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Cloud VFX Server

Setup cloud as a VFX server.

About

Quick tutorial to setup a Cloud Server for multiple machines access, and VFX Pipeline on Windows, macOS and Linux. This repository is based on Google Drive VFX Server, with loads of improvements.

Setup Server

First, you'll need to mount your Cloud server on your system, using any software you like (rclone, Google Drive File Stream, etc.)

We can then start moving files around. The setup only relies on environment variables:

SERVER_ROOT: The root of the mounted Cloud server. This is the only value that needs to be changed depending on your setup
CONFIG_ROOT: The .config folder
ENVIRONMENT_ROOT: the .config/environment folder
PIPELINE_ROOT: the .config/pipeline folder

You can now download the code from this repository and extract its content to your SERVER_ROOT. Using Z:/My Drive as the mounted Cloud server path, it should look like this:

.
└──  Z:/My Drive/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline

Which equals to:

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  $CONFIG_ROOT/
        ├──  $ENVIRONMENT_ROOT
        └──  $PIPELINE_ROOT

You will need to modify SERVER_ROOT in .zshrc (Unix) and/or dcc.bat (Windows) by your mounted Cloud server path:

In .zshrc: export SERVER_ROOT="Path/to/drive/linux" (Line 12, 17, 21)
In dcc.bat: setx SERVER_ROOT "Pathtodrivewindows" (Line 9)

Once the folder structure is created and the SERVER_ROOT value has been modified, you can now assign the environment variables:

Windows

Windows supports shell scripting after some manipulations but it's way easier to "hard" write the environment variables by running dcc.bat.

dcc.bat

To check that everything is working:

Type Win + I to open the Windows Settings
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click About
Navigate to Device Specifications and press Advanced System Settings
In the System Properties dialogue box, hit Environmental Variables
The freshly created variables should be under User
Check is SERVER_ROOT has been defined with the right path

Unix

macOS and Linux are both Unix based OS. The simplest way is to migrate your shell to Zsh using chsh -s $(which zsh) in your terminal. You can then symlink .zshrc in your $HOME folder. To check that everything is working, restart your terminal and type echo $SERVER_ROOT: it should output your mounted Cloud server path.

Warning

.zshrc needs to be called exactly that way in $HOME to be picked up by the terminal: remove any alias or symlink added in the name.

Warning

The Make Alias command in macOS Finder won't work properly. You should use this service instead to create proper Symlinks: Symbolic Linker

Software

This setup automatically links the following DCCs, using this folder structure:

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline/
            ├──  houdini               ──> Using $HSITE
            ├──  maya                  ──> Using $MAYA_APP_DIR
            ├──  nuke                  ──> Using $NUKE_PATH
            ├──  other
            └──  substance_painter
                └──  python            ──> Using $SUBSTANCE_PAINTER_PLUGINS_PATH

The DDCs can be launched normally on Windows if the dcc.bat file has been used to define the environment variables.

For macOS and Linux, you should start them from a terminal, in order to inherit the environment variables defined by .zshrc.

You can find an example script for Houdini just here: houdini.sh.

To access it quickly, we also defined an alias for houdini pointing to that script in aliases.sh. It will allow you to simply type this command to launch Houdini.

Maya

WIP

Note

See Maya file path variables

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline/
            └──  maya/
                └──  2023/
                    ├──  Maya.env
                    ├──  prefs
                    ├──  presets
                    └──  scripts

Substance Painter

WIP

Note
See Substance Painter environment variables

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline/
            └──  substance_painter/
                └──  python/
                    └──  plugin.py

Houdini

Houdini will automatically scan the folder defined by $HSITE for any folder being named houdini<houdini version>/<recognized folder> such as otls or packages and load the content of those folders at Houdini startup.

Note

See Configuring Houdini

You can find two package file examples:

A generic plugin_name.json
An arnold.json

Both taking advantage of the environment variables posteriorly defined.

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline/
            └──  houdini/
                └──  houdini19.5/
                    ├──  desktop
                    ├──  otls/
                    │   └──  digital_asset.hda
                    └──  packages/
                        └──  package.json

Nuke

Nuke will scan the content of the folder defined by NUKE_PATH, searching for init.py and menu.py.

Note

See What are the init.py and menu.py files

You can find an init.py file example, showing how to load plugins on Nuke startup.

.
└──  $SERVER_ROOT/
    └──  .config/
        ├──  environment
        └──  pipeline/
            └──  nuke/
                ├──  init.py
                └──  menu.py