Rendering >

# Rendering Shots as You Work

You can render shots as you work on them using a slave rendering machine. As you move from shot to shot in the timeline, the previous shot is rendered using the Slave Renderer, so your work is not interrupted during rendering. If several shots are changed before Lustre has had time to render the last one, the changed shots are sent to a job queue.

NoteWhen rendering a multi-layer timeline, Slave renders the shots that are visible from a flattened timeline, or the shots from the active layer in the multi-layer timeline, depending on the mode you are working in. For Solo mode, see Multi-Layer Timeline and for Mute mode, see Muted Layers.

Files rendered with the Slave Renderer are stored in the same directories as those used for renders created using the Render Local menu. Directories are specified when you first create the project. To view the renders, use P (Print) view mode. See Setting the View Mode.

NoteFor information on setting up the Slave Renderer, refer to the Autodesk Lustre Software Installation Guide for your platform.

To render shots with the Slave Renderer:

1. In the init.config file, set the IP address for the slave render machine. To render at full resolution, enable Renders Full Res in the Network Rendering page of the project configuration. See Network Rendering Settings.
2. Start Lustre.
3. Access the Render SlaveRender menu.

   (a) SlaveRender On/Off button(b) Status field(c) Last Job field(d) Job List(e) Job List Refresh button(f) Progress field(g) Render progress bar

   In the Status field, the status and IP address of the slave render machine are displayed.

   TipClick Refresh to update the Status field.
4. Turn on slave rendering. Set the SlaveRender On/Off button to On, or press X.

   The letters BR in the upper-left corner of the screen indicate that slave rendering is activated.

5. In the Render Local menu, specify the region to render. See Specifying the Shots to Render.
6. When you want to render a shot with the Slave Renderer, modify a parameter and then move to the next shot.
7. To view the render status, display the SlaveRender menu.

   The last job sent to the Slave Renderer is displayed in the Last Job field. The last job sent is also the shot currently being rendered, and its name is displayed in the Progress field. The shot's render progress is indicated by the Render progress bar.

   TipThe Render progress bar shows the shot's render progress as a percentage and updates every second. You can change the update interval using the Refresh in Seconds slider in the Network Rendering tab of the project configuration. See Network Rendering Settings.
8. When you have finished, you can turn off rendering with the Slave Renderer by setting the SlaveRender On/Off button to Off, or pressing X again.

   Any jobs remaining in the job queue are cancelled.

To play shots rendered by the Slave Renderer:

1. Navigate to a shot that has been rendered.
2. Enable P (Print) view mode.
3. Use the playback controls to play the shot.
   NoteIf you have rendered files on the filesystem but Lustre does not “see” them, you can force a refresh by pressing Shift while enabling P in the user interface. The force refresh function is especially useful when background rendering processes are involved.