Maya Network Rendering Guide

Submitting Maya render jobs to Deadline

Maya jobs can be submitted from within Maya or from the Deadline Monitor.

A Submit to Deadline button should be available the Frantic Films shelf. Launch the submission dialog by clicking on the button.

The general Deadline options are:

Job Name: The name of your job (if left blank, it will default to "Untitled").
Comment: A simple description of your job (can be left blank).
Department: Your department (can be left blank).
Pool: The pool that your job is submitted to.
Group: The group that your job is submitted to.
Priority: Your job's priority (0 = lowest, 100 = highest).
Machine Limit: The maximum number of machines that can render your job at one time (specify 0 for no limit).
Task Timeout: The number of minutes a slave has to render a task for this job before it requeues it (specify 0 for no limit).
Limit Groups: The limit groups that your job requires.
Job Dependencies: Jobs that your job is dependent on.
Submit As Suspended: Submit your job in the suspended state.
Delete When Complete: You job is automatically deleted after it completes.

The general Maya render options are:

Frame List: The list of frames to render.
Task Size: The number of frames per task.
Camera: Select the camera to render with. Leaving this blank will force Deadline to render using the default camera settings (including multiple camera outputs).
Output Path: The folder where your output will be dumped (this should be a shared folder on the network).
Force Maya Build: For Maya 8 and later, force 32 bit or 64 bit rendering.
Submit Maya Scene File: The Maya file selected will be submitted with the job.

If rendering a normal Maya job, select the Submit Maya Render Job tab and set the following Maya options:

Project Path: The Maya project folder (this should be a shared folder on the notwork).
CPUs To Use: The maximum number of CPUs per machine to render with.
Submit Each Render Layer As A Seperate Job: In Maya 7 and later, you can submit each layer in your scene as a seperate job.
Render Half Frames: If checked, frames will be split into two using a step of 0.5. Note that frame 0 will save out images 0 and 1, frame 1 will save out images 2 and 3, frame 2 will save out images 4 and 5, etc.
User MayaBatch Plugin: This uses our new MayaBatch plugin that keeps the scene loaded in memory between frames, thus reducing the overhead of rendering the job. This plugin is no longer considered experimental.
Tile Rendering: Set up a tile rendering job.

If rendering a Mental Ray Export job, select the Submit Mental Ray Export Job tab and set the following Mental Ray export options:

Output File: The full filename of the Mental Ray files that will be exported. Padding is handled automatically by the exporter.
Export Settings: This opens up the Mental Ray export settings dialog where you can configure the remaining of the settings. Note that this dialog must be open when you submit the job to Deadline.

Click the Submit Job button to submit the job to Deadline.