Shooting (rendering) ratio


In many ways, making an animation is akin to filmmaking. The shooting ratio in filmmaking is the ratio between the total duration of its footage created for possible use in a project and that which appears in its final cut.

A film with a shooting ratio of 2:1 would have shot twice the amount of footage that was used in the film. In real terms this means that 120 minutes of footage would have been shot to produce a film of 60 minutes in length.

Shooting ratios can vary greatly between productions but a typical shooting ratio for a production using film stock will be between 6:1 and 10:1, whereas a similar production using video is likely to be much higher.

The suggested shooting (rendering) ratio for your animation is at least 2:1. For instance, if your final animation is 60 seconds long, the total duration of its rendered clips from Maya should be around 120 seconds.