# Stop the render before finishing, but still do the compositing **URL:** \ **Category:** Compositing and Post Processing\ **Created:** [November 29, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166 "2012-11-29T10:42:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/jgstyle/32/669317_2.png) [@jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/u/jgstyle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/1 "2012-11-29T10:42:46Z")
Hey guys, I tried doing a search on this but I’m not sure how to phrase it correctly. What I want to do is be able to stop a Cycles render part-way through, but then skip ahead to the compositing. Example: I have scene set up in Cycles with two render layers, the second render layer has a glare and blur node on it. The samples are set to 2000, so when it gets finished with that first pass, then it moves on to the second render layer and composites them. What I want is to be able to stop it early but still get my glare effect. If I check the render and it looks good at 1700 samples, I don’t want to wait until 2000, but if I stop it now, the whole thing stops and it doesn’t do the compositing. Is there a way for me to just skip ahead? I hope I’m explaining this in a way that makes sense. If I’m not being clear I’ll try to explain further… ---
**Author:** ![organic](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/organic/32/6855_2.png) [@organic](https://blenderartists.org/u/organic)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/2 "2012-11-29T19:01:02Z")
Try re-selecting the render layer from the node dropdown after you stop the render. ---
**Author:** ![Atom](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/atom/32/2832_2.png) [@Atom](https://blenderartists.org/u/Atom)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/3 "2012-11-30T05:24:23Z")
You could setup a border render around the area where the glare occurs. Then you could just see that section. [http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Render/Output](http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Render/Output) ---
**Author:** ![jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/jgstyle/32/669317_2.png) [@jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/u/jgstyle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/4 "2012-11-30T10:41:32Z")
Hey organic, are you saying to choose the second render layer from right in the render window after I stop it? In my screenshot my glare effect layer is called “TEST LAYER”. So after I stop the first “RenderLayer”, I would then choose “TEST LAYER”? I tried this and it didn’t proceed with the render. I think you might be talking about somewhere else, though… ![](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/e/5/e58b6adf0bb147d8e3d5525371c66a9309c776e0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/jgstyle/32/669317_2.png) [@jgstyle](https://blenderartists.org/u/jgstyle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 10:56am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/5 "2012-11-30T10:56:46Z")
Hi Atom, thanks for the help. so in your example, I could go back and render only that area, then just composite them myself (in Photoshop or Gimp)? Or can i somehow tie that back into the compositor and have Blender do it? ---
**Author:** ![MillionthVector](https://blenderartists.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@MillionthVector](https://blenderartists.org/u/MillionthVector)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/6 "2012-11-30T11:25:30Z")
Maybe you could try changing a setting on one of your composite nodes, then changing it back. That’s what I do. ---
**Author:** ![Atom](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/atom/32/2832_2.png) [@Atom](https://blenderartists.org/u/Atom)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/7 "2012-11-30T14:02:54Z")
With border active Blender will just render that section. Let Blender go ahead and do both renderlayers and final composite as you have setup. It should be faster than a full size render. Essentially the smaller the border rectangle the faster the render (using the same samples). ---
**Author:** ![organic](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/organic/32/6855_2.png) [@organic](https://blenderartists.org/u/organic)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/stop-the-render-before-finishing-but-still-do-the-compositing/558166/8 "2012-12-01T22:40:58Z")
> [@jgstyle](#): > > I think you might be talking about somewhere else, though… Yeah. Re-select the renderlayer from the renderlayer input node ![](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/8/f/8f4133aebed8fbfefd0fb3ecd5cae49ae19f1451.png)