Long Animation Render Times

I am currently working on rendering a ~30 second animation at 720x404. I understand that rendering an animation is a very involved process, but my computer (specs below) will take about 30 hours to complete this animation. This seems excessive to me.

Are there any suggested settings or any other ideas to help improve the performance of the animation render process?

Computer specs:
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
6gb Memory (need to get more)
Dual CPU - Intel Xeon E5504 @ 2.00ghz.

Thanks,
-cs

NOTE: I tried to attach the model but the system wouldnt let me.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 4, 2011 at 9:45am

Animations can take a long time to produce.

30 seconds at 24 frames per second would require 720 renderings.

When you render just one scene - see how long it takes - if it take 3 minutes - then the ful animation will take 3 * 720 / 60 - or 36 hours.

Here are a few tips:

You can make the screen size smaller
You can render for fewer passes
You can use fewer frames per seconds
You can make the model less complex

And, of course, you can purchase one of those dual processor, 12 core computers which will run more than 6 times faster.

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Permalink Reply by Simon Loisel-Goudreau on May 4, 2011 at 10:03am

As posted a bit before and it was also something I asked a while ago, memory aren't the most important part when rendering.

With 6gb you should be alright, the most important part is actually your processor.

Here is a link to another topic where nb of cores and speed actually show the percentage things will be done faster:

http://irendernxt.com/forum/topics/what-is-the-best-processor-for

And for that dual six core processor Al was talking about, it cost as much as hell but its worth it if you think you really need it.

comparing you current processor vs it, results are:

Dual CPU - Intel Xeon E5504 @ 2.00ghz = 100% time

Dual Six Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X5690, 3.46GHz = 9.63% time needed for same work

This is actually just nb of cores x speed and doesn't count in the side advantages or disavantages of other parts, which is still around 90% faster anyway.

Hope it helps out!

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 4, 2011 at 10:22am

If you have 1GB of RAM - then it is a big problem. But with a 64-bit processor and at least 4GB RAM it is very rarely a problem.

Once RAM is out of play, then the total number of cores is directly related to speed.

But, of course, model size and the number of lights, etc. is also a large factor.

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Permalink Reply by Chip Stapleton on May 4, 2011 at 11:30am

It looks like the calculations were done assuming I had 2 cores, when I have 8. The 12 core will still be faster than my current set up, but I think it would be closer to 50-60%.

I seem to recall a render farm option for iRender nxt. This would be a good option right now, however I do not see it currently under your products. Is this product available still?

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 4, 2011 at 12:53pm

You are right - you won't much from a faster machine.

(But the rest of us can dream)

You will have to speed things up some other way - or wait the 30 hours.

I don't believe we have the Farm working with animations yet.

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Permalink Reply by Chip Stapleton on May 6, 2011 at 8:15am

Is that something that is planned?

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 6, 2011 at 8:39am

It is not a top priority, because there has not been much feedback on the Render Farm.

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Permalink Reply by Chip Stapleton on May 6, 2011 at 8:58am

If you need an alpha/beta, I would be more than happy.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Silvy on May 23, 2011 at 1:05am

I have a similar problem...trying to animate a 28mb model of a City Centre. Reduced the frame rate down to 15ps, 4 passes etc etc and the animation is still going 90 hours later! it seems to get stuck and then gets going again after sitting idle for hours and hours!!!

Really cant simplify the model so what should i do?

I have a HP Z200 Xeon X3470 with 4gb RAM and Nvidia Quatro 600...

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 23, 2011 at 7:59am

You don't mention the number of cores. Does you processor have multiple cores.

Does the animation tell you what % completion it is at, or how long it predicts it will take to finish?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Silvy on May 23, 2011 at 5:28pm

Hi Al,

I have restarted it and it gets stuck again at 'Frame 32/331 Reading Batch File: 1,150,000 11.3%'...

If i wait long enough, i.e. a few days, it kicks in again...

PC is a quad core...

thanks,

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on May 23, 2011 at 5:35pm

Is it just plain stuck. (While it ie rendering each scene, it usually shows it progress in passes and in vertical line numbers between passes).

Are you changing layers between animation scenes? If so, is it stopping at a place where it has to load a new scene? (When you change layers we have to load all the geometry for the new to load the changed and/or new layers)

It looks like it is stuck while reading the batch file for the new layer.

Can you bring up the Task Manager and make sure that you are not running out of RAM.

Yuu can upload the model to us if you like - either use the Upload Tab above, or send it to support@renderplus.com - and we will take a look