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Below is a link to a Maya rendering script I created  called “YoRender”. It allows the user to render a series of frames from inside Maya. While normally one wants to use command line and batch rendering for rendering out scenes, this is a substitute if those fail (for instance, when the rendering run-up is over 8 hours before the 1st frame is rendered).

I hope it helps out other Maya filmmakers.  While there are other in app rendering scripts out there, this worked best for my pipeline. At the bottom of this post is a description of YoRender to help you identify if this script will work for you.

YoRender_V0.8.mel (download)

Note this will also be uploaded to Creative Crash and referenced on Area Autodesk and cgsociety.org.

While time may impede my responsiveness to all programming questions and requests regarding this script, I will try to attend to all of them. Please send me your questions. The best route would be to post in this blog or email me.

Best Regards,
Michael Swertfager
michael@TheTell-TaleHeart.com

WHAT IS YoRender? v.0.8
YoRender is a custom script that moves frame by frame through your timeline, rendering and saving each frame as it moves through…using Render Current Frame. This is to be used as an alternative rendering method when Batch and Command Line rendering fails. YoRender uses the settings from your Render Globals.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Set-up your Render Globals as you normally would in Maya. Close Render Globals.
2) Click on the viewport you want to render from (note: in the main work-area not in Render Globals).
3) Start YoRender.
4) Review the settings in YoRender pulled from Render Globals.
5) Enter your settings.
6) Open a window to the path listed for stopping the script.
7) Click the “Yo…Render it NOW!” button.

SPECIAL CONSIDTERATIONS: If you use the same filename as a previously rendering, every frame will ask if you want to overwrite the existing file. This is because each frame is saved individually. To avoid this use a new name or delete the previously rendered images.
- The Frame\Animation Extension used is name.#.ext
- By default when Maya performs a Render Current Frame function (which this script uses), Maya auto saves a rendering in your projects temp directory. If YoRender is used extensively you might want to clean out these temp copies.

LIMITATIONS:
- renders only whole frames.
- no special considertaions for render layers; renders the currently selected layer only and saves it in the same directory.
- The Render Log does not include the extension on the filename.

SPECIAL NOTES:
I made this tool to cover rendering issue I had with Maya Hair and other dynamics. It has been extended to a UI layout with all three rendering formats so others in the Maya community can benefit from it. While this is a use at your own risk MEL script, I would like to hearing from you…on how YoRender is working for you and the project (good and bad). For bug reports and features requests, I cannot guarantee I’ll will have the time to fix all of them…But, I will do my best to get to them.

I hope this helps you with your project.

-Michael Swertfager
michael@TheTell-TaleHeart.com

INSTALL / START INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Copy the script to a local directory
2) In Maya “source” the script within Maya.
2a) in the Maya script editor type the word source then follow it by the path to the location of the mel YoRender script and press enter…(example source “C:/Users/michael/Documents/TTH/TTH2009/TTH2009_CG/mel/YoRender.mel”l;
3) type YoRender () and press enter.

Using Maya 2009 and Photoshop CS4, I am creating a base face texture for all the characters in the story. Here are my notes:

GENERAL NOTES:
- It is a little unstable: , At one point, Maya no longer recognized the PSD file. Spent hours trying different approaches (tossing special layers, removing extra sub-groups, etc). Eventually, I had to recreate, however, copying the layers from the old PSD to a newly created Maya PSD network proved challenging as Maya would reject half of the layers. A few hours later I rebuild the face texture to where I left off.
- To see how Maya will read the folder, flatten the layers: For the most part, Maya seems to flatten the layers inside each group top down. Once or twice I thought Maya was messing something up as Maya created texture did not match what I was seeing in Photoshop…until I went layer by layer flattening the layers…and then I saw the same thing as Maya.

AVOID:
- Transparent Photoshop layers which have a layer mask. I have noticed some odd interpretations. However, this can be side stepped by placing a white layer underneath, flatten the two layers into one, set the resulting layer as multiply…then you can use a layer mask.