Group thesis projects have some unique challenges when it comes to keeping project files in sync, rendering projects with many dependencies, and pulling the final results together. If you are a part of a group thesis project, there are some new and ongoing opportunities to help with your group workflows that you may want to get acquainted with.
What Is a Shared Thesis Space?
A group thesis project share can be requested for those working on a group thesis project. This shared space allows for users to exchange files, keep projects in sync, etc. To request such a space, first discuss with your instructor and they will let you know how to request a shared thesis space.
Rendering From Your Thesis Shared Space
You can access to your shared thesis space to send files to the Ringling rendering cluster. Read this entire page to understand key details in rendering from your thesis shared space.
Only utilize this service if all group thesis members are willing to take time to test this out as a part of your thesis rendering process setup. It's going to take understanding and discipline by all group members to allow this to workflow to be a productive one for your group. and test early and often for all group members.
Granting Access To Group Members To View Your Output Directories
Rendering your files in the cluster and so are your partners? Want to grab frames from their output share? This can aid group members that are bringing their rendering results together for editing in Nuke or Premiere. You can if you request group output share access for the cluster. Send a request to render@ringling.edu with thesis name and usernames of each group member to get this feature enabled.
Important Details When Rendering From a Thesis Share In the Cluster
- ALL thesis share members MUST mount the SAME letter drive. Failing to do so WILL result in severe issues.
- Do NOT change the letter drive associated with your thesis share. Doing so WILL result in severe issues.
- Shares MUST be mapped as all lower case in order to cache correctly during render submission - e.g. \\thesis\thesis_myshare
- In your thesis share, you should have 2 folders. The first is your maya project. The second is for frames. Do NOT store frames in your maya project. Doing so will dramatically slow your render job submission process.
- Do not submit a job that references files from both your homespace and thesis shares. Make sure EVERY relevant file is in the share you are rendering from; otherwise, the cluster will be unable to find your files.
- Make sure your Maya project is set to the correct project in the thesis share
We encourage you to do testing early on with thesis share rendering to avoid confusion when deadlines are approaching.