how to render different sequences of frames?

Support Compositing and Post Processing
#1

In max there is a cool feature that you can put, for instance:
1-100, 200-300, 400
in the space where you define the frames to be render and it will render frames 1 trough 100, jump to 200 trough 300, and render frame 400 alone.

Is there an easy way to do this in blender? I have a huge sequence of frames separated by the thousands, like, 0-700, 1000-1800, 2000-2500 and I would like to render jumping certain frames.

The only way I can see of doing this is trough the node editor, making many different outputs. But I still believe it will render something in all frames and I would not be able to create previews in the same sequence. I mean, the preview would be 0-2500, and I need to render previews all the time.

Any idea?

#2

for rendering the 3D scene, no built-in feature like that. However, it would be just a few lines of script to do so - set the start and end, and render the animation, then the next set, etc. You enter scripts in the editor window and then execute the script. specific commands you use depends on 2.49 or 2.5x

#3

Thanks, but I have no idea about anything regarding scripts.

Will I have to learn a lot to do this? I hope to learn blender scripts in the future, but this is kind of urgent.

And would it include the previews?

#4

are you using 2.49 or 2.5x? and no, it is pretty simple stuff.

#5

Sorry for the lack of info. I am using blender 2.5 alfa 2

#6

Script would be cool, or how about set up another scene with a VSE and import the animation as a strip then select the range(s) you need? I guess the frame numbering wouldn’t work there.

#7

You mean that I should render, then get it as an animation strip, then re-sequence?
I guess I did not understand.

I kind of solved it creating a bash script and manually setting many renders with different frame sequences. But not only is that solution not within blender, but it is also much more difficult and manual then the solution we get in 3ds max.

On the plus side, this methodology minimizes complet crash failures, since, if one sequence fails, the other will start automatically. This blender is crashing sometimes and there were times that it only rendered 1/5 of what it should and stopped because of a crash.

#8

It shouldnt crash so much, is it 2.5x variant? Do you have any physics to bake?

#9

BTW I wasnt suggeting to pre-render. You can add a strip that IS another (as yet unrendered) scene and trim that to the length that you want.

Someone else has mentioned a simple python script for queing renders (just like After Effects), when i say simple it is beyond me and the time I have at the moment.

#10

It is blender 2.5 alfa 2. It is not crashing a lot, but sometimes. It is more stable then 3ds max anyway. But I am using alfa 2 because 2.53 is crashing all the time. It does not open scenes from other blenders and anything makes it crash.

This suggestion of strips is something I have never heard of. Do you have any link that might help me understand that?

#11

Another BA thread
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=193654

or the wiki, which I cant access at the moment (404)
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Sequencer/Usage

#12

I am still trying to understand it, but I did not know the VSE had such capacities. I used it in the past to render videos only.

Thanks. I guess this will help somehow.

#13

Yes, in latest builds you can even switch cameras without rendering all the angles you may want from a scene. Of course animations often need to be tightened up (remove some frames) so you can trim the scene before final render.