Viewport Render

Viewport rendering uses the 3D Viewport rendering for quick preview renders.

This allows you to inspect your animatic (for object movements, alternate angles, etc.).

This can also be used to preview your animations – in the event your scene is too complex for your system to play back in real-time in the 3D Viewport.

You can use Viewport Render to render both images and animations.

Below is a comparison between the Viewport render and a final render using the Cycles Renderer.

Model by © 2016 pokedstudio.com
../../_images/editors_3dview_viewport-render_example-workbench-render.jpg

Viewport render using Solid Mode.
../../_images/editors_3dview_viewport-render_example-eevee-render.jpg

Viewport render using Material Preview Mode.
../../_images/editors_3dview_viewport-render_example-cycles-render.jpg

Full render.

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Disable overlays to render the viewport without any additional overlays.

While this option is not specific to Viewport rendering, it’s often useful to enable, since it removes data such as rigs and empties that can be a distraction.

Settings

For the most part, Viewport Render uses the current viewport settings. Some settings are located in the render panel of the render engine that is used to render the view.

Solid mode uses the render settings of Workbench; Material Preview mode uses the render settings of Eevee.

Sampling and Alpha Transparency Mode options can be set in Properties ‣ Render ‣ Sampling. Make sure the Workbench or Eevee render engine is selected to see the appropriate values.

Additionally, some render settings are used too:

  • Render Dimensions

  • Render Aspect

  • File Format & Output (file path, format, compression settings, etc.)

Rendering

Activating Viewport Render will render from the current active view. This means that if you are not in an active camera view then a virtual camera is used to match the current perspective. To get an image from the camera point of view, enter the active camera view with Numpad0.

As with a normal render, you can abort it with Esc.

Render a Still Image

To render a still image, use 3D Viewport ‣ View ‣ Viewport Render Image.

Render an Animation

To render an animation, use 3D Viewport ‣ View ‣ Viewport Render Animation.

Render Keyframes

To render an animation, but only those frames that have a keyframe, use 3D Viewport ‣ View ‣ Viewport Render Keyframes. This only renders those frames for which the selected objects have an animation key. The other frames are still written to the output, but will simply repeat the last-rendered frame.

For example, when a six-frame animation is rendered, and the selected objects have a key on frames 3 and 5, the following frames will be output:

  1. The 1st frame is always rendered.

  2. The 1st frame is repeated because there is no key on this frame.

  3. The 3rd frame is rendered.

  4. The 3rd frame is repeated because there is no key on this frame.

  5. The 5th frame is rendered.

  6. The 5th frame is repeated because there is no key on this frame.

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You can limit the viewport render to a particular region with Render Regions.