Using the Render Farm Off Campus

This guide will walk you through the steps to rendering a Maya 2024 project on Emerson’s render farm from off-campus or outside of the EML.

Connect to Emerson’s VPN

(If Off-Campus, and not connected to Emerson's 'eduroam') Connect to Emerson’s Virtual Private Network to access IP restricted services such as Bin and the render farm.

1. Go to this webpage, and follow IT’s instructions to connect to Emerson’s VPN.

Connect to the Bin

Once you are connected to Emerson’s VPN, you can open the Render folder on Bin. I

1. While connected to Emerson’s VPN, go to this webpage, and follow IT’s instructions to connect to the Bin. Additionally, we also have an article available here.
2. Open \\bin.emerson.edu\Courses\Render to find the depository of Maya projects

Organize & Upload Project

Correctly set up your Maya project folder for rendering on the render farm. In addition to these steps, double check that your project's render settings are configured properly in Maya.

1. Make a copy of your entire project directory and rename the top level folder to “Lastname_Firstname”.

• 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.
• Within the project directory go into the “images” folder and delete everything inside.
• Within the project directory go into the “scenes” folder and delete everything except for the scene(s) that you will be rendering and any assets/resources that your scene relies on (especially if you are using Arnold Stand-ins and they are in your scenes folder).
• Open the “Render” folder on Bin by going to Courses Render.
• Copy the duplicated project directory into the Render folder.

It is recommended that you open the newly copied Bin version of your Maya project (make sure to set it as the active project directory), and ensure that your textures/assets/resources are linked correctly, whether by using the File Path Editor (Window > General Editors > File Path Editor) or checking your material's linked file nodes using the Hypershade (WIndow > Rendering Editors > Hypershade)

Use the Render Farm

Set up and submit a job on the Render Farm. Retrieve your images once processing is complete.

1. Go to the Render Farm’s online portal: http://render.emerson.edu
2. Log in using your Emerson Credentials.
   • Username: firstname_lastname
   • Password: your password
3. Click on the Submission tab, located in the upper right.
4. Begin entering your project’s information in the General Tab:
   • Job name: “Lastname_Firstname”
   • Engine: Use “Maya Sw” if rendering with Maya Software. Use “Maya Arnold” if rendering with Arnold.
   • Version: "Default" should resort to using the Render Farm's installed version of Maya, which should match the EML's active version.
   • That is all the information required in the General Tab.
5. If your project is rendered with Maya Software, click on the Maya Sw tab. If your project is rendered with Arnold, click on the Maya Arnold tab. The following settings will be the same for both rendering engines.
   • Maya scene file name: Click the three dots on the right. Open the “Maya Bin” folder, and find your project directory. Find your scene file, click on it, then press Select.
   • Project directory: This field should auto fill your project directory location.
   • Frames destination: This field should auto fill your project’s images folder, this is where your project will render.
   • Frames: Enter the range of frames to be rendered from your current scene file.
   • Digits: Enter the number of digits in the frame number of your render's last frame.
     • For 0-9 total frames → “1”
     • 10-99 total frames → “2”
     • 100-999 total frames → “3”
     • 1000-9999 total frames → “4”
6. In the top right, click “Submit”.
   1. You can check on the progress of your job by clicking on the “Jobs” tab in the upper left. Your frames will be output to the images directory of your project.

Retrieve Your Images & Clean Up Your Project

Retrieve your images once processing is complete, and remove your project from the server.

1. Open a file browser and go to bin.emerson.edu Courses Render. Find and open your project directory.
2. Open the images folder within your project directory, and you will find your images.
• When your images have fully rendered, copy them onto your local storage, and back them up. Make sure you have saved your images before continuing.
3. Remove your project files from the render farm by right clicking on your project directory’s main folder, titled “Lastname_Firstname”.

• On Windows, click Delete.
• On Mac, click Move to Trash.

Congratulations! You have successfully used Emerson’s render farm from off-campus. Feel free to disconnect from Bin and Emerson’s VPN, or render another scene.

Please email postproduction@emerson.edu or eugene_kuznetsov@emerson.edu if you have any questions.