Technical Details
I'll be using Autodesk 3ds Max 2012, with Mental Ray for rendering software. (http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/) I'll be using 3d stereo cam script by Louis Marcoux (http://area.autodesk.com/userdata/fckdata/4952/StereoCamModifier_V1_7_3.rar) to generate a camera setup. I'm acquiring materials at high res, so ultimately the project can be scaled anywhere from SD to 4K (2d or 3d.) The higher resolution I want to generate, however, the more CPU time I'll need for rendering. Since I only have a single physical (eight core) Pentium i7 processor at my disposal, I'm going to have to find more machines to render the video in a timely manner.
Rendering Solutions
I looked into possible answers to rendering under a timeline. Ideally, I wanted to get a separate rending machine. I looked into hardware like renderPROs from Boxx (http://www.boxxtech.com/products/renderPRO/pro_overview.asp) and workstations from HP (http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/workstations/z400_features.html#.TznDzVxSQsI) that could serve as dedicated render machines. I was interesting in getting one through a grant, but ultimate found this route too expensive, even if they qualified for a grant.
Another route to go is cloud rendering, where I would send project's files to another server and have their CPUs do the rendering. I found several services that offer this, but the price is also quite steep. Possible services include http://www.renderrocket.com/, http://www.rebusfarm.com/, and http://www.rendernation.com/. Autodesk also offers cloud rendering, for subscribers of certain products. These services charge per CPU usage, and calculating costs is complicated as I haven't done the project yet and am unsure of the render time per frame. I do aim to make the project 1:30-2:00, which equates to 2160-2880 frames. At ~1 hour a frame this method could also be too expensive. If this method is also extremely expensive, I will have to downgrade quality to allow for rendering locally.
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