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Three people ask for a shoot and none of them wants the same thing. A client wants a document. A second shooter wants your set so they can carry on building in it. A retoucher wants the images. This page decides which of the three you are packing, puts it together so nothing is missing on the other side, and says how the recipient reads it in.
Applies to BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA · Sending a video needs the Animation Tool add-on, sending your own models the 3D Import add-on · You need: a saved project with the shots you intend to hand on.
What the recipient needs
| Recipient | What you send | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Client, producer, crew | the exported PDF plan (or one image per page) | It reads on any device and carries the storyboard, the diagrams and the gear list without the program. |
| A colleague who will keep working | the .set file and the image folder beside it, plus your own models and sky images |
They get your studio, your shots and your gear, and can change all of it. |
| A retoucher or an art buyer | the rendered JPGs | The images are the deliverable; nothing else is any use to them. |
The route
- Save the project first — properly. Images are written into a folder beside the
.setfile, named after it; a project that was never saved renders into a temporary folder instead. See Create, open and save a project. - Render everything that will be looked at. An unrendered shot has only its low-resolution preview, and that is what a plan page or a gallery tile shows. See Render an image.
- Check what travels inside the file. A
.setcarries the material you made yourself, as long as the project uses it: your own light sources, shapers, stands, bodies, lenses and lamps, your picture-wall, gobo and projector images, camera LUTs, model materials and your plan logos. Catalogue items are not copied — the recipient has them. - Deliver the two exceptions separately. Imported 3D objects and sky images you added yourself are not inside a
.setfile, and that is by design: an HDRI is a large image file that would be written into the project at every save. Export the objects as an archive with File → Export My 3D Objects, and send the sky image file itself; the recipient adds it in the App Manager and picks it in the set. See Share, update and back up your 3D objects and Use an HDRI environment. - Trim the file to what they need. Select the tiles in the TIMELINE and use Export Selected Shots…, or right-click a folder and choose Export to write out a whole session. → A normal
.setfile that can be opened on its own or appended somewhere else. See Move shots between projects. - Export the plan as its own document. Plans live inside the project and are not merged when shots are appended, so a colleague who needs the paperwork gets the PDF as well as the file.
- Keep the private notes where they are. The Internal Note of a shot never leaves your project: it is not printed on a plan and not published with a community upload either. Anything the recipient has to read belongs in a note region or a sticky note on the plan.
- Pack one folder. The
.setfile, the image folder beside it, the object archive, the sky images, the PDF. Send a copy, never your working file. - Tell the other side how to read it in. Their route is Edit → Append .set-file, or the append button at the left edge of the TIMELINE panel: your shots arrive in a folder named after the file — if the file holds several folders, they keep their own names — and nothing in their project is overwritten.
- Or publish it instead. If the point is to show the setup rather than to hand over a job, share one shot with the community. That package is five images — the rendered photo, both studio views, the lighting diagram and a histogram of the photo — plus the set file and a data sheet of the shot. See Share a shot with the community.
The clip ends where this page begins: the finished plan exported as one PDF, ready to send.
The decisions a pro makes
- Document or set. A PDF cannot be broken by the recipient; a
.setfile can be edited and re-rendered. Send both only when the other side really works in the program. - Whole project or a selection. Exporting selected shots keeps a client out of your other twelve versions — and keeps your folder names to yourself.
- Who owns the naming. Rename the shots to something the recipient understands before you export; the file names of the images follow the shot titles.
- A copy, always. Hand over a duplicate of the folder. Then a colleague’s Append or an accidental Apply cannot reach your original.
Pitfalls
- Save Project As moves the image folder with the project: new renders land beside the new file, the JPGs you already made stay in the old folder.
- Deleting a shot leaves its JPG on disk, so a folder can hold images no shot uses. Check it before you zip it.
- JPG is the only image format the program writes: no PNG, no TIFF, no EXR and no transparent background.
- Appended shots keep their old names. Two shots with one name write their render to the same file name, so rename them on arrival — and before anyone renders.
- Appending is not an undo step. The recipient should save first or work on a copy.
- A file written by a newer version than the recipient’s is refused. Ask which version they run, or tell them to update.
- A set template is not a handover: it relies on the resources of the computer it was made on.
- Trial renders carry a watermark burned into the file. Activating a licence later does not clean up images that already exist.
What you have now
Run the list before you send anything:
- Project saved, and saved under the name the recipient will see.
- Every shot that will be looked at rendered, and the shots renamed.
- Plan exported as a PDF, if the recipient needs the paperwork.
- Imported 3D objects and your own sky images packed separately.
- A copy of the folder sent, and your original untouched.
Troubleshooting
- A missing image folder, a file that will not open, a duplicate name after an append: Something looks wrong: start here.
- A project you have to get back after a crash: Recover a project after a crash.