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GruvDOne
12-27-2007, 03:57 PM
Hi all,

So, I am wrapping up work on a large project involving MoGraph. I will need to do the final render over a network render (possibly even using an outside renderfarm). I know that Mo, inherently doesn't work with distributed rendering, as the render engine needs data from previous frames. I also know that the solution to that is baking.

My question then is, how exactly does one go about baking MoGraph animations? I have only ever baked an animation once, and it was just a simple Cloth thing. I can ill afford a trial and error period as my deadline approaches, so I look to those of you with more experience in that area to give me some guidance.

TIA
-Will
JoelOtron
12-27-2007, 04:04 PM
All you need to do is add a mograph cache tag to your cloners/generators and check the bake sequence box. This process may take awhile especially if you have multiple generators. You will notice that the file size could also increase substantially as you bake. In the end, once baking is complete, you should be able to scrub your animation in near realtime depending on your scene.

EDIT-
If you have cloners or mograph generators that are dependent on other cloners, you want to determine which cloner would be calculated first and start baking with that one, and so on. For example say you have clones targetting the generated surfaces of an extrude object. You'd want to bake the extrude object before baking the cloner.
Per-Anders
12-27-2007, 05:39 PM
MoGraph inherently *does* work with distributed rendering as the point is that most of it doesn't need any info from the previous frames (that's why you can scrub mograph animations in near realtime unlike with standard particles). The only part that requires previous frame data is the delay effector (or if it's dependent on something that requires previous frame data such as TP or normal Particles).

You can bake a clones/matrix/instance/fracture/text objects mograph particles using the MoGraph Cache tag, just apply it and click the "Bake" button in it's AM window. The one limitation is that you can only bake the top level normally, so you can't e.g. bake a child Cloner of another Cloner, but you can bake the parent.
GruvDOne
12-27-2007, 07:46 PM
Thanks Joel, that sounds pretty easy. *Breathes sigh of relief* Often with this program, as in life, things are not always as simple as the may first seem. Good to know this is an exception ;)

And Per, that's not entirely true. You also need previous frame information for Sound Effectors, Instance Objects, and Tracers. So, there you have 2 Effectors and 2 Objects, all of which require two extra steps to prepare for a distributed render. Thankfully they are a simple two steps, but still.
JoelOtron
12-27-2007, 08:47 PM
Quite familiar with that "sigh of relief" as well as the nervous "gulp" that happens right before that. :) Very common when the deadline creeps in right before a holiday.

Good luck with it.
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