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17/11/2015

Cloud Rendering With Deadline

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In CG content creation, image rendering is vital yet resource-intensive, requiring significant hardware and time to accurately calculate, writes Ryan Russell, Lead Developer of Thinkbox Software's Deadline.

On-premise farms comprise components such as the operating system, CPUs, memory and other specs, and each piece demands ongoing maintenance for optimized performance. The machines also need a specialized space backed by the appropriate infrastructure. Cloud-based farms lack physical requirements for the user and provide on-demand access to top-of-the line resources, though the associated fees can be substantial. If a studio is rendering 24/7, an expansive on-premise setup might make the most sense, but in many other cases, leveraging the cloud is a preferable solution, especially if render resource needs fluctuate.

Offloading rendering to the cloud provides studios with elasticity. Rather than rent or buy machines for temporary use, facilities can fire up virtual machines, also known as instances in the cloud, with the help of Deadline, cross-platform render management software that streamlines workflows through automation. The secret to Deadline's effectiveness is its use of programmable job dependencies and event triggers. Each pass in Deadline starts with a dependency chain. Steps in the workflow are then completed automatically, provided all predetermined parameters are met.

For example, a job might begin by checking pipeline management software, like Shotgun, to see if a shot has been approved for rendering. When it returns true, the job will be rendered in a software package such as 3ds Max. As frames are rendered, they move to a compositing tool such as NUKE. Once the NUKE job finishes, Deadline's Draft feature could then create QuickTime files, upload them to the dailies server review and also sync back locally for on-premise viewing. Meanwhile, all the jobs are executed in parallel, and the entire process is automated and customized to the user's desired specs.

Deadline works with any combination of local and cloud-based resources, so it can play a key role in unifying workflows, regardless of where resources are located. It's also highly accessible with support for over 70 content creation packages and has a flexible API that allows users to extend its functionality. In using the cloud, Deadline enables full control of instances so that your virtual machines can be used in the same manner as an on-premise farm. Once users have created virtual machines, Deadline’s balancer application lets users manage farm activity based on jobs in the render queue. If the farm is idle, all instances will turn off, but will fire up again once a job is submitted.

The software is integrated for one-click access with most cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform and OpenStack, among others, making it quite intuitive to get up and running quickly. As with cloud providers, Deadline is available as usage-based licensing, meaning users only pay for Deadline licenses while they are actively in use, and its Proxy Server application allows secure connection and interaction with remote and cloud-based render farms over public Internet without a virtual private network (VPN). Our goal is to make cloud adoption easy, regardless of how the resources are being used.

At Thinkbox, our development ethos has always been to alleviate ever-changing production pain points. Cloud-based resources offer tremendous opportunity for studios looking to scale beyond what their local machines can deliver; Deadline provides a valuable means for making the most of any resources, whether for image rendering or processing other high volumes of data. We're constantly refining Deadline and adding new features for an even more seamless user experience. In fact, we've just launched the beta for Deadline version 8. If you'd like to take it for a test spin, contact [email protected].

www.thinkboxsoftware.com

This article can also be read at BFV online.

(JP/LM)
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