Aftereffects on Gridiron?

[t-toe]

wow, sounds cool... too bad it doesn't affect preview speeds so far. maybe they'll figure it out before the release?

[Ikarus]

Doesn't Digital Fusion already have the ability to interactively render across a network for previews, tools, etc? Or is this something completely different?

[gmask]

Originally posted by Ikarus
Doesn't Digital Fusion already have the ability to interactively render across a network for previews, tools, etc? Or is this something completely different?

I dunno I thought this was an article about after effects ;-)

[Ikarus]

I dunno I thought this was an article about after effects ;-)
Yeah, I was just wondering if it was the same thing. Because I was kinda of confused the firt time I read about Digital Fusion's render node.

[gmask]

Originally posted by Ikarus
Yeah, I was just wondering if it was the same thing. Because I was kinda of confused the firt time I read about Digital Fusion's render node.

Do you mean that Digital Fusion is also going to or is supporting Gridiron? I guess the idea is that it should be easy for devlopers to provide this kind of network render support rather than having to write their own network render software from scratch.

[ggg]

Originally posted by gmask
I dunno I thought this was an article about after effects ;-)

"bringing the concept of grid computing to a commercial desktop application for perhaps the first time. "

[Lorecanth]

Digital Fusion already does this... I've heard of people putting a 40 stack of render boxes into que, and getting realtime HD compositing. After Effects rendering engine being so slow in comparison to all the other big boys, would mean you'd have to put some serious muscle behind it to get anything worthwile.

[gmask]

Why is this turning into a software versus software thread?

The importance of Gridiron is that it should make it easy for any program on the Mac to have network rendering.

I don't even use the Mac so I don't really care but I thought it was interesting anyway.

Besides that DF doesn't run on the Mac does it?

[BillB]

Originally posted by t-toe
wow, sounds cool... too bad it doesn't affect preview speeds so far. maybe they'll figure it out before the release?

Yeah, that would be sweet.
Not so sweet - you'll only be able to use two other machines, additionals will need to be licenced ie more $$

[BillB]

Hmm - now that I read it again, it does say "reducing the time it takes to preview and render effects" so maybe it will work with previews/interactively?

[Lorecanth]

Its not a software against software thing. Its a people being unwilling to learn new tools to improve their art thing. I learned shake becasue after effects was holding me back and I learned DF becasue it had features that shake didn't.

AE is fine for creating the graphic of the week. But lets face it if you're in the position to put the machines behind AE to get it to behave properly, you should be using better software.

[gmask]

Originally posted by Lorecanth
AE is fine for creating the graphic of the week. But lets face it if you're in the position to put the machines behind AE to get it to behave properly, you should be using better software.

Is there something wrong with doing graphic of the week? I guess anyoen who doesn't do film work is lesser than.. is that what you mean? If you can network render with some other program how is that any different?

[Lorecanth]

nothing wrong at all with doing graphic of the week. I do them myself on occasion for freelance. The problem is when you quit asking if there's a better way to do it, and take the answers that are just handed to you.

People wonder why the commercials that are handled on inferno's are winning awards. The simple reason is you don't ask a painter to only use 1 sized brush.

[gmask]

Originally posted by Lorecanth
nothing wrong at all with doing graphic of the week. I do them myself on occasion for freelance. The problem is when you quit asking if there's a better way to do it, and take the answers that are just handed to you.

People wonder why the commercials that are handled on inferno's are winning awards. The simple reason is you don't ask a painter to only use 1 sized brush.

Well if the average client could pay 900 an hour then we'd all use Inferno's but .. AFAIK the inferno has a particular feature set.. it may not be a size 1 brush but it doesn't have the same brushes as other programs. The artist makes the art not the brush.

Oh and plenty of commercials have won awards that weren't done on on an inferno.. for one thing you're giving credit to the inferno for good cinematography writing and acting.

At any rate for whatever reason this is still comparing software.

[Lorecanth]

Well thats why I point people toward packages that are more affordable and still provide a better tool set. Come on the basic version of AE doesn't even have the tracker. And no not all clients can afford 900 an hour, but that hasn't in my experiance stopped them from wanting their spot looking like 900 an hour.

Really why are people even getting upset over this ? We all know it comes down to talent, and smart buisness decisions. And sadly thats again what this topic looks like it has dissovled into again. People trying to justify their price tag based on the pricetag of the software that they use.

It doesn't matter, in my opinion, adobe is a copy cat ripping features that have been around for 5 or more years in other packages. Adobe wants to do that , fine. I just have a problem with them sounding the horns and saying WE INVENTED THIS!!! and then gauging our community for another upgrade.

[sdg0919]

The gridiron technology that they are employing is NOT the same as network rendering. It's more along the line of message passing, meaning that a single interactive process is split between several cpu's on different machines. The effect is approximately additive, so if you have 10x2 GHz machines your effective computing power is 20 GHz. The technology itself isn't new but the use of it in commercial desktop applications is (for example the Virginia Tech supercomputer, which is just 1100 Dual Mac G5's utilizes a similar process connected by extremely fast networking capabilities).

We utilize message passing applications at my day job routinely (protein crystallography). Bt we have a guy who's sole responsibility is to reprogram applications for message passing. Adobe nor gridioron invented the technology but they are certainly one of the first to bring it to the everyday user.

Dave

[gmask]

Originally posted by Lorecanth
I just have a problem with them sounding the horns and saying WE INVENTED THIS!!! and then gauging our community for another upgrade.

I think you are reading way more into this article than there is and taking it personally. :cry:

[gmask]

Originally posted by BillB
Yeah, that would be sweet.
Not so sweet - you'll only be able to use two other machines, additionals will need to be licenced ie more $$

I have no idea what they will charge for this but other compsiting programs charge for render nodes. Shake for example charges $4k! for Linux render nodes but the OSX ones are free. don;t know if Shake helps with previews. Shake is also 5 times as much for a seat than AE as well as Digital Fusion which charges $400 to $600 per render node. Combustion has free network rendering but it's windows only and I don't know if it helps with previews.

However supposedly with gridiron any of these programs could take advantage of this technology to add this feature to their programs.

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