Error Code Adventures: Setting up (and making it work) a Render Farm with Maya, Mental Ray, and Backburner

@kaplandesignlab and I at the office today. Err, render farm. :) #TheGreatMigration pic.twitter.com/0ldJ9Y4dO9
— Kevin G. Schmidt (@kevingschmidt) October 5, 2013

Very recently I was contacted by a producer who is working on a feature animated movie that wanted me to act as a consultant for the creation of the Production Trailer for the film. Apparently I am one of few people in Nevada with the technical knowledge/ experience for setting up reliable, fast performing Render Farms (within a reasonable budget as far as Render Farm standards go.) 

For this project I was also given the lead on creating lighting, acting as quality control for texturing, and for optimizing rendering preferences/ executing rendering. 

While I do have extensive knowledge in building and maintaining render farms (refer to post: http://jonathankaplan.blogspot.com/2012/04/tutorial-using-backburner-and-vray.html ) the last and most recent render farm I built was constructed with 3ds Max, Vray Distributed Rendering, and Backburner. 

Crossing over to a Maya/ Mental Ray model took some getting used to. First I would like to warn anyone attempting this: Maya & Mental Ray's Network Render is a little more complex than the setup and execution of a 3ds Max with Vray Render Network. There are subtle differences that if not properly understood will make the process take several hours more than it should.

Despite the differences and deficiencies of the en-devour, ultimately within a few hours I was able to get all of the Render Farm Slaves to communicate properly with the Render Manager and actually bump out some fantastic render speed results. Throughout this process I had to troubleshoot several error codes from Maya/ Backburner that were very obscure and for which I found little support online. Each error made me permanently, slightly more insane. The feeling I got after conquering the errors is equatable to the feeling you get after a 12 hour day of manual labor in the desert sun (a great feeling of accomplishment and exhaustion.)

For a little background on the setup: The International Academy of Design and Technology, Las Vegas partnered with the producer of the film and supplied us with about 24 Alien Ware computers with Intel i7 Processors with a second room in the process of being upgraded and networked.

With 24 computers acting as slaves, at 1920x1080p we were able to finish about 120 frames in 40 minutes, averaging 3 minutes per render. This was with optimal rendering preferences (with the exception of motion blur and depth of field) and some pretty complex textures and lighting.

I just wanted to give an update and some insight to setting up a Maya, Mental Ray, Backburner render farm and I might put up a tutorial at a later time but for now if you are attempting such an adventure, my best piece of advice is:
1) to be patient with the error codes (don't pull your hair out, you will overcome)
2) refer to Autodesks documentation and make sure you go through each step like a checklist http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2014/en_us/index.html?url=files/GUID-788EB610-5A7E-41C4-BD0C-1099FB9E72AF.htm,topicNumber=d30e681735,
3) and make sure the same version of Backburner is on all machines!

If you need further assistance, you can contact me at jonakap1@gmail.com

By donating you make it easier for me to post more often on more topics and give me the ability to spend more time answering your questions. If you enjoy reading or have found any of my posts valuable feel free to let me know.

Blog Award!!!

Today I checked my email inbox to find that my blog has been featured on BLOG AWARDS! Here is the URL for you to check out  http://jupiterindia.com/blog_awards/index.php?id=1691

I would like to thank the team at Jupiter Web and Software Solutions for taking the time to not only operate such a great blog database but for also honoring me as their featured blog.I would also like to thank all of my visitors, especially the regulars who keep my blog alive! I couldn't do it without you.

Go team Kaplan Design Labs!

Chalkboard Art: Superzoo 2013

Hey now! Apologies for not posting more frequently lately but I have been busy busy busy (which is a good thing.)

I wanted to post a recent Chalkboard Art piece I did for Darford/ CanAm on site during the build day of Superzoo 2013, a massively large Pets/ Animal supplies convention here in Las Vegas which features everything from dog biscuits to aquariums.

This piece took about 6.5-7 hours on a 36"x24" board. I am quite the perfectionist so I wish I would have had more time for the clean-up process but I am very pleased with the way this one came out. Usually I am accustomed to doing this type of work at my studio but due to the short notice and circumstances of the project I actually went on site and did this during the exhibit build. Check it out!

And here is the original digital mock-up I put together:

As you can see the final product came out slightly different. This is pretty common when translating the digital information on to the physical board as spacing and layout adjustments have to be made to account for text size, legibility, etc. of final typography. All and all I would say I definitely captured the essence and was even able to make the final product a bit more fun. For an in studio project it is common that I spend 4 hours just working on the block-in and layout of the elements on the board.

How well do you see color?

One of my former life drawing instructors posted this test on Facebook. It tests the accuracy of your color vision. Color tests can be important for determining deficiencies, showing signs of possible illness, and for seeing how well a potential employee might suit a position with a company (design or art related industries.) 

I scored a "perfect color vision." On a scale of 0-100 with 0 being the best possible outcome. The test took me about 4-5 minutes and is pretty fun. Most people are reporting landing in the 15-30 range.

http://www.xrite.com/online-color-test-challenge

And here is a link to my former instructor's blog whom I learned about this test from:

http://sheffabella.blogspot.com/

Here are some interesting statistics in relation to color blindness and the use of color tests:

http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=86

Enjoy!

Illustrations: "The Young Dinosaur of Red Rock Canyon" (working title) - Various Illustrations of Desert Animals and Dinosaurs for Children's Book

About four months ago I was commissioned to be the illustrator for a Children's Book about a Dinosaur that comes to life from fossilized eggs at modern day Red Rock Canyon, a conservation area just outside of Las Vegas. The author needed about 20 full page illustrations for the book. I have been compositing 2d Illustrations with photo's and matte paintings of Red Rock to give the illustrations a fun, unique direction that still showcases the natural beauty of the Conservation Area. Below are collages of the original line drawings as well as the Photoshop painted renditions of selected characters from the book. We are about half-way through the illustrations at this point and actively seeking out publishers for the project. I will be posting some finished illustrations in the upcoming weeks but for now I wanted to give everyone a taste of what I have been working on. Enjoy!