All You Need to Know About Arnold Render Engine for Cinema 4D
With the multitude of rendering engines littering the streets of the rendering industry, users (irrespective their fields) are always faced with the question of which rendering software is great for rendering their projects.
Just like we said in our previous posts on Render Boost render farm blog, there are two different categories of render engines one can choose from – CPU and GPU based render engines. Even though they both produce excellent quality renders as well as come with amazing speed depending on the 3D software they are used on, they also come with their own advantages and disadvantages.
So, in this post, we will be looking at the merits and demerits of the Arnold render engine for Cinema 4D.
Before we begin, let’s get down with a brief introduction about Arnold.
ARNOLD
Just like Maxwell, Cycles or Octane, Arnold operates using the unbiased theory. It is a physically based, ray tracing 3D rendering software built by Solid Angle. It is also an advanced Monte Carlo ray tracing render software that is usually used when feature-length animation or visual effects are needed.
Arnold was co-developed alongside Sony Pictures Imageworks, and it is currently used as the main render engine at Sony. It has been used by over 300 studios across the globe such as ILM, MPC, Frame store, as well as The Mill and Digic Pictures.
It was also featured as the primary render engine in the production of movies ranging from popular box offices such Monster House, Cloudy, Chance of Meatballs, the Pacific Rim, and Gravity
As the years goes by, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences saw the great works Fajardo did with the Arnold render engine (creative vision and implementation) and awarded him with a Scientific and Engineering award (Academy plaque) on the 4th of January 2017.
The main reason Arnold render engine is becoming increasingly popular is that it is simple and a lot easier to learn. It also produces photorealistic imageries with little or no stress. Besides that, it is memory efficient in the sense that in can process extremely complex rendering projects with ease.
Advantages
- Provides a better development team to improve organizational setups.
- Contains a huge feature set.
- Perfectly integrates and uses all of Cinema 4D’s Noise natively.
- Contains a wide variety of Custom AOV’s.
- Contains Free Light Groups to use.
- Provides frequent plugin updates for Cinema 4D.
- Simple settings for both professional and noobs.
- Support for X-particle.
- Supports both Mac and Windows operating systems.
- Ability to use the same engine in multiple host applications.
- High-end scalability and stability.
- Contains a wide range of speed enhancing short-cuts.
Disadvantages
- Unlike other rendering engines, Arnold can be expensive for people who are on a budget.
- Getting around its licensing system can be confusing but easier once you master it.
- Available for CPU only set-ups.
- A bit slower when compared to most GPU renderers.
- Can be difficult to render interiors due to its poor choice of interior settings.
- Built with weak caustics as compared to other rendering engines.
Without doubt, there are other powerful rendering engines that one can choose from to render their projects, but the aim of this post it to get you familiarized with the kind of render engines that are available out there and help you to choose the one that will perfectly suit your needs.
You can also try out the newest versions of a wide variety of render engines alongside the most powerful rendering hardware when you register on the Render Boost render farm website. As a bonus, you will also be getting a $10 free credit to your account.
