Why doesn't Mental Ray have .avi available for batch rendering? - Page 2

# 16 06-12-2011 , 10:38 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

Question are you using Dynamics in this simulation? If you are you should cache it before batch rendering.

That could be your problem
Dave

Originally Posted by David

No dynamics used. Everything is recorded to key frames, even the camera movement. No nurbs, no motion paths, textures are not baked, they are 1k textures.
And I didn't have the asteroid paint effects in there when the render used to crash like crazy, so maybe that's not the problem.
Now the MR renders fine a single frame, but if I want Maya to export all 300 frames to different JPEG files and name them itself, batch rendering crashes on 2nd frame and says that it's done. (I also get a brief crash report window for a few seconds before the rendering ends).

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# 17 06-12-2011 , 11:02 PM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

Sorry can't help you more as I can not open the scene file. However I can tell you both jpeg and bmp are not good image formats to be working with. Try iff, tiff, tga, sgi or openEXR if your rendering out pass data.

Best of luck with it.
Dave user added image

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 18 06-12-2011 , 11:14 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

I have told silverfeather before about caching sims.....two people should hopefully help this sink in....

And dont use maya jpgs either..the format is fine for google LOL but if you are doing a movie choose something sensible like tiff, targa or even exr

Jay

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# 19 06-12-2011 , 11:17 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

I have told silverfeather before about caching sims.....two people should hopefully help this sink in....

And dont use maya jpgs either..the format is fine for google LOL but if you are doing a movie choose something sensible like tiff, targa or even exr

Jay

Originally Posted by Jay

But what to cache? Keyframed recordings or non-dynamic animation? O.o How do I do that?
Also, the batch renderer is fixed now, the problem was the allocate on heap. It reached frame 37 so far, let's see what it exports.
Tiff will just export the objects, idk why. The background is not exported.

Thanks to stwert for suggesting turning off the options I've changed in the rendering menu.

Last edited by SilverFeather; 06-12-2011 at 11:21 PM.

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# 20 06-12-2011 , 11:27 PM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

There is a work-around. Try running my script here:

https://simplymaya.com/forum/showpost...7&postcount=23

You must modify the following attributes:

string $filename = "render";

int $startFrame = 3;
int $endFrame = 24;

Hopefully this helps you out.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 21 06-12-2011 , 11:39 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

There is a work-around. Try running my script here:

https://simplymaya.com/forum/showpost...7&postcount=23

You must modify the following attributes:

string $filename = "render";

int $startFrame = 3;
int $endFrame = 24;

Hopefully this helps you out.

Originally Posted by NextDesign

Thanks, but how do i use it? I don't know a thing about scripting and the only thing I've added to Script was a reset script.
And the problem is solved for the moment too, just reached frame 148. The computer's doing a better job at it than me, it took me 2 hours to reach that far.

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# 22 06-12-2011 , 11:42 PM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

Tiff will just export the objects, idk why. The background is not exported.

Originally Posted by SilverFeather

You don't have a background user added image

jpeg will use the camera environment colour because it's not capable of saving rgba

Dave user added image

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 23 06-12-2011 , 11:46 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

You don't have a background jpeg will use the camera environment colour because it's not capable of saving rgba

Dave

Originally Posted by David

Well if i don't have a bg, won't the video go white instead of black like space needs to be? Because the exported files had transparency and showed white when i looked at them.
If they will automatically show black bg, the next renders I will do will be done in TIFF. Just got to finish this jpeg render though. It's already at frame 174. I've checked the exported image files and they look good.

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# 24 06-12-2011 , 11:55 PM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

DON'T USE TIF!! Gahh! /endspaz

TIF has no standard specification, so each program can interpret the data differently. TGA is much better, as it's still capable of RGBA and compression, and is handled by each application the exact same way.

Some programs will set alpha pixels to white, some to black, some to green, etc. It all depends. What you need to do is use a compositing application, such as after effects. That will solve many of the questions stated here.

(Also, FYI; never render in JPG. It washes out the color, has low quality; and compresses the hell out of the image)

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 25 06-12-2011 , 11:56 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

OBJeeessus!!

Tiff is fine generally...at least its bit rate is true 32bit over targas 8bit x 4 channel depth.

Anyway lets not get into a war over file format...just dont use jpegs...especially in the comp.....

pass me the jpg evaporator!!

J

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# 26 06-12-2011 , 11:57 PM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

pass me the jpg evaporator!!

Originally Posted by Jay

/me passes Jay a modified script file with no JPG option user added image

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 27 06-12-2011 , 11:59 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

LMAO

good lad!!

J

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# 28 06-12-2011 , 11:59 PM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

DON'T USE TIF!! Gahh! /endspaz

TIF has no standard specification, so each program can interpret the data differently. TGA is much better, as it's still capable of RGBA and compression, and is handled by each application the exact same way.

Some programs will set alpha pixels to white, some to black, some to green, etc. It all depends. What you need to do is use a compositing application, such as after effects. That will solve many of the questions stated here.

Originally Posted by NextDesign

I can't get After Effects though (not up for it, buying or downloading it cracked). Ok then TGA. That reminds me of this very old game, Carnivores, which used TGA as images. That's pretty much the only thing I've noticed TGA being used.
Will Vdub render TGA's non-existent background as black?
And will all the colors be displayed accurately no matter what? Even glows? (this scene contains lots of glowing stuff, but I've reduced the stars glow a bit in the next video that will be made).

OBJeeessus!!

Tiff is fine generally...at least its bit rate is true 32bit over targas 8bit x 4 channel depth.

Anyway lets not get into a war over file format...just dont use jpegs...especially in the comp.....

pass me the jpg evaporator!!

J

Originally Posted by Jay

O_o *confused* so TIFF or TGA?

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# 29 07-12-2011 , 12:04 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

TGA. He's making a joke about using JPG.

I'm not familiar with VirtualDub, but there are many other alternatives. Give it a try, and if it doesn't work; I'll find something for you.

To Jay: I'm just thinking about a bad time, when everything in a project was saved as tiffs, and when we brought it into Max, everything was messed up. When we fixed it in Max, everything in Maya got messed up. So I just turned them to TGA's and problem solved user added image

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 30 07-12-2011 , 12:07 AM

Noober than noob
Join Date: Sep 2011

Posts: 520

TGA. He's making a joke about using JPG.

I'm not familiar with VirtualDub, but there are many other alternatives. Give it a try, and if it doesn't work; I'll find something for you.

Originally Posted by NextDesign

I will as soon as this render finishes. Then I'll redo the scene (if not today maybe tomorrow) in TGA. I wonder if it will render any faster... If not, tomorrow then. Its 2 AM, though I can't sleep anyway until 7 AM... annoying insomnia and cold.

Hmm so the reason to not use jpg would be because it adds compression to the images? (slight fuzz when zoomed in)

Batch render is done.
Maya Better Solar System Test.avi - YouTube
Though this used JPEG. Will try the TGA version too, hope it won't last 1 whole hour like this did.

Apparently there is no TGA, so just TIFF. Will try TIFF. Only other alternative is PNG.

Scratch that, TIFF isn't read by Vdub, will try PNG...

Last edited by SilverFeather; 07-12-2011 at 12:34 AM.

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