"Russell Towle" <rto### [at] inreachcom> wrote:

> Moreover, it is possible to run two, or all three versions, at once! If they
> all could export to QuickTime, one could render frames 1-100 on Machine 1,
> 101-200 on Machine 2, an so on. But cutting and pasting between QT files is
> only permitted under QTPro, unfortunately.

I normally use QTPro (an *extremely* good use of $30) to make animations.
But the next best (free) thing is to use ffmpeg
(http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ ), which works well on my MacBook Pro.  You
can use it to take your ordered stack of .png images (for example) and
compress it into a quicktime movie, or whatever format you like.

(If anyone else has good suggestions for high-quality video compression that
works on an intel-based mac for free, I'd like to hear them too.)

Also, if you're dividing up frames, it's usually better to give machine 1
the odd frames and machine 2 render the even frames. (Start them on frames
1 and 2, and use Frame Step +2 in MacMegaPOV.)  Assuming that your machines
are equally matched, they'll finish closer to the same time this way.

-Windell.

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