The following provides bare-bone steps on how to set up and use the Backburner Manager and Server utilities to perform batch rendering.
If your system is already properly configured for TCP/IP protocols (for example, your computer has an internet connection), information in this topic will help you get started with batch rendering in a few basic steps.
To render in batch mode:
You need Windows XP (Home or Professional) Service Pack 1 (or higher) or Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.
Note: Backburner rendering is not supported under Windows 95, 98 or ME.
Run the Backburner Manager and Server applications from the Start menu, in the same program group as Autodesk VIZ.
Start Autodesk VIZ, and load the first scene you want to batch render.
Backburner coordinates rendering tasks on a scene by scene basis which differs from the Batch Render tool where you can set multiple rendering tasks from different cameras in the same scene.
Open the Render Scene dialog and adjust the various rendering parameters for the way you want to render the scene, including active viewport, file output, etc.
Turn on Net Render in the Render Output group, and then click Render.
In the resulting Network Job Assignment dialog, click the Connect button.
Note: Each job should have a unique output file name and/or path to avoid overwriting output files. If you get an alert dialog that says, "Another job is using the same output name…," you can click the No button, click Cancel to exit the Network Job Assignment dialog, and then change the output name and/or path. Otherwise, you can click the Yes button and let the job overwrite the frames from the other job in the queue.
Load the next scene you want rendered, and then repeat steps 4 through 7.
Once you’ve submitted all rendering jobs, you can exit Autodesk VIZ, if you want. If power is lost before all jobs are rendered (either by accident or by intentional powering down of your computer), when you restart the Backburner Manager and Server programs, the rendering process will resume where it left off.