Introduction
In this guide, you will learn how to set up the Blender Studio Pipeline, the backbone of Blender Open Movies. This workflow relies on Blender, several Blender add-ons, and additional services like Kitsu and Flamenco. Whether you are an individual with a single computer or a studio with a full network of workstations, this guide offers a straightforward approach to setting up the pipeline, complete with easy-to-follow examples.
Python Requirement
Running these scripts requires Python 3.11 or higher. Please ensure that Python and its dependencies are installed on your system before running Blender with the instructions below.
Infrastructure
Description of the infrastructure used at Blender Studio.
Workstations
Artists at Blender Studio use Linux workstations, running Gentoo Linux. While the infrastructure is designed to support other operating systems, it is primarily intended for a heterogeneous environment where every machine is set up in a similar way.
Artist workstations also serve as clients for the render farm.
Shared Storage
We use two shared drives:
/renderto store render farm output/sharedto store project and shared data
Version Control System
We use SVN. While it presents a higher barrier to entry, it offers a robust and efficient way to store and version large binary files during production.
This means we need an SVN service (which can be on the LAN or online).
Network/Web Services
- Syncthing (needs access to
/shared) - Flamenco (render farm needs access to
/sharedand/render) - Kitsu (production tracker can be hosted anywhere)
- Watchtower (needs access to Kitsu)
Other Dependencies
We rely on the Blender Buildbot infrastructure to provide Blender builds to the workstations.