next morning.

so up bright and early at 8am with fresh ideas of how to tackle this problem. i decided to export all the models and import it into a fresh scene such as how we solved the occlusion problem. this did not work either and im at a loss through scouring the internet. i have decided that it is either there is a big problem with maya 2011 batch rendering mental ray, or that the project file i have from keith is full of imported objects trying to link back to their original sources. obviously if they are trying to link to their sources they cant and that is why the render fails, but it doesnt explain why the render works as 1 frame.

i phoned keith to consult him and arrange to meet on monday to try and use the render farm. it was in this discussion that i discovered keith had had exactly the same problem. he had managed to find a code though on a forum that forced maya to batch render through the render view, in othere words bypassing the batch render altogether.

SUCCESS!!!! finaly after 12 + hours of trying to get this darn thing to work. the only draw back is time as it take s long er as maya is producing a fully rendered preview each frame. but it does work and i am currently rendering batches of frames on 2 computers.

the other problem is that after about 20 frames-45 mins- some of the textures turn bright red and u have to preview the rendered images make sure their all ok then restart maya and restart the batch render from a new start frame. as a result this means that i have to render about 50 frames a time and keep an eye on the render viewports to make sure the render hasnt corrupted.

slow but definately getting there :D.