Editing Blender Class (section)

== NB RenderFarm ==

=== What is a Render Farm and why do we need it? ===

"A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm render farm] is a high-performance computer system, e.g. a computer cluster, built to render computer-generated imagery (CGI)"

A render farm can allow an animator to render, what would be an unimaginably time-consuming animation in a fraction of a time, which is proportional to the number of computers on the farm. For example, a 9000 frame 4K Cycles Render @ 30fps Animation (5 minute animation), and considering each frame would take 12 minutes to render would take 75 days of non-stop rendering from a single computer. With 20 computers in parallel, this would take 18 hours each. This is a considerable upgrade and is what makes render farms really attractive.

'''Why at NB? Aren't there any render farms services out there?'''

Short answer is yes. SheepIt is a free render farm where you approx get 4 times the time you render for someone else. However, it is more effective to rack points as a team than individual contributions. As a team, your team's projects are set as priority when you want to render. There are also many paid solutions out there.

Building a render farm at NB will create the following benefits:

* Bring the animation community together
* Bring in engagement and even revenue from donations
* Allow beginners to make interesting projects that would otherwise be very difficult
* Make animation accessible to those who can't afford good rigs
* Make use of abandoned tech

=== Can we build it? Yes we can. ===
*'''Support is built-in''': Blender is a free open-source software with a built-in add on to setup and dispatch render jobs called the "Network Renderer". 
*'''Is not OS dependent''': Any combination of MAC, Linux and Windows OS computers can be linked together using a local network to setup a render farm.
* '''Very simple to setup''': The only requirement is that the compatible versions of Blender is installed on each machine and has the add-on enabled.
* '''Basic networking''': The Client will send the file to the Master machine that will send the rendering machines the part that needs to be rendered. The master and the client can be the same machine. The Client then receives and automatically collects the rendered frames.

=== Next steps ===
* Take note of all the machines at NB that are unused
* Check if they work
* Get necessary supplies
* Connect them together
* Install software
* Make instruction list
* Setup donation box
* Start rendering

References: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNhUnPWzVaw