Okay - it's the final 2 weeks of Semester 1 - which means that 3 submission deadlines are converging and all students will very soon be looking to render their creative efforts. On Thursday 19th January, the Year 2 Retrofest collaboration project concludes with project submission and crit. On Friday 20th January, Year 3 complete and submit their minor project and Year 1 submit and crit their debut 'digital set' for Unit 3 'Environment'. It's going to be a busy, creative and particularly stressful time for everyone, but I'm hoping we can guard against the worst of any 'Maya Rage' and unnecessary angst re. rendering and kit.
To make best use of the existing facilities, we need to think strategically in terms of rendering. As 'rendering' locks out users from computers, it makes sense for CGAA to make use of the time when the University itself is shut - i.e. over night and over the weekend (14th/15th Jan). Machines available for rendering include the computers in the baseroom, in the small computer room, and in DM3.
Okay - Mon to Thurs any teaching taking place in DM3 concludes by 4pm, which gives year 2/3 CGAA students an hour to prep for over-night rendering. DM3 is locked off by the technicians after this time until the following morning. On Friday 13th, the CGAA Yr 1 Maya class will conclude at 4pm, giving year 2/3 students an hour to prep for rendering over the weekend. Students must come and collect their rendered files from the DM3 machines by 9.30am next morning.
The baseroom/small computer room is open until Uni closes, but year 2/3 students seeking to render overnight on these machines should arrive at 6pm to prep their files, and collect their rendered files by 9.30am the following morning. On Friday 13th Jan, year 2/3 students seeking to render over the weekend should arrive by 4.30pm to prep files, as the University shuts early on Fridays.
Important Notice for CGAA Year 1: if, come 6pm (mon - thurs) or 4.30pm (Fri), a year 2/3 student needs a computer on which to prep their renders, their access is prioritised. Timetable your own work schedule accordingly (i.e. no Maya work after 6pm). Obviously, we cannot yet predict the demand for computers, and if no year 2/3 student requires the computer on which you're working come 6pm, then continue working on it. However, please be mindful of the needs of your classmates and seek to accommodate them if and when it becomes necessary.
At this time of year, tolerance, understanding and good old-fashioned manners can mean the difference between a discussion and a crisis, so please support each other.
Important Notice for CGAA Year 2/3 Part 1: when you leave a computer rendering, you should leave a notice on your respective machines giving your name and mobile number, should you need to be contacted. Again, as demand for rendering on University machines cannot yet be predicted, allocation of number of computers per student/group is up for case-by-case negotiation, but we would ask you to be considerate, proportionate and fair in this respect.
Important Notice for CGAA Year 2/3 Part 2: To help you house your renders the temp space (link below) has been cleaned of 500Gb of data. In addition all new CG Arts PC's (Baseroom & DM3) are equiped with a secondary 500Gb drive for further storage and scratch disks. Remember these are shared drives. Please be respectful of other students work and make sure you back up your files regularly.
To access the temp space. Extract and double click on the map file whilst on a UCA computer. A new "T" drive will appear as a network hard drive.
To access the temp space. Extract and double click on the map file whilst on a UCA computer. A new "T" drive will appear as a network hard drive.
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