Solved: Backburner Lighting Issues

nboehnen · ‎09-12-2016

I have been trying to use Backburner for a several thousand frame animation and I keep running into several issues with it.

First, I have times when it is set up exactly how I want it but when it moves over to Backburner layers aren't on that should be and vice versa. I am not sure if this is a camera sequencer/state set issue or Backburner working with that.

Second, I have some, not all times, that for a series of frames it will export one perfectly, then next where a light or two is off, and then work again; going back and forth for an entire segment of rendering.

This is completely stopping my progress having to continue to repeat work. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-13-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

It looks to me like some of the computers are unable to get to an asset such as an HDRI you may be using for reflections. If you go into the backburner monitor, check to see if those frames that are different are all being rendered by the same machine(s). Chances are that they have one of the following issues:

1) Unable to access the network share location for the HDRI or texture asset

2) Different service packs for windows or 3ds Max

3) Not currently logged into a network share

Please check those and let me know if you continue to have issues. You can also check your pathing via the Asset Tracker. In some cases using UNC may help with issues like this.

Please hit the "Accept as Solution" button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question. This lets me know that I was effective in helping you, and thank you for doing so.

Best Regards,

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-15-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

I just wanted to follow up here, any progress on your issue?

Best Regards,,

nboehnen · ‎09-16-2016

Those were some of my thoughts as well. I actually didn't see your initial response until I received a message on your follow up. . I need to do some more prep on the animation as a whole and then will be using backburner to run the entire thing out. I will look into those things today so I can hopefully have those things understood going forward with the rendering.

Thanks!

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-16-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

No problem. Thanks for letting me know, I'll go ahead and check my messages tomorrow in the case that you needed anything. Normally I don't check on the weekends but if you are planning on weekend rendering I want to be there for you if you need any help. Just keep me posted and thank you.

Best Regards,

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-21-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

I just wanted to follow up here, any progress on your issue?

Best Regards,

nboehnen · ‎09-22-2016

Sadly I haven't been able to get back to the backburner side of things because I have been seeing my state sets completely mess with my head by changing light intensities and other items. I am new to this workflow so I am trying to push this to some more advanced uses of the sequencer and state sets but I am having very little to no luck in having it be consistent from day to day.

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-22-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

I see. State Sets do have a fair number of bugs that are unresolved at this time in the bug tracker. You may not be doing anything incorrectly in there. Just a FYI. I'm here if you ever get back to the lighting issue, and happy to help with that.

Best Regards,

nboehnen · ‎09-30-2016

It looks like making sure our paths are all set, we use a commonly mapped drives and accessible places for the final gathers and end renderings that the Backburner lighting issue is pretty much dealt with. However.... I am not running into a state set > backburner issue where some of the states are showing and rendering normally on a single computer and/or distributed bucket rendering but when it goes into the cue for backburner certain things are turned off and completely missing. This may fall into your most recent comment about issues unresolved.

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎09-30-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

Interesting. I have a few questions so I can get a better understanding of this issue. I do want to say your renders are beautiful.

1) I see the images have the back wall and the surrounding edges in the 'should be' image. When those parts are missing, is it always with distributed buckets? Meaning, are you also using distributed on the farm and that's when these things are missing? Or, are they always missing even when rendering normally (E.G. 1 machine per frame.)

2) Are you using any plugins such as Siger Light Studio? (I ask because there is a custom object type in there that if the farm machines don't have it, it'll render the scene without them.)

3) Can you please ensure that no objects in the scene have the same name? (Example: Multiple Box01's)

Thank you for detailing that information for me. If you'd like I can setup a private folder and investigate the issue here at Autodesk. Scenes are deleted after the case is closed and no one outside of Autodesk will ever see it. (NDA friendly.)

Best Regards,

Alfred.DeFlaminis · ‎10-03-2016

Hello @nboehnen,

I just wanted to follow up, any progress? Are you using Mental Ray for the distributed rendering?

Best Regards,