Batch Camera Render

272 votes
Version: 
1.18
Date Updated: 
08/03/2022
Author Name: 
Sergo Pogosyan

This script aims to replace standard 3dsmax's Batch Render and imitates Houdini Output Node workflow. Using it you can specify rendering parameters - frame size, frame number, output path - directly to camera object, so every camera in scene 'knows' what it intended to render. Additional functionality is Lighting Assignment - you can specify which light will be turn on or off for selected camera during the rendering.

1.18:

  • Support for 3ds max 2023 Update fixed

1.17:

  • Corona and Vray Sun inside Daylight System fixed (thanks to busseynova for reporting)

1.16:

  • CoronaSun supported inside Daylight System

1.15:

  • Don't Save Render Elements Checkbox (Thanks to antomor)
  • Limited support for camera objects in xref scene files (Only root objects in first level xrefs. Cameras in nested xrefs not supported)

1.13 Bugfix:

  • Deadline submission should work now

1.12 New Feature:

  • Deadline support.
    Very basic imlementation, it allows you to submit your jobs on a deadline server. Enter deadline repository address and check "Use Deadline" checkbox. Other checkbox doesn't matter in this case ("Net render", "Show Submit Dialog").
    Probably it requires Deadline 3ds max Submitter installed. I didn't have a chance to check it on a clean machine.

1.11 Features and fixes:

  • State sets support added
  • "projectname" keyword added which resolves to project's folder name
  • other fixes and improvements

1.10.3b Fixes:

  • Crash when vray ir/lcache maps are set to auto-save
  • Region render was not set properly during the rendering

This is major update of the script, so it may not be as stable as before. Backup scenes or cameras at least before running this version. More information can be found here - 1.10b Multiple presets for each camera

Previous updates:

1.10.2b Fixes:

  • Problems with render elements paths
  • Copy/paste of render region settings
  • Properly convert render region values when change resolution

New features:

  • Multiple presets for each camera
  • New keyword %presetname% to support multiple presets
  • Distributed rendering checkbox added to vray common settings
  • Bugfix - Net render not starting after cancelling during local rendering.
  • Improved performance with scenes with lots of cameras
  • Added support of Vray RT as a production renderer
  • Added support of using MFRender script to render scenes through BatchCamera script.
  • Bugfix - Error was popping up sometimes during drag-n-drop
  • Bugfix - Render elements didn't render in certain conditions
  • Bugfix - Pre-render/post-render scripts didn't work on network rendering
  • Bugfix - Select All and Toggle All buttons didn't work properly

Here are some details: http://usakhelo.github.io/batchcam/batchcam-1.9.20.html

Script's website - http://usakhelo.github.io/batchcam/

Github - https://github.com/usakhelo/batchcam

2015 Updates

  • Region render parameter can be specified for each camera
  • Set Viewport button sets viewport camera and resolution and aspect as well
  • It is possible now to specify backburner servers and server groups for silent rendering submit (code editing required)
  • Vray Elements fixed for Vray 3 and Vray output saving with VFB color correction
  • Cancelling of rendering of multiple cameras at once,
  • Hierarchical ini files

2013 Updates

  • Drag-n-drop of cameras in list
  • Camera list window size can be changed (script restart required)
  • When committing region render it is possible to switch to view render without restarting the render
  • Keyword syntax can be used in Scene State names - thanks to Stefan Runevik for suggestion

2011 Updates

  • Preview button added - renders only current frame without saving anything - no images, no vray maps, no scripts running, no elements.
  • Ortho mode added to Vray rollout - it turns any camera to orthographic, including Vray Physical camera.
  • Copy/Paste from one camera to one/several cameras - use new buttons at the top of the window.
  • Submit Scripts section - you can assign script files that will run on each render submit. Per Submit script runs once per render submit and Per Camera script runs for each camera before submit. All these scripts run on local machine, not on render server.
  • Last Rendered Location field - here is stored last render file location. Very useful for locating last-time rendered images.
Additional Info: 

Installation:

Run this script with Maxscript -> Run Script command from any folder on your hard drive, then go to the *'Customize User Interface' -> 'Toolbars'*, browse to category 'Sergo Pogosyan' and add 'Render scene cameras...' button to the toolbar or to the menu.

Usage:

When you start this script it iterate over all cameras in scene and list them in the dialog box. To each of these cameras you can assign frame resolution, number of frames to render including nonsequential frames, output file location and lighting setup. All these properties can be changed for one or several selected cameras. Output file location is split to folder path and file name, so you can specify new folder for all selected cameras in scene. 'Lighting assignement' section contains three list: Solo light list contains lights that will be only lights turned on during the rendering, 'Forced On' and 'Forced Off' lights are turned on or off respectively during the rendering. After all these setting will be set up (if some properties is not set value from the Render Setup will be used), check the camera(s) in the list and hit Render button. Check Net Render checkbox to submit network render job.

Supported lights: All bundled 3ds max lights, all Vray Lights
Supported cameras: All bundled 3ds max cameras, Vray PhysicalCamera

Version Requirement: 
3ds max 2008-202x
AttachmentSize
batchcamerarender_1.17.ms245.88 KB
batchcamerarender_1.18.ms245.92 KB

Comments

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brodie's picture

Change Priority

How can I change the Priority that my job will be sent at when submitting through Deadline.

e_samurai's picture

THANK YOU!

Once again, a BIG THANK YOU for this! It has been part of my workflow for years and it made a lot of things possible.

Now that I have been using deadline extensively, it would be really neat and helpful if you could add a checkbox to "Add comment" when submitting.
For my use case, I always want that comment to be the active StateSet name, but it can be just anything and you can use the Syntax you like to implement it.

mak4max's picture

SUPPORT FOR CORONA

When I render in corona, I cannot take *.EXR output in addition to beauty pass ( VFB Color corrected ). It is possible when I'm rendering in V-RAY. Can you please do something about it. Thanks & regards.

nimitz's picture

error when submitting with no batch render dialog.

If i render with batch render dialog all works, but without, it saves the files, but after that, script listener only shows "unknown error" , looking to backburner manager it says render job already exists. It seems to don't enumerate the existing jobs in the right way.

Of course "create new paths silently" is activated.

sergo's picture

Thanks for suggestion!

I agree it's useful. I'll try to fix it when I have time.

hippiearchitect's picture

Enhancing Camera Management: Alphabetize Your Way to Simplicity

This script is absolutely fantastic! It has proven to be incredibly helpful in managing cameras for my scenes. I'm genuinely grateful for this great piece of work. However, I was wondering if it would be possible to add a small enhancement to the camera manager settings. It would be incredible if you could include the ability to sort the columns, with a primary focus on alphabetizing the cameras.

I must say, the existing functionality has already been a lifesaver, but somehow I managed to get all the cameras out of order. With more than 50 cameras in a scene, this additional feature would make the process so much easier to handle. Thank you again for your wonderful script, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it becomes even better!

hippiearchitect's picture

Enhancing Camera Management: Alphabetize Your Way to Simplicity

This script is absolutely fantastic! It has proven to be incredibly helpful in managing cameras for my scenes. I'm genuinely grateful for this great piece of work. However, I was wondering if it would be possible to add a small enhancement to the camera manager settings. It would be incredible if you could include the ability to sort the columns, with a primary focus on alphabetizing the cameras.

I must say, the existing functionality has already been a lifesaver, but somehow I managed to get all the cameras out of order. With more than 50 cameras in a scene, this additional feature would make the process so much easier to handle. Thank you again for your wonderful script, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it becomes even better!

sergo's picture

Fair

@hannes, GitHub is up to date now. Thanks for pointing out.

hannes's picture

github outdated?

how come the github repo is not updated anymore?
scriptspot has more recent version than github repo
https://github.com/usakhelo/batchcam

nakama's picture

command line rendering - batch creation

I'm not sure, maybe i missed it somehow. But is it possible, that the script allowes a batch-creation for command line rendering?

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