Hi
Blender 2.55 OS X.
I want my machine to render File1.blend, then File2.blend, then TheOtherFile.blend, etc., one after the other, without having to babysit the machine to see when one has finished. I’m ready to dive into the renderer and figure it all out, but if there’s anyone out there who knows I’m barking up the wrong tree give me a shout before I spend the next day or two in a hopeless pursuit. Thanks!
I’d set the output parameters of each .blend file so that the file output names are different for each file, so they won’t overwrite each other, then create a batch file to run blender from the command line. Command line parameters can be found here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Reference/Command_Line
I know in this day and age of graphical user interfaces, most people don’t know how to do that, but you should be able to find out how from the internet. I can do it from a windows machine, but don’t know the lingo for macs…
But yeah, the batch file will have 3 lines, each one calling blender with the filename and parameters for each render. Run the batch file, blender will render first file then exit, then the batch file will run blender again, and so on and on…
Randy
Thank you Randy – it worked! Here’s my inelegant method:
In the terminal, navigate to …/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS
In a plain text editor (like text wrangler) I typed the following:
./blender -b ~/Desktop/queueTest/blend1.blend -a
./blender -b ~/Desktop/queueTest/blend2.blend -a
./blender -b ~/Desktop/queueTest/blend3.blend -a
./blender -b ~/Desktop/queueTest/blend4.blend -a
(being sure to press return after the last line)
Then I copy the text and paste it into the terminal window, which executes each command in sequence!
Like I said, I’m sure there is a more elegant way to manage the terminal, but I’m happy to have a working solution for now. Thanks again for the lead, Randy!
Awsome thankyou for this I was unsure as well
UPDATE: I’ve used the technique I suggested for series of renders that lasted a couple days. I’ve found that in OS X the pasted text in the terminal gets muddled after a while and fails to work properly. A better way to do it is to make a text file (in textwrangler, e.g.) with what you would have pasted into the terminal. Save it to the home directory with a .sh extension (for instance: render.sh). In your terminal, navigate to /Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS (or wherever you have your blender app). once there, type the following in your terminal:
sh ~/render.sh
The text in your file is executed. This way the text doesn’t get all mangled. I know this is totally basic stuff for your program-savvy folks. But in case there are any morons like me out there, this should help you get started…
What about PC morons? I’m stoopid too. What kind of blend sequence file can I execute to get separate render output files?
In the PC equivalent of the Terminal (would that be the DOS Prompt?), you navigate to the blender executable as usual, then type:
./blender -h
This gives you a list of options that you can use. If you need to use different file names from the same render, you could use the following:
./blender -b ~/Desktop/blendfile.blend -s 100 -e 250 -o //renders/render1_####.png
./blender -b ~/Desktop/blendfile.blend -s 400 -e 550 -o //renders/render2_####.png
This will render the “blendfile.blend” from frames 100 to 250, and from 400 to 550. The first set will be stored in a folder named “renders” at the same directory as the blend file, and will be named “render1_0100.png, render1_0101.png, render1_0102.png” etc, and the second set “render2_0400.png, render2_0401.png, render2_0402.png”
The “-s” flag defines the start frame; the “-e” defines the end frame, and the “-o” defines the output location and name.
Is that the kind of stuff you’re trying to figure out?