The rendering workflow

Rendering your scene in Alias uses a similar workflow to photographing a scene in the real world:

First create and lay out the scene, placing objects in position for the shot.
Next you assign shaders to your model. This is analogous to painting objects in the real world, except that shaders control much more than just the color of the objects. They control what type of material the object appears to be made of: plastic, chrome, leather, smoke, water, and so on.
If you do not add shaders to the model, objects render using the default matte blue color.
Next, light the scene. Without light, the scene will be completely dark and the camera will simply photograph pitch black.
Next, you position the camera to get the angle you want on the scene. The camera in Alias is a near-perfect simulation of a real camera.
Next you can preview the shot. In the real world this might involve looking down the viewfinder. In Alias, it means checking the shaded view, and making quick test renders to make sure that the scene is set up correctly.
Finally, you render the scene. In the real world, you snap the shutter, rendering the picture on film. In Alias, you use the Render command to pass the scene to the renderer, which saves the picture in an image file.