Batch Rendering 102:
If you are new to batch rendering I suggest you have a look at my step-by-step tutorial here:
Rendering several maya scenes and cameras

The following tutorial is to answer the most common questions I am e-mailed regarding batch rendering

How do I make the batch renderer use Mental ray
While you can code any rendering aspect you care for in the batch renderer in general it is often easier to just set up your scene in maya and select file output, size, quality ect all in mayas render globals before you save your scene...but by default Maya uses its native Maya software rendering engine even if your scene is set to mental ray, to specify mental ray you need to add in:


How do render a file if my .bat file is not in the same folder
The whole point of batch rendering is to render a number of scenes one after the other while you sleep and most often those scenes will be saved in various project folders.

To set the project where maya will find the file :


How do I specify a folder for the rendered image
This is where maya needs to place the rendered images


Give an example of a typical simple command line
A typical command line to render a specific project and place the rendered image in a specific folder:


Where would you save your .bat file ?
You can save it anywhere you like, personally I keep it on the links windows tool bar for easy access. When I am standing up from my desk for a meeting, lunch or to clock off, I just click it and walk away. To stop the batch render just turn off the dos window..




happy rendering,
Andrew Kerr
www.andrew.kerr.name
Dotnamestudios -lead