Learn the essential steps to transform your 3D scene into a final 2D image with Blender's powerful rendering capabilities. This guide covers everything from setting up your camera to saving the final product.
Ensure you have a camera in your scene. Position it to frame your desired shot. You can enter the camera view by pressing Numpad 0. If you don't have a camera, add one via Add > Camera.
In the Properties panel, go to the Render Properties tab (it looks like the back of a camera). Choose your desired Render Engine. Eevee is a fast, real-time engine, while Cycles is a physically-based path tracer for more realistic results.
Go to the Output Properties tab (it looks like a printer). Set the Resolution (e.g., 1920x1080 for HD) and choose the File Format, such as PNG or JPEG.
Once you are ready, go to the top menu and click Render > Render Image. Alternatively, you can simply press the F12 key on your keyboard.
A new window will appear showing the rendering progress. Once it's finished, go to the menu in that window and click Image > Save As... to save your final image to your computer.
Tips for Better and Faster Renders
To quickly test a small part of your scene, press Ctrl + B in the camera view and draw a box around the area you want to render. This saves a lot of time.
In the Render Properties, lowering the Samples value will result in faster renders, but may increase noise (especially in Cycles). Find a balance that works for your scene.
If you have a compatible graphics card, go to Edit > Preferences > System and select CUDA, OptiX, or HIP. Then, in Render Properties, change the Device from CPU to GPU Compute for a significant speed boost.
In the Render Properties under the Sampling dropdown, enable Denoise. This feature cleans up noise in your final image, allowing you to use fewer samples for a faster, clean render.
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