Hi All,

First post. Been a linux/HPC admin or many years but very little experience in the rendering world and eager to learn. Have setup tractor several years back but it did not get a lot of use mainly due to student training issues. Glad to have run across this resource! At this point looking for high-level advice/experiences but also will probably have more detailed questions as my thought process advances.

I have been tasked with figuring out the optimal rendering solution for our digital arts majors with their group projects. We have a lab with windows machines equipped with GTX 1060's and 1070's but mostly in the classrooms are Dell Optiplex with very minimal video capabilities. We also have a range in age of mac machines with various video capabilities. Additionally and I think where I want to focus energy is that we have a couple of servers with 6 1080 ti cards each in them that are mainly used for deep learning currently that I would like to be able to pull into the fold to pull double duty.

At present we mainly use Maya and After Effects for teaching purposes so that would be the main apps to target. I have gone down the path of Red Shift for the renderer a bit but that does not support After Effects. There has been talk about pottentially going to Maxon. Deadline has been suggested as a scheduler.

At this point I am herding cats with the combination of my lack of knoledge/experience in this area and several faculty members who have different ideas about how things should go.

I am just trying to come up with something that will serve as many use-cases needs as possible. Any advice greatly welcomed!