Update 7/29/2019:  Omar's new scene is ready to render and already underway on SheepIt. If you're part of the CG Cookie Render Monsters team, we'd appreciate you launching the SheepIt app on your computer to contribute. NOTE: Make sure on your SheepIt account "Options" you enable Render my team's projects first. Thanks!
Update 7/18/2019: Omar is polishing new scenes.
Update 7/3/2019: Omar has 2 new files ready for rendering. Let's do dis.
Update 7/1/2019: We have finished rendering two of Omar's reel projects. Way to go community. Omar still has several to prep for rendering. I'm going to unpin this thread and re-pin once it's ready to render again.
Update 6/17/2019: Omar has updated his shared project folder with new scenes to render. It was accidentally uploaded as a new folder so if you've already synced the previous folder, you can delete that one (if it's still there) and you'll have to sync this new one. From now on we know how to avoid this so no more re-syncing.
The time to render is now!
Update 6/16/2019: We've finished Omar's first 2 scenes! Way to go People ðð Thanks to everyone for contributing. Now we're waiting for Omar to setup and upload his next scene.
@theluthier Kent after comparing the original Cycles renders and Element 3D real time ones, I think you are right, rendering it out of Cycles is totally worth going the extra mile for. Although you and Lampel said it was great, that it's 95% there, for a second I saw a twinkle in your eyes saying "C'mon dude, you know it, I know it... there is no spoon." And then the twinkle continued "No one eats an Oreo and doesn't go all the way to the stuffing in the middle, the cookie part is just enough". I see what you mean twinkle.
I didn't want to bother people though, but I guess if I'm going to try this there's no way around that. I don't know how to use Drop Box, I've never used it before. Should I get an account? I hope it's enough space. I remember you kinda set things up in a similar way in the Rendering & Finishing A Blender Animation course. I should re-watch that. I have never done things through the internet so this should be a learning experience.
I, Kent Trammell, am commandeering Omar's original post! [evil laugh] I'm the one that encouraged Omar to reach out to the community for helping him render his demo reel. My computer just sits collecting dust most nights and I'm happy to lend some rendering power to this project while I'm asleep. I suspect that there are a number of CGC community members willing to do the same ð
If you want to help out, please follow the instructions below!
The status of the project will be stated and updated at the end of the thread title in brackets. When it says "READY TO RENDER" that means a project has been submitted to SheepIt for rendering. If it says anything else, the project isn't ready for rendering yet.
The status of the project will be stated and updated at the end of the thread title in brackets. When it says "READY TO RENDER" that means it's ready to sync the project folder and start rendering. If it says anything else, the project isn't ready for rendering yet.
STEP 1 -- Sync Omar's project folder to your Google Drive.
If you have a gmail account, you have 15 GB of free Google Drive space. Just click the link and when you're redirected to the Google Drive website, right click on the "Demo Reel Files" folder and choose Add to My Drive.
If you're on Mac or Windows, use the official Google Drive app (personal version) to sync your Google Drive to your computer's file system.
Render_Scenes_1_Packed.blend
If you're on Linux like me, there is no official app. I've had some success with Open Drive but it seems to have stopped syncing on my system. I'm currently using  Insync and it's working beautifully. It's $30 after the 15 day trial period, which I will likely pay.
STEP 2 --Â Open one of the render-ready .blends with Blender 2.8
After the project folder has finished syncing *entirely* to your computer, launch Blender 2.8Â and open Demo Reel Files > Blend Packed Files > Render_2.8-Scene_1_Packed.blend. Then follow Omar's instructions in the file for CPU or GPU rendering, whichever your machine is best equipped.
Enable viewport rendering to double check the scenes look fine (no pink from missing textures). I've tested these files myself and they should be ready to render without problems.
STEP 3 -- Render the Animation
The files should all be setup properly so anyone that opens them doesn't have to do anything but click the Render button.
That should be all you need to do to contribute rendering to Omar's project! Note that these scenes are heavy and can take an hour or more per frame, even on a high end machine, which is why Omar needs our help.
When the rendering is all done (or you need to stop and regain your own GoogleDrive space), simply navigate to the Google Drive website, right click on the folder and choose "Remove".
sheila5 I appreciate you going through the trouble of troubleshooting this and not just giving up, Sheila. Thank you. Â
I have a GTX 1070 in my Laptop. 6GB of Ram on the GPU I think, perhaps it's 8GB I don't remember well.Â
What rig do you have? Do you mind posting your stats?
That is weird, that jump in render time. It has stayed the same in all 4 computers I'm rendering.Â
The only thing I know is going to System Preferences and enable the GPU you have. Your GPU shouldn't be greyed out, even if you don't have enough RAM for the scene, it doesn't go grey. Maybe your video card needs a drivers update?
EDIT: Well now that I think about it, the jump in render time probably is because you were rendering on the GPU first and now on your CPU?
dostovel dammit I was typing a long reply with screenshots and then the page reloadedd (or I pressed the backbutton or something). Mine says cuda not opencl.
 It appears that I can use the cpu even though it is greyed out! but it's even slower and still uses cpu weird enough
scene 1 takes less time then scene 2
I'm waiting on your reply if the 'center' thing is not an issue
sheila5 I'm on a Mac right now, that is why it says OpenCL, in my home laptop it says CUDA as well. I think that has to do with the Video Card maker, in CUDA case is NVidia. is it the CPU or GPU that is greyed out for you?
The "Experimental" setting were for the Toyota scenes, this scene is a different one. That settings have been the same ever since I uploaded it. The render time is probably because you were rendering with your GPU and now you are doing so with your CPU. The problem is why can't you now not render with your video card?
Try updating your card drivers. That's the only thing I can think of right now.Â
sheila5 I was looking info on the internet on your video card because I remembered Pablo saying some video cards are having problems in Blender, but I think it had to do with 2.8. But I assume you are rendering in 2.79b?
But 1 hour of render time with a CPU for one of those scenes is quite good. That's what my laptop hits with the CPU, with the GPU it was down to 25 minutes. Kent super Linux Luke computer was doing 45 minutes on the CPU and 6 minutes on the GPU I think it was, if I remember correctly.Â
Neither the Toyota scene or this black car one would do 15 minutes on the CPU I guess, that's some GPU power there.Â
The Center rendering thing makes no difference at all, that just decides the direction of the render buckets.Â
The only mistery remaning is why your GPU is grayed out. Do you have any other version of Blender installed? like 2.78 or something and see if that one recognizes your video card? Â
The test video of the result is on the folder with the other ones on Google Drive.
I'll delete from Drive the EXR from scene 1 and delete the .blend as well. Tomorrow here is a holiday so I'll leave the computers at work doing the renders for scene 2. Hopefully it'll turn out ok because there will be no way to stop them until friday.Â
We've been rendering non stop for a week, if someone wants go ahead and take a break.
In the mean time, I've got some frames to catch
@theluthier You mean muy caliente, unless you mean very fire.  ð€£
Kent tell me something... I've notice another quirk of Google Drive. I leave the laptop turned on here at home so it keeps syncing when I'm not here. So when I get home I see the Drive Icon and it shows as if it's up to date, but it's really not, and it's not until I enter the folder to see if all the files are there that it begins to sync. I can be hours on the laptop but it start to sync WHEN I enter the folder to look at files. It's like a bad employee that falls asleep on the job and gets startled when the boss enters the room and pretends he's been working all along.Â
So my question is, does Drop Box do all these things we've notice Google Drive does? cuz this is the source of all the duplicate files we encounter. Â Â
sheila5 I google the problem. I found this:
"You have to make sure to not only select CUDA but also the correct video card. In the Settings in the "Cycles Compute Device" section it displays (if CUDA is selected) the available video cards. These appear to be able to be selected, so if one is selected the background gets darker. If I select my video card, the rendering device option inst grayed out anymore and the rendering process, if GPU Compute is selected, speeds up by a noticeable amount"
According to what I've read, in the compute devices in system under system preferences, you have your card connected to a monitor, so it should give you two drop downs, and you have to make sure you select the card that is also not using that reads (Display) at the end. Â
dostovel This is the first render-syncing project I've done with Google Drive and I'm starting to think it (and its apps) aren't as polished as Dropbox. CGC uses dropbox for syncing all our files, including crew render sessions like we're doing with your reel scenes, and we never have these issues.
But it's also 15 free GB on Google Drive vs 2 GB on dropbox. So I guess the quirks are more of an annoyance than a show-stopper.
@theluthier Yes, it's not a deal breaker since the amount of gigabytes has been enough so far, but now I know for whatever may come in the future that Drop Box is better. Though shame on you Google because I could've been paying for the service and it would've been very disappointing then.
@theluthier What happened to the files? there's no .blends anywhere to render and the first 38 EXR are gone? was there an error and everything had to be deleted?Â
Now I wonder what's going to happen with the computers at my work place, I left them rendering and I can't access them until tomorrow.Â
dostovel Hey Omar, mine is still rendering even though the blend file is gone. I think so long as the computer had it open it is still rendering. Do you want me to save the blend file I have open into the correct folder?
phoenix4690 Thanks Phil, I thought of copying them back, but then I figured I'd wait for Kent, maybe he deleted them for some reason, maybe he saw a mistake or something, like they had the mark of Saruman in them and had to be sacrificed.Â
dostovel phoenix4690 Yikes..I did not delete anything. Could have been an accidental deletion by anyone sharing the folder I guess. I checked the Activity log on Google Drive and no one is listed as having deleted it, at least not in the amount of activity it records (stops around 1am my time).
I did notice this weird entry though:
I certainly didn't created these folder...so something could have hiccuped I guess. And surprisingly, Google Drive doesn't maintain version histories of folders for deleted files from folders. It only keeps a version history of *existing files*. That's a major strike against Google Drive since Dropbox does keep versions of a folder's files (even the ones that have been deleted).
That's a bummer. Go ahead and restore what you can, Omar. Did you happen to transfer 1-38 EXR's before Saruman stole them?
 
