Robbie Robfogel, president and visual effects supervisor for Ocean Visual FX (www.oceanvisualfx.com) in Huntington Beach, Calif., submitted to us this review of epicsoft’s MULE LightWave Network Rendering package.
If you have ever used LightWave’s built in network render tool Screamer-Net, then you know what a big hassle it can be to set things up. Enter epicsoft’s MULE LightWave Network Rendering package that truly lives up to its slogan and really hauls ass.
epicsoft has made MULE easy to use and affordable. Several different purchase options are available depending on the size of your network’s render-farm and the ease of setup and use is very refreshing. After installing the MULE server and clients, you need to set things up in order for LightWave and MULE to work together. The lead programmer of MULE, Ryan Moore, takes you step-by-step via an online tutorial.
Once set up is completed, and it’s about as easy as it gets, MULE is a real pleasure to work with. In its main server interface, MULE is straight forward and to the point. To set up your renders, all that you need do is click ‘Add Scene’ and the scene is added to the queue. Add as many scenes as you like. MULE can handle it all. Once the scene is added, you select it and set up its camera options and render settings as you would in LightWave. You have the same ability to adjust for size and details as you would directly in LightWave. Once you have set the parameters up for each scene, you have the option to start that specific scene’s render task or all scenes in the queue. When you start your render, the frame manager opens and you can see how long each frame is taking, and which processor on your network is rendering what. MULE allows for multiple processors and you have the ability to designate how many processors per client station.
Once you start rendering with MULE, it’s a huge pleasure to see just how fast rendering happens. Here at Ocean Visual FX, we use all next generation x64 BOXX workstations and render-farms. MULE screams through our renders with ease. No more 30-minute coffee breaks, things get done fast and with superb quality. You can render frames in a variety of formats; one of the highlights of MULE is the ‘MULE Viewer.’ This tool allows you to see how things look as soon as they are rendered. It also will compile all of your frames and export them as an .avi. One thing I personally have been pushing for with epicsoft’s development team is a QuickTime export tool. Hopefully we will see that soon, as MULE 2.0 is now in the works.
MULE also has a slew of other features that make this product a definite buy for LightWave users with a network at their disposal. One of these is ‘Scene Drop,’ which allows you to drag and drop a scene on a client workstation and add it to the queue in an instant.
‘SmartGroups’ allow you to categorize your available render clients into groupings that are best suited for specific types of render tasks. More powerful systems can be designated for higher-res images or scenes that require intensive calculation, while your moderately equipped machines can be reserved for less taxing work that won’t choke the overall render process.
For those extremely hi-res or processor-intensive renderings, MULE’s Framesplitter Pro will allow you to slice the full area of your target image into manageable parcels for distribution and rendering by separate network clients. It then will re-assemble them for you into one frame. epicsoft has really covered all bases with its first offering of MULE.
On a final note, let me say that having used all sorts of network rendering tools for LightWave, MULE is by far the easiest to set up and use. Its interface and power are unmatched in any other product available, and is on par with those proprietary applications used in some of Hollywood’s biggest studios. Every MULE user that I have talked to swears by this package. It just can’t be beat. If you use LightWave for making your living, you need MULE. As we say in the MULE community”Happy Hauling!’
Robfogel has worked as a visual effects technical director for Foundation Imaging, O-Entertainment and Transconituity Studios, and has been as a professor of 3D animation and visual effects at Chapman University and the American Film Institute. Past vfx credits include the animated series Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles and Max Steel.
For more information on Mule, and to download a free 30-day trial, go to www.epicsoft.net/products/mule.
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