Rendering For Print

[digpro]

Hi, I was wondering if i could get some feedback, as regards rendering in ultra high resolutions. The case is this: We all know that maya crashes if you use anything above the preset rendering resolutions. I need to print out a single shot, which will be eventually printed on a van. The size of the tabloid on the van is 438cm x 186 cm. Maya wont allow me to render something as big as that. So im rendering HD 1080p at 300dpi. Though when i bring my shot into illustrator to prepare it for printing, when i zoom in it looks very pixelated, therefore i assume that when the final print comes out, it will come out pixelated. I need to know how can i render something as big as 8kx8k for example. What do I do if i want to render big images for printing? I've read about tile rendering although I do not know how to use it. Maya crashes when you render something big, therefore im rendering everything from the command line at the moment. Any feedback on this would be appreciated. Thanks

[joojaa]

So im rendering HD 1080p at 300dpi.

Makes no sense to say a unit measurement 1080P HD and 300 dpi when describing things. First of all your not ever rendering DPI the setting is not dots but rather pixels so it should be called PPI. The transform between PPI and DPI is nontrivial, the target resolution you want is based on number of pixels not any per inch value.  Second 1080P hd IS a resolution and 300dpi is conversion factor so thet would set the size of your image, however thats allost 99% certainly not what you wan't because  you know how large your output will be, which you say is 438cm x 186 cm.

Now the thing you want to know is what kind of LPI metric your printer has, its the printers analogue to PPI for a printer thats usually about 1/10 or 1/5 th of the dpi value of the outputing printer (its a question of how many tones you want). Then you take a and calculate your target PPi with the formula

1-2.2*LPI*(your dimension in inches)

with a factor of 2.2 you get the absolute maximum quality your going to ever get, eeven then the quality difference beween 1.5 and 2.2 is neglible with 1 being perfectly acceptable. Remember you are PAYING for each pixel, and qute frankly doing jpeg compression does more to the downgrade of quality then difference between 1 and 2.2 (you might avoid exact 1 tough). This means that for a REALLY good quality printshop result thats NOT your average digital promtshop has a lpi of 100-150*

Now then it does NOT end here when you print big things then 300dpi  becomes a bit over the top and even 150-200 dpi becomes sufficient roughly speaking 200 translates to the kind of inspection ranges you get with a monitor. See the range at where epoeple look at your image matters. So you can easily get by a 50 lpi image.

it will come out pixelated.

printing anything but solid color is by default pixelated or well the eqivalent of printing process anyway called rasterized. Anyway the only way to understand what it looks like is to PRINT the damn thing, so test print small sections whet the same printer as you intend to aim for or a calibrated hard proof printer (your print shop will have one)

*however you ALLWAYS get the same 300 dpi form a print shop as a guide no matter if their lpi is 60 or 240 (meaning a 2400 dpi printer MINIMUM)

[digpro]

Ok thanks for the feedback. Its a bit complicated but i sort of get what you mean. On my screenshot you can see how much the resolution is in pixels. The final print is 438cm x 186 cm as stated before. I just don't know what the settings should be in maya. Im not sure what resolution to render, or if i should tile render.