[Bf-funboard] some pipeline related requests

[Bassam Kurdali]

This is a reasonable request, however, could use some design /
specification, 

- do you need all passes for the layers (I assume yes)
- current scene only or all scenes in the file
- how to specify output paths (this is the most pipeline specific part,
and where a built in feature could still fail to help blender fit
perfectly into pipelines without some python glue or scripting): some
options:

different filepath for each scene/renderlayer
diferent filename for each scene/ renderlayer

how to specify the above / order of naming etc. 

some (current) options that can make this work for you:

1- Use Python to fit blender into your pipeline:

- This is not so bad, since there are many workflows/pipelines out
there, and blender can't possibly fit all of them out of the box. a bit
of python will get you exactly what you want, and more. Full disclosure:
we're doing it this way, outputing to folders based on
sequence/shot/rendersize/scene:renderlayer/

2- Use File Output nodes as suggested elsewhere:

- this can be tied into option (1) for creation, path assignement, and
disabling/enabling. afaik you should disable the file output as well as
the renderlayer when disabling, so as not to overwrite your existing
image with blank.

3- Manual:

- similar to option 1, but without python (yuky or ok depending on your
needs) just turn off compositing, set your output to multilayer EXR and
and output only the layers you want.

Future possible options:

- built in operator to render out all the renderlayers into own files
(only if enabled) using some naming convention (maybe append
scene_renderlayer into the filename before the numbering)

- addon! possibly an addon that a-ships with blender / b- is on by
default or on for renderfarms

- renderfarm specific addon, shipping with blender



On Thu, 2014-08-14 at 14:07 +0200, Thomas Volkmann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> while checking how Blender could fit into our pipeline, I ran into some issues
> that maybe someone finds worth fixing/implementing.
> First a short list, and description further down:
> 
> 1.: render renderlayers (and passes) to separate files
> 1.a: commandline flag to chose which renderlayer to render
> 2: additional location(s) for Configuration and Data files
> 
> It's pretty much self explanatory, but nevertheless some words of explanation:
> 
> 1: When more layers are selected and I have an outputformat other than
> multilayer-exr, they will overwrite each other and only the last rendered layer
> survives.
> Possible solution could be to either hardcoded the layername to the outputname,
> or allow the usage of tokens (<Scene>.<Layer>.<Pass>).
> I have a thread on blenderartists with more datail if needed:
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?346014-rendering-layers-to-files
> 
> 1.a: When it is possible to render layers separately, there should also be a
> commandline flag for it (where "-o" should override the eventually hardcoded
> name).
> This would be mandatory for proper renderfarm integration.
> 
> 2: I think it would be good to be able to add custom locations for Config&Data
> files. I'll quote my blenderartists post
> <http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?346023-Additional-Configuration-amp-Data-Paths>
> here:
> is it possible to have more locations for configuration and data files than
> SYSTEM, LOCAL and USER?
> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Introduction/Installing_Blender/DirectoryLayout
> I would like to have one place (or more) on the server for additional
> settings,plugins,addons, whatever.
> SYSTEM doesn't work, because all users shall run Blender from the network.
> USER doesn't work, because either I would have to deploy the stuff for every
> user, or every user has to go with the same setup
> LOCAL would work, but I would need to install stuff for each separate version or
> build.
> 
> That's basically it.
> Any thoughts/questions/advice?
> 
> Thanks,
> Thomas
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