# VFXReview — Blender Submit

A Blender add-on that queues the open `.blend` on the studio render farm instead
of rendering it locally. Ctrl+F12, but on the farm.

---

## What a Blender job is (and is not)

Deliberately the simplest thing in the pipeline: **a queue entry and nothing
more**. It has no Export, takes no shot version, and is never validated, QC'd or
delivered. The `.blend` is expected to be ready to render — output path, format
and frame range already set — and the farm just runs it.

That is the whole difference from an After Effects export, which is a shot
submission and carries the full lifecycle behind it.

---

## Install

1. **Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install…** and pick `vfxreview_submit.py`.
2. Enable **Render: VFXReview — Submit Render**.
3. Expand its preferences and set:

| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| **Server URL** | `https://review.twotalesvfx.com` |
| **API Key** | matches `API_SECRET_KEY` on the server (same key the AE panel uses) |
| **Artist Email** | recorded against the job so the queue shows who submitted it |

The panel appears under **Properties → Output → VFXReview**.

---

## Submitting

1. **Refresh Projects** (the circular arrow) and pick the project.
2. Optionally set a **Label** — defaults to the `.blend` filename, and is what
   the render queue shows, since there is no shot code.
3. **Urgent** makes the job claimable outside the render window, ahead of normal
   work.
4. **Submit to Render Farm**.

The panel shows the frame range, engine and output path it will send, read from
the file as saved. Nothing is changed on submission.

**The file must be saved first.** The farm opens the `.blend` from disk, so
unsaved changes would render the previous state without warning — the add-on
refuses to submit a dirty file rather than let that happen.

Track the job on the web app under **Pipeline → Blender renders**: live
progress, current frame, ETA and the machine running it, with cancel and requeue.

---

## Which machines can render it

Only workers with `blenderPath` set in their `config.json` and the executable
present. The worker reports Blender at registration and the server hands
`BLENDER_RENDER` jobs only to machines that have it — a machine without Blender
can never claim work it could only fail.

Verify on a worker with:

```powershell
.\VFXReviewWorker.exe --check
```

Blender is listed as optional there: a machine without it stays perfectly valid
for After Effects work.

---

## Notes

**Paths must resolve on the render machine.** The `.blend` path and its output
path are submitted as the artist sees them; the worker applies its own
`pathMappings` before opening the file. A path on a drive letter the render
account cannot see is the most common reason a job fails immediately.

**Renders as saved.** The add-on sends the scene's own settings. The manifest
supports overrides (samples, resolution %, device, engine) for future use, but
nothing in the UI sets them today — one place for render settings is the point.

**Exit code 0 with no frames is treated as a failure.** Blender exits cleanly
when a frame range is empty or an output path is unwritable, so the worker
checks that frames were actually saved before reporting success.

**The add-on sends its own User-Agent** (`VFXReviewBlender/<version>`). Python's
`urllib` otherwise identifies itself as `Python-urllib/3.x`, which Cloudflare
blocks outright as a scripted signature — a 403 with error 1010 before the
request ever reaches the server. Verified against the live zone: `Python-urllib`
gets 403, the add-on's own agent gets 200. If a future Cloudflare rule blocks it
anyway, the add-on says so in plain language rather than showing the raw JSON,
and the fix is a WAF allow rule on the agent or on `/api/ext/*`.