A method of provisioning a cloud-based render farm

摘要

This invention relates to a method of provisioning a cloud-based render farm. Cloud-based render farms are relatively difficult to establish and require skilled IT personnel to create and operate. This represents a significant cost to smaller 3D studios and a substantial drain on the resources of the larger 3D studios' IT departments. According to the present invention, the steps of establishing a cloud-based render farm are simplified through the appropriate use of a provisioning module. All that is required of the IT staff or artist is to nominate the number of render machines and the amount of storage area required in the render farm and in some instances the rendering software and plugins required. The remaining steps of the method are performed by the provisioning module and/or a cloud-based render farm controller. In this way, cloud-based render farms can be established quickly with the minimum amount of difficulty and skill required. Once created, rendering jobs can be allocated to a render farm by dragging and dropping a job icon onto a render farm icon on a user interface.