Rendering

Set up to render

See render output drivers for information on how to create an output driver node.

To...	Do this
Choose which camera to render from	In the output driver node’s parameters, click the Main tab and choose the Camera object the driver will use to render the scene.
Set where to render to	In the output driver node’s parameters, click the Output sub-tab of the Properties tab and press the arrow pop-up menu next to the Output Picture parameter to choose how/where to output the rendered images. Use the Output Device pop-up menu to choose the format for the saved images. Choose “Infer from file name” to use the extension on the filename pattern in the Output Picture parameter to determine which image format to use. “Houdini” is the default Houdini `.pic` format, with support for deep rasters. Click the arrow next to the pop-up menu to show extra parameters for saving metadata in the rendered image.
Set the rendered image size	Set the rendered image size in the camera. In the camera node’s parameter editor, click the View tab and set the Resolution parameter.

Render an image

Note	Make sure you have lights and a camera in the scene, otherwise your render will probably not work or will render all black.

Each output driver's parameters control where the rendered images are saved, whether to render a single frame or an animation, whether to render to disk or into MPlay, the image format and resolution, the camera, etc.

The default is to render a single frame to the MPlay image viewer. You can choose to save the rendered image from within MPlay.

To... Do this

Create a render node

On the menu bar, click Render > Create Render Node and select the type of renderer you want to create. This will put down a render node in the Outputs network editor.

Get a quick render of the current view

Click the Launch render button to use the same output as the last render, or click on the Launch render button and choose an output driver node.

You can also use the render HScript command to start a render.

Note	You do not need to have a camera set up to get a quick render of the current view; however, you do need lights.

Render a region of the viewer

Click the Render Region button on the selector and handle controls toolbar.
Drag a rectangle around the area of the viewer you want to render.

Render through a render node

Select the render node you want to render through and press the Render button.

You can also do this through the Render menu by clicking Render > Start Renderer and select the render node on the menu bar.

Render a subrange

Click the Render Control button on the parameter editor of the render node.
Set the Frame Range option in the Output Overrides for /out/mantra1 section.

Include $F in the file name to insert the frame number. This is necessary when rendering animation. See expressions in file names for more information.

Limit a particular render node to a subrange

In the parameter editor of the render node, set the Valid Frame Range from the drop-down menu.

This parameter limits the rendering of frames, when set to “Render frame range” or “Render frame range only”. If Houdini requests a frame from a render node which does not have it in its valid range, the render node will not render that frame.

Render with dependencies