Yeah, I figured something like that as well, possibly a pre-render MEL script. The problem is, I don't know what attribute to look forYou might have to resort to a bit of MEL scripting. You would need to use getAttr and setAttr to get the relevant attribute of the camera and set the attribute of the light intensity or something. Sorry, it's been a while since I did any MEL so I can't give you all the details.
// these values can be changed string $cameraAName = "persp1"; string $cameraBName = "persp2"; string $lightAName = "pointLight1"; string $lightBName = "pointLight2"; string $filename = "render"; // don't change anything below this line string $directory = (`workspace -q -rd` + "images/"); string $renderPanel; string $renderPanels[] = `getPanel -scriptType "renderWindowPanel"`; if(size($renderPanels)) $renderPanel = $renderPanels[0]; else { $renderPanel = `scriptedPanel -type "renderWindowPanel" -unParent renderView`; scriptedPanel -e -label "Render View" $renderPanel; } // render camera A setAttr ($lightAName + ".visibility") 1; setAttr ($lightBName + ".visibility") 0; render -x `getAttr defaultResolution.width` -y `getAttr defaultResolution.height` $cameraAName; string $concatFilename = $directory + ($filename + "A"); catch(eval(renderWindowSaveImageCallback ($renderPanel, $concatFilename, `getAttr defaultRenderGlobals.imageFormat`))); // render camera B setAttr ($lightAName + ".visibility") 0; setAttr ($lightBName + ".visibility") 1; render -x `getAttr defaultResolution.width` -y `getAttr defaultResolution.height` $cameraBName; $concatFilename = $directory + ($filename + "B"); catch(eval(renderWindowSaveImageCallback ($renderPanel, $concatFilename, `getAttr defaultRenderGlobals.imageFormat`)));
Indeed it is, and I have. I normally develop web sites, so I'm not a stranger to scripting in various languages and have been programming for some 20 years now Thing is, it's mostly an isolated case I need this for, and I can't sink too much time into it now or it will cost me more than the client paysI think it's definitely worth your time learning some mel. Not only does it open up new possibilities for you, it can also speed up your workflow quite a bit. You can't go wrong learning it.
Heya ND, and I did indeed already check out your scripting a bit, but never got it to work properly (the render took just 10-20 seconds, while a proper render took a lot longer - dunno why). Now that I actually have a working solution (a 2-frame animation which moves the camera + turns on/off lights) I can start to experiment a bit more in my spare time (wait, what? no such thing!).You could always do something like the following. Run it in the script editor. I've modified it from my script here