Abstract
High quality 3D rendering requires massive computing resources. In order to render animations within a reasonable amount of time, the rendering process is often distributed among a cluster of computers, typically called a rendering farm. However, most individuals and small studios do not have the resources to purchase or lease a rendering farm. In the late 1990?s, Java technology brought a hope that distributed applets could be utilized as an alternative to traditional network rendering models. Yet, this hope was never realized, nor was it fully implemented. Taking into account new developments in web application technology and the Sunflow renderer, this thesis will reexamine the possibility of distributed rendering applets. This thesis will suggest that distributed Java applets can effectively render projects across a collection of heterogeneous and geographically dispersed computers over the Internet. Moreover, this paper will present a prototype web application, called RenderWeb, that uses distributed applets to quickly render projects created in popular animation programs, such as Blender, 3D Studio MAX, and Softimage.