Apple Qmaster 3 User Manual
Page 27
[START FRAME] = 0
[END FRAME] = 544
[STEPS] = Not Used
[ITEM] = /SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/AEProjs/Wine_Country/output
In the example above, “
Comp 1
” is the name of the composition in your After Effects
project and “
test[####].psd
” is the output filename. Since you cannot select an output
filename in the template’s Item field before the output has been rendered, first select the
output directory, then add the filename to the Item field.
Note: In the example,
/SHARED_VOLUME/Projects/
is the shared volume. If you created
the project on a computer that is not using the shared volume, copy the project to the
shared volume, open After Effects, and relink any missing media.
Here are additional tips for using the Generic Render plug-in to render After Effects
projects:
• After Effects makes good use of multiprocessor systems, but on projects that are not
processor-bound, two rendering services per node give you better results.
• After Effects custom template information is stored in
Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe After Effects 6.5 Prefs/. If you would like to
use custom Render Setting and Output Module templates in an Apple Qmaster cluster,
copy this file to the same location on each node in the cluster. Then you can specify
your templates when using the
-RStemplate
or
-OMtemplate
options.
The above example includes many additions to the shipping After Effects template. In
order to render After Effects in a distributed environment, you must render an image
sequence. User-specific sections must be edited every time. These include the comp
name (
Comp 1
), output filename (
test[####].psd
), and possibly output module and
render settings.
After Effects provides Render Setting and Output Module templates specifically for this
environment. You can use custom After Effects render and output templates if you wish,
but the output must be an image sequence. After Effects stores its custom template
information in ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe After Effects 6.5 Prefs/. If you would like to
use your custom Render Setting and Output Module templates in the cluster, copy this
file to the same location on each node in the cluster. Then you can specify your templates
when using the
-RStemplate
or
-OMtemplate
options.
Optionally, you can use Notification and Set Environment before you submit. Notification
is email notification: Enter an email address and SMTP server, and you will be notified
about the completion of your batch and its status. Use Set Environment to define variables
on a per-batch basis. For more information, see
Setting Environment Variables in
27
Chapter 1
Using Apple Qmaster 3