The problem
Five idle machines and one that renders all night.
The render sits on one workstation for hours while every other machine does nothing. A render farm needs a server and someone to look after it, and on a show nobody has that someone.
How it works
The machines run the farm themselves.
Install presto on each machine and point it at a shared folder. Submit a comp from After Effects: it is cut into parts, every machine renders some, and the finished movie file lands on the share. A machine that drops out changes nothing, the others carry on.
Add a machine to the pool and it joins the render. Take one away and the rest carry on.
Keep working
The render leaves your workstation and runs on the others.
Mac and PC together
Both work on the same comp at the same time.
Fast machines first
The last parts go to the fastest machines, so nobody waits for the slowest.
Survives the night
A machine crashes, the job carries on. Your phone gets a push at the end.
Nothing leaves the building
No upload, no account, no cloud.
Movie files out
The final file, assembled for you. No image sequence.
One licence, for the machine that sends the render. Every machine that renders is free.
The competition
Everything else shares out jobs. presto shares out one comp.
| presto | Render Brain | Render managers | After Effects | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One comp split across machines | Whole jobs only | |||
| Comes back as a movie file | Image sequence | Image sequence | ||
| Machines included | Unlimited | 2 to 12 by plan | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| No server to install or maintain | Server required |