Hello, I intend to launch network render jobs through the command line in Windows 7, ie., not with Watch Folder feature but by passing command lines directly to aerender.exe.
The problem is that I need to create new Output Module settings for the render job and pass it on to my render slaves. The slaves are installed in trial mode which now have expired, so I am not able to open up full After Effects and import an .aom file. And I have not figured out a way to do the same thing with just the Render Engine as the menu option is disabled no matter what I do.
I thought that copying the preference files from my workstation to the render slaves would give them the new Output Modules as I read that these settings are stored in the preference files somehow, but the render still complains about missing modules if I try.
I have 'almost' solved the whole thing by temporarily register the expired versions with my serial, import the .aom (or recreate the template from scratch), and then deactivate AE into trial mode again.
However I noticed a strange behaviour when doing this which I cannot figure out. I had previously put a ae_render_only_node.txt into \Users\Public\Documents\Adobe to force it into Render Engine mode, but it seems like the aerender.exe can no longer find the new Output Module I just created when ae_render_only_node.txt is present in that folder.
As soon as i remove ae_render_only_node.txt the aerender.exe renders fine, but with the file present it just won't find the new module on any of the slaves. I guess it works for as long as the "new" trial period is active (by registering and deactivating I got 30 days trial mode again.) But once this trial is over I am forced to use ae_render_only_node.txt to make the slaves render, no?
It is perhaps so that using the standard way of network rendering through Watch Folder will avoid this issue, but the reason is that we are designing custom network render tools that use aerender.exe because of simplicity, speed and reliability compare to Watch Folder.
In this case it would have been so much easier if Render Settings and Output Modules would have been stored as an ordinary XML or INI file which could be transfered between systems and edited with simple external text editing tools.
Right now it seems like this won't be a problem for me during these next 30 days, but after that I fear that my custom Output Module settings will no longer be recognized.
Is there any solution to this?