Rendering And Outputs

renderset can change the way you render in Blender. Outputs are auto-saved into pre-set paths, results are stored in render slots. The functionality is tailored towards maximum productivity.

Watch how to render scenes

renderset does not replace the native render operators

Instead of taking over the rendering operators in Blender, renderset adds new ones. You can use the usual Render --> Render Image and Render --> Render Animation but many of these features will not work if you do.

Supported render engines

renderset supports Cycles, Eevee, Octane and LuxCore out of the box. Cycles and Eevee are included in Blender. Octane and LuxCore are third-party optional renderers.

Render Current

Use this button to render only the render context that is currently active. The context is rendered even if its checkbox is not checked!

Render All

Allows you to render all "checked" render contexts in the .blend. Results are saved to paths set in Render Output Settings.

This is especially useful for those overnight renders because renderset will take care of context switching. You can keep the computer rendering, come back and just retrieve the results.

Render Slots

The first 8 render contexts in the list will also be saved into render slots. Keep in mind that the render slot ID depends on the order in the list, unchecked contexts are not skipped! If you have 8 unchecked contexts and then 8 checked, no contexts will be saved into render slots when Render All is pressed!

Render Output Settings

Setting up output paths is crucial for optimal workflow. That's why renderset is very flexible and allows a lot of possibilities.

Watch how to define Render Output Settings

You can find the Render Output Settings in renderset preferences located in Edit --> Preferences --> Addons.

Output Folder Path

This setting allows us to set the output folder path of render contexts.

You can use plain text to set up simple output paths like C:\Users\Admin\Outputs but you can also use renderset variables for a lot more customization. To add a variable to path simply click the Add Variable button and select from one of the available variables. They allow you to use values like the current time or the name of your PC without you needing to write it manually. You can learn more about variables in Output Path Format.

List of Available Variables

• context_name
• context_render_type
• blend_parent_folder
• blend_filename
• blend_full_path
• hostname
• date_time
• frame_current
• frame_start
• frame_end
• frame_step
• camera
• world
• year
• month
• day
• hour
• minute
• second

Example

You can use C:\Users\Admin\Outputs\{blend_filename} and every time you render using renderset, a new folder with name of your blend will be created in C:\Users\Admin\Outputs and all outputs will be saved there.

If we have a blend file called my_project_1 and we use a path with this variable, the result will look like this:

C:\Users\Admin\Outputs\my_project_1\Image.png

If we then create new blend with name my_project_2 the output will look like this:

C:\Users\Admin\Outputs\my_project_2\Image.png

To get you started, renderset ships with three folder path examples. One outputs to a path relative to the input blend, the second outputs to an absolute path of your choice, the third one showcases custom formatting options for date and time. We recommend experimenting with these three and mixing them to achieve your desired output paths.

Don't Override Renders

It's a good idea to use {date_time} variable to make the part of the path is unique and make sure it will not be overwritten.

Output Filenames

This setting lets you change the names of your output filenames separately for each type of rendering (Still Image, Animation Frame, Animation Movie). By default Blender names the final output files as Composite, so the default names reflect that. Similar to output folder path, you can use variables to customize filenames, see Output Path Format for more information.

Frame variables in animation outputs

The animation-related filenames also contain info about the frames. You do not need to use them in Animation Movie renders, however, rendering Animation Frame images without including the current frame will cause each new image to override the previous one.

Post render actions

You can further automate your workflow by setting up post render actions. These actions are triggered whenever a context finishes rendering. They even allow copying output files which lets you change the filename as well.

A common use-case is copying the final Composite image to a project output folder.

See Post Render Actions for more.

Render Options

Render Operators

renderset needs to know when the call for render was made, if you are using different rendering operator than native Blender (i.e. Turbo Tools) you need to switch here so the two work together.

Automatic Render Slots

If enabled, each render set context will be rendered into a render slot based on its index. This might take additional memory because it's all stored in Blender.

Store Object Visibility State

If enabled, renderset automatically stores whether object is shown in viewport, render and whether its selectable in each renderset context. ObjectBase.hide_viewport (eye icon) is intentionally not stored such that you can hide and unhide during working on the scene. Use Object.hide_viewport (monitor icon) for render contexts.

Can have negative effect on performance in big scenes!

Auto Lock Interface

renderset automatically locks interface for rendering. This surpresses possible crashes and makes the rendering faster. On the other hand controlling of the interface during rendering is disabled. It is heavily recommended to leave this enabled!

Automatic Render Layer Split

If enabled, renderset will automatically split renders into separate files by render pass.

Remember All Restriction Toggles

If enabled, renderset will remember all restriction toggles (selectable, viewport visibility, enabled) instead of just render_visibility.

Switch to Solid View before Rendering

For performance reason it's better to not waste resources on rendering viewport and final render at the same time.

Formats

Blender allows a lot of different output formats. renderset supports single-frame formats such as JPG, PNG, EXR, multi-layer EXR. It also supports multi-frame formats such as AVI, MP4, MKV and others.

Dangers with multi-frame formats

While you can render multi-frame formats we discourage you from doing so. You may lose render results in case of a crash, you will lose quality because frames are not saved separately.

We recommend rendering animations per-frame, it is safer, you can resume much easier and you can always stich the animation together afterwards. It also lets you render different parts of the animation on different machines and stitch it together afterwards.

Render Passes

Passes can be used to split rendered images into i.e. colors, direct and indirect light to edit them individually, and also to extract data such as depth or normals. renderset automatically saves all the checked passes.

Official Blender documentation

Passes are not stored for each renderset context