Problem batch rendering with .bat file and command line rendering

[justin-miller]

Quick problem description:

Using notebook, I set up a text file batch render just to test out the process for myself after studying it out of the book I’m referencing.  I save it with a .bat extension as instructed, in the same folder as the file being rendered.  I save and exit the file, then double click it, also as instructed.

The command window then opens, but only for a fraction of a second and then disappears.  The render never start and no files are created.  The same failure occurs when attempting to do the same thing with a command line render.

After many hours researching the problem, I can’t find anything on it.  I don’t know if it has anything to do with Windows 7 64 bit which is what I’m running Maya 2010 on, or if there’s a particular setting within Maya that could cause this, or if it’s a Windows 7 issue (I’m running it as the administrator) but I’m hoping a shout out to this community can produce an answer to this frustrating problem.

Thanks in advance.

[joojaa]

In command line type "path"

It will puke something like:

PATH=Z:\foo\bar\beer\;Q:\pig\lamb\goat;S:\ometh\ing\other\;...

Now try to mental separate parts by ; and see if the path to maya bin directory is in there.

The command window then opens, but only for a fraction of a second and then disappears.

yeah that happens, to see what it spits put pause as your last line. It will then wait till you press any key so you have time to read the data.

PS: this path thing should been explained about on page 2 or 3 in any book dealing with command lines.

PPS: your not running as admin, your running as you untill you elevate yourself to admin, even if you is admin. Thats kindof the point of vista and windows 7

[justin-miller]

I must have deficient textbooks.  I'm using Mastering Maya 2009 and severall others (the Mastering book being the most extensive on the subject amongst them all) and none of them mention the path command.  Didn't know about the admin thing.  Is that located in the user settings dialog?  What setting should I look for?

When I type "path", where should I go and what should I do to make sure the path directs to the right place?

[joojaa]

you can temporarily set it by doing

path = %path%;W:\hat\ever\you\want\to\add\

Or (sorry no wind 7 at hand currently might be slightly off, use windows manual and search for environment variables if it fails) permanently hit windows+E, get properties of computer, advanced system settings, environment variables.

Well many times this is the sort of assumed base knowledge. See thing is command lines work like this. every time you type something like say notepad. the system goes trough the list of folders in the path to see if a file named notepad.exe notepad.con notepad.bat.... exists. When it finds the first occurrence it executes that command with whatever flags the user has set.

Thus for render.exe, mayabatch.exe, or maya.exe has to be in some folder in the path for you to successfully call them in the batch file or command line, otherwise it will fail.

This is the sort of thing everybody who have used a computer before 1995 would know, and frankly a prerequisite for using maya. Younger people often dismiss this as sort of old* way of doing things, but there's nothing old in command lines, they are still best of best for many tasks at hand. Indeed they arent going away, in fact they are being developed as we speak. Indeed if you needed something complex done by a human what do you do point with fingers and mime or write a instruction? In any case try using a GUI to issue a series of arbitrary instructions to 150 computers in one go...

out of the book I’m referencing.

I kind of assumed it was book that actually teached you how to operate things. But yes this should be on every maya book under the title "prerequisities for learning maya". Thing is tough learning material has taken a slide for worse lately.

Didn't know about the admin thing.  Is that located in the user settings dialog?

No, its a design deviation to how windows before vista used to work. See if i hack your computer i get your rights. But see you dont need admin rights at all moments, so now i get your normal rights. You can elevate things on demand but the hacker can not, this is a HUGE IMPROVEMENT in security. To elevate shift rmb on the icon and choose run as Administrator (yes even account Administrator works like this).

To be honest you can turn this off, but for heavens sake you REALLY REALLY don't want to.

• thing is they ARE in computer terms ideas from stone age, even at 1995 they were old. See they were invented back in 1950's So been areound for a few generations now. But see a command line interface (CLI) is one of those great ideas that are hard to best even with a mouse or touchscreen environment. The idea is so superior.

[justin-miller]

I appreciate your sharing what you know on the issue.  Though I have used computers before 1995, I had not come into contact with batch rendering.  My non-word-processing experience before that time consists of a middle school class in using the computer to sovle basic math operations in 1988 and a very rudimentary FORTRAN class under the banner of a general engineering requirement in or about 1994 or 1995.  As a structural engineering student, it wasn't something that got pushed heavily.

I have been heavily interested in computer graphics however, since about that time and have a good deal of practical knowlege in Photoshop.  I have been approaching the subject from more or less an artistic angle, but I do have enough math skills from college to understand the basic principles in how Maya operates, similar to how one knows how an internal combustion engine operates, without being able to build the car itself.  Considering I've only just picked up Maya last August, I don't think I'm doing such a bad job in driving this car so far.

Again, thank you for your help, and I will try out these solutions this evening.

[iannisxenakis]

Isn't this more of a MentalRay issue?
Batch rendering with MR in Windows doesn't require you to define a path for the mr renderer itself, but rather a path for the actual .ma files you're going to render, so just use a regular .bat file, and type in the render commands as in:

## start batch render

render -r mr -im "imageName" -of "tif" -s 1 -e 1 -v 5 "C:/Maya/projects/chris/scenes/filename.ma"
render -r mr -im "imageName" -of "tif" -s 2 -e 3 -v 5 "C:/Maya/projects/chris/scenes/filename.ma"
pause

## The log (-v 5) should be piped to a text file, if not it will get truncated.

The -s 1 -e 10 -b 1 denotes the (-s) start frame, (-e) end frame, and (-b) the step increment frame.
The mr is the Mentalray switch, that could be swapped with an sw for software rendering.

 Best of luck!

[joojaa]

Batch rendering with MR in Windows doesn't require you to define a path for the mr renderer itself,

Yes it does, if the install didnt append teese for some reason to your path then it wont work. See one can not call

render

if render.exe is not on the path then you can not call render. But yes paths need to qualify form running location thats given. You dont need to have full paths if the files themselves are locted in same directory as the script. You ca also give relative paths for example foobar\hello.ma or ..\hello.ma  Where firt goes to folder called foobar and the other goes up one folder this can be usefull for reusing scripts on many machines or if files get moved around.

[justin-miller]

I just wanted to say that the info you supplied did solve my query.

In response to your comment regarding training materials, having no prior reference to work from, they do often fall short, which is why I have gradually over the course of the last 8 months accumulated a rather extensive library on Maya by way of Amazon. Usually where one book leaves a hole, another fills in the gap and vice versa.  I must have a dozen sizeable entries on or directly related to it already.

Along those lines, if you have any suggestions for books that cover some of these more obscure but critical bits of knowledge, I won't object to hear what they are.  I'm essentially teaching myself the ropes in Maya this in my off hours and I can't afford the time or tuition to go where the schools that specialize in these things are.

[joojaa]

Well what is it you are aiming for? Animation, modeling, technical directing, rigging, lighting, render wrangling*....?

In response to your comment regarding training materials, having no prior reference to work from, they do often fall short

This is a life long dilemma of mine, powers to be profit form you not knowing certain critical bits. Often these critical bits stem form history, academic practice etc...

The more you learn the more you realize you dont actually need all the crap your paying for, things that are simple seem magically complex when you dont know them. And simple seemingly things can be magically complex. Its hard to separate the holes form info that's there but not in a form that you can digest. So things may well be explained its just the before you know it its not apparent. See in my experience theres always about 6 ways of getting something, the best teachers can guide you trough maybe 3 ways. So at the end of the day your left with a dice roll giving you 1/3-1/2 provability of getting it with each publication, teacher etc.

Contrary to common belief one can not teach a person anything, people can only learn. A good material can present enough avenues for one to learn but the job has to be done by you personally. A good involved teacher might top that by a factor of 3 because they can spot the deviation and guide you on that particular avenue.

I did the same road as you did, however at a time when there was less cheap solutions around for the material. Now cheapness actually comes and bites off here, see all he teachers for most parts are after profit of some kind. So they wont do anything as risky as try to teach you something right, but rather want you to get the feeling you got it right. Reality will force one to re-evaluate.

Well mel is almost universally misunderstood if all the material available for it is to be believed. The best mel teachers are books that concentrate on nodes and do mel as a by product, second maybe books on software architecture. Due to thsi problem also maya python dev material is to be looked a bit skeptically too.

The second thing people often miss is the how to read manuals bit, get help form the computer, understand said help. should be compulsory in school.

*render wrangling can be surprisingly rewarding by the way.

PS: the obvious solution is off course to ask a question from somebody who knows. This strategy falls short tough, the best thing to happen to me was my premier source stopping to answer questions,m which forced me to do the best thing answer questions.

So the important part is to try to answer the question first on your own for a while.

[justin-miller]

Long story short.  I make webcomics.  I did this fairly well for a few years until Network Solutions created a new rule re: permissions that conflicted with an essential PHP script rendering (no pun intended) my database useless to new updates.  I only studied enough HTML (not enough time to study PHP as well, can't multi-task beyond a certain point) to get my site up and running initially so I made lemonade from lemons... wtih more time suddenly freed up, I brushed up on my drawing skills and decided to take up Maya.  I have since been planning my return to that comic but using computer rendered images instead of hand drawn.  There are plenty of examples of lousy CG comics done cheap, but I want the visual quality to match the desire I have to write with quality.  I'm aiming for (hopefully) a return to regularly releasing new material sometime in August (optimistically) at which point I'll renew my attempts to resolve the PHP conflict again.

Where do I plan to go from there?  I've toyed with the idea of making a few short animations surrounding the comic, etc but initially just rendering individual panels at a time seems manageable enough to keep a regular comic going.  But I am certainly open and even keen to the idea of taking this into "career" territory if I gain enough experience doing these projects.

Basically, of all the different aspects of Maya I've tried so far, I think I am capable of learning/performing most of the tasks myself (with the exception of TD/rigging  which I've been thus far playing with a series of autorigging scripts) which is good 'cause it covers most skills save for some of the animation parts of the program.  I'll get to those eventually too.  There sadly are only so many after-work hours in a day to keep pushing forward, but every day I pick up some new bit of information, like the one you gave me or something else.  Even if I don't actually make physical progress, as long as I learn something to make that progress the next day, I'm usually happy.