Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Quickie Render
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If you haven't completed the previous tutorial, (the Quickie Model tutorial), do so now. Keep the same file open from that tutorial because we will be using it here.
A render is the creation of a picture from the camera's point of view, taking the environment's effects on your scene into account, and generating a realistic picture based on your settings. This first render will finish very quickly, but you'll find that as your 3D scenes become more complex, the rendering can take a very long time.
[edit] Rendering the current scene
Now that you've created your first model, undoubtedly you'll want to render it. Make sure you're in object mode (press TAB if you're not), put the mouse pointer in the 3D view window and press F12! On Macintosh OS X 10.5 use ALT+Fn+F12. On Gnome you can use ALT-F12 to avoid the Gnome Search Dialog. On the new Apple keyboard, use Fn+F12 to avoid the Mac Dashboard.
If you have more than 1 processor, you can speed up rendering. (This is done automatically in Blender 2.46.) Hit F10 to go to the render settings tab and in the bottom left corner, there is a threads button. Adjust the number of threads according to the number of cores in your processor (e.g. a dual core processor would be two threads, one for each core). Now, try re-rendering and you should get much faster results.
You can also use the menu in the User Preferences header: Render > Render Current Frame.
You can interrupt the rendering at any time by pressing ESC while the rendering window has the focus.
If you've put the render window behind the main window, you can get it back several ways: you can use the Windows taskbar or, under Windows and most other operating systems, you can use ALT+TAB (CMD+TAB on Mac).
This is a relatively quick render. It can be cleaned up a bit but it will give you a good idea of what your model currently looks like.
Note: If your cube is completely black, you may not actually have a light source in the scene. Some versions of Blender don't create a lamp (source of light) by default, and you'll need to add one. To add a lamp, enter object mode (TAB) and then press the spacebar while your mouse is over the 3D window. Select Add > Lamp which will give you a choice to add several different types of lamps. Remember to place the lamp in position where it is not inside the cube. This can be achieved using the RMB and pressing G.
F12 - Starts the rendering from the active camera.
[edit] Saving a render
At some point you will probably want to save your renders. In the User Preferences header, select File > Save Image… or just hit F3. A menu with a directory list will appear; the upper text line denotes the directory and in the lower one you type the name of the image, like "myfirstrendering.jpg". Note that earlier versions of Blender (before 2.41?) will not add the ".jpg" extension automatically if you leave it out.
JPEG images, as opposed to PNG images, will contain unwanted artifacts (imperfections around edges)1. You can change the format by going to Render -> Render Settings or F10. Then under the "Format" panel, change the Type from Jpeg to PNG and hit F3 again to update the file type in the file selector.
F3 - Opens the Save Image dialog (if an image has been rendered).
- 1 - alternatve route is to change the JPEG quality setting - just under the format selection list from the same "Render Settings" panel.
[edit] Extra Practice
Tutorial on Using Multiple Cameras <---- Pictures are missing from this tutorial
