Okay, thanks to this video I’ve…..partially? discovered the answer. Python recognizes two decimals ( .. ) as an instruction to go up one directory in a relative filepath. So, using the // to turn on the relative pathing, the way you’d type this in the output settings is
//../render/render_
This should make Blender go UP one directory (out of the blend subfolder and into the main project folder), then look for or create a new folder called “render”, and then output the file there (specifically named “render_”, plus whatever number Blender chooses to append to the file name).
This works PERFECTLY whenever I render an animation, so yay! It does not work at all if I’m rendering a still image, though. Whether it’s a viewport render or an actual render, it doesn’t save anything until in the Image Editor you manually go to Image>Save or >Save As. And when the file browser pops up, it does not respect the path setting in the Output Settings panel at all, it starts me off in the blend subfolder where the project file is.
I guess there’s just no way around this?
