Render > Create Backburner Job

Select this option to manage render jobs and render nodes using Autodesk Backburner.

Backburner can only subdivide a job into tasks of at least one frame long. It cannot subdivide a single frame into multiple tasks. Therefore, you can only use this feature for animation scenes and not for stills. Each task must be at least one frame in length.

Refer to the Backburner User Guide for more information about Backburner. (This file is about 2MB in size.)

NoteIn order to submit a job to Backburner, you must set your project to a location that is accessible across the network. Your scene file must also be accessible across the network (for example, not under C:\MyDocuments).

The following options appear:

Job Settings

The following attributes are saved with your scene. When saved, settings are automatically loaded next time you re-open the scene, even if it is on a different machine.

Use the following attributes to set the options for your job, for example, the name of your job, and how it should be broken up into tasks and distributed to different render nodes. These settings are directed to the cmdJob utility and then to the command line renderer of each render node.

NoteThe project ..\images directory to which your rendered images will be saved must be writable across the network.

Job Name: Specify the name of the job you are sending to the cmdJob utility.
Description: Specify the description of the job. This information appears in the Backburner monitor.
Priority: Set your job priority. The default value is 50. The other values are either 0 (Critical) or 100 (Suspended).
Start Frame: Specify the start frame for your job.

NoteThe Start Frame, End Frame and Task Size attributes are used to auto generate a task list for the cmdJob utility to specify how the job should be broken up into tasks.
End Frame: Specify the end frame for your job.
Task Size: Specify the number of frames per task.
Renderer: Select from the Scene File to use the renderer specified in the Render Settings for the scene.

Select any other option to override the render specified in the Render Settings for the scene.
Additional Options: Specify any additional flags to the command line renderer. This is equivalent to setting the options in Render -r <renderer name> <options> <filename>. See About the command line renderer for more information.

NoteAfter updating your scene, you must save the scene before exporting to Backburner. All unsaved changes are ignored.

Backburner Options

The following options are saved with your machine and are not dependent upon the scene that you have open. These options are directed to Backburner.

Manager Name: Set the name of the manager. The default is an automatic search.

NoteIt is mandatory that you complete this field.
Port: The Backburner port number to submit the job to. Enter 0 to use the default port.
Server List: A list of servers that should process this job. Separate the servers with semi-colons in the list.
Server Group: The name of the server group that should process this job.
Server Count: The maximum number of servers that should work on this job. Enter 0 for an unlimited number.
Manually Start Job: Start job as suspended.
Create Log Files: Select this option to create task logs. Log files are often useful for troubleshooting.
Log Path: Specify the location of the folder or directory in which the task logs are created. You must specify an existing folder since the command line utility cannot create this folder if it does not exist. This option is disabled by default.

NoteThis path must be accessible across the network.
Renderer Path: Specify the location of the renderer on each render node. The renderer path must be the same on all render nodes. Therefore, you cannot mix platforms and Maya must be installed at the same location on each render node.
Backburner Path: Specify the location of Backburner. Ensure that the default is correct before proceeding.
Use Custom Command: Select this option to enable the Custom Command Options attributes. The attributes are greyed out otherwise.

Use the Custom Command Options to customize your command to Backburner. See Custom Command Options for more information.

Email Options

Send Email: Select this option so that Backburner sends notification emails.
Notify Completion: Select this option so that Backburner sends a notification email when the job is completed.
Notify Progress: Select this option so that Backburner sends a notification email when the number of tasks that you set are completed.
Update after # of tasks: Set the number of tasks used for Notify Progress.
From (email address): Set the source email address for notification emails.
To (email address): Set the destination email address for notification emails.
SMTP Server: Set the name of the SMTP email server Backburner uses to send notification emails.

Custom Command Options

To enable the Custom Command Options, you must select the Use Custom Command option above.

Populate Command: Click this button to populate the box below with a command that summarizes your settings in this window.

You can customize the command as you like; for example, you can change the renderer. Or, you can copy the command to your Script Editor.