[Bf-committers] new idea: production information

[Tyler Tricker]

So the plan would be to display metadata in a web based filebrowser? I can
see how it would be useful for render farms. You could probably do the same
thing through scripting an ftp client or update blenders file browser to
have network access. Thumbnails and versioning support would be useful too.

In a second note.. a render farm with a central file server and blender
supporting block level network lazy loading would be sweet.

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 1:04 PM, Jeroen Bakker <j.bakker at atmind.nl> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've an idea I want to discuss.
>
> The idea is about getting information out of blender that can be useful
> for artists working on productions. The information is derived from data
> present in the blend-files. Different types of information can be
> derived, like:
> getting an overview of the dependencies between blend-files. Why can
> this be useful?
>
> For example
> You make a commercial animation for a customer. When the final render
> has been started the customer still wants to change something. The
> change is in a library and it is not clear what files needs to be
> rendered again. What do you do?
> a) render the complete commercial over again.
> b) open all blend files and determine if the changed object is used there.
>
> Some information can be useful for quality analysis.
> For example
> You have rent some time on a renderfarm. just before uploading the
> production, you want to check if all settings are correct for the
> renderfarm. (All scenes are made active, All render resolutions are
> correct, the render size is at 100%, the output type is EXR, the number
> of x- and y-parts are correct. What do you do?
> a) do nothing, rent some more time when the settings were not correct.
> b) open all files and check everything, and keep your fingers crossed.
>
> The derived information should be presented in a useful way.
>
> To show that it is possible, I've implemented a proof of concept showing
> quality analysis and dependencies. This PoC is put in some video's and
> examples online
>
> video's
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBOeqIoPhM - example of the quality
> analysis tool
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWuPJN62kI - example of the quality
> analysis tool showing real time updates
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kVmY3wbOCE - example of the dependency
> browser (old version, showing less detailed information in the project
> overview)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXGh5f-Q9M - example of the dependency
> browser (new but slower version, demonstrating navigation between the
> files)
>
> links
> http://www.atmind.nl/blender/functionality.png - example of a search
> screen.
> http://www.atmind.nl/blender/index.svg - (1.2 MByte) only tested on
> firefox 3, IE doesn't work. and when your OS thinks it hangs, just wait.
> the black boxes can be used to move and to zoom.
>
> In my video's I've used the following information:
>  * blender file-name
>  * blender version
>  * scene-name
>  * scene-output resolution and render size (xsch, ysch, size)
>  * scene-imagetype
>  * scene-start frame, end frame
>  * scene framestep, rt
>  * scene-threads, x-parts, y-parts
>  * library references (LI)
>  * library id-blocks (ID)
>
>
> Above are just some examples but surely there are more (and perhaps
> better). I'm interested in what kind of derived information can be
> useful for artists. Why is this information useful? And how should this
> information be presented?
>
> Greetings,
> Jeroen
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