This is a tool I developped during my last year at MoPA for my thesis film.

It came about because I wanted to efficiently send renders to Deadline so we could spend the most of our time on the artistry of each shot. I also wanted to remove as much redundant work and human errors as possible.

Here is how it works (using Python script and Prism environment variables) :

– The tool detects the latest version rendered of the current sequence/shot and automatically saves the current render as the next one. 

– The artist can choose to send different render layers, partially procedurally made via the bundles set up in Houdini and different ris nodes. They can also choose for each pass to have a denoised version or not.

– The renders are directly sent to deadline, and the artist can choose the proper priority without needing to manually enter the parameters themselfs. The deadline job name is automatically set according to the priority of the job, the sequence/shot and the version of the render.

– All output paths are automatically created in an ordered way.

– Custom aovs such as LPEs and Shadow aovs are automatically created, by scanning all lights in the scene, giving them a light group, and adding the proper custom aovs expression for each needed layer. 

You will soon find down below a detailed explanation of the tool in a short video !

Also a Github is coming soon !