How to render animation - render settings

To render an animation in Maya, you must tell Maya to render out a sequence of frames. You can then use AfterEffects or Quicktime to compile the frames into a rendered movie.

Go to window>rendering editors>render settings

COMMON

The information at the top of the "Common" tab will show you where your rendered frames will be put on the computer. Additional details, such as frame range and resolution are included as well.

FILE OUTPUT
File name prefix:
you can set the name of your image files here, or maya will use your scene name as default

Image format:
Use PNG, TIFF, TARGA or BMP. Maya's IFF format cannot currently be ready by AfterEffects

Frame/Animation ext:
Use name.#.ext

Frame padding:
Increase this to add zeros in front of your frame numbers so that AfterEffects reads your sequence correctly

FRAME RANGE
Set this to your start and end frames

RENDERABLE CAMERAS
Set this to the camera you wish to render through.

IMAGE SIZE
640 x 480, 720 x 480 or HD 720

MAYA SOFTWARE

ANTI-ALIASING QUALITY
Set Quality to Production Quality

MOTION BLUR
You can activate motion blur to soften the motion of your objects and blur them as they move. Turn this on and then test it on various frames to see how it looks.