Whether you have a slow computer or a laptop that renders your scene or project very slowly, or you're working on a large project or short film and don’t want to tie up your computer with rendering while you start working on the next shot, render farms can save you from this hassle. Render farms are just like farms of super high-end computers which can render your scene or projects really fast. This article will tell you everything you need to know to get started with Fox Renderfarm, from preparing your blend file to uploading and finalizing it.
About Fox Renderfarm:
As one of the best Blender render farms in the CG industry, Fox Renderfarm supports multiple software and plugins, featuring 24/7 support, CPU & GPU rendering, with massive render nodes, and is a TPN-accredited vendor.
Requirements?
- Your project file with packed resources
- An account for the Fox Renderfarm
- Raysync client
It's pretty simple to use, and everything is clearly explained below. Plus, you'll receive some free credits ($25 render coupon) to kickstart your journey.
Packing Resources:
You have to pack all of the external assets, textures, and models you used in your project file. This will be different for each software.
Example:
Maya: Archive Scene
3ds Max: Resource Collect
Blender: Check "Automatically Pack Resources"
C4D: Save the project with Assets
This article will showcase Blender as an example.
In Blender, open the project file that you want to render. Go to File in the top-left corner, hover over External Data, and enable "Automatically Pack Resources." After that, save your .blend file, and you are good to go.
Important things to note:
- Your .blend file size will increase drastically, which will affect your storage on your computer. It would be a good idea to make a copy of your .blend file with packed resources by using "Save As" and later delete the original.
- It is important to select GPU compute if you plan to use the GPU on the Fox Renderfarm.
Fox Renderfarm - Registration
First, you need to create an account on Fox Renderfarm. Afterwards, you will receive a US$25 render coupon as a welcome gift.
Installation of Fox Renderfarm Desktop Client
You can either use the Fox Renderfarm desktop client or continue in the browser. This article will mainly focus on the desktop client because it is much easier to use.
Install it like any other software, you can change the installation directory by custom installation.
It will take a few minutes to completely install.
Click start rendering and you are good to go!
Setup in Desktop Client
Sign in with the same account that you created, you can also sign in with google if needed.
Check auto sign in and remember password so you don’t have to sign in again and again. If you are using GPU rendering in your project, choose one of the GPU regions. If you are using CPU rendering, select one of the CPU regions.
Interface
On the top, you will find
- Analysis List
- Your Uploads
- Render jobs
- Your Downloads
You can easily add credits in your account through that green recharge button on top.
Upload and Analyse
To upload your project file to the Fox Renderfarm, just drag and drop your project file into the Fox Renderfarm Client from the file explorer and that's it!
You will be asked to create a config that will be reused for every project file and is created once for a specific version.
Click on "+ add software config" and fill out the information.
- Name your config related to your blender version to make it easy to select when you render next time.
- Select your operating system, which is Windows in my case.
- Again, select the blender version you have used.
- You can add plugins if you want.
- You have to select the directory where your blender is installed, check this directory if you can’t find where your blender is installed: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\BlenderFoundation.Blender_your-version\Blender
Click save when you are done and select the config you just made.
After that, it will start analysing and will tell all the errors that might have occurred, you can either solve those and reupload the file or you can ignore and continue if the errors are not that much of a deal.
A new window will pop up and you can change some project settings.
- You can change the number of frames that have to be rendered.
- You can change the resolution.
- You can select any frames that you want to render out as a test, this is necessary if you want to experiment and don’t want to waste credits.
Click "submit" and your render will start.
Rendering and Download Jobs
Your test render will start and once it's done, you can right click on it and open the file location.
Once you are satisfied with the test render, again, right click on the scene name and click "render full job", it will ask for confirmation and after that your rendering will start.
Once that’s done, you can download the frames directly, just right click on the scene name and click start downloading, after that open the file location and that’s it.
Conclusion
We hope this tutorial on using a Blender render farm will be helpful to you, especially if you're new to render farm services. Once you grasp the techniques, it becomes much easier to improve your 3D renderings, whether they are created with Blender or other 3D software. When time is of the essence, you'll appreciate having a cloud rendering service available. Anyway, good luck with your rendering!
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