I was facing the same issue
[QUOTE=Slackfaster;327455]I'm having an odd issue
I've been working on a project for a couple of months (with only the normal maya problems).
and then today after working and rendering all morning, I hit render:
using mental ray I only got a black screen.
tried maya software and also got a black screen.
Tried maya vector and got a black screen.
tried maya hardware and it rendered.
worse now I can''t even render a simple ball over a surface with one light.
Just comes out back...
Hey man ... i was facing the same problem ... but its back to normal. .. it doesnt have to do anything with your lights shading or CPU/ GPU
its an option, open render view> render > uncheck render all layers/render selected object
then go into render all layers option tab and make sure its set to composite layers only
thats it... see if it works and let me know