What’s new?

Version 3.27

  • Fix: batch rendering command did no longer trigger next job

Version 3.26

  • Implement smartCache integration

    This update implements integration for one of our new tools ‘smartCache’.

Version 3.25

Render preview: Implement nearest frame preview

The job log’s render preview contains now a nearest frame feature. Keeping it turned on will display the nearest available frame of the sequence that is currently rendering. This gives you a more fluent preview while your rendering processes and all render previews frames fill up over time.

_images/nearest_frame.png

Version 3.24

Update to nuke-15

Version 3.23

Implement direct render preview

smartRender offers now instant previews on outputs as they render inside the job log view. When submitting a new job, the preview will fill its frames up (indicated in green) as they are rendering so you get immediate feedback for your render jobs. You can scrub the timeline and play the preview as needed.

Inside the job history select a job and press and hold P to show the output frames preview. Release P to hide the render preview.

Version 3.22

Add additional transcode root directories via environment variable

Transcode templates let you perform automatic transcoding jobs after a render has finished. All transcoding templates live in smartRender/custom/transcode_templates in your smartRender installation folder. You can however now also point smartRender to additional folders to look up for transcoding templates. Simply add paths to the environment variable CRAGL_SMARTRENDER_ADDITIONAL_TRANSCODING_ROOTS. Concatenate multiple root directory paths with a semicolon ; on Windows and a colon : on Linux and MacOS.

Add button to reveal all transcode template folder

The main window contains now a button in the ‘Transcode’ section that will reveal all transcode directories in your explorer. You can use this button to quickly reach the transcode templates directories and can quickly add new transcode templates and edit existing ones:

_images/reveal_transcode_templates_root.png

Version 3.21

Implement chunk size

In previous versions, 1 thread rendered 1 frame. smartRender contains now the functionality to set the chunk size for each render thread so that you can render more frames in a row. This speeds up rendering as it reduces Nuke launching time. This will be primarily visible in larger working files, but also smaller working files benefit from it.

_images/chunk_size.png

Here is a direct comparison between Nuke’s standard rendering and rendering with 8 threads in parallel using a chunk size of 5 frames:

Version 3.20

Other

  • Fix: Filter jobs by time in Nuke-12 and below (#70)

Version 3.19

Implement auto clean job history

The smartRender settings lets you now configure to auto clean up the job history so you don’t need to clean up old jobs yourself anymore. You can choose to keep only a configurable number of recent jobs or remove jobs that are older than a custom number of days. By default this is disabled but you can enable it to your needs in smartRender’s settings as seen below:

_images/auto_cleanup.jpg

Trigger custom callbacks after job has finished

This update lets you trigger custom functionality after a job has finished rendering. This can be used for various things to trigger anything additional to your needs. As an example, after render callbacks can be used to register your renderings into your production database, trigger additional jobs, move the renderings to a different location, zip it and send it to somewhere, etc. You are completely free in doing whatever you would like to do.

For more information about implementing custom job finished callbacks please refer to the customizing section.

Version 3.18

  • Add studio model

Version 3.17

Add toggle to show thumbnail for each job in the render queue

Each job has now a thumbnail to quicker find it in the job queue. Using the button at the top right you can toggle the visibility of all thumbnails. All Thumbnails get generated automatically in the background.

_images/toggle_thumbnails.png

Filter jobs by time in job queue

You can now filter jobs by range. E.g. set it up to show only jobs from today or the last 3 days or all days, etc.

_images/jobs_timerange.png

Drag a rendering from the job queue into the DAG

Hold Ctrl and drag a rendering from the job queue into the DAG.

_images/ctrl_drag_job.png

Add shortcuts

Frequently used tasks on a job contain now shortcuts:

  • R: Refresh queue manually

  • L: Show log

  • F: Show render finished options

  • I: Insert render into DAG

  • O: Open render directory

  • Del: Remove the selected job

  • Ctrl+Del: Remove all finished jobs

_images/context_menu_shortcuts.png

Add button to show changelog, browse online docs and access support

Clicking help button shows now a menu which lets you browse our online documentation, show smartRender’s changelog and lets you browse to our contact page to get some support.

_images/help_menu.png

Other

  • Various style adjustments for the smartElements main window.

Version 3.16

Other

  • Update to nuke-14

Version 3.15

Other

  • Remove frame number from filename of transcoded media

  • Auto check Write checkbox when there is one Write node in nodegraph

  • Remember selected transcode template when closing smartRender

  • Store selected transcode template with preset

Version 3.14

Toggle render history using Alt Key

Press the Alt Key to toggle showing/hiding the render history.

Add buttons to top of smartRender main window

The smartRender main window contains now the following buttons:

_images/smartRender_top_buttons.png

  • Menu on the top left to make the right click menu for rendering external working files without opening them more visible. Right clicking the top of smartRender to trigger job submissions for external working files is a feature that has been implemented long time ago but was quite hidden. By adding an icon for it this gets more visible. Click the icon at the top left to get that right click menu.

  • Help button to browse to online documentation

  • Settings button to launch the settings in main window

Add additional quick actions to render notifications window

The render notifications window contains now a lot more actions for you:

_images/render_finished_dialog.png

For more information about the render finished dialog please also refer to the Render notifications section.

Other

  • Darken all icons

  • Fix: Remove byte type string output from terminal output for Nuke-13 (#37)

  • Fix: Right click to render other working file not working in Nuke-13 (#47)

  • Fix: Job log window not displaying statistics in Nuke-13 correctly (#42)

Version 3.13

Implement auto transcoding after rendering has finished

smartRender gained now functionality to automatically create another render of your finished renderings, a.k.a. transcode. This can be used for example to create an h264 preview, a fullres or halfres jpeg proxy, a DNxHD or Prores to send to the client, etc. Triggering these creates results within seconds.

For more information about transcoding please have a look at our Auto transcoding after render page.

Version 3.12

Other

  • Fix dropping license into license window raises UnicodeDecodeError

Version 3.11

Add ‘Export job log’ to context menu in history section

This feature lets you export the job log from a selected job in the history section. The same feature is available in the job log window of a selected job but having it available right in the history section gets quicker executed.

_images/export_job_log.jpg

Add ‘copy terminal commands to clipboard’ to context menu in history section

This feature lets you copy the actual terminal commands that smartRender executes in the background when it comes to rendering your frames. You can use this feature to better and quicker trouble shoot in case a rendering does not produce the needed result or does not render in smartRender. Simply copy one or several terminal commands to your desktop and execute these in your terminal.

_images/copy_terminal_commands.jpg

Executing this command opens another window in which you can decide the frame range of terminal commands to copy to your clipboard.

_images/copy_terminal_commands_gui.jpg

One frame for debugging is usually enough but if needed you can copy several terminal commands to your clipboard. After having copied them to your clipboard you can launch your terminal and execute these commands by pasting them into your terminal (Linux/MacOS: ctrl+v | Windows: Right click) and execute these.

Send email to license author when machine installs license

You as a license owner will now receive an email when a new machine uses your license. This is just another layer of security to ensure your licenses get only used by you and no one else. In case you own a site license, you can always white- and black list any machines and decide yourself which machines to allow / disallow usage of your licenses.

Other

  • Fix reading trial license data fails decrypting

Version 3.10

  • Make Nuke-13 Ready

Version 3.9

Add statistics to render log when exporting a job log

When exporting a job’s render log to your disk it will now contain statistics about progress, elapsed render time, average render time per frame, estimated remaining render time and remaining frames.

_images/job_log_statistics.jpg

Version 3.8

Add render statistics to job log window

The job log window got added a statistics section. This section gives you information about the job’s progress, elapsed render time, average render time per frame, estimated remaining render time, status and remaining frames.

_images/render_statistics.jpg

Version 3.7

  • Fix: Rendering gets inserted multiple times after render finished (#22)

Version 3.6

  • Make the windows being always on top configurable (#18)

  • Support multi selection in job queue (#19)

  • Add logger to log information about render jobs in the background (#20)

  • Process next waiting job in queue when current job has finished (#21)

Version 3.5

  • Register custom callable that run before/ after render submission

  • Fix render crashes that were caused on some machines with AMD processors

Version 3.4

  • Bring back render finished sounds

    Due to missing libraries, render finished sounds were not possible natively within Nuke-11. In Nuke-12, the needed libraries came back so we re-enabled this feature. Happy days.

  • Fix: Bring back tooltips

  • Use separate lines for each terminal input

  • Save working file before rendering

  • Pre-check existence of output node before rendering

  • Add additional after render commands

Version 3.3

  • Open up for site licenses

  • Generate license by license file, login and install code

  • Update internal package structure

Version 3.2

  • Collect executable nodes that are nested in Group nodes and Gizmos

  • Ignore executable nodes where no file path has been set

  • Add ‘create render directory’ command to executable node’s context menu

  • Open up render process for executable nodes that write to disk

  • Add job log button for each job in the job queue

  • Add sphinx documentation

Version 3.1

  • Evaluate expression paths in Write nodes

Version 3.0

  • Make Nuke11 ready

  • Major code updates and code improvements

Version 2.1

  • Fix bug when rendering using ‘keep existing frames’ enabled

Version 2.0

  • Render info panel to quickly access and edit your renderings

  • Batch render multiple shots

  • Rendering external nuke scripts without opening them

Version 1.1

  • Add global node changer window

  • Add automatic cache write node creator

  • Add input mode to frame range in smartRender window

Version 1.0

  • Initial release