Archive for March, 2007
Rendering this thing has always concerned me. Throwing a few machines at a 12-minute 1920×820 res film isn’t going to make much of a dent. At least not if you want to get it done any time soon. I mean, there are over 16,000 frames with a dozen or so layers per frame. You need horespower. Despite those worries, I chugged along rendering at night and when the computers weren’t doing anything better. I’ve somehow managed to pass almost half of the film through, but I need to speed things up now that production is over and I’m just sitting around waiting.
Enter RenderRocket. This company provides remote rendering services to animation studios that need extra muscle. Ruben Perez (contact@renderrocket.com) and company have been nice enough to help me out. After duplicating my file structure on their FTP site and uploading the needed files, I’m seeing an impressive 100 or more processors tearing away at these shots. The interface to start these jobs is super easy to use and I can que things up in a matter of seconds after uploading is complete. I just started firing off renders on Monday and have already seen more frames completed than I could do in .. I don’t know.. weeks?
Maybe I’ll show some screenshots and give more info about how I’m using it. I’m still pretty geeked out by the whole thing. It is very cool. Almost like magic. If any of you guys are doing a job and need extra processors, I suggest you contact these guys. Ruben is down to earth and really nice/extremely helpful. He’ll walk you through it and get you going pronto.
Posted in 
I’m slowly running out of things to do on this short. The sound effects and audio mixing have been completed. Of course I’m still rendering, and that means running the comp script from each shot as they finish, but other than that — there really isn’t a whole lot left to do.
That is exciting and scary at the same time. I’m not sure what to do with myself. Something that I’ve been working on for so many years is coming to an end and I’m suddenly left with absolutely nothing to work on at this moment. Amazing.
While tweaking the last little bit of audio, I realized that I needed the credits inserted so that I could add music for that portion as well. They were quickly put together in Shake and are approximately 44 seconds long. That brings the short’s total running time to 12 minutes and 17 seconds. Not only will this help me finish the audio up, it gives me an opportunity to scratch one more thing off the list.
It has always been said, “pick your world premiere carefully, you only have one of those.” Not taking those words lightly, I’m trying to decide where that will (if accepted) happen. The problem is, there are so many to pick from and this is something I’m not well versed in. I’m learning as much as possible about the bigger ones, but also keeping in mind that I am at the mercy of those who decide what gets in and what doesn’t.
I’ve finished making my way through the entire short. Now, it is just a matter of finessing sound levels. I’m really enjoying doing this portion of the short. Instant gratification. There is a real art to doing sound design/editing. Not that I didn’t know this before, but I can really appreciate it now. The exciting part is mixing just the right levels of ambient noise with sound cues, all at the same time making sure the music is mixed in just right. I didn’t think I would enjoy this so much.
As much fun as it is, I’m glad it is going quickly. I can imagine getting sick of it if I had to do it day in and day out. I’m still on schedule to finish the audio this week. Perhaps as early as Wednesday evening.
