Here are some rough installation instructions that might work:

1) install the dependencies:

    0.) Python >= 2.6.   
    
	i) boto 
		a) get the latest version and install it (http://code.google.com/p/boto/wiki/BotoConfig)
		b) set up a boto config file in ~/.boto containing the AWS ID and secret 
		   id keys (like for Starcluster)
		   		   
			If you are getting the following error:
			AttributeError: S3Connection instance has no attribute 'aws_secret_access_key'
			You'll have to update your boto config.

	ii) tornado (install version 1.2)

	iii) lib3ds   http://code.google.com/p/lib3ds/
	
	iv) 3delight   http://www.3delight.com/en/

	v) cgkit.  
	    a) get it from my repo, https://github.com/yamins81/cgkit  
	    b) follow in the instructions in the cgkit readme.txt
	    UBUNTU: you need e.g. mesa to provide OpenGL API, get using apt-get (do this if you're seeing the error "no GL/gl.h" &c when you try "scons")
	    		To use, set LB_LIBRARY_PATH to include boost library path
	vi) mongodb
		a) get the software and install it (if at all possible, use the package
		   repos at the bottom of http://www.mongodb.org/downloads
		b) start the db  (e.g. run the "mongod" command with relevant arguments)
	
	
	For the frontend:
    	vii) pymongo (http://api.mongodb.org/python/1.9%2B/index.html)
	
	    viii) sass.  assuming you have ruby installed, run "gem install haml"
	         UBUNTU: run "apt-get install haml"
	    
	    
	
2) To run the backend (the actual pipeline):
    
    a) go to source directory.  
    b) run "python api.py"
    
    If b) works, then, the REST interface should be available on localhost:9999
    
    That is, if you sent the right parameters to localhost:9999/render?, you'd get back (eventually)
    a zip file containing the rendered images. 
    
    The API documentation is in the code itself, but it's poorly documented right now. 


    
3) To run the frontend:
    
	i) create some local DBs:
	    a) to the source dir
	    b) run "python construct_images.py"
	    
    ii) start the frontend server
        a) go to the "frontend" directory within the source directory
        b) run "make source"
    
    If b) works, then the frontend should be available on localhost:8000.