Workflow for multi-subject, multi-angle compositions

Question

I've been tasked to render six different products, from six different angles. The products are similar in shape, but has some variations in textures and meshes. The setup requires that each angle has its own lighting, plus certain parts of the product require indivdual lighting. So each angle of a product will end up with three+ images/parts, with slightly different light that needs to be composed together.

Today I go angle-by-able for a product, render out the parts by toggling lights on and off. Then I compose the things in photoshop. Takes a lot of time. And if I change some small thing in a material I have to do it all again.

Can someone recommend a workflow and/or file setup where this can be a bit more streamlined? My dream setup would be to just press a button (ie., run a script) and have it be composed directly. But even if that's not doable, I would just love to automate the generation of the different parts somehow.

Would you have one file per angle, with different render layers for different lights, and then link the products in there?

Or would you have one file per product somehow, linking in the lighting and use render layers somehow?

Answer 1

Use different scenes.

Within the same file you can have many scenes.

Scenes can share assets but have individual cameras and lighting, render layers, and can be combined together in the compositor.

Read these related links:

Move a set to another scene even though it’s done

What is best workflow for having a scene with multiple light setups?

Assign camera to renderlayer

How to build different scenarios in the Compositor