shad0fx
07-23-2009, 10:53 PM
I have a question regarding computer animation and hardware. My dad and I have been doing animation in our spare time with Lightwave for a little while now, we are looking at upgrading our computer systems to allow for better animations and build a render farm. We would like to venture more into film animations with photoshop and other graphic software and video editing software.
sofreedesign
07-23-2009, 11:07 PM
AE is the way to go... works with PS Premiere and a host of other apps... its become the industry standard, and is capable of utilizing a render farm... that is exactly how i work at my studio.
sofreedesign
07-23-2009, 11:34 PM
Im a mac fan and i use mac at home but... at work we run windows. We have a render farm set up with 5 computers linked together. You can do that with mac... at twice the price! The i7 board is the only way to go and make sure you buy the coolest (im talkin tempurature here not looks... silly) cases you can find with the best fans!
must_comment
07-24-2009, 05:49 AM
I have a question regarding computer animation and hardware. My dad and I have been doing animation in our spare time with Lightwave for a little while now, we are looking at upgrading our computer systems to allow for better animations and build a render farm. We would like to venture more into film animations with photoshop and other graphic software and video editing software.
You didn't ask a question. You just stated what you want to do. I'm assuming you are looking for some advice?
First off. I hope you are posting this question in other forums like the lightwave forums, you'll get much better info there.
Lightwave is a great tool. You should definitely have a compositing program to put together different render passes when you start getting more advanced in your work. Adobe After Effects is great, and while you're at it get the Production suite (Master suite if you can afford it). Because when you're done animating you need to composite it, edit it, mix it, score it, master it, get it ready for DVD and Internet, and market it.
I'm assuming you want to build a render farm because lightwave grants free rendering licenses. Here's the thing about a render farm. It's a little complicated and pricey. If all you want to do is render separate scenes on individual computers, you just have to install the Lightwave Rendering software and you're good to go (I THINK. Again, check the lightwave forums).
But, if you want to have all your computers working on the same scene at once, you're going to need a render farm manager. There are a bunch out there but I prefer Deadline. It's also the cheapest I've found, AND you get two free render nodes so you can build a small render farm for free and grow later when the need presents itself. Now, I don't use Lightwave, so if there's some magic tool in there that allows you to manage your renders across a network of multiple machines I don't know about it. But I do know it would be a first for an animation tool to come packaged with that feature.
BTW you didn't mention anything about price, or whether you were using the free version of lightwave.
If you're using the free version of Lightwave and think you could spend the thousand dollars it would cost to license the pro version elsewhere, take a look at Blender. It is absolutely free and needs more enthusiasts to push the product forward and get more industry recognition. It is truly a revolutionary product because it's providing the masses with a free and LEGAL tool to do 3D, but the problem is there aren't enough people behind it yet.
As far as upgrading your system goes, video cards are hella important and you should consult lightwave's website and any other graphical program you're using to see if there are any cards optimized for them.
Hope that helps.