Render Output
The Render Output panel determines what you render and where the files go. It owns the output format, resolution, file path, and the button that starts the render.
Panel access: View › Render Output. Or click Open Render Output at the bottom of the Render Settings panel. If the panel list appears greyed out, choose View › Unlock Advanced UI first.
Tabs
Three icon tabs at the top of the panel switch between modes:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Still | Render a single frame at the current playhead position. |
| Animation | Render a sequence of frames within a frame range. |
| Presets | A library of saved render configurations for the Final scope. |
Still Tab
Resolution
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Resolution | Quick presets: Custom, HD 1920 x 1080, 4K UHD 3840 x 2160, Square 2048 x 2048, Portrait 1080 x 1920. Selecting a preset fills in Width and Height. |
| Width | Output width in pixels. |
| Height | Output height in pixels. Enter 0 and the field shows aspect — height follows the document's aspect ratio. |
| Range | Read-out showing 1 frame at the playhead position. |
Format
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Format | PNG, JPEG, or OpenEXR (linear). |
| Bit Depth | 8-bit per channel (24/32-bit) or 16-bit per channel (48/64-bit) for PNG. Fixed at 8-bit for JPEG. Not applicable for EXR (floating-point). |
When JPEG is selected, bit depth is greyed out. When OpenEXR (linear) is selected, bit depth is not applicable and EXR passes become available; see ./passes.
Output Path
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Folder | Starts with the document's render folder. Render… writes the still into it with no dialog. To choose a file name for one image, use Render › Render Current View As… instead. Click the folder icon inside the field to change the folder. |
Render Button
Click Render… to open a confirmation dialog. The dialog shows the output frame, resolution, sample count, destination path and any warnings. Click Render 1 frame to start.
Clicking Render… renders directly — the result is written to the folder shown. The image is not added to the Render Queue. To queue a job to run later, use Add to Queue instead; see Render Queue.
Animation Tab
The Animation tab adds frame-range controls and a sequence encode option.
Frame Range
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| First frame | First frame of the range to render. |
| Last frame | Last frame of the range. |
| Frame rate | Playback speed for the rendered sequence. |
| Readout | Shows "N frames" and whether the range covers the animated span of the scene. |
Output Path (Animation)
Same Folder field as the Still tab. The File name field uses #### as a placeholder for the zero-padded frame number: a file named frame_#### produces frame_0001.png, frame_0002.png, and so on.
Sequence
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Encode a video when the frames finish | After all frames are rendered, encode an MP4 and an animated GIF alongside the image sequence. Requires ffmpeg to be available on your system PATH. |
Render Button (Animation)
Click Render… to open the confirmation dialog. The dialog shows the frame count, resolution, sample count, destination path and any warnings. Click Render N frames to start (the exact label shows the frame count; for a single frame it reads Render 1 frame).
Presets Tab
The Presets tab lists saved render configurations for the Final scope. Selecting a preset from the list previews its settings in the summary area below.
A preset holds what the Render Settings panel's Final tab owns — sampling, caustics, clamps, the denoiser, motion blur, and the watermark. It never touches resolution, format, folder, file name, or the settings the viewport shares with the final render (exposure, max bounces, light sampling).
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Apply | Load the selected preset into the Final scope. Selecting a preset previews it; click Apply to write the values to the document's Final Render settings. |
| New preset | Create a new preset from the current Final scope values. |
| Save | Update the selected preset with the current Final scope values. |
| Rename | Rename the selected preset. |
| Delete | Remove the selected preset. |
Add to Queue
Instead of clicking Render…, you can click Add to Queue to submit the job without starting it immediately. What it queues follows the tab you are on:
- Still — one job for the frame at the playhead, named from the File name with that frame number, in the folder shown.
- Animation — one job for the whole frame range, carrying its folder and the Encode a video choice. If the last frame is before the first, the button is disabled and its tooltip says why.
The job keeps the scene as it was when you queued it; later edits to the document do not change it. Some animation cannot be queued yet: if a part moves, changes shape or has animated visibility, or the range starts inside a dissolve or image transition, nothing is queued and the status bar says why. Render that sequence with Render… instead.
The job waits in the Render Queue until you start it with Render All. See Render Queue.
Quality Summary
The Still and Animation tabs show a Quality section with the Final scope's sample count and denoiser setting. You can adjust Samples and Denoise final image here directly. To open the full Final scope, click All final render settings… (View › Render Settings).
The Render Dock
In the default layout, the Render dock opens as a tab beside the Render Queue. It is divided into three collapsible sections — WHAT, OUTPUT and QUALITY — with a pinned footer showing a live summary and two action buttons.
The dock follows the open document. When you open or switch documents, Width, Height, Range, Folder and Name show that document's values, and an edit in the dock changes only the field you edited.
Switching modes
Three icon tabs across the top switch the dock between:
| Tab | What it sets up |
|---|---|
| Still | Render a single frame at the current playhead position. |
| Sequence | Render a frame range to numbered image files. |
| After Effects | After Effects owns the deliverable; VIZid delivers frames on demand at the resolution and passes AE asks for. Nothing renders or queues from this tab — see the note under OUTPUT. |
The same Still / Sequence switch appears as a two-segment bar inside the WHAT section. Both move together — they are two views of one setting.
WHAT section
Defines which comp, which frames and which camera to render.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Comp | Read-only display of the active comp. Switch comps in the Comps panel. |
| Render | Still or Sequence — mirrors the mode tabs above. |
| Frame (Still only) | The single frame to render at. |
| Range in / Range out (Sequence and After Effects) | Start and end frame of the range. |
| Work area (Sequence and After Effects) | Copy the document's work-area markers into the range. Disabled when the document has no work area set. |
| Camera source | Read-only: The active camera. Choose a camera in the Camera panel or viewport; a sequence follows its timeline camera cuts. |
| Camera | Read-only display of the active camera. |
| Cuts readout | Shows the number of camera cuts and their frame positions, or the keyed animation span when no cuts exist, or "nothing is keyed in this document". |
| ▸ per-camera size | Shows the composition's output size, active camera and camera cuts. Every camera renders at the composition's size. If a camera retains dimensions from an older document, the note identifies those dimensions as not applied. |
| Layer | Read-only: the active comp's layer. Choose the layer outside this dock. |
| Suite | Read-only: the layer's suite. This dock cannot select a different suite. |
| Variants | Shows the four axis lists inline in the row. See Render Variants below. |
OUTPUT section
Sets the file format, resolution and destination.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Size | Preset selector: HD 1080p — 1920 × 1080, HD 720p — 1280 × 720, 4K UHD — 3840 × 2160, Square — 2048 × 2048, Custom. Choosing a preset fills Width and Height. The Size list does not follow the Width and Height fields; check those fields for the size that will render. |
| Width / Height | Output dimensions in pixels. |
| Scale | 100%, 50%, 25%. Scales the written size: at 50%, a 1920 × 1080 comp writes 960 × 540. Width and Height keep the comp's full size. |
| Alpha | Read-only display of Transparent output, set in the Comps panel. Transparent sequences skip MP4/GIF encoding. |
| Format | PNG, JPEG or OpenEXR. |
| Bit depth | For PNG: 8-bit or 16-bit. For JPEG: fixed at 8-bit (greyed out). For OpenEXR: floating-point; bit depth is not applicable. |
| Passes | Opens the render passes picker when Format is OpenEXR. The row is disabled with the tooltip "Passes need OpenEXR" for other formats. See Render Passes. |
| Colour | Shows sRGB. |
| View transform | Read-only. Shows Standard by default; forced to Raw when any pass beyond Combined is selected. A note beneath the row explains which applies and why. |
| Folder | Destination directory. Click the folder icon inside the field to browse, or type a path. |
| Name | Filename template. #### expands to the zero-padded frame number. {camshort} and {compshort} expand to camera and comp short names. For a sequence, the camera name comes from its first rendered frame and stays the same across later cuts, including in the video filename. For a still, it is the active camera. When Queue Up queues several variant jobs, {camera} and {variant} become each job's camera and colourway (see Render Variants). Otherwise {camera}, {variant}, {layer} and {comp} are written into the filename unchanged, as are {doc}, {suite}, {date}, {w} and {h} in every case; a note under the field lists the tokens that will be written literally. A green example line below the field shows the first expanded filename. |
| Encode video (Sequence only) | After all frames finish, encode a video alongside the image sequence. |
| Video format (Sequence only) | Read-only: MP4 + GIF. Encode video writes both formats for an opaque sequence. |
After Effects tab: Folder, Name, Encode video and Video format are disabled with the note "After Effects writes the final. VIZid delivers frames at the size and passes AE asks for." A block below shows whether the After Effects bridge is connected and whether AE has asked for frames. Render… and Queue Up are disabled on this tab, and their tooltips explain that After Effects requests its own frames through the bridge. To render or queue this comp in VIZid instead, click Render this comp locally instead: the dock switches to Sequence and the status bar confirms that this comp now renders here. Use the After Effects panel for AE delivery.
QUALITY section
A view of the Final scope. The section header reads QUALITY · Final render. Noise limit, Min samples, Time limit, Caustics and Motion blur write to Render Settings › Final. Samples limit and Denoise are saved with the output settings.
Min samples, Caustics and Motion blur show the current Final settings and follow edits made in Render Settings › Final.
Samples limit and Denoise are this dock's own deliverable fields. All other quality controls (Noise limit, Min samples, Time limit, Caustics, Motion blur) write through the Render Settings panel's Final scope. Editing them here is identical to editing them there.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Profile | Shows the active render profile, greyed out; hover over it for where to change it. Switch, create or delete profiles in Render Settings ▸ Final, and this row follows. |
| Samples limit | Maximum samples per pixel. The render stops earlier if the noise limit or time limit is met first. The Render Queue row for the job shows the stop reason. For a still, the status bar reads Rendered <path> · <stop reason>; a sequence does not report which stopping condition fired. |
| Noise limit | Adaptive threshold (0–0.5). Stop once estimated noise falls below this value. 0 disables adaptive stopping. |
| Min samples | Never stop before this many samples, regardless of noise. |
| Time limit | Stop after this duration and deliver what has been completed. Enter as hh:mm:ss. 00:00:00 is off. |
| Done when… | A sentence synthesised from the three stopping conditions, for example: "take up to 512 spp, stop when noise ≤ 0.01, time cap 01:00:00". |
| Denoise | Apply the denoiser to the delivered image. |
| Caustics | Off, Fast or High Quality. |
| Motion blur | Enable motion blur on the final render. |
| ▸ Advanced final settings… | Opens the Render Settings panel at the Final scope. |
Footer
Pinned at the bottom of the dock, always visible.
The top line summarises the pending job: frame count, resolution, format and bit depth. The second line shows the destination folder, or "(the document's render folder)" when no folder is set.
Queue Up — adds the job to the Render Queue without starting it. On Still it queues the frame at the playhead, named from Name. On Sequence it queues the whole range as one job, with its Scale and Encode video choice. With more than one variant selected on Still, the button reads Queue Up (N jobs) and queues one still per variant (see Render Variants). When a job cannot be queued, the button is disabled and its tooltip says why, or the status bar explains and nothing is queued. Queued sequences have the same limits as Add to Queue above: moving, shape-changing or visibility-animated parts, and a range starting inside a transition, are refused. See Render Queue.
Render… — opens a confirmation dialog showing the full job summary. Click the confirmation button to start. The Render… button label changes when there is a Serious finding (for example Render 96 frames anyway).
Render Variants
The Variants row shows four axis lists. Each axis lets you select multiple values; the lists multiply the selections together to show the total job count.
The four axes
| Axis (list caption) | What it selects |
|---|---|
| Cameras | Camera presets saved in the document |
| Colourways | All colourways across the document |
| Layers | Comp layers (not currently populated) |
| Comps | Comps in the document (not currently populated) |
In the current build, only Cameras and Colourways are populated; Layers and Comps always show empty lists.
Readouts
| Readout | Description |
|---|---|
| Job count | Total jobs = product of selected-axis sizes. Inactive axes contribute a factor of 1. When nothing is selected: "no variants — 1 job". |
| Estimate | Always reads "— estimating" in the current build. |
| Example | The first job's filename, built from the Name template: {camera}, {variant}, {layer} and {comp} become the first job's selected values. An axis with nothing selected has its token removed, along with one adjacent _. #### becomes the first frame. Other tokens, including {camshort} and {compshort}, are shown as typed. Queue Up uses the variant selection; Render… does not, and renders the active camera and colourway only. The Example uses the Name, Format and frame range from when the panel was created; it does not follow later edits to those fields. The camera and colourway lists refresh with the document, including when you open the camera × colourway matrix. |
What Queue Up queues
On the Still tab, with more than one combination selected, Queue Up (N jobs) queues one still per combination as a single batch. For example, two cameras and three colourways queue six stills, each rendered from its own camera with its own colourway. Queuing them does not change the document, the active camera or the viewport.
Include {camera} and {variant} in Name so that each job gets its own file name, for example {camera}_{variant}_#### gives front_red_0000.png. If two or more jobs would share a file name, nothing is queued and the status bar tells you which tokens to add.
Variants queue stills only. With variants selected on Sequence, Queue Up is disabled; switch to Still to queue the variants, or clear them to queue the sequence. With nothing selected, Queue Up queues a single job as usual.
Filename tokens
The Name field in the OUTPUT section supports #### (expands to the zero-padded frame number), {camshort} (camera short name) and {compshort} (active comp short name). A still uses the active camera's name. A sequence uses the camera at its first rendered frame, even if another camera was selected before you pressed Render; that name stays fixed across later cuts and also names the video. This applies to immediate and queued sequences. When Queue Up queues more than one variant job, {camera} and {variant} become each job's camera and colourway. For a single job, {camera}, {variant}, {layer} and {comp} are written into the file name unchanged, as are {doc}, {suite}, {date}, {w} and {h} in every case. A note under Name lists the tokens that will be written literally.
Related
- Render a still image — task walkthrough for rendering a hero image
- Render Settings — adjust quality in all three scopes
- Render Passes — select compositing passes for EXR output
- Render Queue — monitor and retry render jobs
- Animation — set frame range and playback speed