Misclenaous

Miscellaneous

Batch Rendering

Autodesk Maya can be configured to launch from the command line, without the GUI (graphical user interface). In order to render sequences using FurryBall in such setting, you will need to prepare a very simple script that will tell Maya what to do.

Command to run Maya in command line is following:

maya -prompt -noAutoloadPlugins -file "FILE_TO_RENDER" -command "COMMANDS"

See Maya documentation for understanding. In short:

maya (maya.exe) is executable application. If your system doesn't know this command, you must use absolute path (for example: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2011/bin/maya.exe) or you must add Maya location path to system path environment variable.
Instead of maya you can use mayabatch (application will run in current command line), see Maya documentation for difference.
-prompt attribute is for command line running of Maya
-noAutoloadPlugins attribute say that don't be auto-load any plug-ins
-file attribute say Maya, what file will be opened. Instead this, you can use opening scene by file mel command in -command attribute.
-command attribute have all commands, which will be call after Maya start

For FurryBall rendering you must have created FurryBall Output Settings Node in each scene. If you want to set some attributes like output filename, you must set it before this command by:

setAttr -type "string" furryBallOutputSettings.outFileName "C:/outputFiles####";

For rendering you must call:

python("fbRenderSequence('furryBallOutputSettings')");

After rendering, you can close Maya by:

quit -f;

The whole command line command is following:

maya -prompt -noAutoloadPlugins -file "C:/testScene.mb" -command "setAttr -type \"string\" furryBallOutputSettings.outFileName \"C:/outputFiles####\";python(\"fbRenderSequence('furryBallOutputSettings')\");quit -f;"

Note that character " (double quote) in command must be replaced by \" (backslash + double quote) because it is inside other quotes.

Some FurryBall Functions and Structures

Following is a list of Python FurryBall functions, which are exposed to Maya users after initializing the plug-in.

def fbRenderSequence(node):

- Function for rendering to file.

- Parameter node must be existing and valid name of FurryBall Output Settings Node (see Output Settings Node for details).

- Example:

fbRenderSequence('furryBallOutputSettings')

def fbRender(node, renderParams = fbRenderParams()):

- Function for rendering to file.

- Parameter node must be existing and valid name of FurryBall Output Settings Node (see Output Settings Node for details).

- Parameter renderParams is optional and must be type of fbRenderParams (see class fbRenderParams for details).

- Example:

renderParams = fbRenderParams() //new class instance

renderParams.startFrame = 10 //override start frame to frame 10

startFrame.endFrame = 20 //override end frame to frame 20

fbRender('furryBallOutputSettings', renderParams)

def fbSavePreviousFrameGeometryForMB(node):

- Function for generating geometry for Motion Blur (see Render Settings Node for details) one frame before sequence start.

- Parameter node must be existing and valid name of FurryBall Output Settings Node (see Output Settings Node for details).

- Example:

fbSavePreviousFrameGeometryForMB('furryBallOutputSettings')

def fbSavePreviousFrameGeometry(node, renderParams = fbRenderParams()):

- Function for generating geometry for Motion Blur (see Render Settings Node for details) one frame before sequence start.

- Parameter node must be existing and valid name of FurryBall Output Settings Node (see Output Settings Node for details).

- Parameter renderParams is optional and must be type of fbRenderParams (see class fbRenderParams for details). Not all members are used.

- Example:

renderParams = fbRenderParams() //new class instance

renderParams.startFrame = 10 //override start frame to frame 10

fbSavePreviousFrameGeometry('furryBallOutputSettings', renderParams)

class fbRenderParams():

- Class for overriding attributes in FurryBall Output Settings Node (see Output Settings Node for more details). If some class member is set to None, it will use value from FurryBall Output Settings Node, otherwise the adjusted value.

- All members are set to None by default.

- Members:

startFrame - integer value with start frame of sequence.

endFrame - integer value with end frame of sequence.

gammaEnumIndex - integer value with index to Gamma Correction enum field:

0 = Default (Automatic)

1 = Gamma 0.43 (1/2.3)

2 = Gamma 0.45 (1/2.2)

3 = Gamma 0.55 (1/1.8)

4 = Gamma 1.0 (no correction)

5 = Gamma 1.8

6 = Gamma 2.2

7 = Gamma 2.3

formatEnumIndex - integer value with index to Image Format enum field:

0 = DDS

1 = TIFF

2 = PNG

3 = JPG

4 = BMP

5 = EXR

stereoEnumIndex - integer value with index to Gamma Correction enum field:

0 = Derive from render node

1 = Left + Right in separate files

1 = Left + Center + Right in separate files

1 = Left + Right in OpenEXR

1 = Left + Center + Right in OpenEXR

exrChannelsEnumIndex - integer value with index to OpenEXR Channels enum field:

0 = RGBA

1 = RGBA + Depth

2 = RGBA + AO

3 = RGBA + Depth + AO

4 = RGB

5 = RGB + Depth

6 = RGB + Depth + AO

7 = Current Output Layer

width - integer value with screen width.

height - integer value with screen height.

fileName - string value with output file path.

renderSequence - boolean value says if will be rendered sequence or only single frame.

camera - string value with camera name.

renderNodes - string array with list of render nodes names.

savePreviousFrameGeometry - boolean value says if will be generated previous frame (startFrame - 1) geometry for motion blur or not.

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