Rendering Information

This is a short guide to rendering on the new and improved farm. Everything should work approximately the same as it did before. However, as a refresher, the entire front end of the process is briefly reviewed below. To open the rendering dialog box, go to Start → All Programs → Pixar → RenderManStudio-2.0.1-maya2009 and open LinuxAFM (Maya 2009).

Once you enter all of your shot's information it will look something like the image above. Here's a rundown of what you'll need to enter for each field:

• Name of Maya File - The path of the Maya file you want to render on the network. The file path should be all lowercase, no spaces, and use only letters, numbers, and underscores. For example, a valid path might be "\\ntdfs\cs\unix\projects\instr\production1\nebbish_production\shots\seq_1_intro\seq_1_intro_0100\seq_1_intro_0100.ma".
  
  Be careful that in "\\ntdfs\CS\unix..." the "CS" is not captialized. This will cause errors.


• Maya Project Directory - The project folder that your renders will be output to. Usually it's located in the same folder as your Maya file. Make sure the folder you provide exists before you click Render. If it does not, create it.


• Frame Range - Which frames to render from your Maya scene. The "By" field can be left alone.


• Render Command - The default path is "/usr/local/bin/Render", but it should be set to "/usr/local/bin/RenderUW".


• Server Selection Keys - Set this to "(Maya|pixarMTOR),render-fast". This will use the new render nodes compatible with Maya 2009. If you want to use the old render nodes replace "render-fast" with "render-slow". They will only work with Maya 2008, though. If you want to utilize all render nodes, enter "render-all".


• Distribution Mode - You can just leave it at the default setting which is "Alfserver".

After all the settings are in order, click Render. Alfred will open and everything should work the same from here-on out...