Maya 7 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quickstart Guide

16. Cameras and Rendering

Creating images in Maya, whether for print or video, depends on rendering. When you render a scene, you create a two-dimensional image based on a specified three-dimensional view of your scene. Maya does intensive mathematical calculations to realistically create lighting, shadows, reflections, and textures. You can take even a simple scene and make it look more realistic by rendering it (Figure 16.1). Alternately, you can use the toon features, new in Maya 7.0, to create a more stylized effect (Figure 16.2).

Figure 16.1. Even these simple primitives look more like real objects when they’re rendered.

Figure 16.2. Maya ...