Longer or more complex 3D animations require more computing power than a single machine can provide. A render farm serves to reduce the load by intelligently assigning rendering tasks to dedicated computers.
Preparing a Project for the Farm
The render farm cannot accept just any project, it needs to be organized in a specific way in order to maintain efficiency. The farm will render your scene file exactly how it is, so in addition to these steps double check that your render settings are configured properly.
1. Create a new folder and name it Lastname_Firstname. Make a copy of your entire Maya project directory and move it into this newly created & named folder.
- It is important that your project is organized in a proper Maya directory generated by Maya so that all of your project’s resources are where the farm expects them to be.
2. Within the project directory go into the “images” folder and delete everything contained therein.
3. Within the project directory go into the “scenes” folder and delete everything except for the scene(s) that you will be rendering and anything those scenes rely on/reference, if applicable (especially if you are using Arnold Stand-ins and they are in your scenes folder!).
4. Connect to the Bin (\\bin.emerson.edu) and navigate to the Render directory...
- On Mac by double clicking the “Connect to Render” icon on the desktop.
- On Windows by entering “\\bin.emerson.edu\Courses\Render” in the Explorer address bar.
5. Copy the duplicated project directory into the root directory of the server.
Submitting a Job to the Farm
Note: If you are submitting outside of the EML but on-campus via eduroam, you may want to use Muster's Web Portal (http://render.emerson.edu) instead. If you are off-campus, you will need to connect to Emerson's VPN.
Next, the farm needs some specific parameters about your project in order to being rendering.
1. Launch “Muster Console” and close out the update prompt should it appear.
2. In the top left corner select “Connect” and enter the following credentials:
- Dispatcher address: render.emerson.edu
- TCP port: 9881
- Login: lab_user
- Password: [leave blank]
3. Click “Connect.”
4. On the right side of the user interface in the “Submission panel” choose the renderer your project requires.
- “Maya Sw” for Maya Software, under Version select "Default"
- “Maya Arnold” for Arnold, and under Version select "Default"
5. Next enter “Lastname_Firstname” in the “Name” field.
6. Scroll down within the “Submission panel” to find the tab corresponding to the renderer you chose in step 4. For example, if you chose Maya Arnold as your renderer, you should see a section titled Maya Arnold below on the Submission Panel.
7. Click the “...” for “Maya scene file name” to open a file browser. Select the Maya scene file you placed on the Bin in the first section. If you already have the Bin-side copy of your Maya project directory open, feel free to copy/paste the file address into the file browser.
8. Ensure that the “Project directory” and “Frames destination” fields auto filled properly. Fix any errors.
9. In the “Frames” field enter the range of frames to be rendered from the current scene file.
10. In the “Digits” field enter the number of digits in the frame number of your last frame. This corresponds to Frame Padding in your Render settings.
- For 0-9 frames → “1”
- 10-99 frames → “2”
- 100-999 frames → “3”
- 1000-9999 frames → “4”
- Come see a lab assistant if rendering more than 10,000 frames from a single scene.
11. At the bottom of the “Submission panel” click “Submit.”
Next Steps
The render farm is now processing your job. It may be awhile before it begins as jobs are rendered in the order they were submitted.
It is recommended that you check the first rendered frames in your projects images folder on the Bin, to ensure that the farm is indeed successfully rendering your frames and that the frames look correct. For example, are there any missing textures? If so, open your project from the Bin in Maya, set the current working project directory to the Bin version of your project, and check that all of your textures and file references are set relative to within your current project folder. As an example, this means you do not have any file paths that are looking for your hard-drive (i.e. "E:\My_Project\sourceimages\..."). Use the File Path Editor to confirm this, which can be found under Windows > General Editors > File Path Editor.
Assuming all is working as expected, you can check the status of your job in the “Queue view.” Once your project has finished rendering the frames will be available in the “images” folder within the Bin copy of your project directory. Make sure you have copied your rendered images to your own drive! Please remove your project directory from the server once your render jobs have finished.