I have two decent PCs that I can use to render animations on, but it is still difficult to use blender because it only renders in one direction.
I was wondering if it is possible to set one instance of blender to render from frame 1 and work up, while setting the other instance to render from the last frame and work down.
That way they will meet somewhere near the middle where I can stop them both.
Currently it is a nightmare breaking up animations on two machines when I have no idea where the “middle” will actually be (both machines render at different rates).
How do I set one Blender instance to render in reverse??
Frame start 1 to XX for the first machine and Frame start XX to end for the second machine…
If you want to render backward then inverse the range from XX to 1 or else…
You can render independently on machines setting ranges and then place all the frames in one directory and do post processing …
Another way to do it is to simply make a calculation based on the speed of the two (or more) computers. (as in the above example) It does not have to be completely accurate. Just a good guess. 70/30 for example. Then make an initial distribution based on that. I can usually get it pretty close. From there I manage it manually and keep notes as it nears the end. If either computer finishes first, I then stop them and redistribute for the final frames again and then join it all into one directory. Probably more high tech ways to manage this. But for me it eliminates all of the network issues (which can also include render errors you have to fix) you normally get when trying to manage your own local farm. Low tech solution but you get predictable render results all of the time.
Well! I think there is a problem with 2.82. Look at the attached blend I did.
The cube start at frame 1 and goes to frame 56. On the time line you can go backward, and in 2.79 you could render backward the animation. It seems that in 2.82 this is not possible anymore??? I’ll ask to the dev on this… Sorry for that.282 Test reverse rendering animation .blend (564.2 KB)