Post Render Screen

The post render panel consists of:

• Template (1) (see Post Render Templates)

• Installed plug-ins are listed (2) (see Post Rendering plug-ins)

• Post rendering setup (3):

  • Main Layer: Shows the Scene to be rendered. When Post is clicked, the Scene currently open is set as the Main Layer.

  • Front Layer: Sets a Scene running in front of the Main Layer.

  • Back Layer: Sets a Scene running behind the Main Layer.

  • Offset: Sets an offset for the Main, Front and Back Layer, so they start at different times.

  • Stop: Defines the number of seconds to pause during the animation stop points of a Scene. If there are stop points in the Scene, these are normally lost in the post rendering process, unless an interval is assigned here.

• Plug-in property editor (4)

• Server Panel (5)

• Output (6)

To Post Render a Scene

1. Open the Scene to be post rendered.

2. Click Post. The Scene is loaded Main Layer target area.
   

   Note: When Post is clicked, the Scene currently open is set as the Main Layer.

   Tip: It is also possible to click on Post, then select a Scene and drag it to the Main layer.

3. Set an Offset, if required. How the offset affects the Scene can be seen in the Post Rendering area.

   

4. Set a Stop (in seconds), if required. This stops the post rendering after the assigned interval.

5. Drag a selected post render plug-in, to Clip plug-in target area. Select from:

   • JPEG

   • PNG

   • MOV

   • TGA

   • TIFF

   • VideoRenderer

   • MatroxFileWriter. The Matrox File Writer plug-in requires a Matrox card. See Post Rendering plug-ins section for additional Matrox File Writer settings.

6. Select a frame Format. Viz Artist/Engine always renders 50 images per second for PAL or 60 for NTSC. Dependant on the post render format, not all of them or not the full frames are stored. Options are:

   • Full Frame: Stores 50 or 60 full height frames for each second of video. The number depends on the video settings, PAL/50 or NTSC/60 frames, and the size also changes with the video format (720x576 for PAL digital and 720x486 for NTSC digital). Normally TV is 25 or 30 interleaved frames, but in this case the post rendering produces twice the amount of pixels needed. An editing system (or wherever you put the images you render) can throw away 50% of the pixels and still produce a “normal” video stream.

   • Fields Top/Fields Bottom: Stores 50 fields per second of video. It is the same amount of data as interlaced top/bottom, but instead of shuffling the data the post rendering process writes different files for each field.

   • Interl. Top, Interl. Bottom: Stores 25 interlaced frames for each second of video. Each frame consists of two fields (half size of PAL or NTSC for example 720x288). These two fields are combined line by line. Interlaced top means that the first line of the first field is the first line in the interlaced frame. In interlaced bottom the first line of the second field is the first line in the interlaced frame. This determines field dominance.

   • Full Frame Skip: Stores every other full frame, resulting in 25 (or 30 for NTSC) frames per second.

7. Select the color settings. Select from:

   • RGB: Creates RGB images. Here a pixel is represented by three bytes containing a red, green and blue sample.

   • RGBA: Creates a red, green and blue sample, along with an additional color sample, all in a single image. When shown on top of other images, RGBA pixels are blended with the background pixel according to the value of this alpha component.

   • RGB AAA: Creates an RGB and an Alpha image for each image rendered.

     Note: These settings are already fixed for the Matrox File Writer (see Post Rendering plug-ins).

8. In Name, select a destination file path and name.

   Tip: When a Scene is added to the Main Layer, the path and filename are automatically assigned. To keep a previously selected path, click the Keep Path button (small rectangle to the right of the Name field).

   Tip: With the cursor over Name a tool tip shows the path name.

   

9. Set the parameters for:

   • Duration: Sets the number of frames to be rendered.

   • Width: Sets a scaling value for the width.

   • Height: Sets a scaling value for the height.

     Tip: To scale the height and width proportionally click . When disabled the lock height and width scale can be set separately. The default setting is locked.

10. Click .
    At any time, while rendering, click to stop the rendering. When the rendering is stopped the file(s) already written are kept.

Post Render Templates

If Scenes are post rendered often, with the same settings, create a Post Render Template. To use a saved template double-click it in the Template panel.

Post Rendering Plug-ins

Post rendering plug-ins define the format of the post rendered files. Viz Artist offers a set of image and video rendering plug-ins: