How Blender animation render time actually adds up
A still can hide a bad per-frame cost. An animation multiplies it. Ten seconds at 24 fps is 240 frames. If one frame is an hour, that shot is ten days on one machine, before retries.
Do the frame-count arithmetic first
Write down start frame, end frame, and step. Frame count is not “the timeline length in seconds.” It is the number of frames Cycles will actually write. A 1–1000 range at step 1 is 1,000 frames. The same range at step 2 is 500.
Then time one representative frame at final settings. Multiply. That product is the local queue, not a marketing estimate. It already tells you whether the shot belongs on this PC tonight.
100, 500, and 1,000 frames are planning numbers, not special products
People search those counts because that is how shots get scoped. On FARPY they use the same locked quote, not a bundle discount and not a different farm.
Those counts are planning numbers. FARPY shows one locked quote for the range you select. A failed delivery is $0.
The accepted range is 1–10 frames per request. A 1,000-frame shot does not fit in one request. Split it.
What changes animation time that stills hide
Motion blur, character caches, and simulated hair or cloth can make frame 80 much slower than frame 1. Time more than one frame if the shot actually changes. Persistent Data can help a local animation; it does not change a FARPY quote that is already locked.
Do not assume the farm “makes animation cheap” by compressing time. The quote is for completed frames. The reason to send an animation is that this PC should not sit in a 500-frame queue.
Send the range you already decided
Pack the .blend, keep it at or under 100 MiB, Blender 5.2.2, Cycles GPU. Upload, inspect the detected frames, set the range, and read the locked quote. Ordering is in limited availability: 1–10 frames per job, one job at a time, while slots remain. Docs cover the browser and API path. A scaled time estimate from the published BenchMork RTX 3090 baseline lives on /calculator/; that model is not your job's runtime.
What FARPY accepts
- Blender 5.2.2
- Cycles GPU
- .blend files, 100 MiB maximum
- 1–10 frames
- Locked quote before any reservation
- Limited availability
Upload your .blend for an exact fixed quote.
See the exact fixed quote for your frame range before anything is reserved. Ordering is in limited availability: 1–10 frames per job, one job at a time, while slots remain. A failed delivery is $0.
Completed jobs include a receipt and a SHA-256 of the ZIP. That is byte identity, not a claim the picture looks right. What FARPY proves.
Upload your .blend for an exact fixed quote.
Related: Pricing · Calculator · GPU evidence · Compare · Docs · Proof
Questions for this problem
Is a 1,000-frame job ten times a 100-frame job?
The locked quote follows the range you select. Scene complexity does not change a quote that is already locked. Ordering is in limited availability: 1–10 frames per job, one job at a time, while slots remain.
How many frames can one job include?
1–10 frames per job is the current limit during limited availability. Above that, split the range.