Your comprehensive guide for using Blender on Drop & Render.

Download this guide, open it as markdown or explore our other manuals using the buttons above.

Use (Ctrl or CMD) + K to activate fuzzy search.

Why Drop & Render

Drop & Render is a premiere managed render farm solution designed with both freelancers and studios in mind. You send us projects that take hours to render, and we'll have them ready for you in minutes.

• Seamless integration: Our add-on integrates directly into Blender, Cinema 4D and Houdini.
• Managed servers: We bring the hardware, you bring the project. No need to maintain your own infrastructure or set up any virtual environments.
• Plug and play: We take your projects as they are. Drop & Render is built around your projects, not the other way around.
• Outputs where you expect: Downloads go straight to your project folder. Just like rendering locally.
• Dedicated support: You can always reach real people with long term experience in 3D rendering for all of our supported platforms.

System requirements

Our tools support both Windows (8 and up) and MacOS (10.15 and up), with Linux support on the way. All of the computation is done in our cloud, so the only system requirement is being able to open your project in Blender.

Setup & installation

To use Drop & Render, you first need to create an account. Once this is done, head over to the dashboard and download the Cloud manager application for your operating system.

Once installed you can open it as:

• Windows: Drop and Render User Interface
• MacOS: Applications / DropandRender / cloudui

The application will then prompt you to install one of our add-ons. Pick Blender, and follow the instructions. Our add-on will then be installed into your add-ons directory.

You can find more information on the our toolbox, including the Cloud manager and our web dashboard in our Drop & Render manual.

Core concepts

Distribution of work

Our datacenter is filled with top-of-the-line machines optimized for 3D rendering. When you submit a job we will split it many smaller chunk, and give each to an independent machine. This means that your job can be rendered by 50+ machines all at the same time.

Slices & slice numbers

Slices are the chunks we split your project into, and the number of frames that are processed by each chunk is its "slice number". Rendering multiple frames in one slice means you reduce the number of times Blender has to initialize the project. The slice number defaults to 1, but this is not always optimal.

Each job has a startup overhead of 1-2 minutes due to Blender itself. For a render that takes 30 seconds per frame on our machines, this effectively means that with a slice number of 1, each machine will charge you for up to 2 and a half minutes, even though your render only took up 20% of that time.

Increasing the slice number helps reduce this extra cost - by rendering more frames per slice you reduce the number of startups. In the above case, if your render has 10 total frames and you set the slice number to 10, you'll end up doing 5 minutes of rendering for each 2 minutes of startup. This means your total render time goes from ~25 minutes (2.5 minutes * 10 frames) to only 7 minutes (~72% faster & cheaper) (2 minutes + 30 seconds * 10 frames) executed concurrently with 10 machines working at once.

Tip: Aim for approximately 20 minutes of total work per slice (startup + rendering).

Queues and priority

Machines are assigned to slices based on our priority system. We have 3 priority levels, Sapphire (lowest), Emerald (medium) and Diamond (highest). The higher your priority, the further ahead your slices go in the global queue and thus the faster your job will complete.

Each priority level carries a multiplier of cost, with Sapphire standing as the base price. However, the extra costs apply only when the higher priority made a difference. If there are machines immediately available, you will only be charged Sapphire costs even if you choose the Diamond priority.

Tip: For production deadlines, we recommend using the Emerald or Diamond priorities. Use Sapphire when the deadline isn't strict, such as overnight renders or other non-urgent work.

Cloud manager

The Cloud manager is our desktop application forming a bridge between your local workstation and our render farm. It handles uploading files, submitting & monitoring jobs and automatic downloads. Once your job is uploaded your machine is free to do anything else, including shutting down your machine or doing local renders.

Note: Auto-downloads will only work while the Cloud manager is open. You can always download your outputs for up to 7 days after job completion using our Web dashboard.

The sync system

Drop & Render uses an intelligent syncing system with hash-based file comparisons and aggressive de-duplication. When you first upload a file we store a hash of it, which we can then check against any future uploads. If the local and remote hashes match it means the file hasn't changed, so it doesn't need to be re-uploaded. This drastically reduces upload costs when re-rendering alterations of the same project.

Assets uploaded by team members are automatically available for everyone in the studio. They are stored for 7 days after their last usage. We allocate 5TB of storage per studio account by default. More is available on request through our support system.

The download system

Our download system delivers files to your disk exactly as the render would if it was executed locally on your workstation. Downloads are initiated once a full slice is completed, and will automatically handle everything for you. You can even completely close the Cloud manager (once everything has uploaded), and your downloads will resume the next time you open it. Downloads are stored for 7 days after creation.

The Drop & Render Blender add-on

Getting started

Opening the add-on

Once installed, you can find the Drop & Render add-on in Blender by:

1. Press N in the 3D Viewport to open the sidebar
2. Look for the Drop & Render tab

This will open the add-on interface where you can configure your render settings and submit jobs to the farm.

Check scene system

Before submitting your project, the add-on automatically runs a scene check to ensure everything is set up correctly. This check performs over 150 intelligent project verifications, including:

• Your project file is saved
• Output paths are configured
• All textures and assets are accessible
• Render settings are valid
• Camera is set
• Output format is supported (must be an image format)
• Your scene is compatible with our render farm

If any issues are detected, the add-on will show clear warnings with instructions on how to fix them. This prevents failed renders and saves you time and credits.

You can manually run a scene check at any time by clicking the "Check Scene" button in the add-on interface.

Supported render engines

Drop & Render supports all major Blender render engines:

• Cycles - Blender's built-in physically based path tracer (CPU/GPU)
• Redshift - GPU-accelerated production renderer
• Octane - Unbiased GPU renderer
• LuxCore - Open-source physically based renderer

The add-on automatically detects which render engine you're using based on your scene settings.

Add-on & version matching

Drop & Render automatically detects and matches your local add-on versions to ensure renders execute exactly as they would on your machine. This includes:

• Blender version - Automatically matched to your local installation (supports 2.80+)
• Render engine version - Matched to your installed Redshift, Octane, LuxCore, etc.
• Third-party add-ons - Flip Fluids, Botaniq, Advanced Ocean Modifier and other supported add-ons

The add-on scans your Blender installation and uploads version information along with your project. Our farm then activates the exact same versions you're using locally, ensuring consistent results.

Note: If you need to override the automatic version detection, you can manually specify versions in the Advanced tab.

Tile rendering

Tile rendering splits a single frame into multiple rectangular regions (tiles), with each tile rendered independently by different machines. This is particularly useful for:

• High-resolution stills - Render 4K, 8K or larger images much faster
• Heavy scenes - Distribute memory and processing load across multiple machines
• Final frames - Accelerate hero frames that need maximum quality

To enable tile rendering:

1. Check the "Use Tile Rendering" checkbox in the add-on
2. The add-on will automatically calculate optimal tile divisions based on your resolution
3. Submit your job as normal

The tiles are automatically stitched together on our farm and delivered as a complete frame.

Tip: Tile rendering works best for single frames or short sequences. For animations, regular frame-based distribution is more efficient.

Advanced tab

The Advanced tab contains additional options for fine-tuning your render job. Most users won't need these settings, but they're available for specific use cases:

Custom frame list

Override the frame range with a specific list of frames. Use commas and dashes:

• 1,5,10 - Renders only frames 1, 5, and 10
• 1-10,20,30-40 - Renders frames 1 through 10, frame 20, and frames 30 through 40

This is useful for re-rendering specific frames or creating custom sequences.

Custom Blender version

Override the automatic version detection and specify exactly which Blender version to use on the farm.

Only change this if you need a specific version different from your local installation.

Custom slice number

Override the automatic slice calculation and manually set how many frames are rendered per slice. See the Slices & slice numbers section for guidance on choosing the right value.

Tip: Start with the automatic settings. Only use custom values if you have specific performance requirements or if advised by our support team.

Other advanced options

The Advanced tab contains additional settings reserved for troubleshooting and support purposes. These are typically only used when working with our support team to resolve specific issues. If you encounter problems with your renders, our support team may ask you to adjust these settings.