How to Suspend or Batch render different scenes in Maya?

# 1 02-09-2013 , 11:37 AM

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How to Suspend or Batch render different scenes in Maya?

I'm fairly new to Maya end work mostly with Maya 2012 (and 2014) and would like to render my scenes and images at night when I'm not at the office and my machine is unused.

I have read about renderfarms, but that's not an option at this point.

I use batch rendering, but that's just for one scene at a time (if I'm right...)

Before Maya, I worked in Strata3D en they have a very nice and easy to use function: 'Suspend rendering'.
In their Render window, you can hit 'Suspend' and save the scene for later rendering (or just render it).
Then you close the scene and open another one, hit render and suspend that also. And so on...
At the end of the day, you just add those 'suspended' files to a Queue and... it renders all files/scenes one at a time! Really cool and easy!

Is there such an (straightforward) functionality in Maya to do the same?

Thx for the feedback in advance!

Lucas

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# 2 02-09-2013 , 12:39 PM

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Set up Backburner, it does exactly that.

- Genny
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# 3 03-09-2013 , 06:00 AM

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Thx for the input!
I've looked for info about Backburner.
88 pages manual, tutorial on Lynda.com, scripting, set-up...
Whohoho! user added image

I cannot believe mankind landed on the moon more than 40 years ago user added image

Guess Autodesk has to learn from Strata3D in this field...

Wish me luck!

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# 4 03-09-2013 , 06:52 AM

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Did I mention that I'm on Mac...
I googled a lot of things already... It will be a daunting task, that's for sure.
Found also Deadline from Thinkbox and requested a demo version.

I hope someone will come up with a clear and easy workflow... to save me a lot of time...

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# 5 03-09-2013 , 02:38 PM

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You don't need Deadline.

Are you launching batch renders from the terminal? If so, you can put them back to back by using the unix operator &&.

For example:

Code:

echo "I'm run first" && echo "I'm run second"

Just put your render commands there instead of the echos, and the next render will be run after the first is completed. Simple.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 6 09-09-2013 , 12:15 PM

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Thx for the feedback!
But no, I don't use the Terminal...
I've installed Deadline, and batch renderings without problems. I'm very happy with this tool.
Deadline is free for 2 'slaves', so I will set up another computer so I can render on that machine, and not mine if needed.

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# 7 10-09-2013 , 06:23 AM

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Try RenderPal it's free and does a great job been using it for years and can highly recommend it.

It is by my will alone I set my mind in motion

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# 8 10-09-2013 , 06:10 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2004

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Try RenderPal it's free and does a great job been using it for years and can highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by Stephen

It's not free actually. From their page:

Here you can download free, fully functional evaluation versions of RenderPal V2. The trial period is limited to 30 days; after this, you will either have to purchase a license or register for a free 3 nodes license in order to continue using RenderPal V2.

Originally Posted by

Source: https://www.renderpal.com/d_renderpal.php

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 9 10-09-2013 , 06:36 PM

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It is free, by your very own quote

"or register for a free 3 nodes license".

Just register with them for a free 3 node license.

and your done.

S

It is by my will alone I set my mind in motion

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# 10 10-09-2013 , 11:35 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

Yes, but by your first post, it seemed like you were implying that it was for unlimited nodes, as the OP's post above mentioned the 2-node limit of deadline.

Moving on user added image

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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How to Suspend or Batch render different scenes in Maya?

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