here’s a check list to go through in order to save rendering time:
- render attributes: be sure you don’t have any unnecessary render attributes activated (shape node: render stats > cast shadows, receive shadows, motion blur, primary visibility, smooth shading, visible in reflections/ refractions, double sided).
- tesselation (nurbs): check the tesselation of every nurbs. very often they’re set too high and will cause render time go through the roof (shape node > tesselation > simple tesselation option > u and v divisions factor). often ‘buest guess’ helps so maya takes care about the required tesselation.
- surface materials: check index of refractions, reflections etc. be sure you don’t use too high values as they are one of the most time consuming elements to render.
- clipping planes: change the clipping planes the way that they just show the things you actually want to have rendered. don’t just increase the planes to insane values just to make sure everything can be seen at all times. keep in mind that if you use high values in far clipping plane, you should also tweak the near clipping plane, e.g. 0.1/1’000, 1/10’000, 10/100’000 etc. else you’ll run into strange display problems.
- render settings: double check if you have set global settings correctly – e.g. if you don’t need any reflections, just turn off the raytracer.
- light links: link all lights to the objects you want to have lighted, don’t just throw in dozens of lights not caring about their influences!
use the attribute spread sheet if you have to change many attributes at a time (window > general editors > attribute spread sheet). invest these minutes whenever you do your final render – they’re worth it. while keeping your script window open, go to render > run render diagnostics and check out the results maya will spit out, they are sometimes very helpful.