Lighting and rendering... that's all I'll be doing for the next few days.
Based on initial calculations, it looks like render times are hovering between 5 to 15 minutes per frame (at 15 frames per second). We do have 3 similarly-built systems over here... 2 of which were donated to us months back, so as long as they don't reach memory ceilings or explode I can divide up the renders somewhat to reduce calculation times.
For reference, episode 5.3 will be approximately 6 minutes long. At 15 frames per second, that means 5,400 frames. So, somewhere between 450 and 1350 machine hours are required to make this episode happen.
Below is just some dev commentary. More to come!
Osuka
wow, i think thats a lot of time for rendering. What processor are you using to render? and what software you use for 3D?
Tanadrine-Studios (Updated )
It is! To be specific, that is 5-15 minutes divided by 3.
Software: Lightwave 3d.
For post production, I will be utilizing Blender for final touchups and stuff. I'm trying to gradually figure out a decent workflow for render passes in Lightwave (it isn't built in, you need a plugin for it)... i've just barely begun to explore that and there is still a ton of stuff I don't know about 3d production. I came into the 3d realm originally as a 2d animator/media artist.
Hardware: This is being done on three Athlon 64 x2 6000 processors. They were top of the line about 10 years ago around the time I purchased my main working system. I suppose I could take the pentium 4 out of the closet but I don't know if the effort required to set it up would be worth it.
I should also mention I am using 21-pass motion blur to soften the movement in scenes that require it. Though I'm using Blender for post, I really, really need to get my hands on better video editing tools that can handle alpha masks and allow me to work more visually. I could also circumvent some of the render burden by doing certain effects in post instead of straight through Lightwave if I had the software for it.