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wedge
05-30-2002, 11:02 PM
I'm rendering out some animations simultaneously on other computers in the lab.. (trying to, anyway). However, all textures are invisible because the first computer i'm rendering on has all the files and the computer i'm trying to render on now has none of them.

for example: Computer 1 is rendering shot 14/52. I want computer 2 to render shot 15/52. So I load up the files through the network, but it says "Texture file D:/Project/Textures/Texture1.jpg doesn't exist." I would normally just move the texture folder over, but this computer doesn't have a D drive. This scene has easily 60 textures, and I really am not in the mood to relink them all. is there a fast way to do redirect Maya to the textures?
ACFred
05-30-2002, 11:33 PM
Hey there,

In this instance, you want to make sure that all of your file textures are referenced "relatively," meaning that the directory the texture node is looking at is relative to the location of your project directory and not the hard drive.

An example:

You have D:/Project/Textures/Texture1.jpg and it probably says just that in your texture node.

Instead, it should say "/Textures/Texture1.jpg". This way, it doesn't matter if you have your project on drive D:, E:, F: or whatever. There are a couple of texture updating utilities on highend3d.com. Take a look there or, if you only have a couple of textures to update, do it manually.

Hope that helps.
svenip
05-31-2002, 07:38 AM
you could also connect the "old" computer via network and ssign the drive letter D to it. so no need to copy. you then have the same structure like on the old one and no duplicate on the "new" one.
ACFred
05-31-2002, 08:13 AM
Agreed, but for the most efficient, workable, pipeline I think that relative referencing is the way to go unless you have some sort of software, such as Smedge -- I use Smedge and it's great!

With Smedge, though, you're right that setting up like named drives is necessary.

More than likely, Will doesn't have access that allows him to change the drive letters on the school hard drives.

Either way. It all comes down to personal preference and administrator rights.
svenip
05-31-2002, 12:29 PM
yes right. a render management programm is always a good idea. there are some free out there and they're really good.

i also like smedge. :thumbsup:
wedge
05-31-2002, 03:01 PM
if you could tell me how to connect one computer as a "hard drive" of sorts on the other computer, i'm sure i could have it set up that way. The lab administrators have been helping me out a lot on this project.
svenip
05-31-2002, 05:18 PM
on the windows desktop right click your computer symbol. there is an option to connect other computers to yours. first you need to make the D-drive on your "old" computer accessible for other computers. (i have the german version here so i can't tell you what the commands name in english is) but if you right click on the drive letter you can give free the drive. then on the "new" computer you can connect and assign the connection to a drive letter (D in your case). then you will have the same partition with the same drive letter available on your computer.
wedge
05-31-2002, 08:53 PM
thanks svenip!
ME3D
05-31-2002, 10:08 PM
wgeddes,
No reason you cant use smedge to ease in this as well. I have found it helps when im at home and still on a network to make the local drive as mentioned before and access textures and scene files from that one location.

Then load smedge on each computer(its free in single mode)>Setup your render through smedge>then open the smedge file on each file and change the frames to be rendered. Much less work.
Tips for small production from garry....lol
Have a good week end guys...cya
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