Your first render with Brender Studio

With the stack deployed, you can now submit your first rendering job. Follow these steps to render your first project with Brender Studio.

Select the Rendering Method
Configure the Rendering Job
Start the Rendering Process
Monitor the Rendering Progress
View Render Logs
Download Your Rendered files

Select the Rendering Method

Decide whether you need to render using the CPU or GPU:

CPU Rendering: Choose this option if you do not require advanced graphical processing capabilities.
GPU Rendering: Select this option for rendering tasks that require intensive GPU usage. Ensure you have sufficient quota in your AWS account to use GPU resources.

GPU Rendering Quotas

To use GPU, make sure to request a quota increase in your AWS account. If you do not have enough quotas, the job will fail due to insufficient resources. More information about GPU quotas can be foundHere.

Configure Render Job

Set up the rendering job with the necessary parameters.

Select Job Type:

Frame
Animation
Custom Python Script

Project Name:

Assign a unique name to identify your rendering job.

Select Your Blender Project

Choose the Blender project you want to render.
Choose File or Folder
Click on the "Select Blender File/Folder" button.
Upload your Blender project (scene.blend file or containing folder) to Brender Studio.

Verify Structure

Ensure that your Blender file is correctly configured and free of errors that could affect the rendering process.
If you have selected a Blender project folder, make sure to choose the specific scene that you wish to be rendered.
Click on the "File Path" dropdown.
Choose the file path to the .blend file you want to render.

Render Settings

Custom Render Settings: Toggle this option to use custom rendering settings for your project.
Auto Render Settings: Use the default rendering settings for your project.

Configure Job Settings

Server Type: Choose between SPOT and ONDEMAND servers.
SPOT: Uses servers based on market availability. Generally more cost-effective, but with lower resource guarantees.
ONDEMAND: Uses servers with constant demand, offering higher reliability but at a higher cost.
Blender Version: Choose the Blender version you want to use for rendering. (Make sure your project is compatible with the selected version.)
Timeout: Set the maximum time allowed for the rendering process to complete.
Job Attempts: Set the number of times the job will be attempted in case of failure.
Array Size Set the number of frames to be rendered simultaneously.(Only available for animations and Python scripts.)

Select vCPUs and Memory

Customize the configuration by specifying the number of vCPUs and memory capacity.
Choose the desired server configuration.
If you are unsure about the server configuration, you can use the default settings.

Review and Submit Job

Once the job is configured, you can review the settings and submit the job.

Review the rendering options to ensure everything is correct.
Click on "Review & Submit" to review and submit the job to the cloud.
The job will be added to the queue and will start rendering once the resources are available.
You can monitor the job status from the Jobs page.

Monitor Render Progress

After you have started the rendering process, you can monitor the progress of the job. This section will guide you on how to check the status of the EC2 instance and the running jobs.

Check Running Jobs

Go to the Render Jobs section
Click on the Running Jobs tab
Here you can view and verify the progress of your job, terminate it if necessary
Review the status of the job to verify that it is in progress.
If the job is running, it means the job is in progress.

Check Running EC2 Instances

In this section, you can verify the status of the EC2 instance for the rendering process and the type of instance that is running.

Go to the Servers (EC2) section
Review the status of the job to verify if it is Running.
If the EC2 Instance is running, it means the job is in progress.

View Render Logs

Once the job is running, you can view the logs to verify the job status and troubleshoot any issues. This section will guide you on how to view the logs of the render job in execution.

View Auto Scaling Logs

Go to the Servers (EC2) section
Review the status of the job to verify if it is running.
If the EC2 instance is running, it means the job is in progress.
Click on Auto Scaling tab.
Here you will see a list of the Auto Scaling Groups associated with the Compute Environment.
Make sure to identify the compute that corresponds to the job you are monitoring.
Example: (On Demand CPU, On Demand GPU, Spot CPU, Spot GPU).
You can click on the View Logs button to see the details and the active logs of Auto Scaling.

AutoScaling Activity Logs

Here you will see the active logs of Auto Scaling but not the render job. If you want to see the in-depth details of Auto Scaling, you can click on theView in AWS Console button and it will redirect you to Auto Scaling Groups AWS Console. Remember that the render logs are in the Job Queue tab section.

Render Logs (CloudWatch)

In this section, you can view the jobs submitted for rendering, their current status, and the associated logs.

The rendering process involves three different jobs. Understanding the job flow is crucial to interpret the job statuses accurately. More information is available in the Jobssection.

Follow the steps below to view the logs:

Navigate to the Render Jobs section.
Click on the Job Queue tab.
Check the status in the Status column.
Verify if the job status is RUNNING.
Types of job statuses:
- Submitted: The job has been submitted and is in the queue.
- Pending: The job is pending execution.
- Runnable: The job is ready to run.
- Starting: The job is starting.
- Running: The job is in progress.
- Succeeded: The job completed successfully.
- Failed: The job failed.
Identify the queue the job belongs to (e.g., OnDemandCPU, OnDemandGPU, SpotCPU, SpotGPU).
Click on the job number corresponding to the job queue.

A dialog will open with the details of the jobs in that queue.
Click on renderJob-YOUR-PROJECT-NAME.
This will take you to the AWS CloudWatch page where you can view the job logs in real time.

In the CloudWatch Panel, click on Log Streams to view the logs.

Here you can see the Blender logs and the progress of your render.

Download Your Rendered Files

Once the job is completed, the result will appear in the Render Project section and you will receive a notification via email. You can download the result as follows:

Go to the Render Projects section and click on the project name you selected for rendering.
Navigate to the /output folder.
Download the folder or individual files according to your requirements.

Render Output Folder Not Available

If the /output folder is unavailable, indicating that the job is either still in progress or has failed. Please wait for the job to complete or check the logs for more details.