Set up Maya for cloud rendering

Maya on our farm runs across three primary renderers — Arnold (the default), V-Ray, and Redshift — plus support for XGen interactive grooming, mental ray legacy projects (with caveats), and the major third-party plugins commonly used in VFX and animation pipelines. This page covers project packaging, per-renderer notes, the XGen workflow, plugin installation, and Maya-specific troubleshooting.

For high-level positioning of Maya on our farm — supported versions, hardware fit, pricing examples — the dedicated landing page is at . For coverage of Maya's 2027 release features, the article is at .

Supported versions

Maya 2024, 2025, and 2026 are pre-installed on every worker. Maya 2023 is available on request for legacy projects; LT versions are not supported because they lack render-export capability. The farm matches your .ma or .mb file's version automatically.

A note on Maya's release rhythm: Autodesk ships annual versions plus point releases. We provision the latest GA release within four to six weeks of public availability. If your project requires a specific point release (e.g., 2025.3 vs. 2025.2) due to plugin compatibility, mention it in the job notes.

Packaging your Maya project

A Maya project is the .ma (ASCII) or .mb (binary) scene file plus the project folder structure — sourceimages/ for textures, scenes/ for the scene, cache/ for simulation and Alembic caches, and additional folders for shaders, XGen patches, and references.

Maya's built-in "Archive Scene" feature is the recommended packaging tool. The workflow:

Set the project root. File → Set Project. Maya's path resolution depends on the project root being correctly set.
File → Archive Scene. Maya gathers the active scene, all referenced files (sourceimages, references, caches, XGen patches), and writes them to a single archive.
Verify the archive. Open the archive on your workstation and confirm all directories are present, particularly sourceimages/ and any reference scene folders.
For references that use absolute paths: Maya's Archive Scene handles relative paths cleanly. Absolute paths (e.g., D:\Projects\...) need to be re-pointed before archiving — use Reference Editor to update references to relative paths first.
Re-archive as .tar, .tar.gz, or .7z if Archive Scene produced a .zip. We do not accept .zip uploads, so the file needs to be re-packed before submission.

Verify before uploading: open the archived scene on your workstation in a fresh Maya session, render a single test frame, and confirm no missing assets appear in the output. If anything is missing, locate it and re-archive.

What to verify before submission

A short pre-flight checklist:

Active renderer is set correctly. Render Settings → Render Using is the dropdown that determines which renderer the worker will use. Mismatched renderer settings are a common cause of unexpected output.
Render layers / render setup are configured. Maya 2017+ uses Render Setup; legacy projects may use Render Layers. The farm respects whichever system the scene uses, but Legacy Render Layers in newer Maya versions can produce errors — see Troubleshooting below.
Frame range is set in Render Settings, not the timeline. The farm reads the Frame Range from Render Settings → Common, not from the timeline. Verify both match.
Camera is set in Render Settings. Render Settings → Common → Renderable Cameras determines which camera renders. Make sure the camera you expect is checked.
Output paths use relative tokens. <RenderLayer>/<Scene>.<#>.<ext> is a safe default. Avoid absolute output paths.
Pre-render and post-render MEL scripts. Disable any pre/post-render scripts that reference workstation-specific paths (license servers, network folders) before submission.

Renderer-specific notes

Arnold for Maya

Arnold is Maya's default renderer and runs on our CPU worker tier (Dual Intel Xeon E5-2699 V4, up to 256 GB RAM per node). It is the most common renderer choice for Maya projects on our farm, particularly for VFX, character animation, and feature work.

Configuration notes:

License: Arnold on our farm runs under our Autodesk render-node licensing. You do not need a separate Arnold license to render with us.
Sampling settings: Camera (AA) Samples, Diffuse, Specular, Transmission, SSS, and Volume samples should be calibrated locally before submission. The farm uses whatever sampling values your project specifies; under-sampled scenes will render with noise on the farm just as they do locally.
AOVs: Arnold's AOV system writes either as multichannel EXR or per-AOV files depending on the Output Driver settings. The default multichannel EXR is supported on the farm. For per-AOV file output, switch the driver to per-pass mode.
Arnold Denoiser: Both Optix denoiser (GPU-accelerated, faster) and Noice (CPU, post-process) are supported. For animations, the temporal denoiser (Noice with temporal samples) reduces frame-to-frame noise variance significantly.
Standins and procedurals: Arnold standins (.ass files) and procedurals work on the farm. Include the standin files in your project archive; path resolution is handled at submission time.

V-Ray for Maya

V-Ray for Maya runs on our CPU worker tier. It is the choice for studios with established V-Ray pipelines from 3ds Max or C4D workflows that have moved to Maya.

Configuration notes:

License: V-Ray on our farm runs under our Chaos partner license. As an official Chaos partner, we operate licensed V-Ray installations.
GI cache: For archviz still renders, pre-calculating Irradiance Map and Light Cache locally is significantly faster than recalculation per worker. See .
VRayProxy: Supported. Include .vrmesh proxy files in the project archive.
V-Ray Frame Buffer: EXR output with VFB color corrections is supported; save corrections as a .vccglb file and include it in the archive.

Redshift for Maya

Redshift for Maya runs on our NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU worker tier (32 GB VRAM per card). It is the choice for studios with Maya pipelines that need GPU iteration speed — particularly motion design teams and indie animation studios.

Configuration notes:

License: Redshift on our farm runs under our Maxon partner license.
Out-of-core memory: Enabled by default. Allows scenes that exceed 32 GB VRAM to render by streaming textures and geometry from system RAM.
Sampling: Unified Sampling values control per-frame render quality. Calibrate locally before submission.
AOVs: Same multichannel EXR or per-AOV file pattern as the C4D Redshift workflow.

Maya XGen

XGen interactive grooming for character work, scattered objects, and ornament work is supported on the farm. The XGen patch data — the .xgen files plus the per-patch .xpd files in your project's xgen/ folder — must be included in your upload.

The workflow for XGen projects:

Verify XGen patches are saved. Open your project locally, refresh each XGen description (Generate → Refresh), and save the scene. XGen sometimes holds patch data only in the working session until explicitly saved.
Include the xgen/ folder in your archive. Maya's Archive Scene generally captures this folder, but verify before uploading. The folder contains collections/, descriptions/, and patches/ subfolders.
Check the XGen Collection Path in your scene. If the path references an absolute workstation drive (e.g., D:\Projects\...\xgen\), Maya will fail to find the collection on the worker. Set it to relative (./xgen/) before archiving.
For procedural XGen (instanced geometry, archives): make sure the referenced archives are in the project folder, not in a separate workstation directory.

Per-frame render time for XGen-heavy scenes is significantly higher than for static geometry — XGen evaluation is done per-frame, and dense hair scenes can take 10–30 minutes per frame even on our higher-tier workers. Pre-baking XGen to Alembic geometry before rendering is a common optimization for animation work where the grooming is static.

Maya plugin support

The submission plugin for Maya handles asset verification, render settings checks, and one-click submission directly from inside Maya. Install from your account dashboard's download section.

Plugin features:

One-click submit from inside Maya — picks up active render settings and submits without leaving Maya.
Asset path verification — flags missing textures, references, and XGen patches before submission.
Render layer / Render Setup awareness — submits the correct layer setup, including layer overrides.
License-token check — confirms the renderer chosen in Render Settings is supported on the farm before submission, so you find unsupported configurations locally rather than at render time.

For plugin install steps and troubleshooting, see .

If the plugin does not appear in the Maya shelf after installation, see Troubleshooting below — this is the most commonly reported plugin issue.

Submission flow

Three submission channels work for Maya projects:

Submission plugin (recommended). Submit from inside Maya after installing the plugin.
Web upload + submit via dashboard. Upload the archived project, then submit through the website.
Client App. Upload + submit + auto-download in one wrapper.

For the cross-DCC upload-submit-download flow, see .

Troubleshooting Maya-specific failures

For general troubleshooting that applies across DCCs, see . Maya-specific cases:

All renders return black or blank. Check Render Settings → Common → "Renderable Camera" is set to your intended camera (not the default persp). Also check that your render camera is not hidden in the outliner. This is the most common cause of black renders on Maya.
"Missing plugin" or plugin not in shelf. The submission plugin needs to be loaded in Plugin Manager (Windows → Settings/Preferences → Plug-in Manager). Search for the SuperRenders plugin and check both "Loaded" and "Auto load." If the plugin file is missing from your plug-ins/ folder, re-run the installer from your account dashboard.
Removing the old plugin before re-install. If you previously installed an older version of our submission plugin, remove the old .mll (Windows) or .bundle (macOS) file from Documents/maya/<version>/plug-ins/ before installing the new version. Maya will sometimes load the old version preferentially.
TX auto-convert failures. If "Automatic TX texture update" is enabled in Arnold Render Settings, Maya tries to convert textures to .tx at render time. On the farm, this conversion can fail if the worker's permissions don't match your local setup. The reliable workaround is to pre-convert textures to .tx locally using maketx, include the .tx files in your archive, and disable "Automatic TX texture update" before submission.
"Error: Legacy Render Layers." Maya 2017+ defaults to Render Setup; opening an older project with Legacy Render Layers can trigger this error on the farm. Convert to Render Setup locally (Windows → Rendering Editors → Render Setup → Import from Legacy Render Layers) before submission.
Arnold Denoiser produces grainy output. Verify the denoiser is configured with sufficient input samples. Optix denoiser needs at least 8 AA samples to produce clean output; Noice with temporal samples needs the temporal frame range to be set correctly.
iRay rendering enabled in scene file. iRay was deprecated by Autodesk and is not supported on the farm. If your scene has iRay set as the active renderer, switch to Arnold (or V-Ray / Redshift) in Render Settings before submitting.

Cross-references

— upload, submit, download workflow
— how Maya job costs are calculated
— Irradiance Map, Light Cache patterns
— SFTP guide, archive formats
— cross-DCC troubleshooting
— installing the Maya submission plugin
— landing page
— version coverage article

FAQ

Q: Which Maya versions does the farm support? A: Maya 2024, 2025, and 2026 are pre-installed on every worker. Maya 2023 is available on request for legacy projects. Maya LT is not supported because it lacks the render-export capability needed for distributed rendering.

Q: Do I need to transfer my Maya license to render on the farm? A: No. We run licensed Maya installations across our worker fleet under Autodesk render-node licensing. Your local Maya license stays with you.

Q: Which renderer should I pick — Arnold, V-Ray, or Redshift? A: Arnold for character animation and VFX work (Maya's default; deepest pipeline integration); V-Ray for established V-Ray studio pipelines or archviz; Redshift for fast GPU iteration on motion design and indie animation. All three are supported with verified licensing on our farm.

Q: My project uses XGen for character grooming. Will it render? A: Yes, as long as the XGen patch files (.xgen and .xpd) are included in your project archive. Verify the XGen Collection Path is set to relative (./xgen/), not an absolute workstation path. Per-frame render time for XGen-heavy scenes is significantly higher than for static geometry; pre-baking grooming to Alembic is a common optimization for animation.

Q: My Maya scene uses Yeti or Ornatrix for grooming instead of XGen — are those supported? A: Yeti and Ornatrix are not pre-installed by default. Contact support before submission to discuss adding the plugin to the worker image. As an alternative, bake the grooming to Alembic geometry before submission — the baked output will render on the farm without needing the plugin.

Q: I'm getting "missing plugin" errors when the farm tries to load my scene. What do I check? A: Open the scene on a clean Maya session locally (close all windows, restart Maya, then open). Check the Script Editor for "missing plugin" warnings. Plugins that are not pre-installed need to be removed from the scene's plugin list (Edit → Reference → Reference Editor → unload), or substituted with equivalents. See the Troubleshooting section above for the "Missing plugin in shelf" workflow.

Q: Can I render Maya Software renderer or hardware renderer 2.0 jobs? A: Maya Software is supported but rarely used; we recommend Arnold for nearly all production work. Hardware renderer 2.0 is intended for viewport playblasts and is not designed for distributed rendering — submit those locally.

Q: My TX texture conversion is failing on the farm. What's happening? A: Arnold's "Automatic TX texture update" option triggers the worker to convert textures to .tx at render time, which can fail if the worker's user permissions differ from your local setup. The reliable fix: pre-convert all textures to .tx locally using maketx, include the .tx files in your project archive, and disable Automatic TX update in Arnold Render Settings before submission.

Q: I have a 4K stereo animation with 12,000 frames. Can the farm handle it? A: Yes. For projects that size, we recommend uploading via SFTP rather than browser (resumable transfers handle multi-hour uploads safely) and submitting via the submission plugin for cleanest job authoring. Per-frame render time and the resulting cost depend on your scene complexity and renderer choice; the gives an estimate based on your inputs.

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