I figured it out
but I do have a follow up question...
I answered my own question. If you have images or footage loaded into the Video Sequence Editor, it will only render the frames from that footage. There may be a way to circumvent this, but I don't know how to do that. At any rate, the frame I wanted to render was past the footage, so it rendered a blank frame. As far as I know, I have to get the footage out of the Video Sequencer in order to render the scene.
I found this answer when I went to find a backup of this file and the backup file opened to the Video Sequencing preset and I remembered this little tick. If someone knows how to circumvent this problem so I don't have to delete the footage, that would be great.
Original post:
I looked around to see if this question has already been asked and one fellow had the exact same issue, but was scolded for being too vague and the question was closed. I could understand his question and know his predicament and can only hope I can be specific enough here to ask the same question. I have a good bit of time invested in this blend file and I hope I won't have to redo it.
So, here's the situation:
1) I have a blend file with a lot of objects, materials, and textures, including two character rigs. I have a blocking run saved in the Action Editor of the Dopesheet and would like to render one of the key frames from it to act as a reference in another scene I'm setting up.
2) I have tried to render a single image file from this scene a) by selecting the Render Image selection from the Render menu in the 3D Viewport, b) by clicking the Image Render icon in the Render tab of the Object Properties window, and 3) by hitting the F12 button on my Macbook keyboard. None of these produce the result I'm looking for: a single image of the keyframe from the scene in this file.
3) I have tried to render the single image in versions 2.661 and 2.71 of Blender as indicated in #2 and have achieved no different result.
4) The problem seems only to be with this file and no others that I checked.
5) I closed all applications on my computer and rebooted. No change with this file.
6) I have not had this issue with this file before. I do not have this issue with other files with the same scene (i.e., as described above with multiple objects, etc. -- same scene, shots are in different blend files)
7) The result I get (see link below for screenshot) the gray and white checkerboard that shows while an image is rendering.
The Screen I get when I try to render a single image file (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204159710010120&set=a.10204159709770114.1073741843.1147304074&type=3&theater)
8) Recently, I read a post in Blenderguru that made suggestions about changing settings in the Light Paths and Performance tabs to reduce render times. I made these changes in this particular file and other files. I have not had this same problem in the other files. In those files I can render the image with no problem. See link below for screenshot.
Light Path and Performance tabs in the Render Panel of the Object Properties window. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204159725450506&set=a.10204159709770114.1073741843.1147304074&type=3&theater)
9) I recently installed Blender 2.71. I still have 2.661, so I tried the files in both versions of Blender. My other files will render, but the one in question won't. I get the result explained above. I have also tried to render it in the Blender Internal Engine -- same result.
10) I have tried to look over settings in the Render panel of the Object Properties window and in the User Preferences. I am not an expert user of Blender or a computer programmer, so most of the options are Greek to me. If I accidentally changed settings, I don't know which ones those would be.
11) If I can't find a solution, I will have to redo the 5 hours of blocking I already put into this, a scene I am quite happy with.
I've tried to be thorough and specific. If I haven't been, so be it. I really appreciate it if someone knows what I could do to fix this or has any suggestions.
