Maya

The overall process of setting up Maya with ButterflyNetRender is very straight forward:

Install:

(Windows):

• 1. Install Maya locally on all the Windows Rendernode machines (in the same location on all machines)

IE: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2008\bin\Render.exe

• 2. Set the Install paths in the BNR Controller

(OSX):

• 1. Install Maya locally on the OSX Rendernode machines.
• 2. In the BNR OSX Client - set the install path location (The OSX Clients store the platforms paths - where the Windows Controller stores only the Windows Platform paths)
• 3. Setup the POSIX path matching in the Windows Controller (see POSIX path matching section)

(Linux):

• 1. Install Maya locally on the Linux Rendernode machines.
• 2. In the BNR Linux Client configuration file (bnetnode.load) - set the install path location (The Linux Clients store the platforms paths - where the Windows Controller stores only the Windows Platform paths)
• 3. Setup the Linux UNIX path matching in the Windows Controller

NOTE: if you plan to work between OSX and Windows - You MUST save your textures under
the project directory,  Anywhere in the folder But you can't get textures from another
drive or directory outside the project path.

Configure:

Configure paths and settings in BNR Controller:

In the BNR Controller:

• 1. Turn on the 'Maya' platform: (Options->Configure Platforms)

• 2. Set the location of the Maya render (the local path on each Rendernode) (Options->Configure Platforms - Maya)

• 3. Make sure you check the 'Maya 6.x/7.x/8.x...'
• 4. Also enable the 'Use Relative Link' so large scenes will load into BNR faster

• 5. If running OSX Rendernode - you will need to setup the POSIX path matchine (Options->Configure Directories - OSX POSIX Path Matching)

This is used to match the Windows and OSX paths

• 6. If running Linux Rendernodes - you will need to setup the Linux UNIX path matching

NOTE:You can define a different Install folder for the Maya render.exe per rendernode
by setting the environment variable: BNR_MAYA_APP_DIR
This will need to be the directory where the 'Render.exe' is located

Restart:

Restart the BNR Controller.

Add:

Now add a Maya Scene (.ma) scene files for rendering: (Its important to use a .ma file instead of a .mb - so BNR can read all the scene settings)

Make sure you add the scene from the Shared Network folder (that all the rendernodes have access to - otherwise the rendernodes will not be able to load the scene)

NOTE: BNR requires you to save all the Maya Scenes in the: name.####.ext format. BNR will always check for frames this way. Please check the Frames/Animation Ext under the Image Output section in the Maya Render Globals.

Test:

The best way to test a new Maya setup:

• 1. Make sure Maya is installed on the controller (in the same location as the RenderNodes)
• 2. Turn on the 'Maya Logging' feature - Options->Preferences
• 3. Add a Maya .ma scene into BNR
• 4. Select the 'Render' Tab
• 5. Press the 'Test Render Command" and then press 'Launch Locally'

This will run the same command the Rendernodes will get - but you will get to see more information directly (You will need to check the Task manager to see if its running)

• If all works -Then you will need to check the log file from the command line -log filename.log

-Or -

• Right click on the Scene and a select "Open Scene Trace Log folder" and you should find the ae output text "Render_*.txt" - Please open with notepad to view the text.

(note if you see *.csv files - these are BNR Controller state flows)