A Render Farm is a cluster of computers that are made and set specifically for rendering. This is typically used for film and TV VFX projects.
These computers are called render nodes. Each render node has the required 3D software, the renderer (e.g. Arnold/Redshift/Cycles) and needed plugins installed.
Large industry Render Farms typically have thousands of render nodes.
The rendering process
Even though we are lucky enough to use a render farm and assign our renders across several computers (render nodes), it does not mean that the renders will always be completed speedily. The length of a render is calculated by:
• The render settings
• The complexity of the scene
• Available computing power
Which means that depending on the settings, a render can either take seconds or it can take hours.
That’s why it’s important to have your settings optimised for a good quality render, but also a render that is not going to take many hours per frame.