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Network render WITHOUT collect files?
Hello
Does anyone out there in The Land of The Cow know of a way to do a network render without having to ‘collect files’ each time? I have some comps that I need to render and are taking a while, and some spare machines doing very little. BUT each 30 second comp has around 10,000 HD individual frames of animation in it (across 18 layers), so despite my fast fibrechannel network, it’d be a real pain to have to collect the files each time I sent something to render.
I don’t have multiple licenses of AE CS5 so can’t load up a full version on each machine; I’d have to use the Render Engine/watch folder setup.
But is there a way I could get a render engine machine to jump on a project and just connect to the original rushes? They’re all on the same network and can see each other fine – it seems kinda pointless having to collect the files.
I wouldn’t even mind doing a single-machine network render (so I can produce a QuickTime instead of a frame sequence) – I’d just like to free up my machine for more AE work and it’s also currently doing a 45 hour Maya render, so it’s already an Apple on the edge!
Thanks,
Paul -
3 Replies
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i don’t know of a better model for using the render engines.
you can install ae on as many machines as you want… adobe will only let you have two activated at a time, but it is very easy to deactivate and reactivate ae. so if your main machine is busy with maya, you can have two others running ae.
this would allow you to do a multi-machine render without the render engine on two machines outlined here:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/multi_machine_rend.phpthere are no watch folders, so you’ll need to open the project on each system and set them to render, but it will work entirely through the network.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
[Paul Roper] “Does anyone out there in The Land of The Cow know of a way to do a network render without having to ‘collect files’ each time? … is there a way I could get a render engine machine to jump on a project and just connect to the original rushes? They’re all on the same network and can see each other fine – it seems kinda pointless having to collect the files.”
I haven’t actually tried this, but perhaps this suggestion will get you started.
The Watch Folder feature is controlled by a plain-text RCF (render control file). Duplicate this file in its original state, after running Collect Files once, but before actually starting the render nodes.
With that file safely duplicated, start your network render. You may be able to re-render thereafter simply by overwriting the AEP in the Watch Folder and resetting the RCF to its original state.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Thanks Walter and Kevin – I will give those a try. I have previously tried tweaking the render control file without any luck (but that was a long time ago) in an attempt to fix that pesky ‘render control file not found’ error (not sure if that’s exactly it…it’s something like that!).
– Paul
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