#fox renderfarm

The multimedia industry has witnessed some trendsetting changes in the past few years. The most noticeable change that CG professionals saw in 2012 was the growing popularity of farm and cloud render. Eventually, a remarkable decrease in the demand for standalone local rendering processes for different multimedia projects was also witnessed.  Companies who were offering local rendering services either changed their infrastructure to provide both local as well as cloud based rendering or lost in the competition and were closed down!

This distinctly visible trend of the multimedia industry signals at a few basics. CG experts tried to find out the reason behind this massive shift in interest from local rendering to farm rendering services offered by many companies.

Their research presented these concrete reasons that are at play behind this new interest towards cloud based rendering.

Ease of handling heavy workload

Multimedia companies literally struggled to provide their completed projects within the specified deadline in situations when they were burdened with heavy work load. One of the reasons which delayed the work was the slow rendering process available with local rendering services. So, the characteristic feature of cloud rendering where a cluster of computers are connected with each other on a single LAN has been a relief for them. Now rendering is much faster than what it was earlier. Hence, adhering to deadline is not a problem irrespective of the volume of work. 

No hidden cost

Maintaining an individual rendering machine has become a headache for most multimedia firms today. To be honest, the small sized companies simply cannot afford of spend a huge sum in maintaining a personal rendering machine. If we look at it from an apparent level, we might find that some local rendering machines come within the affordable limit of most CG companies. But there are hidden costs in it which lead to huge drainage of money every year!

The bulky rendering machine requires huge physical space for its installation.  The companies have to make separate arrangements for air conditioning and electrical requirements.  In addition to this, investing additional money for appointing separate workforce for taking care of its security and operating the machine also becomes a pain. The core business activities of the companies get hampered in the process.

The year 2012 saw a massive transition of the multimedia industry from local rendering to cloud computing and render farm. The trend continued to be consistent throughout the year. But 2013 presented even more surprises for the multimedia professionals and CG artists! Requirements from cloud computing got magnified and the demands of the client companies got streamlined by the turn of this year.

Some of the top trends of 2013 in the sector of cloud computing has been listed below:

·        Shift of demand  in favor of hybrid cloud

  The requirements of all the companies in the CG industry have got massively bifurcated. When cloud computing was initially introduced, companies were satisfied with a single cloud based rendering service provider. But the demands have become variegated now. So, companies prefer collaborating with a number of cloud computing firms at a time to satisfy their multiple interests.  Predictions are that this demand for hybrid cloud is here to stay for few more years. 

·        Demand for composite big data and cloud computing service

  In order to become more resources, more and more companies showed preference for implementing big data analytics in their decision making processes.  So, the exclusive cloud providers could foresee big data as their chief rival in this competitive ambience. Majority of cloud computing services thus thought of upgrading their infrastructure in 2013. They aimed to win the loyalty of the target market by providing a composite service which will feature big data as well as cloud computing.

·        Stricter policies against cyber attack

Most small, big and medium sized companies showed their preference for cloud based rendering services. But a number of them were skeptic about the security of confidential data that are transferred via a common LAN. 2013 saw a really serious approach of cloud rendering service providers like Fox Renderfarm to provide highly secured data transfer.  A number of cloud providers incorporated the SMB technology in their infrastructure by the turn of the year. This highly technical security system will allow the client companies to scan the code of their source data and detect even the slightest attempts of cyber attack. Thus, client companies will no longer need to make any additional investment in arranging more expensive tools to detect any malicious presence in the source code.

·        Applications have become polished

Besides the fear of privacy of data, the client companies were also concerned about the performance of cloud computing. But 2013 was eventful for them as it exhibited the commitment of cloud providers to provide consistency in service. Thus, towards the end of this year the businesses feel assured that the system will never fail to perform in critical periods.

Top Four Trends in Cloud Computing during 2013

  The year 2012 saw a massive transition of the multimedia industry from local rendering to cloud computing and rendering farm. The trend continued to be consistent throughout the year. But 2013 presented even more surprises for the multimedia professionals and CG artists! Requirements from cloud computing got magnified and the demands of the client companies got streamlined by the turn of this year.

Some of the top trends of 2013 in the sector of cloud computing has been listed below:

·        Shift of demand  in favor of hybrid cloud

  The requirements of all the companies in the CG industry have got massively bifurcated. When cloud computing was initially introduced, companies were satisfied with a single cloud based rendering service provider. But the demands have become variegated now. So, companies prefer collaborating with a number of cloud computing firms at a time to satisfy their multiple interests.  Predictions are that this demand for hybrid cloud is here to stay for few more years. 

·        Demand for composite big data and cloud computing service

  In order to become more resources, more and more companies showed preference for implementing big data analytics in their decision making processes.  So, the exclusive cloud providers could foresee big data as their chief rival in this competitive ambience. Majority of cloud computing services thus thought of upgrading their infrastructure in 2013. They aimed to win the loyalty of the target market by providing a composite service which will feature big data as well as cloud computing.

·        Stricter policies against cyber attack

Most small, big and medium sized companies showed their preference for cloud based rendering services. But a number of them were skeptic about the security of confidential data that are transferred via a common LAN. 2013 saw a really serious approach of cloud rendering service providers like Fox Renderfarm to provide highly secured data transfer.  A number of cloud providers incorporated the SMB technology in their infrastructure by the turn of the year. This highly technical security system will allow the client companies to scan the code of their source data and detect even the slightest attempts of cyber attack. Thus, client companies will no longer need to make any additional investment in arranging more expensive tools to detect any malicious presence in the source code.

·        Applications have become polished

Rendering technology has become indispensible for the multimedia industry today.  Graphics artists and multimedia specialists simply cannot think of creating 3D projects without rendering it repeatedly. But you will be surprised to know that the beginning of rendering can be traced back to the 60s!

Let us know more about the beginning of rendering and the first 3D object that was rendered.

The object that inspired

While discussing the beginning of render technology of render farm, mention needs to be made of Gordon Romney. He was one of the forerunners of 3D modeling and rendering who initiated the journey of creating computer generated objects and making it photo realistic.

The first object which inspired Romney to create a CG model was the ‘Soma Cube’.  It was a very simple rosewood box which was received by Romney in 1967. This rosewood box was developed by Piet Hein in 1933 and certified by the Denmark based brand ‘Skjode Skjern’.  The color, texture and visual effect of this Soma Cube were so outstanding that it encouraged Romney to develop its computerized form.

The basic framework

Romney discovered that the cube shaped rosewood box could be dismantled into seven parts: right screw tetra-cube, branch tetra-cube, left screw tetra-cube, ‘T’ tetra-cube and ‘L’ tri-cube.  He applied the same technique in making seven computer generated polygons that resembled dismantled parts of the original Soma Cube.

The steps that were followed

Romney created the seven polygons using a specific technique. The stepwise breakup of the technique is as follows:

Step one :

The light-pen driven Assembly Program was implemented for creating a cube-shaped meta-object from a list of pre-defined geometric objects. The hidden lines in the polygon were distinctly visible and it featured monochrome vector display.

Step two:

As it is known now, each of the components of the virtual Soma Cube had smaller units. At this stage, these unites were assembled together into standalone sub-objects.

Step three:

Now the color and texture of the components were decided and the necessary parameters were set according to that.  The pixel density, intensity of illumination, view point and other secondary parameters were also set.

Step four:

In order to place the CG object properly, the metrics needed for translation and rotation of the same were specified. The ‘Manipulation Program’ was used extensively to give a sequential action to the virtual Soma Cube.

Step five:

Now the Tektronix Oscilloscope was set by enabling film and camera options in it. The appropriate filter was also enabled. Separate renderings were done for the green, red and blue polygons in order to preview the rendered color image of each of the components of the Soma Cube. A final render was done when Romney was satisfied with the trial runs.

An architectural modeling where a multimedia specialist needs to create the interiors of a bedroom using the software 3DMax can appear challenging for a novice. A stepwise approach must be taken for the most photo realistic bedroom scene. Here are the necessary tips.

Step One:

During this step you need to specify the dimension of the bedroom. You can go to the option ‘Customize’ in your 3D Max software and browse through subheads that read ‘Display Unit Scale’, ‘Metric’, ‘Custom’ and ‘Generic Units’. Decide your chosen parameters and make the inputs accordingly.

Step Two:

At this stage, you need to concentrate upon the ‘Top Viewport’ of your software. Draw a rectangle there and convert it to ‘Editable Spline’. You can do this by right clicking on the rectangle and choosing the option ‘Convert to’. When the rectangle gets converted into an editable spline, you need to select all the four splines by clicking on the ‘Modifier’ option.  Type in your preferred metrics in the space provided besides the option ‘Outline’ under ‘Spline’.  Now extrude the rectangle into a polygon.

Step Three:

Create one more box inside the extruded polygon as the ceiling. This box will be almost similar in dimension as that of the polygon. Now copy and paste it, and drag it down from the ‘Perspective Viewport’ to make the floor.

Step Four:

Go to ‘Side Viewport’ and draw a rectangle on the polygon. This will be the window. But remember to make its width thinner than the walls. Convert the rectangle into ‘Editable Spline’, select it and delete it. You can add further detailing to make windowpanes and sunshades.  Similarly, you can add details to the walls too at this stage.

Step Five:

Now you need to concentrate on the interiors. Develop the bed by drawing two rectangles, one will be the base and the other will be the headpiece. The dimensions will be set accordingly. 

Step Six:

Draw another chamfered box over the rectangle you have drawn as the base of the bed. Since this will be the mattress, make it narrower. In order to make it look like a real mattress, go to the ‘Modifier Panel’, choose ‘Garment Maker’ and set the right parameters.

Step Seven:

Now initiate the simulation by selecting ‘Simulate Locale’ under ‘Cloth’ modifier. Stop the simulation by repeating the same process once more.  Render the scene once to see the outcome. You can hire rendering service from providers like Fox Renderfarm for hastening the process.

Step Eight:

Are you working on the first client specified CG project? If the project you are working requires that the blades of CG ceiling fan would rotate, things might appear intimidating for you. But you can always take the help of Maya Motion Blur technique to create the most realistic ceiling fan with rotating blades. Render farm or vray render farm is the choice that you can abide by to help you fulfill what you want about this. Check the steps!

Step one:

Create the model of the ceiling fan in Maya before applying motion blur.  Develop the frame-wise look of the rotating blades before setting them in motion.

Step two:

When the frame-wise look of the rotating blades gets completed, set the frame range. This will determine the time till when the animation will be active. Choose the frame numbers as per your personal preference and press the ‘S’ key on your computer to mark the starting point of the animation.

Step three:

Go to the last frame when the animated blades of the CG ceiling fan will stop rotating. Press the ‘S’ key of your keyboard again in order to mark it as the last frame of animation. Rotate the blades of the fan on the Z-axis of Maya viewport. Remember, the speed of the blades of the CG fan will depend upon the number of times you rotate the blades at the last frame.

Step four:

If you wish to have a trial view, simply slide the time slider from the first frame to the last and the blades will rotate automatically! However, you will not be able to see this animation when you render the project at this stage. But you will always have the liberty to rectify any mistakes during this stage.

Step five:

Your CG model needs to be enabled with motion blur effect now to exhibit that the blades of the ceiling fan are rotating.  Go to the ‘Render Settings’ of your application software and enable the ‘Motion Blur’ option.  Next, select 3D option from the drop-down menu of the ‘Motion Blur’ tab. Also, set the blur rate. The ‘Use Shutter Open/Close” tab under this ‘Motion Blur’ option will help you in setting the blades of the fan at the right motion. Just remember that when you allow the shutter to remain opened for a longer span, it will make the image more blurry. So, set the values of the ‘Shutter Open’ and ‘Shutter Close’ as per the requirement of your project.

Step six:

Software rendering is a rendering process, which is absent ASICs for graphics hardware. It can be two main categories: online rendering (real-time rendering), and offline rendering (pre-rendering). Onlinerendering is one of the interactive areas of computer graphics that means creating synthetic images fast enough on the computer so that the viewer can interact with a virtual environment.

Online rendering is used to interactively render as like as 3D computer games such as StarFox Virtua Racing Delta Force etcand generally each frame must be rendered in a few milliseconds. For online rendering the focus is on performance. The beginning texture mapped real-time software renderers for PCs used many tricks for creating the illusion of 3D geometry for example .Various types’ software is available for real-time rendering who want to render images themselves and it will be helpful in their image processing techniques. If someone want to render high-level computer graphics (CG), then having a render farm is very important. For rendering, computer graphics requires large amount of memory and high-speed processor which is really impossible for an ordinary stand-alone computer to render computer graphics. A high-performance computer is widely used to render computer graphics and group of interlinked computer combined together to work as a single computer.

Although render farm or cloud render farm is such an excellent system but has some disadvantages to CG studio owners and CG artists. Purchasing and installing render farm is very expensive because need to buy many servers, memory drive and processors. Moreover, getting them installed using proper technician which is also cost much. Again huge space and special environment that is needed to keep the render farm in order to function smooth and without problems. So that all these things certainly put CG studio owners in kind of difficult situation which prevents them from putting more efforts into their core projects. If anyone wants to use render farm without experiencing any of its disadvantages and drawbacks, then they will consider using online render farm. Online render farm is such a wonderful concept that has helped lot of CG studio owners and graphic artists in recent years. Online render farm is nothing but use via online that means must be connect computer with a render farm of the service provider via online and start making computer graphics.

Creating a computer generated animation is a laborious task which takes days to get completed. Modeling the CG objects which will be present in the project, animating them and viewing trial previews before accepting the final project demand great deal of patience. Nonetheless, it is undoubtedly the greatest headache for a multimedia specialist to render the frames over and over again and check the outcome of the project at each stage. Actually, this sole process eats up most of the time!

During such situations many multimedia specialists and animators think of hiring render farm services.  Since these services feature a cluster of computers in a common LAN, rendering a 3D animation becomes much faster. Even, a number of computers connected with each other provide enough memory space for accommodating a heavy file too.

But is it worth to choose any render farm service provider? Perhaps, not! You need to check the credibility of the farm rendering service provider before trusting it. Here are the tips for you.

Verify the expertise

Although every service provider claims that it offers best services, you need to verify the claims personally. The best way to check the credibility of each rendering service provider is to make a list of rendering services which you require. Now talk to them and check whether the shortlisted rendering service providers have the credibility to live up to your expectations or not.  

Check the online identity

A reputed render farm or online render farm service provider will always have an online presence. The company will have a well maintained website like that of Foxrenderfarm. Such official websites will give you in-depth idea about issues like the services offered by the firm, the client profile, years of experience, etc. In addition to it, the service provider will preferably be part of popular social networks where it will have exclusive business page and fan page. You can check the testimonials and comments of the satisfied customers there and decide how worthy your chosen render farm service provider is before closing the deal.

Rely on references

Cloud Render Farm service is basically based on cloud computing system, which is originally used for accessing data and computers from remote locations. Now the render industry and cloud industry already have started working together to fulfill the increasing demand on rendering of images. It can be extremely beneficial for CG studio, because the generation of clouds is based on computing with a system running at the same time. It is a high performance computing, which means the functionally combined as well as the memory of all the computers amalgamates for creating an extreme powerful computer along with a high memory and a significant capacity.

If someone is running a render farm like Fox Renderfarm, he/she may be wondering about the advantages of cloud rendering. Latter refers to computer based on generation of clouds which can be more beneficial for CG studio. Before understanding its advantages, one must familiarize with the necessary things that involved in the process. Firstly one must familiarize with his/her traditional render farm. It is an extremely high performance computer that is made up by connecting several computerized systems together. By linking up these computers which means that the functionally is combined. A render farm which is used in a high quality image generation may be required in complex tasks such as creating images for 3D movie. Now the computer is extremely advanced which can operate automatically and create the perfect image for the movie.

Due to these efficient CG studios, they tend to use render farm for graphic generation. When a traditional render farm is more useful but it has certain limitations. For someone this is a large system which requires an extensive space. This can also be extremely expensive that can be a problem for smaller companies but cloud rendering services are there to prove the usefulness. It is a virtual system which offers the functionality of a traditional render farm. However, it does not have any limitations of a traditional farm. This is extremely easy and convenient for using in any CG studio. One can then start using it unless requiring any hardware. Basically, having access to software can enable one to get benefit from all features of a render farm service. Though cloud render service is very cheap, it can generate higher profits for CG studio owners. Now, several modern companies are offering various packages. So it is for anyone to obtain customized cloud service.