Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4-34
Editing a node group
Rendering with Renderfarm.fi
Realistic rendering of 3D content is a computationally expensive process. Cycles has been designed to make
the most of your graphics processor (GPU) in addition to your CPU, making it a comparatively efficient way to
render.However,ifyouare workingonanordinary consumer-grade computer,you'll findthat even moderately
complex scenes can take a pretty long time to render cleanly (during which time your computer will probably
be close to unusable). Cycles can require sample rates in the thousands to fully eliminate noise. If your interest
is animation, this render time can be prohibitive.
Although rendering finished frames is resource intensive, it generally doesn't require real-time interaction
with the user. This and other qualities make it a task well suited to distributed processing. For the most part,
framesneedn'tberenderedinorder,andevenasingleframecanbeseparated intomultiple smaller rendertasks
over multiple computers. Ten different Cycles renders of 10 samples apiece using different random seeds can
be combined to create a single render of quality equivalent to 100 samples.
Distributing the task of rendering animation stills over many processors is standard. A collection of pro-
cessors used for rendering is called a
render farm.
All animation studios use render farms for final rendering.
Often,theserenderfarmsareintheformofgiganticclustersofLinuxmachinesthatcanfillupawarehouseand
require enough electricity to power a small town.
Subscription-based render farms exist. ResPower (
www.respower.com
)
is a well-known subscription-based
render farm that supports Blender and offers very affordable rendering services for Blender users with some
limitations on render time per frame.
