Batch output of multiple configurations - what's my best option?!

[jamieodonnell]

Hi guys,

 

I'm working on a project which has 5 products. Each product needs to be rendered in over 30 different finishes from two cameras so we're talking about circa 300 images.

 

The 30 finishes are made up of 3 materials - the majority just painted in different colours, some wood finished and a few metallic. I'm using Corona so I'm planning to use the MultiMap to cover off the majority of them.

 

I've done smaller jobs from batch render before but even just changing the filename and output directory is so tedious.

 

I've dabbled with State Sets before but I just wanted to check to see if that's the best way for me to tackle this before I dive in!?

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Jamie

[James Vella]

I use RPM for this kind of thing as its similar to batch render but has a lot more power for these tedious tasks.

[jamieodonnell]

Thanks James - somehow I'd never heard of RPM but it looks to be exactly what I'm after!

[James Vella]

Yes its terrific. A few great things for this particular workflow;

 

- When you change the name of your Shot: Product1_ShotA and need to change it to Product1_ShotAv2 - you can then click "Auto" and it will rebuild all the paths for you for the output/render passes to that location

- It will remember the aspect ratio / resolution for each particular shot (handy when you need to change this for 10 of the 300) for eg.

- If you had a different camera for each of the Products it will switch to this camera when you click on the next Shot (unlike batch it doesnt change the camera angle or aspect ratio in viewport)

- You can setup easy visibility so if you wanted an extra item to be viewed in Shot 1 which should not be in Shot 2, it will remember this as you click between your shots, not having to rely on memory or Set/Scene states. Removing human error is always my kind of workflow especially when dealing with multiple artists, tight deadlines or just basically working with ease / artist friendly.

 

There are other options but this is by far the easiest one I have used and prefer to date.

 

If you choose to purchase this (I think you can test the demo with a limit of 3 shots) feel free to contact me and I can walk you through all the basics to get you up and running quickly

[jamieodonnell]

That's awesome - thanks for all that info James!

 

I have a problem with what I assume are tabs below the Global Render Parameters showing as blank at the moment but I'm slowly making my way around it! I think what I'm looking to do is render out from 10 cameras with 30 odd different object property sets - one thing I can't seem to find though is how to save the same objects with different properties. Essentially I just need to save the object ID and material assignment as states but it's not immediately obvious how I do that!

 

I'm sure I'll work it out though - thanks so much for all your help.

[James Vella]

There is 2 ways,

 

You can use Visibility Sets, theres some options in there somewhere I cannot remember (right click in that column)

 

The way I prefer is I duplicate the object, give it the ID I want and put it into a new layer. You can set in RPM to use object visibility for layers, it switches one layer on/off. I do this because its easier to track and see live in the layer manager whats going on if you keep this window active. It also gives you less to think about as layer 1 might be object 1, layer 2 might be object 2 etc.

[attilacselovszki]

Hi Jamie, I also would like to recommend Pulze Scene Manager. It is a streamlined tool exactly for these kind of tasks with an easy to use UI. We've been developing /using it for 3 years and now the open beta test period just have been starting. You can download it for free from: https://pulze.io/

Give it a try and help us with your response to develop a great tool for the whole community.

Here is a video about the main feature: