RenderQ

SCAD's digital media blog

CampusResource

Resources at Montgomery Hall

Alexis Behilo

The technologies provided are one of the great things about SCAD besides the amazing professors, collaborative environment, and in-depth learning.SCAD has the latest technology in computers and other equipment. This article breaks down  some of the resources that are present at Montgomery Hall. 

The Cage

The Cage has many resources ranging from board games to light integration kits and cameras. As a student at Montgomery Hall, you’re allowed to check out these resources, but only for a certain amount of time. Additionally, you can check out Monty’s green screen room through The Cage’s website. Here are the check out hours:

Monday (Return Day) 4:00pm – 8:00pm & Thursday (Pickup Day) 1:00 pm – 8:00 pm

All reservations must be made through PIR at least 48 hours before the preferred pickup time.

You can check out resources using this link: https://webcheck-sdm.scad.edu/sso/patron/ 

Join Projects

Do you want to help out with a film or animation? There are many ways for you to find and join group projects. One easy way is to go into Montgomery hall and, near the stairs, there are pin boards with posters on them seeking people to help out with projects. If you want to help out on films, here is a website SCAD has where you can see what projects are going on and how to apply: https://www.scadproductionoffice.com/ 

Computers

The Montgomery building has a range of computers (including Cintiqs) with operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. But sometimes  classes going on at Monty when you want to work, so how do you know which rooms/ computers will be available? To see the schedules of when certain rooms have classes, you can go to the Technology Resources in the SCAD app. Here are the instructions on how to see what computers and rooms are available:

  1. Download and log into the SCAD app on your phone
  2. At the bottom right, click “More”
  3. Scroll down to where it says “Technology Resources” and click it
  4. Choose the academic hall that you want to see what computers/ rooms are empty (for example, scroll down and click Montgomery Hall)
  5. Once you choose a hall, scroll through and see all the rooms in that hall and click “View Schedule” to see that specific room’s schedule of what classes will happen at what times
  6. You can also see resources such as scanners or printers in this section. Additionally, certain rooms with no classes don’t have a “View Schedule” next to the room number.

Here is more information about the SCAD app: https://www.scad.edu/mobile 

The Renderfarm

Are you tired of local renders taking forever and having to leave your computer on for hours? Well, SCAD’s Renderfarm is the solution to that. But, what is a render farm? A render farm is typically a group of high-performing computers that can render computer-generated images. (wikipedia) 

For example, if you’re working on a project in Maya or Houdini, you can send it up to the farm and have it render your scene for you. This way, you can still use your computer to do other things while your file is in the farm rendering. In addition,It is typically much faster than a local render because SCAD’s Renderfarm sends your file to multiple computers in Monty, which they all render around the same time. 

In order to send your files to the farm, you either need to go to MyFile or use Filezilla. Filezilla, an app that uploads files, t is recommended to use because of how fast it is compared to MyFile.

Here is a break down of how to set up Filezilla and use SCAD’s Renderfarm: 

Instructions on how to use Filezilla are made by Professor Fowler and can be found on her website here: https://www.deborahrfowler.com/MiscResources/MiscResources.html 

Image from Deborah Fowler: https://www.deborahrfowler.com/MiscResources/MiscResources.html

Once you have downloaded Filezilla, it is the exact same as MyFile, and you can navigate it as such. 

How to upload files for rendering:

  1. In order to render on the render farm, you need to upload your files in Filezilla in their project folder
  2. When you click the “RenderFarm” folder in either MyFile or Filezilla, drag and drop your Houdini or Maya project folder into that folder
  3. IMPORTANT
    1. Your project folder should be set up correctly with the correct paths. For example,  a Maya project,  should go as such: The folder with your project name, inside of that a folder for “scenes” with the scene you want to render, and a folder for “source images” with any images you may be using
  4. Once your project folder is uploaded, you can then render on the farm.

How to access the RenderFarm:

  1. To access the Renderfarm go here: https://render.scad.edu/ 
  2. Once on the website, click either “Submit Job” or “Start Rendering!” 
  3. If you set up your project folders correctly and if they are uploaded on MyFile/Filezilla, then you should see something like this if you are uploading a Maya file (for Houdini files, it will be .hipnc):
  4. Select the scene you want to render from the dropdown bar, then click “Select.”
  5. This will bring you to a page that will look like this (if you are uploading a Maya file, for Houdini, it will look different): 
  1. Here you will choose how many frames you want to render (the max is 100)
  2. Then you will choose the rest of the dropdowns shown below.
  3. The best setup is this:
    1. Minimum number of cores per render node: 0
    2. Minimum amount of RAM per render node: 0
    3. Renderer Requires GPU?: false
  4. Click Render, and it will start rendering!
  5. Go to your “Dashboard,” and you can see your file rendering, when it started, how much time per frame, and when it finishes. 

Accessing your rendered files from the farm

  1. You need to go back to MyFile/Filezilla to get your frames back from the farm.
  2. There will be a new folder in the “RenderFarm” folder that should say something like “Job12345” 
  3. Click the job folder, and there will be your files; all you have to do is download this “Job” folder from MyFile/Filezilla, and you will have access to your files!

The days of leaving your computer on all night to render or asking around to see if friends have a camera you can use are finally over. With all of the resources SCAD has, you are sure to find some that you can utilize to your best ability. Have fun utilizing the technologies SCAD has available, because they’re here for us to use!