Issues with aiStandins with ass sequences failing on the farm

[Anonymous]

I have multiple .ass sequences that i've output from Houdini

They've all been plugged into aiStandins in Maya and render successfully locally

If I turn off 'use file sequence' they render on the farm

As soon as I submit the scene to the farm via Deadline, with 'use file sequence' checked, it fails with the following :

Error: Could not find file 'V:\Jobs\test\Design\Production\test\Shots\s020\Renders\CG\fx\data\bg_wisp\v003\bg_wisp_v003.1007.ass'. (System.IO.FileNotFoundException)

2020-12-02 20:25:02: 0: STDOUT: Running PathMapping on "V:/Jobs/test/Design/Production/test/Shots/s020//Renders/CG/fx/data/burst_wisp/v003\burst_wisp_v003.1007.ass" and copying to "C:/Users/testuser/AppData/Local/Thinkbox/Deadline10/slave/test-farm-01/jobsData/5fc84be469f6033a20ce8874/thread0_tempTx8Rw0\aiStandIn_fx_burst_wispShape\burst_wisp_v003.1007.ass"

(1 of 4 similar lines)

I've tried adding the root 'data' path where all of the ass sequences live to the procedural search path

I've tried several means of submitting with the deadline submitter including :

- unchecking 'submit maya scene file'

- use local asset caching

What's going on here...

[Stephen.Blair]

Those are not Arnold error messages. Those look like Deadline errors.

Does this file exist?

V:\Jobs\test\Design\Production\test\Shots\s020\Renders\CG\fx\data\bg_wisp\v003\bg_wisp_v003.1007.ass

What is the aiStandin filename value?

[Anonymous]

Hi Stephen,

aiStandin filename value :

V:/Jobs/test/Design/Production/test/Shots/s020/Renders/CG/fx/data/potion_wisp/v003/bg_wisp_v003.1097.ass

Works locally..

I've also tried changing the slash direction and while this also works locally it continues to fail on the farm.

The Path deadline is mentioning in the log does exist and matches the path above.

We're using Windows 10 on our workstations and on the farm btw -

[Anonymous]

Actually, I think i'm realizing that these ass sequences are partial so those particular frames do not exist. Is there a way to have Arnold ignore the frames it does not exist on so it doesn't fail the whole frame?

[Stephen.Blair]

@Frank Grecco
Ok. And you do have a sequence of ass files, starting at 0001 and going to at least 1097, right?

So for frame 1007, the actual ass file is

V:/Jobs/test/Design/Production/test/Shots/s020/Renders/CG/fx/data/potion_wisp/v003/bg_wisp_v003.1007.ass

but Deadline is looking for

V:\Jobs\test\Design\Production\test\Shots\s020\Renders\CG\fx\data\bg_wisp\v003\bg_wisp_v003.1007.ass 

"potion_wisp" has changed to "bg_wisp"

[Stephen.Blair]

And I also see "burst_wisp" in that PathMapping message:

2020-12-02 20:25:02: 0: STDOUT: Running PathMapping on 
"V:/Jobs/test/Design/Production/test/Shots/s020//Renders/CG/fx/data/burst_wisp/v003\burst_wisp_v003.1007.ass"
 and copying to 
"C:/Users/testuser/AppData/Local/Thinkbox/Deadline10/slave/test-farm-01/jobsData/5fc84be469f6033a20ce8874/thread0_tempTx8Rw0\aiStandIn_fx_burst_wispShape\burst_wisp_v003.1007.ass" 

Can you test without this path mapping stuff?
Is the V drive accessible?

[Stephen.Blair]

A missing ass file always aborts the render, unless you disable Abort on Error (Diagnostics tab).

[Anonymous]

So it turns out that because my ass sequence did not encompass the full range of the shot it would just fail on the frames where it did not exist. As soon as I output a new ass sequence that had an .ass file for every frame it rendered just fine on the farm. I prematurely suspended the render on the farm. Had I let it continue I would have seen that the frames where the sequence eventually turned on rendered without issue. If there's a work around for this I'd love to hear. I expected it just to ignore missing frames instead of erroring out entirely.

[Stephen.Blair]

Years ago it would just continue with the render despite missing ass files, and that made for some really hard-to-figure-out support cases, and some really frustrated customers.

[Anonymous]

Got it. Makes sense to me. Glad I have it all cleared up. Thanks for your insight Stephen.