Wait are we talking Render Farm here? As in Graphics rendering? This is a huge investment and just getting the right software will not get you started. With Most 3D content creation tools such as Maya, 3Ds, Blender you can write you Render Pipeline tools in something like Python. Its not really that hard. Again you can go by way of using existing software. You can use cloud resources which charge about 10 to 14 cents (10 to 14 shillings) per frame. If you use Blender then you can use renderfarm.fi for free. Using cloud services can bring other complexities if you dont get your assets right, there will be a lot of time wasting back and forth, not to mention the bandwidth involved. If you insist on your own render farm then Qube is a good start. http://pipelinefx.com/ The other thing is how many nodes are going to be in your render farm... Thats where the main issues are going to be. Basically you need Massive processing power, Plenty of RAM per node and plenty of disk space. Here are some statistics from a project I did a few months ago. this will give you an idea of the resources you need for a render farm. My Project used a "farm" of 2 computers with 2 cores each. Because of time constraints we had to strip down the lighting and environment effects and avoid ray tracing as much as possible. I also had to bring down the resolution from 1080p to 720p and remove a hug number of props to reduce the number of polygons to get each frame to render under 1 minute. After production all the assets had consumed almost 1.5 GB of disk space for this 5 minute clip The total clip had 7700 frames. Without going into details it took about 4 weeks to pipeline this clip from Just between these stages -> rendering, composting, editing and post production. Here is the clip which is still a work in progress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM_iMuT7XHk Since then I have improved on some of the tools and effects, for a bigger and better project coming soon. If you need more info feel free to ask ----- Original Message ----- | From: "mabeya conseray" <mbshem@gmail.com> | To: "Skunkworks Mailing List" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> | Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 8:02:04 AM | Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] rendering firm requirements | thanks guys | could someone know whether i can find the software locally | On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 7:35 PM, aki < aki275@gmail.com > wrote: | | @James, thnks for the input, I understand now its electronic | | rendering. That cluster sound a pretty good way of doing things, i | | hear MAC OS running it very well too. :-) | | | @Mabeya, here's adding further to @James input. | | | - First you need to know the input data and its raw size.. Is it | | going to be in Mbytes or GigaBytes? This will establish 2 | | parameters | | : Memory and CPU needs. To be on the safe side, you will need to | | look at a Quad Core Processor that can handle the rendering needs | | when the render engine starts. So if you are going for a single PC | | setup, try and get quotes of a WorkStation Specs machine. | | | - Hard Disk are pretty useless when it comes to speeds, so you need | | to make a choice here. Do you go 7,200rpm or 10,000rpm or even | | better SSD. SSD is the ultimate but cost factors will be | | restrictive | | | - High End Grahpics card, with a decent screen that allows for | | natural colour profiles | | | - Render encoders, some are propreitary and will be bundled with | | software, so determine what the output quality has to be. | | | Thats it from me. The rest you need to research and see the balance | | between costs and benefits. :-) | | | Rgds. | | | On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 7:11 PM, James Nzomo < kazikubwa@gmail.com | | > | | wrote: | | | | The hardware you need depends on what/who you want to render for. | | | | | | A proper business plan should be able to answer the above. | | | | | | If you are not sure about the above, just purchase the craziest | | | hardware you can afford and determine your requirements as you | | | go. | | | | | | The more powerfull the better. | | | | | | Consider Clustering afew PCs. You should get unbelievable power | | | from | | | these and if you are on a budget, you can try assembling Beowulf | | | Cluster running FOSS sw and achieve unbelievable super computing | | | power from cheap PC hardware. | | | | | _______________________________________________ | | | Skunkworks mailing list | | | Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke | | | ------------ | | | List info, subscribe/unsubscribe | | | http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks | | | ------------ | | | Skunkworks Rules | | | http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 | | | ------------ | | | Other services @ http://my.co..ke | | -- | Regards | Mabeya Seme Conseray | HP Solution Architect | mobile no. +254 724 204 543 | _______________________________________________ | Skunkworks mailing list | Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke | ------------ | List info, subscribe/unsubscribe | http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks | ------------ | Skunkworks Rules | http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 | ------------ | Other services @ http://my.co.ke