b 1 -cam persp scenes\take2\sub_version001\midGround\scene.ma 

I always specify my project path whenever rendering using the command line.

-- SeanFennell? - Jan 05, 2006