C4d Relative output paths warning

bonsak · October 16, 2015, 9:20am

Hi
When using relative paths in c4d i get a warning on submit:

[code]The job was submitted successfully, but there were some warnings:

Ignoring output filename “…/Elements/3D/tmp.c4d_Main/Main_####.png” because: Value of “OutputFilename0” key ("…/Elements/3D/tmp.c4d_Main/Main_####.png") is not a full path and thus it requires a non-empty corresponding “OutputDirectory0” key.[/code]

The job renders fine in the c4d command line renderer but files can not be found by monitor like we’re used to.

Would it be possible to implement functionality for the c4d submitter to resolve the relative paths to absolute paths on submission?

Cheers
Bonsak

Conrad_Wiebe · October 16, 2015, 8:21pm

Thanks for reporting the problem. I’ll test it out and see what is happening.

bonsak · October 16, 2015, 8:47pm

Thanks. It doesn’t seem like the c4d submitter is converting the Tokens either. Was trying this with 7.2.1.0 R I thought this version converted Tokens?
Was using c4d version 17.042

Cheers
Bonsak

grant.bartel · October 19, 2015, 4:24pm

Hey Bonsak,

So it looks like I might have missed a couple of cases for tokens, so I am taking a look at that. Are there specific tokens that you are using? I just want to make sure I covered the tokens since we have to manually handle them.

Grant

grant.bartel · October 19, 2015, 6:48pm

Hey Bonsak,

I am looking into this more and trying some relative path’s testing however when using relative paths it does not seem to render through C4D would you have a test scene that renders using relative paths in C4d outside of deadline that I could test with?

Grant

bonsak · October 20, 2015, 8:38am

Sure. C4d uses regular directory navigation:

../output/shot_10/shot_10_.exr

Extract the archive with its directory structure and render from the “scene.c4d” file.
Output will be placed in:

/c4d-relativepaths/output/shot_10/shot_10_.exr

Up one level from the scene file, then down two into the output directory.

-b
c4d-relativepaths.zip (143 KB)

MikeOwen · October 20, 2015, 10:05am

Thanks Bonsak! Could you let us know which TOKENS you are using as well, so we can confirm all is working on our side here as well.

grant.bartel · October 20, 2015, 2:40pm

Hey Bonsak,

So I have been trying out your test scene and whenever I try to render it I am getting an error saying “Invalid Output Path” Is there something you have to set before hand in C4d to get relative paths to work?

Grant

bonsak · October 21, 2015, 9:13am

@Grant: What version of c4d are you using? It doesn’t work in R16.

@MikeOwen: Not sure i understand. We’re using any of the tokens, in relation to different use cases.
The Python Tokens api works in R17.032 and upwards i think. The doc just aren’t ready yet. But it should be similar to the c++ one.

-b

MikeOwen · October 21, 2015, 9:24am

We recently discovered there is no Python API access to query for ALL tokens present in C4D (only available in c++). We requested access yesterday for this. So, if you create a C4D plugin to extend the token system with custom ones, we currently can’t query for them. I was checking you are only using the std built-in tokens in C4D such as: ‘prj’, ‘pass’, ‘frame’, etc.

bonsak · October 21, 2015, 10:52am

Don’t worry, we don’t register any custom tokens at the moment. But when this functionality is exposed in the Python api, we’ll probably set up our own set of additional tokens. Hopefuly by then we’ll also have a way to query ALL tokens in python
The built-in tokens will do fine for now.

-b