The Render Settings

Maxon Redshift offers various quality levels and methods for displaying the scene in the viewport and for the image or animation output, i.e. for rendering. Lower quality levels are generally used for the viewport, as the focus here is on fast interaction with the scene. The Viewport button (see 1 in Figure 1) at the top of the viewport gives you access to the corresponding settings for viewport rendering and also offers the Take Snapshot button (see 2 in Figure 1) to save the currently displayed viewport as a bitmap file.

Switching to the Render Layout (see 3 in Figure 1) provides additional options, such as selecting the higher-quality Redshift Production as the rendering method or configuring higher image resolutions. These settings are therefore intended for the final rendering of individual views or even animations and are initiated by clicking the Render button (see 5 in Figure 1).

The Render Settings for the viewport are found in the 'Viewport' menu. The Render Settings for the final output can by found by switching to the 'Render' layout.
Figure 1On the left you can see the Real-Time Render Settings used for the viewport. Using its Take Snapshot button or switching to the Render layout (see right side of the Figure) the Render Settings for final output rendering can be opened.

In both cases—that is, whether you're using quick Snapshot rendering or rendering with final quality settings—the save location and file format are specified in the Render Settings (see 4 in Figure 1). Snapshot rendering always uses the same resolution as the one currently displayed in the viewport and therefore depends only on the scale of the Redshift window. During Snapshot rendering, a brief note also appears indicating the image’s save location (see dialog box below 2 in Figure 1). Clicking on its Locate link takes you directly to that directory.

Please Note:

Maxon Redshift offers two methods for image calculation. Redshift Live, which is used by default in the viewport and for taking snapshots, can also be used for final image output, but due to its optimizations for the smoothest possible real-time display, it makes some compromises in the evaluation of material properties. If high quality is required and real-time rendering is not necessary, the Redshift Production renderer is available, which fully supports all material properties and physical effects. Due to these different objectives of the Live and Production renderers, the saved frames can differ from the representations in the real-time viewport.
Learn more about the differences between the two rendering methods in this section.


Quick Navigation


Viewport Render Settings

By using the Viewport button in the viewport you can access the Viewport Render Settings (also see left side of Figure 1 above). There you can specify the quality levels to be used for live rendering in the viewport. These settings are therefore irrelevant for the final image or video output. Separate Render Settings are available for this purpose, e.g., after activating the Render layout (see 3 in Figure 1).
Let's take a look at the viewport render settings one by one.

Sampling

This setting mainly controls the quality of the calculation per rendered pixel. Please note that usually only a reduced version of the scene area displayed in the viewport is rendered and then upscaled. The resolution used for viewport rendering is selected separately in the following Options group with the Upscaling mode. Very high sampling settings in combination with very high upscaling may therefore not necessarily reach their full potential. It is therefore often necessary to find a balance between the rendered viewport resolution and the quality selected via Sampling. The default values should already be sufficient for most cases.

Passes

The live renderer in the viewport uses a progressive rendering technique. Rendering is performed in several Passes, which are initially noisy and become increasingly clear. The Passes value specifies the number of progressive render passes until rendering should automatically end. More Passes will reduce the amount of noise in the viewport.
Please note that this number of Passes can only be rendered in a static viewport. While navigating or moving lights or objects, only a fraction of these passes may be used in order to provide feedback on the changes in your scene as quickly as possible. Rendering will then use the full number of Passes again as soon as your viewport remains static for a short period of time.

Often, even very small Passes values can still generate usable images when combined with the Denoise option for noise reduction.

Comparing different 'Passes' values for viewport rendering.
Figure 2Direct comparison between rendering with just 1 pass (left side) and rendering with 128 passes (right side). To highlight this difference in quality, the separate Denoise option was disabled.

Trace Depths

Rendering uses rays that not only scan the scene from the camera's perspective but, depending on the type of lighting and material properties, can also pass through objects multiple times (in the case of transparent and refractive materials) or be reflected by objects (in the case of materials with reflective properties or light that is also transmitted through reflections). To customize rendering speed, you can set limit values using the Trace Depths settings that should not be exceeded.
As a general rule, it is considered best practice to use as few rays as necessary to achieve the desired result.

Combined

This parameter specifies the maximum limit for all ray type combined. This means that if the sum of the individual ray depth values higher than Combined the resulting render will still be capped at the Combined value.

For example, let's say that Reflection and Global Illumination are both set to a value of 4 and Combined is set to 6. If a ray had already been reflected 4 times, then it could only collect information of 2 more Global Illumination ray bounces because the Combined ray depth is 6.

Global Illumination

This setting is particularly relevant when light needs to be reflected between surfaces multiple times in order to reach all corners of the scene. Only with sufficient light transfer through reflections can a realistic, diffuse light distribution be calculated. The Global Illumination value only specifies the maximum number of light reflections. Whenever, for example, a dark material, a light source or the Sky Environment is hit by a calculation ray, the calculation automatically ends there. In general, however, the higher the Global Illuminationvalue, the more realistic the light distribution can be calculated and the longer the rendering can take overall.

Keep in mind that it is not only the brightness of the scene lighting—especially in interior scenes—that benefits from greater ray depths, but also the overall realism of the rendering. With each additional light reflection, the surface color of the reflecting object is also picked up by the light and thereby transferred to neighboring elements.

Comparing the render results of different 'Global Illumination' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Global Illumination ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the Global Illumination (right side).

Reflection

This value puts an individual cap on how many times a reflection ray can bounce. In fact, all materials exhibit reflective properties and gloss to a greater or lesser extent and therefore benefit from greater trace depth values for the reflections.

Comparing the render results of different 'Reflection' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Refection ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the reflections (right side). .

Refraction

This value puts an individual cap on how many times a refraction ray can bounce or pass through objects. This value is particularly relevant for calculating transparent and refractive materials, such as glass.

Comparing the render results of different 'Refraction' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Refraction ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the refractions (right side). .

Options

These settings can be used to influence the calculation method used for viewport rendering.

Denoise

As already mentioned in the presentation of the Sampling settings, a relatively large number of calculation passes per image pixel are necessary to obtain a noise-free result. As an alternative to increasing the number of Passes, the Denoise option can also be activated. This activates access to the Upscaling setting, which further accelerates rendering, as only a fraction of the full resolution needs to be rendered. Denoising then additionally attenuates image noise through interpolation.
The advantages of viewport rendering with Denoise are:

But there are also disadvantages, of course, such as:

Render comparison of an outdoor scene with and without 'Denoise'.
Figure 3The renderings on the left were rendered with Denoise, those on the right without Denoise. The images in the lower half show only excerpts from the renderings above in order to better highlight the subtle differences.

As a closer look at Figure 3 reveals, fine details can also fall victim to the Denoiser, especially when combined with aggressive Upscaling. However, this is often acceptable, especially in outdoor scenes, which are less prone to noise anyway due to large light sources.

Render comparison of an indoor scene with and without 'Denoise'.
Figure 4The rendering on the left was rendered without Denoise, the rendering on the right with Denoise.

However, this observation may change for interior scenes, as these often require even more Passes to achieve a noise-free result. In these cases, Denoise can be very helpful in keeping render times short. Nevertheless, renderings with heavy noise can also be helpful, as fine details can still be discerned in them. For example, in Figure 4, despite the heavy noise, individual tufts of bristles can still be discerned on the toothbrushes, which appear more as a contiguous mass in the Denoise version.
It may therefore depend on the individual case whether you prefer to work with the denoised version or the slightly more precise version.

Note:

The Denoise algorithm activated here is optimized for continuously updated images, such as those that occur when navigating in the viewport. However, there are alternative denoisers for static images that can be even more effective. For this reason, Static Frame Denoising provides an additional denoising function that becomes active when the view in the viewport no longer needs to be redrawn, e.g., due to navigation.

Upscaling

In addition to the Passes and Trace Depths settings, which primarily determine the calculation quality of each pixel, the number of pixels to be calculated, i.e., the resolution of the viewport rendering, is naturally decisive for the required length of the calculation. For this reason, the Upscaling setting can also be used to render scaled down versions of the viewport, which are then upscaled to the full size again once the calculation is complete. Although this results in a slight blurring of the displayed viewport rendering, it saves a lot of time and is often sufficient to evaluate the materials and lighting of the scene adequately.

The Ultra Performance, Performance, Balanced, and Quality settings allow you to choose between different degrees of scaling, with Ultra Performance working with the smallest version of the viewport and therefore being correspondingly fast. However, with Off, you can completely skip any viewport scaling in order to use the full resolution.
In any case, it should be noted that Upscaling can only be used in conjunction with the Denoise option.

Static Frame Denoising

This option enables an alternative denoising filter — a feature optimized to process static content. This applies to situations where, for example, you do not need to move the camera or change the positions of objects for a few seconds.

Parallax Mapping

This option can evaluate a height map on materials to simulate depth and a displacement effect without having to generate additional polygons or subdivisions. The effect is similar to classic Bump Mapping or Normal Mapping, but can appear even more realistic. If supported by the materials used, this allows, for example, deep grooves between tiles or even blades of grass on a lawn to be rendered in real time on otherwise flat geometries.

As can also be seen in Figure 5 below, Parallax Mapping also depends on the viewing distance and viewing angle and can therefore blur the perceptual boundaries between actually flat objects and real three-dimensional structures. Please note that the intensity of the Parallax Mapping effect is influenced by the Displacement Scale value of the material (see also this page about Materials).

Render comparison of a grass material with and without 'Parallax Mapping'.
Figure 5The renderings on the left have been done without Parallax Mapping. The renderings on the right had that option activated. Notice the differences in the rendered gravel material.

Depth of Field

Example render using the Depth of Field feature, showing a in focus vase in the foreground and an out of focus background.
Figure 7Depth of Field can be used to create a realistic and cinematic look that makes foreground elements appear naturally separated from the background.

The Camera and Navigation settings include an option for Depth of Field, which allows you to simulate the camera’s focus at a specific distance or on a specific object in the scene. Depending on the aperture setting there, you can create a subtle or pronounced separation between the foreground and background of the scene, resulting in a very realistic and cinematic look. The calculations for Depth of Field are quite complex and are therefore offered at different quality levels for navigation in the viewport. In Hybrid mode, the fast, but only approximate, Post Effect method is used during navigation in the viewport, and then, when the camera and objects remain static for a while, the more precise ray-traced effect is activated.
As a second option, continuous use of the Post Effect method is offered.

Output Render Settings

The Real-Time Rendering Settings (see 1 in Figure 7) discussed so far are only relevant for display in the viewport and for saving quick snapshots (see 2 in Figure 7). Additional settings, which are then used for the final image calculation, can be accessed via the Render Settings of the Render layout (see 3 in Figure 7).

The Render Settings for the viewport are found in the 'Viewport' menu. The Render Settings for the final output can by found by switching to the 'Render' layout.
Figure 7On the left you can see the Real-Time Rendering Settings used for the viewport. Switching to the Render layout (see right side of the figure) the Render Settings for final output rendering can be opened.

Some of the settings there are identical to the Viewport Render Settings, but there are also additional options that can only be used for the final image or video output.

Note:

Most of the Render Settings do not get active until there is at least one view or one storyboard animation assigned in the Render Queue (see 2 in Figure 8).

The available Render Settings to output a still frame or an animation for the selected entries in the Render Queue.
Figure 8With these Render Settings you define the options to render and save still frames or animations for the views and storyboard animations listed in the Render Queue.

Figure 8 shows the workflow for using Stored Views with the Render Queue and the Render Settings available for this purpose:

1First use the Stored Views to save the camera perspectives, object positions, material settings and environment definitions that you like to render. You can also use these Stored Views with the Storyboard to define animations.

2Drag the views you want to render as still images from the list of Stored Views into the Render Queue area, which is located in the Render layout below the viewport. If you want to render Storyboard animations, you’ll find a Add to Render Queue button in the Storyboard that allows you to add the current animation to the Render Queue. Select the views or Storyboard animations in the Render Queue for which you want to configure Render Settings.

3With the Render Engine you can select the method used to calculate the image or animation. You can choose between the same Redshift Live mode you are already familiar with from the viewport display and a special Redshift Production renderer that supports all material properties and effects. Please note that the available render settings vary slightly depending on whether you are using the Redshift Live Renderer or the Redshift Production Renderer.

4The Trace Depths values are available only for Redshift Live and determine the level of accuracy used when calculating various material and lighting properties of the scene. Higher values result in better quality, but can also lead to longer render times.

5The Denoiser function can be used to automatically smooth out slightly noisy renderings. This can help reduce rendering times by allowing slightly lower quality levels to be selected for rendering.

6In the Output section, select the desired resolution and, when calculating animations, their frame rate.

7Finally, in the Save section, specify the file format and storage location for the finished images or videos. The Render button for starting the render queue calculation can also be found here.
Please note that the same file format and storage location are also used for the Viewport Snapshots.

Using the Render Queue

All of the Render Settings described below apply to the assembled Storyboards or views currently selected in the Render Queue area.

While the Storyboard for creating an animation is available as a separate layout in Maxon Redshift, the Render Queue is located directly below the viewport within the Render layout, which becomes active when you select the Render tab (see Figure 9).

The figure shows the Render Settings layout that also offers the Render Queue Manager.
Figure 9You can add various views to the Render Queue that is located below the viewport; when you click the Render button, all active Render Queue elements will be rendered one after another as still images or videos.

You can drag and drop saved views from the Stored Views pane to the Render Queue to configure their render settings and to get them rendered automatically one after another (see Figure 9). When you create an animation using the Storyboard layout, you'll also find a Add to Render Queue button there to add the animation to the Render Queue of the Render layout (see Figure 10).

The figure shows the Storyboard layout and indicates by highlighting the button nect to the Storyboard section that copies the current animation to the Render Queue.
Figure 10If you have created animations within the Storyboard layout (by dragging Stored Views into the storyboard) , you will also find a button there to copy animations to the Render Queue and configure the corresponding render settings for them in the Render layout.

When you click on one of the views or storyboard animations in the Render Queue to select it, all the Render Settings that you configure are automatically linked to that view or animation. You can then select the next view in the Render Queue and make further changes to the Render Settings if, for example, you want to use a different resolution or quality settings for rendering that view.
To configure identical Render Settings for multiple views in the Render Queue, first click on one of the views and then use Ctrl-clicks on the other views that you like to include in that selection (multi-selection). Alternatively, you can click once on the first view and then Shift-click on the last view in the Render Queue. This will select all views between the two views you clicked on.

If you want to exclude individual views or Storyboard animations from Render Queue rendering, disable their options, which can be found below their thumbnails in the Render Queue. When you click the Render button at the bottom of the Render Settings, only the active views in the Render Queue will be rendered.

Finally, right-clicking on a thumbnail in the Render Queue opens a small context menu that allows you to remove items from the Render Queue and enable or disable rendering.

Render Engine

Mode

We already reviewed the real-time renderer used in the Viewport to display your scene. The same Redshift Live method can be used for final render as well, but for the best available quality, Redshift Production should be used. Instead of rendering the image in multiple Passes, adding more details and image quality with every new Pass, small rectangular parts of the image are rendered one after each other (so called Buckets). By using these Buckets for rendering, memory requirements can be kept at a minimum, even for larger render resolutions.


Pros and Cons of the Live Renderer:


Pros and Cons of the Production Renderer:

Passes

This parameter is only available for the Redshift Live real-time renderer, because it uses a progressive rendering technique. Rendering is performed in several Passes, which are initially noisy and become increasingly clear. The Passes value specifies the number of progressive render passes until rendering should automatically end. Although more Passes always reduce noise in the final image, they also increase the time required to complete the rendering. Using the Denoise option helps to reduce the noise levels in the finished frame without having to increase Passes.
Since the same Passes value is also available for the Viewport Render Settings you can often use that value as a basis there and possibly increase it slightly to obtain the final quality for the saved rendering. Additional examples for this parameter can also be found here.

Parallax Mapping

This option is only available for the Redshift Live renderer and can evaluate a height map on materials to simulate depth without having to generate additional polygons or subdivisions. The effect is similar to classic Bump Mapping or Normal Mapping, but can appear even more realistic. If supported by the materials used, this allows, for example, deep grooves between tiles or even blades of grass on a lawn to be rendered in real time on otherwise flat geometries. As the same option is also available for the Viewport Render Settings, just use the same state for that option here as well to achieve comparable results. Additional examples for this parameter can also be found here.

Quality / Threshold

These settings are only available for the Redshift Production render. In the Quality menu, you will find various presets that can be used to call up different quality levels for rendering. The Threshold values associated with these quality levels are entered automatically. However, you can also use manual values for the Threshold, e.g. if you want to use a quality level between two quality levels. For example, the Medium quality corresponds to the Threshold 0.01 and the High quality to the Threshold value 0.005. Accordingly, you could manually enter the Threshold 0.0075 to use an intermediate Quality level. Ultimately, the quality of the rendering depends solely on the Threshold value used. This determines the amount of image noise that may still be present in a rendered bucket before the next bucket is started.

The smaller the Threshold value is set, the less image noise will be tolerated and the longer the rendering will take. Therefore, try to find a compromise between quality and rendering time. It is therefore always helpful to start with low Quality levels (resulting in higher Threshold values) and then refine them only if necessary.
Using the Denoiser function can also help to remove any remaining image noise.

Trace Depths

These settings for the Redshift Live renderer are also available for viewport rendering and specify limits on the maximum number of calculation rays for various material properties and lighting simulations. As a general rule, higher values result in greater realism and quality, but also in correspondingly longer calculation times.

Combined

This parameter specifies the maximum limit for all ray types combined.
This means that if the individual ray depth values for all types of ray calculations are higher than Combined the resulting render will still be capped at the Combined value.

For example, let's say that Reflection and Global Illumination are both set to a value of 4 and Combined is set to 6. If a ray had already been reflected 4 times, then it could only add another 2 Global Illumination ray bounces because the Combined ray depth is 6.

Global Illumination

This setting is particularly relevant when light needs to be reflected between surfaces multiple times in order to reach all corners of the scene. Only with sufficient light transfer through reflections can a realistic, diffuse light distribution be calculated. The Global Illumination value only specifies the maximum number of light reflections. Whenever, for example, a dark material, a light source or the Sky Environment is hit by a calculation ray, the calculation automatically ends there. In general, however, the higher the Global Illuminationvalue, the more realistic the light distribution can be calculated and the longer the rendering can take overall.

Keep in mind that it is not only the brightness of the scene lighting—especially in interior scenes—that benefits from greater ray depths, but also the overall realism of the rendering. With each additional light reflection, the surface color of the reflecting object is also picked up by the light and thereby transferred to neighboring elements.

Comparing the render results of different 'Global Illumination' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Global Illumination ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the Global Illumination (right side).

Reflection

This value puts an individual cap on how many times a reflection ray can bounce. In fact, all materials exhibit reflective properties and gloss to a greater or lesser extent and therefore benefit from greater trace depth values for the reflections.

Comparing the render results of different 'Reflection' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Refection ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the reflections (right side). .

Refraction

This value puts an individual cap on how many times a refraction ray can bounce or pass through objects. This value is particularly relevant for calculating transparent and refractive materials, such as glass.

Comparing the render results of different 'Refraction' trace depth values for viewport rendering.
Direct comparison between rendering with a maximum of just 1 Refraction ray depth (left side) and rendering with a maximum ray depth of 5 for the refractions (right side). .

Denoiser

A Denoiser can remove visible noise from your rendered image, reducing the number of passes (for the real-time renderer) or the quality for the Redshift Production renderer, allowing render times to be optimized without compromising quality.
When using the real-time renderer it's a simple option that can be switched to use the Denoiser or to keep it disabled. Even a disabled Denoiser can be helpful, as real-time rendering may look noisier, but it can also show more details that may be lost due to the denoiser's interpolation.
When using the Redshift Production renderer, additional options become available:

Mode

Here you choose denoising engine you like to use, each one coming with different pros and cons:

Output

Here you select the image resolution to be rendered. You can either select from a number of common resolutions directly from the menu, or enter the number of pixels for the width and height of the rendering directly under Resolution.
Please note the following option for Lock Ratio: Only when this is disabled can any value pairings be entered for Resolution. Otherwise, Redshift remembers the ratio between width and height used for Resolution and automatically applies it to the second value after a value is changed. This can of course be used to select a small image resolution for quick test calculations. When it comes to the final rendering, simply adjust one of the two Resolution values to the desired target value. The second value is automatically corrected to maintain the original aspect ratio.
The larger the Resolution is set the longer the frame rendering can take.
Please also note that when calculating an animation, there are certain standard formats for frame resolutions to ensure that GPU acceleration or compression of the generated video works optimally. In many cases, these are the common frame formats 16:9 or 4:3.

The same applies to the Frame Rate setting, which is only available in Storyboard mode. Since an animation is characterized by the sequential playback of many frames within one second, you can specify here how many frames per second should be calculated. Depending on the playback format, values between 24 and 30 are common here. You should discuss this with the person who will be processing and finalizing the video, e.g., in video effects programs, before creating the animation. A frame rate that is too low can result in jerky playback of the animation and cannot be reliably corrected afterwards. However, the default setting of 30 frames per second (fps) should be sufficient for most applications.

Safe Frames

You have probably already noticed the darkened areas within the viewport. These can vary in width, appear in pairs at the top/bottom or left/right, or be absent altogether. In fact, this depends on the Resolution you have chosen for rendering and the aspect ratio of the Redshift window. The darkened areas mark the parts of the viewport that are not rendered because they are outside the selected frame format (see 1 in the following figure).

A screenshot highlighting the 'Safe Frames' overlay in the viewport.

Save

In this section, you specify the storage location and format for the rendered images or videos. The same file format and storage location is also used for rendered Viewport Snapshots.

Path

The folder icon to the right of the file path field opens a file dialog where you can select the folder in which you want to automatically save the finished renderings. Selecting a folder set up specifically for this purpose is particularly helpful when rendering individual images from an animation, as this can easily result in hundreds of files that you should keep separate from other files. If you decide to save individual images or a video file that has already been compressed, e.g., as an mp4 file, this is less important, but it still makes sense to collect your renderings in separate directories for clarity. The current name of your project is automatically used as a name for the rendering. Even with multiple renders, existing images in the specified path are not lost. They are automatically numbered consecutively there.

Format

Here you can select the desired file format for the saved images or videos. Please note that the available settings and properties may differ depending on the format. For example, a JPEG image does not allow storage with color Depths greater than 8 Bit/Channel or with integrated masks. Depending on where you want to use or post-process your renderings, you should use formats that are suitable for this purpose.

For example, image formats such as PNG or TIFF can also be used for rendered animations. You will then receive a sequence of individual image files that you can subsequently combine into a video in video editing. On the other hand, an mp4 file can also be saved directly for animations, which can then be shared and played directly as a video.

Depth

Redshift always renders internally with the largest available color space and then downconverts this color richness for storing the results or displaying them on the monitor. Even if the actual color density available during rendering is not necessarily visible to the human eye, having the highest possible color depth available offers great advantages for post-processing the images. Subsequent adjustments to brightness or colors are then much easier, without visible breaks in the gradients. However, higher color depths will also result in larger files, which can be important for archiving. Therefore, always select a color Depth that you actually need.
If the rendering already corresponds exactly to your expectations, a Depth of 8 Bit/Channel may be sufficient. However, 16 Bit/Channel is definitely recommended for light post-processing or corrections. Even higher values are often only helpful in professional productions where, for example, compositing is used and extensive manipulation of brightness and colors is planned.

Please note the information on the selected Format. Not all storage formats allow the use of higher Bit/Channel values. For example, a video saved as mp4 is automatically saved as 8 Bit/Channel.

Options

These options are only available when rendering in Frame mode and with Redshift Production. These options enable the calculation and storage of alpha masks. This makes it easier to isolate individual objects in image editing programs. However, these objects must not be surrounded by a Sky or HDRI Environment. Otherwise, these will obscure the entire scene and make it impossible to calculate individual alpha masks.

The Alpha Channel option will render a black and white mask of the scene, using white for the objects and black for the void space in the rendering (see Figure 11). This Alpha Channel is automatically added to the image file if the selected Format allows it. Formats such as TIFF or PSD allow additional channels to be stored within the file. This is not possible with other formats, such as JPEG or PNG. If you still want to use alpha masks with these formats, the Separate Alpha option is available. This creates and saves a second file alongside the actual rendering, which then only contains the alpha mask.

Comparison between a simple rendering and its alpha channel.
Figure 11A rendering of some isolated objects on the left and the Alpha Channel of that rendering on the right.

The Straight Alpha option is only relevant for rendering objects that do not have sharply defined outer edges or that use volume-dependent transparency. Think, for example, of smoke or a cloud (see Figure 12). A simple alpha mask would not be accurate enough for such objects, as it may also contain mixed colors from the background in the transparent areas.

Showing a rendering with an integrated 'Straight Alpha' channel. The final rendering is only visible after applying the 'Alpha' in post production.
Figure 12Example of a rendering (left) with a Straight Alpha (middle). The final result only gets visible after the Straight Alpha is executed on the rendering (right)

Start the Rendering

After you configured the render settings for the Stored Views and Storyboard animations in the Render Queue, just hit the Render button to start the rendering process. When rendering a Storyboard animation, several frames are automatically calculated one after the other and—depending on the selected file format—saved individually or as a video file after rendering is complete.
Once rendering is complete, a dialog box appears, allowing you to jump directly to the file location using the Locate Image button. Otherwise, simply close the dialog box by clicking OK.

If you do not want to wait for the rendering to finish, you can also use the Stop Rendering button, which appears instead of the Render button, to cancel a rendering that is still in progress.