Animation (prepass) : Stop and continue later ?

[rikou]

I think I have to start a new thread for this purpose...

Well, I'm fighting with animation (prepass) & (rendering)... ATM my prepass is not finished, I just want to know if I can stop it and then continue later.
If yes, how can I deal with LC ? Is there any trick I could have to do before restarting my render prepass ?

Thanks a lot for your advices !!

[rikou]

Mmmm... ? No one can tell anything about that trick ??

[Rens]

You can stop and start the prepass at any time as it's just going through the animation per frame. Animation Rendering then blends together a number of those frames.
LC you can stop as well when saving frames. Both you can start and stop like you would a rendering.

[rikou]

Thanks Rens !!
I have a doubt about LC in fact.
With "use cam path" and "single frame" mode, I was thinking that LC have to be shoot for the entire cam path. Am I right ?
So if I start again my prepass, should I have to reload my LC before to continue my prepass ?
In fact, how can I "cumulate" my second part LC with my first part LC in order to have a LC pass for the entire cam path ?




Sorry for my newbie and terrible questions !!! It's the first time I have to work with animation (prepass) & (rendering)...

[rikou]

Sorry to insist but I'm on a very tight deadline. :/

I would greatly appreciate if someone can tell me how to do step by step to restart my prepass without losing all my IR and LC that I already have render.

My scene is a corridor with just one window. The beginning is by night, it lit by ceiling lights. Then my ceiling lights turn off gradually and my sun is moving until to be in a daylight

Thanks a lot

[svetlozar.draganov]

Well, I'm fighting with animation (prepass) & (rendering)... ATM my prepass is not finished, I just want to know if I can stop it and then continue later.
If yes, how can I deal with LC ? Is there any trick I could have to do before restarting my render prepass ?

Thanks a lot for your advices !!

Yes it is possible to stop it and continue later. It is important to know the last calculated frame before stopping the render cause when you decide to resume it you should change the start frame to be last-calculated frame + 1.

I have a doubt about LC in fact.
With "use cam path" and "single frame" mode, I was thinking that LC have to be shoot for the entire cam path. Am I right ?
So if I start again my prepass, should I have to reload my LC before to continue my prepass ?
In fact, how can I "cumulate" my second part LC with my first part LC in order to have a LC pass for the entire cam path ?

When Light Cache is set to Single Frame it is calculated for each frame of the animation. Camera Path means that the Light Cache samples will be fired not only from the current frame position of the camera but from the entire path-positions. So for each frame LC fires a new samples from many positions of the camera - every frame is a separated/unique GI solution and there is no need to reload anything beforehand in order to resume the calculations.

In general you can stop and resume the animation(when IM is in Animation Mode and LC is Single Frame) at any time and the only thing you need to know is from which frame you should resume it in order to avoid calculating already calculated frames or skip not-calculated ones.

[rikou]

Sorry sorry sorry and sorry (again !) to insist but please.... is there anybody here who can help me ?

[Rens]

Just continue where you stopped, if you need to render frames 1000 to 1500 and you stopped at 1200 then just render at 1200 - 1500. Make sure you set IM to animation prepass and LC to single frame, both with us cam path off. Render with IM as Anim Render and LC From File.

[rikou]

Just continue where you stopped, if you need to render frames 1000 to 1500 and you stopped at 1200 then just render at 1200 - 1500. Make sure you set IM to animation prepass and LC to single frame, both with us cam path off. Render with IM as Anim Render and LC From File.

Thanks a lot Rens !


But wtf ? I started with "use cam path on" as it said here http://help.chaosgroup.com/vray/help...ials_anim2.htm
Why I have to uncheck it now ?


Perhaps I misunderstand but If I don't use this, at the end, I will have a single frame LC no ?
Anyway, If I restart with "use cam path on" for LC, I will save over the old one ? So what's happened for the first frames ??
And for my IM, if I uncheck "use path cam", this will save a different IM at every frame no ? I mean I will have different cam rays at each frame... That's what I don't want...


Wooo ! It's for all that reason I don't understand how can I stop and restart later....

[Rens]

If you have no animation other than camera animation you can render the whole frame range in one frame if you have Use Cam Path on. You need higher settings than usual though as it will go though the whole path instead of the section used in one frame. If you leave cam path on and calculate the GI for each frame in the range then basically you're calculating the entire range for every frame, all the calculations and results will be the same and you'll just waste a lot of render time.
So either calculate the GI for each frame in the range with Cam Path off, or calculate it on one frame only with Use Cam Path on but that'll only work if your objects aren't moving (moving cam is ok).

[rikou]

Yes it is possible to stop it and continue later. It is important to know the last calculated frame before stopping the render cause when you decide to resume it you should change the start frame to be last-calculated frame + 1.

When Light Cache is set to Single Frame it is calculated for each frame of the animation. Camera Path means that the Light Cache samples will be fired not only from the current frame position of the camera but from the entire path-positions. So for each frame LC fires a new samples from many positions of the camera - every frame is a separated/unique GI solution and there is no need to reload anything beforehand in order to resume the calculations.

In general you can stop and resume the animation(when IM is in Animation Mode and LC is Single Frame) at any time and the only thing you need to know is from which frame you should resume it in order to avoid calculating already calculated frames or skip not-calculated ones.

OK thanks a lot ! As said Rens, I just have to restart my render prepass at the last frame +1 . That's ok for IM but I always don't understand with my LC :/
Sorry again but If I start at frame 180 to 500, what's happened with my old LC (frame 0 to 179) ? It will erase my LC for the first part no ?


Wooo ! Sorry to be so disturb, this is my first time ! In resume, Can I just restart my render prepass like that ?

If you have no animation other than camera animation you can render the whole frame range in one frame if you have Use Cam Path on. You need higher settings than usual though as it will go though the whole path instead of the section used in one frame. If you leave cam path on and calculate the GI for each frame in the range then basically you're calculating the entire range for every frame, all the calculations and results will be the same and you'll just waste a lot of render time.
So either calculate the GI for each frame in the range with Cam Path off, or calculate it on one frame only with Use Cam Path on but that'll only work if your objects aren't moving (moving cam is ok).

Thank you Rens for all your patience !!
Just to be clear, here is the description of my scene "My scene is a corridor with just one window. The beginning is by night, it lit by ceiling lights. Then my ceiling lights turn off gradually and my sun is moving until to be in a daylight"
All lies in the fact that I have dynamic lighting

[Rens]

Yes, in this case don't use camera path. If you have set the LC to single frame and you've saved the LC and IM every frame then you can just continue from where you stopped.

[rikou]

Yes, in this case don't use camera path. If you have set the LC to single frame and you've saved the LC and IM every frame then you can just continue from where you stopped.

I saved both with "use cam path" on... So if I start LC with "use cam path" off, it will be a different LC... This will not work isn't it ?

[Rens]

No it won't, you need to recalculate both with use cam path off if you want the GI to change over time.

[rikou]

No it won't, you need to recalculate both with use cam path off if you want the GI to change over time.

So I have to restart at frame 0 because my whole first part has been rendered with "path using the camera on" !?!