# rendering in stager Rendering is the visual representation of your scene. It is the process of using [[stager physical lights|lights]] to illuminate the objects and [[stager materials|materials]] that take up the scene. It is looking at the scene through a [[stager cameras|camera]] and taking a snapshot. A saved render can be the finished product of your work; the final image that is posted and shared. Sometimes it is merely a step in the process with the render being an element in a bigger composite image or video. --- ## workspace rendering While working in your workspace, you have two options to control how the scene is rendered: Real-time and Ray Tracing. The **Ray tracing toggle** in the Camera panel in the upper-right of the interface will switch between the two methods. ![[stagerRayTracing.png]] **Real-time rendering** is the default form of rendering. It is quick and light on resources. Many advanced features are not visible in this mode, so you won’t necessarily see shadows, reflections, deeper material attributes. It is meant to be a simple environment for building your scene. When you move objects or cameras around the scene, Stager redraws the scene almost instantly. **Ray Tracing** is a more realistic method of rendering where light rays are cast by the illumination in the scene, cast shadows, bounce off objects, and then enter the eye of camera. This is a computationally expensive process that takes time and resources. When you move objects or cameras around the scene, it will take Stager some time to redraw the scene. Usually you will see a grainy, noisy version that slowly fills in. Each of those dots is a light ray that has bounced around before entering the camera lens. There are some options that can be adjusted to control the quality and speed of Ray Tracing while you are working. ![[stagerRenderRayTrace.png]] **Render with GPU** is preferable because you are using the dedicated graphic processor. Otherwise, it means that you are using your computer’s main processing chip which is already busy running the computer. The **Presets** are just programmed stops on the **Samples** slider. Samples are how many light rays are being sent out into the scene. The lower the number, the quicker the rendering but at a loss of quality. Obviously, then the higher the number, the better the image but it will take longer to process. It is good to stay low while working and then cranky up the Samples to take a better look when you are ready to wait for it. All of those grainy dots are bounced light rays entering the camera. All the other pixels are not being illuminated and so the computer works to figure out how to fill them in. **Denoise** smooths out the empty spots and cleans up the image quality. It is usually added after the initial rendering is completed. **[[stager materials#displacement for height|Displacement]]** adds physical depth and corresponding shadows and highlights to an object. That takes longer to figure out, of course, so unless you don’t specifically need to see the displacement of your material, you can leave this turned off. Finally, [[stager materials#displacement for height]] is the overall size of the scene rendering. By default, it is Full and works well. Cutting down to 1/2 or 1/4 will speed up the rendering immensely, however the image will get blurry because it is using far fewer pixels overall. You can easily adjust settings as you go based on what visual information you need at any particular time in your workflow. --- ## final rendering Congratulations, you’ve done all the work of setting up the scene and are now ready to take the final picture. This is like finally hitting the shutter button on your camera. In the upper-left of the interface press the Render button next to the Design button. The entire interface will change to a different layout. ![[stagerRenderRenderInterface.png]] On the left side of the interface is the same **Render Settings** you are already familiar with. The settings you chose in your scene will carry over to here. On the right side of the interface are the **Export Settings**. You can use the Camera size or override. This is also where you set up the filename and save location. You can also save the Format as a flattened PNG or a layered PSD file. PSD is nice because it saves additional masks and other support layers for post-processing in [[stager post-process in photoshop|Photoshop]]. When you are ready, press the **Render** button and let the computer get to work. **Warning: rendering takes time.** A complex scene with a high resolution camera and a high number of Samples can sometimes take hours or even longer to render. During that time, your computer is going to be sluggish or possibly even non-responsive. This can be a good time to go make a sandwich or get a fresh cup of coffee. When you get back, you should have a masterpiece waiting for you. A good rule of thumb, is to do a quick rendering with lower settings to make sure things look correct before committing to a long rendering. It sucks to waste the time on a long render only to find out something is wrong and needs to be adjusted. --- Learn more… - [Rendering 3D scenes in Adobe Help](https://helpx.adobe.com/substance-3d-stager/using/render-3d-scenes.html) --- tags: #3d #resources #substance #stager home: [[! 3d modeling - substance]]