Your project folder and files must all be on cs-render.
The computer must be booted with Windows.
When you create your project, the project's full path must entered as the Location, that is, the path must start with "//groupfiles.willamette.edu/cs-render/" rather than a drive (e.g. "Z": ...) If the path name begins with a drive, e.g. "Z:// ...", the renderfarm will not work. To get Maya to reconize the full path you may need to do the following:
- Select the menu File→Set Project...
- In the "Directory" box, paste in //groupfiles.willamette.edu/cs-render/, and click the "Set" button.
- A new window (see below) will appear that says that the directory you entered does not contain a project definition file. It asks you to select several options.
Choose the Select another location button.
- A "Set project" window now appears. Find cs-render in the long list of files and double click it. Continue to navigate to your project folder.
The name of your project folder should appear on the "Directory" line. Then click the "Set" button.
- Now, open up your scene file (if it was already open, open it again!) The path name for your scene file should appear in the blue bar across the top. The path should start with "\\groupfiles ..." and not a drive letter, e.g. Z:\\ ..."
When you are ready to render, make sure you have set the project and set the parameters in the Render Settings window. Make sure everything has been saved.
Go to the Render menu and select Create Backburner job....
Enter the settings below for the Manager Name and the Port.
The Task Size is the number of frames sent to each node. Thus, if you are
rendering 100 frames with a task size of 5, then you will use 20 nodes. Please be considerate of your classmates and choose a task size that
will not occupy all of the nodes, unless you know no one else is using the renderfarm. You can use the monitor (see below) to
see how many nodes are available.
Note, the Renderer Path should be C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2015/bin/Render.exe
and the Backburner Path should be C:/Program Files (x86)/Autodesk/Backburner/cmdjob.exe
You can monitor the render farm job by going to BackBurner's monitor. To get there, you need to go (via Windows, outside of Maya) to the list of Programs and find your way to Autodesk;Backburner;Monitor. There may also be a shortcut to this on the desktop. Once the Monitor has been started, you need to connect to the server by going to the menu Manager→Connect and replace the "localhost" with the server address rendermgr .
Check the Monitor to see when the first few frames have been completed. Outside of Maya, go to the images folder of your project to make sure these frames are appearing where you think they should be appearing (if you don't set the project properly, you might end up filling up someone else's folder). If the frames are there, check to make sure that they are using the desired camera and that they are what you expect. If you have some of the settings wrong, you want to stop the render job immediately and restart with the proper settings.
Once you are confident the renderfarm is running correctly, you may log-off of your computer and go do something else while the rendering is taking place!