How much company time and resources are consumed by rendering your finished project?

Think about it: When it comes time to render your final output, how many valuable workstations are put out of commission for your animators while they render frames? These workstations could be better employed having the next project being started or be otherwise gainfully employed.

Have you considered the possibility of freeing-up your workstations by having your frames rendered by a company with a dedicated render farm?
Unavailable for animation: RENDERING...

The chances are that a render farm will have more processing power than your company's workstations, with faster rendering resulting in more flexibility with deadlines for you. If your project requires a week of rendering using your workstations, and just three days using a render farm, that's an extra four days of production time, when your animators can refine the project to an even higher standard. When the project is handed over to the render farm, your workstations can be used to get a head-start on the next project.

With piles of processors and extremely competitive rates, Alternate Perspective 3D's render farm is both quick and cost-effective. Rendered frames can become available for client viewing on a secure area of our web site as soon as they are finished, allowing the client to check progress and identify potential problems early, ensuring a risk-free venture. All rendered material remains the property of the client, and Alternate Perspective 3D ensures complete confidentiality throughout the rendering stage and beyond.

Rendered material can be delivered to the client via a wide variety of media, including secure Internet transfer for smaller projects, and DVD-RAM for larger quantities of frames. If you require a specific medium for delivery of your frames, this can be arranged through discussion with Alternate Perspective.

Rates for hiring the render farm work on a sliding scale, with variable rates according to the number of processors used and the time required to render the job. To experiment with the sliding scale, or to get an on-the-spot quote for a project, you can use the Online Render Calculator, which will estimate approximate time and cost to render a specific job.

Alternate Perspective 3D can offer network rendering facilities for short and long-term projects.

The network comprises fast Intel-based Workstations running Lightwave 3D Screamernet. If customer demand is high enough, Alternate Perspective may enable other renderers, such as 3D Studio MAX and Softimage Mental Ray. Please contact us if you would like to see this service from Alternate Perspective.

Call Alternate Perspective 3D on (UK) 0118 956 8060 for more details.

Online Render Calculator

The Online Render Calculator is a Dynamic HTML application, which allows users to get an on-the-spot estimate of required time and cost for a given rendering job. It works by comparing the speed of your computer to the speed of a render farm machine and extrapolating the time required to render the entire project based on the render time of example frames from the animation.

To establish the speed of your computer, you have a choice of entering either the results of the Lightwave benchmark scenes (available on the Lightwave CD-ROM), or the speed and type of processor installed in your machine. Of the two methods, the benchmark method will result in a more accurate estimate of the rendering time and cost. You may enter as many results as you have produced, although filling out all four boxes will result in the best possible accuracy.

Next, you enter the time taken to render example frames from your animation. The average rendering time per frame is calculated from these results, so it is in your interests to enter as many example results as possible. You then enter the total number of frames in the animation.

Finally, you select how many CPUs you would like to hire, and the calculator will work out the approximate cost and required time to complete the job. You can see the cost in £ or $ by selecting the currency buttons.

If you would like the job to be finished within a specified time limit, enter the number of days available and the optimum display will show you the best possible settings. If the Time Limit checkbox is not checked, the optimum display will show the most cost-effective solution for your project.

Click here to access the Online Render Calculator

Click for help on this section...

The most cost-effective solution to rendering your project is displayed here. The estimated cost of rendering your project is displayed here. The estimated time to complete your render is displayed here. Click here to reset all fields. Select the currency in which you would like the costs displayed. If you want to have the rendering finished within a particular time, enter the number of days here. Select the number of farm CPUs you want to hire here. Enter the number of frames in your animation here. Enter the time taken to render example frames from your animation here. If you do not have results for the LW Benchmark scenes, enter the processor speed and type of your computer here. Enter the results of your LW Benchmarks here. Click here to specify the speed of your machine using your LW benckmark results.