Downloading and setting up Rendition

Go to http://www.holomatix.com/products/rendition/download/. Read the license agreement carefully, then click on the download link for your platform, and save the file to disk.

Rendition is packaged in a zip file, so you will need to unzip it, then run Rendition.exe - this is the main Rendition application.

The first time you run Rendition, the Plug-In Manager dialog will appear. This will automatically detect your Maya installations, and give you the opportunity to install the plugins that will allow Maya and Rendition to communicate. Hit Apply, and the installation will take place automatically - however, you will also need to activate the plugin from within maya. This is accomplished via selecting Window->Settings/Preferences->Plugin Manager. and ticking the "loaded", and "auto-load" check boxes, opposite the entry for Rendition in the list of plugins.

Rendition's Plug-In Manager

Rendering your first scene

Rendition can either load .mi files, exported via Maya's built in mental ray exporter, or communicate directly with Maya, via the Rendition plugin. To load an example mi file, select File->Open from within Rendition, navigate to the "examples" sub-folder, and select "spheres.mi".  After a short wait, you will see a simple raytraced maya scene. Using the left mouse button you can move the view position, and the display will update in real time.

Realtime updates in Maya

If you have installed the plugins (See step 1) you will now have 2 new buttons on the right hand side of the "Rendering" tab.

Rendition's Buttons in Maya

 If you toggle the button marked "Auto", Rendition will launch, and the plugin will continuously update Rendition with any scene modifications you make in Maya, which will in turn give you a raytraced view onto your scene, all in realtime.  Here is a video of this in action.