ArnoldRender

Performs offline batch rendering using the Arnold renderer. This is done in two phases - first a .ass file is generated and then Arnold is invoked to render it. Note though that the .ass file is lightweight, and contains little more than a procedural which will use Gaffer to generate the scene at render time.

user

Container for user-defined plugs. Nodes should never make their own plugs here, so users are free to do as they wish.

preTasks

Input connections to upstream nodes which must be executed before this node.

postTasks

Input connections to nodes which must be executed after this node, but which don’t need to be executed before downstream nodes.

task

Output connections to downstream nodes which must not be executed until after this node.

dispatcher

Container for custom plugs which dispatchers use to control their behaviour.

dispatcher.batchSize

Maximum number of frames to batch together when dispatching tasks.

dispatcher.immediate

Causes this node to be executed immediately upon dispatch, rather than have its execution be scheduled normally by the dispatcher. For instance, when using the LocalDispatcher, the node will be executed immediately in the dispatching process and not in a background process as usual.

When a node is made immediate, all upstream nodes are automatically considered to be immediate too, regardless of their settings.

in

The scene to be rendered.

out

A pass-through of the input scene.

mode

When in the standard “Render” mode, an .ass file is generated and then renderered in Arnold. Alternatively, just the .ass file can be generated and then another method can be used to post-process it or launch the render - a SystemCommand node may be useful for this. Finally, an expanded .ass file may be generated - this will contain the entire expanded scene rather than just a procedural, and can be useful for debugging.

fileName

The name of the .ass file to be generated.

verbosity

Controls the verbosity of the Arnold renderer output.