render rendering problems

[CatherineKan]

Hello, 

I want to render and export my simulation as a video; however, the first time I tried to render it, it succeeded but I cannot save it as a video, the error statement was shown as the first screenshot; the second time I tried to use mantra and directly render it to disk, but it gave me another warning shown as the second screenshot.

Does anyone know how to solve the problem, or what is the best way to export my simulation as a video?

Thanks in advance!!

[davpe]

hi,

1. the issue with mplay - not sure what exactly is it complaining about but my guess is you missing a codec or something that you need to save the video file

2. the warning on Mantra ROP is just a note that a default light have been created automatically as you don't have any lights in your scene (with no lights render would be completely black)

3. if you render from Mantra to disk, you'll end up with sequence of frames anyways. it's common to use some compositing program if you want to save it as video.

[j00ey]

These days if I'm just rendering a flipbook or preview animation I find it most convenient to write a jpg sequence to disk and use Ffmpeg Encode Video TOP to make an mp4, saves opening other software and importing footage.

[CatherineKan]

2 hours ago, davpe said:

hi,

1. the issue with mplay - not sure what exactly is it complaining about but my guess is you missing a codec or something that you need to save the video file

2. the warning on Mantra ROP is just a note that a default light have been created automatically as you don't have any lights in your scene (with no lights render would be completely black)

3. if you render from Mantra to disk, you'll end up with sequence of frames anyways. it's common to use some compositing program if you want to save it as video.

Do you mind teach how to set the parameters in mantra if I want to render to disk a sequence of frames? I am not sure the output device can be JPEG? My simulation is relatively large that may render for a long time...

[j00ey]

I probably confused matters talking about flipbooks, sorry. You can write a jpg sequence from mantra but it's much more common to write exr as you can store much more data in them.

All you need to do to render a sequence is set your ROP as in the image :

Set 'Valid Frame Range' to Render Frame Range or Render Frame Range Only [Strict]

That will allow you to put in the start and end frames - in this case $FSTART and $FEND - which evaluate to start and end frames of your global animation settings. If you want to enter the frame numbers manually, right click and do 'delete channel' then you can enter them.

Then in your 'Output Picture' tell it where to write the files to. $F4 in the string means frame number padded with 4 zeros. You can just use $F for no padding if you prefer that. I use a ROP preset that fills in various things for me like shot, element, version but this is the default string. You must have something with the frame variable in there otherwise it will repeatedly write over the same frame.

 

[CatherineKan]

5 minutes ago, j00ey said:

I probably confused matters talking about flipbooks, sorry. You can write a jpg sequence from mantra but it's much more common to write exr as you can store much more data in them.

All you need to do to render a sequence is set your ROP as in the image :

Set 'Valid Frame Range' to Render Frame Range or Render Frame Range Only [Strict]

That will allow you to put in the start and end frames - in this case $FSTART and $FEND - which evaluate to start and end frames of your global animation settings. If you want to enter the frame numbers manually, right click and do 'delete channel' then you can enter them.

Then in your 'Output Picture' tell it where to write the files to. $F4 in the string means frame number padded with 4 zeros. You can just use $F for no padding if you prefer that. I use a ROP preset that fills in various things for me like shot, element, version but this is the default string. You must have something with the frame variable in there otherwise it will repeatedly write over the same frame.

 

Thanks!

Does it matter if I choose JPEG for output device? I have already started my rendering...

[j00ey]

I don't actually know what will happen if you pick jpeg from the list but the output picture is set to exr - I presume you'll get jpegs that are named *.exr

[CatherineKan]

1 hour ago, j00ey said:

I don't actually know what will happen if you pick jpeg from the list but the output picture is set to exr - I presume you'll get jpegs that are named *.exr

Hello, I successfully exported exr files for all frames I simulated, so to composite them into a video, what software you could recommend to use? Thanks!!

[j00ey]

What software do you have access to? You could use Media Encoder or After Effects for example.

It's not really my speciality I'm afraid, I usually use Houdini TOPs for making preview mp4s but deliver image sequences to colleagues for comp etc.