Launching and Saving the Render

You can start your render from the Render Properties tab in the Render panel. You’ll find three options there: Render (still frame), Animation (render an animation of several frames), and Audio (renders only audio). You can also use shortcuts: F12 will render a still frame and Ctrl + F12 will render an animation. (If you render an animation, make sure you configure the output file path and format on the Render tab, so the images are saved automatically where and how you want.)

When you start rendering, you’ll see the process inside a UV/Image Editor, and once the render is complete, you can save the resulting image. Press F3 to save or go to the Image menu on the header of the UV/Image Editor to access the Save as Image option. Press Esc to return to the 3D View.

Figure 3.10 shows the images that result from both engines’ renders. It’s clear that even with a really basic scene, Cycles gives more realistic results (but it also takes more time to render).

Figure 3.10 The results of these very basic renders with Blender Render (top) and Cycles (bottom).