Network render with the render command line utility

To interactively render a sequence of frames

When rendering an animation, you can render a sequence of frames without the need to batch render. For convenience, you can also add these images to the Render View for preview. See Render a sequence of frames interactively.

To batch render

To perform command line rendering and network rendering via the command line, use your preferred 3rd party renderer or purchase batch render nodes for Arnold from the Solid Angle website.

If you perform command line rendering with Arnold for Maya, your rendered images will appear with a watermark.

Managing your network render

You can automate the process by using Backburner or another third party renderer. See Network rendering with Backburner for information on how to use Backburner to manage your render jobs and render nodes while network rendering.

To render on several computers

    Note:

    Before you begin, you must have networked workstations. See your system administrator if workstations are not networked.

  1. Install Maya on each machine.

    We recommend that you pare down the installation to the minimum requirements. For instance, you do not have to load all options on each machine when installing (for example, documentation).

  2. Initiate render commands on each render workstation.

    This can be achieved manually by the Command Line Render command. To automate it, use simple scripting capabilities. See the Command Line Render Help (render -h) for more options.

    For example,

    If you have a 100-frame scene and want to distribute the rendering across 4 render workstations, type:

    Note:

    Use the -r file flag to render using the renderer as set in the Maya file.

    Render -r file -s 1 -e 25filename for the first render workstation.

    Render -r file -s 26 -e 50filename for the second render workstation.

    Render -r file -s 51 -e 75filename for the third render workstation.

    Render -r file -s 76 -e 100filename for the fourth render workstation.

    Tip: Using -rep

    You can use the -rep flag on the Render command to automate Maya software networked rendering.

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