Render an image with path tracing

Use path tracing when you want light and reflections to travel between devices. These controls are experimental.

Rotato Cinema requires an Apple silicon Mac running Rotato natively, without Rosetta. On Intel, use Rotato.

Render the image

1. Move the playhead to the frame you want to save.
2. Click Image in the toolbar.
3. If Rendered View is enabled, leave Use Rotato Cinema for exports checked. Otherwise, choose Rotato Cinema in the Save dialog. If Blender is installed, Blender Cycles is also available.
4. Choose Quality, then save. Medium is the default. Choose Custom… to set the samples and denoising separately.
5. Wait for the finished image. Rotato Cinema shows a preview as it renders. Cycles reports its stage, sample count and estimated time remaining when available.

Rotato remembers your accepted choices in this document. Save the project to retain them when you reopen it. With Rendered View enabled and exports included, Quick Image Export and copying an image also use native path tracing. Uncheck Use Rotato Cinema for exports and accept Save to keep the rendered preview while exporting with Realtime. This choice is shared with movie exports and saved in the document.

Choose the quality

Quality	Samples	OIDN denoising
Low	8	High
Medium	64	High
High	512	Medium
XHigh	1,024	Low

Choose Low for a fast check, Medium to refine the image, or High and XHigh when you want more samples. More samples take longer. All four presets use Open Image Denoise (OIDN) to reduce grain.

Choose Custom… to enter a positive sample count and choose Off, Low, Medium or High denoising. Your Custom choices are remembered when you switch to a preset and back. Choose Off to inspect the unfiltered render. Denoising can soften fine detail, so inspect important areas at Actual Size.

Inspect the result

Scroll to move around a magnified image, or pinch to zoom. The Zoom menu offers the same shortcuts as Preview:

Action	Shortcut
Actual Size	Command–0
Zoom to Fit	Command–9
Zoom In	Command–+
Zoom Out	Command–−

For a transparent still, choose PNG and set the scene background to Transparent before exporting. See transparent PNG export.