Quick and Easy Setup on SheepIt Render Farm

TL;DR: Install some dependencies: blender default-jre and use the script below.

• Get 1000 points when you signup at SheepIt using my link: sheepit-renderfarm.com/?tag=x000111
• Get $300 credit and help support this site when you create a new account on Vultr and purchase services vultr.com/?ref=7289892

Rendering 3D animations is very time consuming, even with the most powerful computers. That’s why render farms exist. A render farm is a network of computers that work together to render 3D projects. SheepIt is a free render farm for Blender. It’s really a community of people around the world. When you render projects for other people you get points. You can spend those points to get your own projects rendered.

Rendering can be done on any physical computers at your disposal or even a VPS. One provider I like is Vultr. If you use my referral link (vultr.com/?ref=7289892), you’ll get $300 credit and help support this site.

Getting started

You are about to learn how to set up a Linux or Mac machine to run the SheepIt client in the background. In the end you’ll be able to use any computer as a render server on SheepIt. This guide assumes you already have access to a terminal. If you want to just get to rendering, feel free to check out the script below.

Log in to the computer you’ll be using to run SheepIt. For a Linux system, be sure to install blender and default-jre packages which will automatically install all additional required packages. On Debian based systems use the following command.

sudo apt install blender default-jre

Once you have the packages installed, download the SheepIt client.

wget -O sheepit-client.jar https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/media/applet/client-latest.php

Running the SheepIt client

You can run the client with all of the default settings. To make sure the client keeps running even after you are disconnected, run tmux. Enter the tmux command into the shell and press Enter. Then run the SheepIt client using the command below.

java -jar sheepit-client.jar -ui text -login [your username] -password [your password]

Once the SheepIt client is running, you can hit Ctrl+b then d to detach from the tmux session. It will still be running in the background. So you can now close or disconnect from the shell and SheepIt will continue to run. You can reattach to the session any time by logging into that computer and typing tmux a.

Fine tuning with a script

In some cases it’s best to tell the SheepIt client how many resources to use and whether to use GPU or CPU only. It’s easiest to create a startup script so you don’t need to remember the command. My startup script is below. There are a couple ways to get it.

Direct download

wget -O sheepit-start.sh https://gitlab.com/webunraveling/sheepit-quick-run-client/-/raw/main/sheepit-quickstart.sh

Copy, paste, and save

Copy the text and save it to a file named sheepit-start.sh.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Run from the script's own directory.
cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"

#######################
# User Credentials
#
# Change these to your username and password/key.
#######################
username="x000111"
pass="Iwa4QuIYuDqsSaAsqER3ZePt5Tf9IRgpdIMq0yU0"

#######################
# System settings
#######################
blenderDeps=(blender default-jre) # Packages to install which will include required dependencies
mem="5" # Amount of RAM for SheepIt (in GB)
gpu="--no-gpu" # leave empty to use GPU
computeMethod="CPU" # Options: CPU | GPU | leave blank
renderTime="82" # The max minutes you are willing to render one frame

for dep in ${blenderDeps[@]}; do
    if ! dpkg -s $dep > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo; echo "#############################";
        printf "You are missing a required package. You must install: ${dep}";
        echo; echo "#############################"; echo;
        exit;
    else
        echo "Is '${dep}' installed? ...YES";
    fi
done

if [ ! -f "sheepit-client.jar" ]; then
    echo "SheepIt client not found. Downloading the client."
    wget -O sheepit-client.jar https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/media/applet/client-latest.php
    chmod +x sheepit-client.jar
fi

if [ ! -z $mem ]; then
    mem="-memory ${mem}G"
fi

if [ ! -z $computeMethod ]; then
    computeMethod="-compute-method ${computeMethod}"
fi

if [ ! -z $renderTime ]; then
    renderTime="-rendertime ${renderTime}"
fi

echo;
# This will run the client with the settings above.
java -jar sheepit-client.jar $mem -ui text $gpu -cache-dir $HOME/sheepit-cache $computeMethod $renderTime -login $username -password $pass

Once you have the script saved, make it executable.

chmod +x sheepit-start.sh

If you’re running this from a VPS or any cloud server without a GPU, the default settings should suffice but you will need to enter your username and password. Or instead of a password, you should create a render key. A render key grants access to render on your account. Using a key is far more secure than putting your password into a script.

To create a key, log in to SheepIt, edit your user profile, and navigate to the “Render keys” tab.

Once you have added your username, key, and any other modifications, you are ready to run the client. If you haven’t already done so, type the tmux command and start the SheepIt client using the command below.

./sheepit-start.sh

You should now see output from the SheepIt client. It should start downloading a project and begin rendering. Now you can sit back and watch the frames fly! Enjoy!