Cinema 4D is a professional-grade application used for 3D animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering. While it comes with its native rendering engine, Redshift, Cinema 4D also supports a wide range of third-party render plug-ins. In this article, we’ll explore whether Vray GPU or Arnold GPU for Cinema 4D is the better option.

VRay, developed by Chaos, is a well-established rendering engine known for its high-quality, photorealistic output and real-time capabilities. Although it’s not built into Cinema 4D, it integrates smoothly and functions reliably within the environment. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and limitations of Vray GPU for Cinema 4D.

Easy to use

VRay features a user-friendly interface and intuitive tools that cater well to artists, helping improve workflow and allowing users to complete tasks more quickly and effectively.

High-quality and fast rendering

VRay for Cinema 4D offers impressive rendering power. In addition to CPU rendering, it supports GPU rendering for faster performance. Moreover, its new hybrid rendering mode can utilize both CPU and GPU simultaneously, delivering realistic results in a shorter time. See details about Vray hybrid rendering here.

Scalable rendering

Beyond local rendering, V-Ray supports cloud-based rendering via services like Chaos Cloud or external render farms. This scalability allows users to distribute rendering tasks across multiple systems and generate high-resolution results more quickly

Comprehensive tools

With numerous features such as a broad range of lighting, rendering tools, and its ability to handle even the most complex scenes, Vray can streamline workflows and produce visually stunning outputs.

Flexibility

Vray GPU for Cinema 4D offers great flexibility, allowing users to fine-tune settings such as lighting, materials, and textures. It also supports easy switching between CPU, GPU, and hybrid modes to suit different project needs and hardware setups.

Limitation

Depending on the rendering method and hardware, Vray GPU for Cinema 4D may lack support for certain features available in its CPU counterpart, such as Coat Filter and Multi Matte. More information on these limitations is available at this link.

Arnold is a high-end Monte Carlo ray tracing renderer known for delivering realistic 3D character renders and lifelike visualizations. Widely used across the industry, it’s also a powerful third-party rendering option for Cinema 4D. Let’s take a look at what makes Arnold GPU for Cinema 4D stand out, along with its limitations.

Easy to use

Arnold is designed with usability in mind. Its features are user-friendly and well-organised, its rendering settings are simple to learn—making it easy for both beginners and professionals to get started quickly.

Realistic rendering

Arnold’s unbiased rendering engine accurately simulates light behavior, resulting in highly photorealistic images. It’s especially effective at handling subtle lighting effects and complex materials..

Feature-rich

Arnold offers deeper native integration with Cinema 4D than most other third-party engines. It supports many Cinema 4D features, such as Noises and the Floor Object. It also fully supports professional standards like OCIO, ACES, and OSL. The Interactive Preview Render (IPR) is responsive, whether using CPU or GPU mode.

Flexibility

Arnold supports both CPU and GPU rendering, offering flexibility that some engines lack. Unlike Corona (CPU only) or Redshift and Octane (GPU only), Arnold allows seamless switching between CPU and GPU modes—while delivering identical results across both.

Limitation 

Despite its strengths, Arnold GPU does have some limitations in Cinema 4D. It does not support volume rendering from Turbulence FD or X-Particles. Additionally, some older C4DtoA shaders (from versions before 2.5.0), such as normal_displacement, vector_displacement may not be compatible when imported from previous projects via ASS files.

Before we dive into the similarities and differences between the two, let’s first go over the summary table below for a quick comparison.

In terms of pricing, both Vray and Arnold are available only through subscription-based licenses, with no option for perpetual purchase. While Vray’s monthly cost is about twice that of Arnold, it’s important to consider additional factors to determine if the higher price is justified.

Vray offers three rendering modes—GPU, CPU, and hybrid—giving users more flexibility depending on their workflow. In contrast, Arnold supports two options: CPU and GPU rendering.

In terms of rendering algorithm, Vray supports both biased and unbiased rendering, allowing users to prioritize either speed or realism. Arnold, on the other hand, is strictly an unbiased renderer, designed to produce physically accurate images that mimic real-world lighting.

Both engines rely on NVIDIA’s GPU architecture. However, Vray GPU supports both CUDA and OptiX, while Arnold GPU uses OptiX only.

In terms of hardware scalability, both Vray and Arnold can leverage multiple GPUs to accelerate rendering. While Vray technically supports unlimited GPUs, it is officially optimized for up to 4. Arnold is stated to support a maximum of 8 GPUs.

As for platform compatibility, both renderers can run on Windows and Linux. Although Vray can be used on macOS, Chaos has clarified that it does not offer official support for it.

Lastly, both Vray and Arnold provide a 30-day free trial, giving users a chance to test them out before making a decision.

Ready to see how they perform in practice? Let’s scroll down to check out the render tests iRender ran using Vray GPU or Arnold GPU for Cinema 4D.

iRender provide high-configuration machines with upmarket specifications like AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz or AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz, 1/2/4/6/8 x RTX4090 or RTX3090,  RAM 256GB, Storage NVMe SSD 2TB.

Why can iRender be a great render farm for you?

In addition to high-configuration servers, iRender provides many other utilities to provide the best user experience.

• Dedicated server for individuals: You have full control and access to the server you rent. The working environment (installed apps, files) will be stored for the next use.
• Easy and free file transfer between your computer and iRender’s server: The transferring task can be done via iRender GPU application for Windows and the iRender Drive application for MacOS.
• 24/7 assistance: iRender’s attentive agents are always ready to support all your queries.
• All software compatibility: iRender’s PCs are built to meet the configuration needs of all 3D software and rendering tools at a variety of cost levels for users to choose from.

Let’s see how fast Vray GPU or Arnold GPU for Cinema 4D renders on our nodes!

New users will get a 100% bonus for the first transaction within 24 hours of their registration. No minimum amount!! If you top up 50$, you will get 100 points in total to hire our machines.

REGISTER NOW

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me through email duongdt@irender.vn or our 24/7 support team for a quick response.

Thank you for reading

Source: Autodesk, Chaos, Maxon

Creating high-quality game characters requires a seamless workflow that integrates modeling, texturing, rigging, and rendering. The process can be time-consuming and complex, especially when working with multiple software applications. However, Reallusion’s CC Auto Setup plugin for 3ds Max simplifies the pipeline, enabling artists to efficiently transfer characters from Character Creator 4 (CC4) to 3ds Max for rendering with V-Ray. In this blog, iRender explores how CC Auto Setup optimizes the character creation workflow, from initial design to final rendering.

The journey begins in CC4, where the base model is crafted to align with the concept art. The GoZ Plus plugin allows for easy transfer of the character to ZBrush for detailed modeling of armor and clothing. After modeling, tools like TopoGun and ZBrush’s ZRemesher are employed for retopology, creating low-poly versions suitable for real-time applications. UV mapping uses RizomUV and texture baking in TopoGun to generate normal and ambient occlusion maps. 

Texturing is accomplished in Substance 3D Painter, ensuring that each armor and clothing is meticulously detailed. Garment pieces such as pants, capes, and loincloths are designed in Marvelous Designer and then imported back into CC4, where skin weights are transferred to ensure proper movement with the character’s rig. The fully assembled character is then exported as an FBX file, with 3ds Max selected as the target tool preset.

With the CC Auto Setup plugin installed in 3ds Max, importing the character becomes a straightforward process. The plugin’s interface allows for loading the exported FBX file and selecting V-Ray GPU as the renderer. Upon clicking the Import button, the character, along with its skeleton, skin weights, and materials, is seamlessly integrated into 3ds Max. The plugin automatically converts CC4 materials into V-Ray materials, preserving the original rig and material properties.

The CC Auto Setup plugin offers a variety of lighting presets to facilitate look development. These presets generate sets of lights, cameras, and backgrounds, with a dummy helper object included to easily manipulate the lighting setup. Users can experiment with different presets to achieve the desired aesthetic for their character. Material adjustments can be made directly within the plugin’s interface, allowing for fine-tuning of properties such as subsurface scattering intensity and other material attributes without accessing 3ds Max’s Material Editor.

Reallusion’s CC Auto Setup plugin significantly streamlines the process of importing and setting up characters from Character Creator 4 into 3ds Max for rendering with V-Ray. By automating the conversion of materials and facilitating the transfer of rigs and skin weights, the plugin saves valuable time and effort, allowing artists to focus more on the creative aspects of character development.

 iRender is the optimal choice if you are looking for a rendering service for your 3ds Max project. iRender is proud to be one of the best GPU service providers on the market. We provide you with high-configuration models with advanced specifications such as AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz or AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4, 5GHz, 256GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD storage.

Under the IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model you will have full control over the machine via a remote desktop app, similar to Teamviewer but more stable. You will be able to proactively install the software and use it on the server just like using a personal computer. You can find many server packages with high-end configurations that are extremely suitable for complex projects.

Below is information about iRender’s service packages:

We’re always happy to help you with any questions. If you have any problems or questions, don’t hesitate to contact our 24/7 support team. Or via Whatsapp: 0912 785 500 for free advice and support.

Right now iRender has a SPECIAL PROMOTION program with a 100% bonus for the first transaction within 24 hours of your registration. It means that you can get an extra 100% of the money you recharged the first time. And points never expire, so you can use them at any time.

Sign up for an account today to experience and enjoy our services.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and image: cgchannel.com

In this article, let’s explore how to create a stunning 3D robot character step by step, from initial concept to the final render, using 3ds Max and V-Ray, with the help of other tools like ZBrush and Substance Painter.

The character in this example is from artist Mihail Topalov.

When you start to make something in 3D or in any other art process, always remember one important thing: a concept illustration. You should think about a story behind the image so that the viewer, when seeing it, will be immersed in your world and can feel the dynamic in a single 3D image. In this example, the robot is illustrated as a robot child dreaming of being a pilot.

1. 1. 1. 1. You should start modeling the robot using simple shapes that can be easily modified. The aim is to capture the overall proportions and gradually improve it.
         2. You can use 3ds Max and Zbrush to create the models. Just focus on the overall shapes and not the details.
         3. Now use Zbrush to create the jacket and the helmet. Remember to mark where you want the stitches to be and add some folds.
         4. Import the model back into 3ds Max. This is for creating the correct topology for both the jacket and the helmet. Good topology is the key for texturing and for posing the character.

Now come to the next step: texturing phase. Before texturing, remember to unwrap the model to avoid stretching when applying the texture maps.

1. 1. 1. 1. Before importing the model into Substance Painter for the texturing phase, you should group the pieces in different colors. Pay attention to the pieces that intersect or are too close to each other and separate them to make the texturing process more organized.
         2. Export the model inFBX format. Keep in mind that when imported into Substance Painter, the model will have different texture sets.
         3. Next we come tothe baking phase. This phase is important because it helps you generate maps like Curvature, World Map, and AO Maps. These maps are useful when creating materials like worn-out metal to give our model a more robotlike look.
         4. Now you create a base metal layer and apply it to all metal pieces. On top of the base layer, you can add some worn-out paint. Substance Painter provides maskswhich enable you to control the wear effect you can play around with.
         5. In V-Ray, there are two workflows for exporting textures: the Specular Glossiness workflow and the Metallic Roughness workflow. In this breakdown, let’s follow the Metallic Roughness workflow.

After you finish the texturing phase, the next steps will be posing the model, finding a good camera angle, and setting up the lights.

1. 1. 1. 1. Try creatinga simple rig using hierarchical links. This is convenient for rigging simple mechanical joints on the robot.
         2. Next, you set up a V-Ray physical camera. You can adjust the proportions and the resolution from the render setup.
         3. Now posing the character.Hide the jacket to pose the arms. When you’re ready with the character’s pose, pose the jacket separately in ZBrush.
         4. You can add the model of the plane and the groundnow. To enhance the image, play around and find an interesting camera view.
         5. For the lighting, use V-Ray Sun. To get the best look, start with gray materials only to observe how the light interacts with them.

After lighting phase, move on to the shading one and bring the environment to life.

1. 1. 1. 1. When it comes to shading, you should start with the default gray material. You can switch the BRDF to Roughness and set the reflection color to white. The shininess of the material can be controlled by using the Roughness value.
         2. Now, we move to touching up the environment. Use V-Ray Displacement to make the ground have more detail, such as scatter some desert grass and rocks using Chaos Scatter.
         3. One tip to help you achieve a more realistic result is adding V-Ray environment fog to an outdoor render.
         4. Use Phoenix to create a dusty effect.
         5. If you want to add motion blur to the scene to add extra action, don’t forget that everything else can be blurred but the character should stay in focus.

This is the final step: create the final render and add some color corrections.

1. 1. 1. 1. You should change the image sampler from Progressive to Bucket from the render setup and leave the default settings, before final render.
         2. Color corrections can be made directly inside the Frame Buffer. As a final touch, you can slightly lower the exposure and add a filmic tone map.

iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

You can create a blank remote machine, then install V-Ray and 3ds Max, add your own licenses and start to render like how you always do on your local computer.  

For V-Ray for 3ds Max, we suggest our multiple RTX4090 and RTX3090.

V-Ray can utilize GPU rendering power, we choose to provide RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. You can refer to this article to see how V-Ray performs on these graphics card, especially RTX 4090 being the fastest when it comes to V-Ray rendering.

iRender powerful RTX4090 for V-Ray rendering

Top GPU for Redshift, Octane and V-Ray in 2023

Compare RTX 4090 vs RTX 6000 Ada vs RTX A6000 for content creation

If you have more GPUs, the render time will reduce more. However, don’t expect a perfectly linear reduction.

Let’s see our test with Cinema 4D and V-Ray on our package 6 x RT4090s:

Not only those powerful configurations, iRender also provides you more services. Free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has a pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service via livechat with real humans who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and images: chaos.com

In November 2024, Ephere has released Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D. It’s a powerful plugin for generating dynamic hair, fur and feathers. In this new update, we see Ephere add a new Graft Grooms system, new options to box grooming operators and bake modifiers, improvements in key features like Edit Guides, Guides from Guide Mesh, Clump, Surface Comb, Noise and Mesh from Strands.

In Ornatrix 3 for Cinem 4D, Ephere introduces some new features that have released in the version for Maya. For example, now Cinema 4D users can experience Graft Grooms – a new type of preset designed to help you create entire grooms through a simple point-and-click workflow. You can drag across the surface of a character to draw a graft surface, from which Ornatrix generates the hair automatically.

You can choose to use presets for different hairstyles or to create own custom grafts, which can then be reused between projects or shared with other artists.

In this new update, there is a ystem for ‘boxing’ Ornatrix operators, combining set of operators in a single Groom modifier. Operators combined in this way enable you to edit procedurally. And if you want to edit them individually, it can be unboxed again.

It is also now possible to bake modifiers, which caches their output, speeding up evaluation and reducing temporal artefacts, at the expense of absolute accuracy.

Other key modifiers also got many updates, such as Edit Guides, Guides from Guide Mesh, Clump, Surface Comb, Noise and Mesh from Strands.

Performance has been improved by “up to 100x” in “various parts” of the app, although an improvement of “around 90%” when mirroring circular brushes seems more likely to be typical.

Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D is available for Cinema 4D R25+ on Windows 10+ and macOS 10.14+. A perpetual license costs $599; rental costs $50/month or $420/year.

This plugin renders natively in Arnold, Corona and Redshift, and can be converted to a mesh or spline curves for rendering in other renderers like OctaneRender and V-Ray.

You can definitely use Ornatrix for Cinema 4D on iRender’s remote computers. iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

You can create a machine with pre-installed Cinema 4D, then install Ornatrix on our remote machine (first time access only), add license, and modify, adjust and render by yourself there.

Let’s see some of Cinema 4D benchmark with Redshift, V-ray and Octane on our package RT4090s:

Not only those powerful configuration, iRender also provides you more services. NVLink for large scene on our server 4N – dual RTX 3090s. Free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service with real human who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

Especially, if you use Cinema 4D and Redshift, now you can access our remote servers without having to install the software and renderer. We have an option to choose pre-installed Cinema 4D and Redshift, and now provide you one license free.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user first top up. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and images: cgchannel.com

V-Ray is a popular rendering engine that is praised across a wide range of 3D fields for its ability to create lifelike images. In this article, we will dive into one of its notable features – the V-Ray Hybrid rendering mode.

V-Ray offers three rendering methods: CPU, GPU, and hybrid modes.

• V-Ray CPU Rendering
  

This traditional rendering approach relies on the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to compute and render 3D scenes. Known for its ability to produce highly detailed and realistic images, CPU rendering excels at handling complex instructions and logical operations, making it ideal for intricate scenes or large-scale projects requiring substantial computational power.

One major advantage of V-Ray CPU rendering is its compatibility with any CPU, regardless of brand or model. However, its primary weakness lies in rendering speed, which can be enhanced by increasing the number of CPU cores and their clock speed.

• V-Ray GPU Rendering

As the name suggests, this method leverages the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to compute and render 3D scenes. With its capacity for parallel processing across thousands of cores, GPU rendering significantly outpaces CPU rendering in speed. V-Ray GPU rendering operates in two modes: CUDA and RTX, both compatible exclusively with NVIDIA GPUs. The choice of mode depends on the GPU cores available on your graphics card. Additionally, V-Ray supports multi-GPU rendering, which boosts performance further.

• Hybrid Rendering

Hybrid rendering was developed as Chaos sought solutions to improve debugging methods for GPU code crashes. Introduced in V-Ray 3.6, this feature allows users to render scenes by simultaneously utilizing both CPU and GPU. Known as “hybrid” or “XPU” rendering, it maximizes total system performance and enhances the efficiency of the rendering process.

Unlike the two methods that rely solely on the GPU or CPU while leaving the other hardware unused, V-Ray Hybrid leverages the combined computational power of both to deliver outstanding results in a significantly shorter time.

According to experiments conducted by Chaos, incorporating CPUs in V-Ray Hybrid rendering noticeably reduced render times compared to using GPU or CPU rendering alone. Below, we’ll explore the details of the experiment conducted with Dabarti Studio:

⚙️Hardware

CPUs: 2 x Intel Xeon CPU E5-2687W v3 3.10 GHz, total of 40 logical CPU cores
RAM: 128 GB
GPUs: 2 x NVIDIA Quadro GP100 with 16GB each, total of 7,168 GPU cores

🛠 Settings

Engine: V-Ray 3.6 CUDA
Resolution: 1920×1080
Noise threshold: 0.01

💡 Results

GPUs + CPUs Time: 9:11 (551s)

GPUs only Time: 11:33 (693s)

CPUs only Time: 40:52 (2452s)

As a result, hybrid rendering is approximately 20% faster than CPU rendering and 77% faster than GPU rendering.

The V-Ray Hybrid rendering mode supports all the features of V-Ray GPU while producing visually identical results in less time.

Another test conducted by Chaos users demonstrates that utilizing total system performance (CPU + CUDA GPU) is faster than relying solely on the GPU (CUDA or RTX). Detailed test results are shown in the accompanying chart.

Additionally, a test by another V-Ray user revealed that V-Ray Hybrid rendering outperforms both RTX and CPU rendering in speed, while delivering nearly identical results, with only minor differences in noise levels. However, it’s important to note that this test was conducted on a simple scene, and the results may vary for more complex and detailed projects.

When GPU memory (VRAM) is insufficient for rendering high-detail projects, the hybrid mode can still handle the task by utilizing system memory and paging. Since VRAM is limited and fixed for each GPU card—even when multiple GPU cards are used, the total VRAM can’t be combined—it may not be enough for larger projects. However, with the V-Ray Hybrid rendering mode, V-Ray can tap into the abundant RAM (CPU memory) to compensate for the lack of VRAM. This ensures stable rendering of heavy scenes while preventing system crashes or software malfunctions.

🔽 The rendering process in V-Ray Hybrid mode (CPU + GPU CUDA) differs from the standard CPU mode. However, according to feedback from Chaos users, for simple scenes, the results produced by both methods are nearly identical.

🔽 V-Ray Hybrid rendering mode does not require special drivers or Kernel compilation. It can even run without NVIDIA drivers or a GPU installed. In such cases, V-Ray utilizes CPU power but not in the same way as in V-Ray CPU mode. Interestingly, according to Puget Systems, rendering with V-Ray Hybrid mode using only the CPU is faster than using the standard CPU mode. This comparison is illustrated in the chart below:

No more consideration between V-Ray CPU, GPU or hybrid rendering when using iRender’s machines because they are built from high-configuration hardware with upmarket specifications. With AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz or 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz, 1/2/4/6/8 x RTX4090 or RTX3090, 256GB RAM and 2TB NVMe SSD storage, the performance of every V-Ray modes will be enhanced significantly.

Let’s see how fast V-Ray renders on our servers!

Why can iRender be a great render farm for you?

In addition to high-configuration servers, iRender provides many other utilities to provide the best user experience.

• Dedicated server for individuals: You have full control and access to the server you rent. The working environment (installed apps, files) will be stored for the next use.
• Easy and free file transfer between your computer and iRender’s server: The transferring task can be done via iRender GPU application for Windows and the iRender Drive application for MacOS.
• 24/7 assistance: iRender’s attentive agents are always ready to support all your queries.
• All software compatibility: iRender’s PCs are built to meet the configuration needs of all 3D software and rendering tools at a variety of cost levels for users to choose from.

New users will get a 100% bonus for the first transaction within 24 hours of their registration. No minimum amount!! If you top up 50$, you will get 100 points in total to hire our machines.

REGISTER NOW

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me through email duongdt@irender.vn or our 24/7 support team for a quick response.

Thank you for reading & Happy Lunar New Year!

Source: Puget Systems, Ms.Codes, Schädl Christoph, ScanlineVFX

In the previous article series, we introduced some lighting plugins and animation plugins to you, hoping you have a faster workflow in Cinema 4D. In this article, let’s take a look at some Cinema 4D creation plugins from Greyscalegorilla, to help you visualize various aspect ratios or create complex reflectance materials.

Let’s explore 3 Cinema 4D Creation plugins to visualize various aspect ratios or create complex reflectance materials easily.

This plugin allows you to align and distribute your objects in Cinema 4D with ease. You now don’t need to manually type in coordinates, just use this tool to align and distribute based on your object’s bounding boxes.

Some of Align’s prominent features:

• • • • Align objects just like in popular 2D image programs
      • Work in orthographic or perspective mode
      • Line things up via the pivot point or bounding box
      • Align will use the bounding box of your shape for easy alignment.
      • Distribute objects along any axis
      • Distribute objects using your pivot point
      • Use world or local space for your distribution

This plugin helps you visualize better all the aspects ratios for a single render in Cinema 4D viewport. If your clients want to have different cropping for their social posts, and you don’t want or don’t have time to render each one of them seperately, this tool is the one for you.

Some of Social Frame’s prominent features:

• • • • Drag-and-drop tag workflow
      • Visualize multiple modern social media crops, from Instagram, Dribbles, X to Facebook, etc.
      • Masking to show crops clearly: use masks to get a better sense of how various crops will look on your main image
      • Automatically adjusts FOV and you will not lose your perfect framing when you change aspect ratio.
      • Output to takes: render multiple cropped images out of C4D directly.
      • Square mode

Topcoat is a powerful material plugin for Cinema 4D that allows users to create realistic textures with ease. The variety of presets, up to 60 textures, which can be applied with one click is making it one of the best choice for Cinema 4D users. You can also create your own custom textures, helping you to achieve true-to-life renders in Cinema 4D.

Some of Topcoat’s prominent features:

• • • • 8 Reflection Types
      • Modifiers tab for easy texture customization
      • Instant Material preview
      • 12 Mask and Alpha types
      • Horizontal and vertical layout modes
      • 14 render presets
      • Over 25 Procedural Bump presets
      • Over 15 Procedural Blur presets
      • 11 metal material presets
      • Simple Reflectance layering

You can definitely use these Cinema 4D animation plugins on iRender’s remote computers. iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

You can create a machine with pre-installed Cinema 4D, then install these plugins on our remote machine (first time access only), add license, and modify, adjust and render by yourself there.

Let’s see some of Cinema 4D benchmark with Redshift, V-ray and Octane on our package RT4090s:

Not only those powerful configuration, iRender also provides you more services. NVLink for large scene on our server 4N – dual RTX 3090s. Free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service with real human who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

Especially, if you use Cinema 4D and Redshift, now you can access our remote servers without having to install the software and renderer. We have an option to choose pre-installed Cinema 4D and Redshift, and now provide you one license free.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user first top up. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and images: greyscalegorilla.com

V-Ray is renowned for its capability to create highly realistic images from 3D models. To identify the best hardware to enhance rendering performance, V-Ray benchmark will be an invaluable tool. It allows users to evaluate V-Ray’s performance across various hardware configurations without testing the hardware themselves.

The V-Ray Benchmark application evaluates a system’s rendering performance by running a test render on a sample scene for a set duration.

No V-Ray installation or license is required to run the benchmark. It is compatible with various versions of popular operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

You can benchmark your system using two methods: the graphical user interface (GUI) application or the command-line tool.

Steps to Test Your Machine Using the V-Ray Benchmark GUI Application

Step 1: Download the Application
Visit the Chaos website to download the V-Ray Benchmark application. Versions are available for multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. For this guide, iRender tested the V-Ray 6 Benchmark for Windows x64.

Step 2: Run the Application
No installation is required. Simply double-click the downloaded file, accept the License Agreement, and proceed.

Step 3: Select Rendering Options

Choose between two rendering modes:

V-Ray: Tests the CPU rendering performance of your system.

V-Ray GPU: Tests GPU performance, offering two modes:

• CUDA: Allows testing GPU-only or hybrid rendering (GPU and CPU). The CPU is treated as a CUDA device.
• RTX: Available if your GPU supports RTX but not CUDA. Additionally, you can test specific GPUs in multi-GPU setups by selecting checkboxes in the Benchmark menu under the V-Ray GPU section.

Step 4: Configure the Rendering duration
The test duration defaults to 1 minute, ideal for comparing results with others on the benchmark website. However, you can adjust the duration to 1, 5, or 10 minutes, or run an infinite test.

Tip: Close unnecessary applications and restart your system to maximize available resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) before running the test. If using a laptop, ensure it is connected to a power source for optimal performance.

Step 5: View and Compare Results

After the test, the performance score will be displayed:

• Final Score: Represents performance metrics in specific units: vsamples for V-Ray, vpaths for V-Ray GPU CUDA, and vrays for V-Ray GPU RTX. Note that scores cannot be compared across engines.
• Configuration: Displays the devices used during the test.
• Comment Section: Add comments about your setup to provide context for other users. A Chaos account is required for this feature.

If multiple benchmarks are run, results can be viewed locally in the “My Scores” tab. This tab lists all results tied to your Chaos account across different devices. Scores can be marked as public (visible to others) or private. Running additional benchmarks updates your scores on the website.

Step 6: Sharing and Advanced Search

You can share your benchmark results or compare your system’s performance with others on the V-Ray Benchmark website. Use the Advanced Search feature to find specific configurations, such as GPU or CPU models. For example, to search for V-Ray benchmark on dual RTX 4090 cards, enter:

• Device name: RTX 4090
• Device count: 2

For machines without monitors, the V-Ray Benchmark can be executed via the command-line interface. To use this method, select a rendering mode or simply run the file which will default to the “all” mode. Once the End-User License Agreement is accepted, the benchmark will start. Note that you can use multiple flags simultaneously during the process.

Here is the command-line Examples: vray-benchmark-6.00.00-cli.exe –mode V-Ray–output D:\CUDA_cards.json

Explanation of the example command is below:

vray-benchmark-6.00.00-cli.exe: The executable file to launch the V-Ray Benchmark: the V-Ray 6 Benchmark 

–mode vray: The mode of using CPU rendering for the benchmark. 

–output D:\CUDA_cards.json: Outputs the benchmark information to a .json file on C drive

The results show that rendering with 2x RTX 3090 offers only a slight improvement over 1x RTX 4090, while 2x RTX 4090 delivers significantly faster performance compared to 2x RTX 3090.

Keep in mind that rendering time is influenced by various factors, including rendering settings, scene complexity, and more.

iRender servers are compatible with all software and render engines, including V-Ray. We regularly create 3D scenes to evaluate the performance of popular software and renderers. While iRender machines are primarily optimized for GPU rendering, the CPU performance is also highly significant and not overlooked.  iRender provides high configurations of machines with upmarket specifications like AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz or 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz, 1/2/4/6/8 x RTX4090 or RTX3090, 256GB RAM and 2TB NVMe SSD storage.

Let’s see how fast V-Ray renders on iRender’s machines:

The chart indicates that increasing the number of GPU cards results in faster rendering; however, using two GPU cards does not necessarily double the rendering speed.

As you can see, the GPU rendering time is much shorter than CPU rendering (about 91%) with SketchUp and V-Ray.

As tested, it takes 10h51m33s to render 540 frames with 30 Fps in frame rate. That means 1.2 minutes per frame.

Why can iRender be a great render farm for you?

In addition to high-configuration servers, iRender provides many other utilities to provide the best user experience.

• Dedicated server for individuals: You have full control and access to the server you rent. The working environment (installed apps, files) will be stored for the next use.
• Easy and free file transfer between your computer and iRender’s server: The transferring task can be done via iRender GPU application for Windows and the iRender Drive application for MacOS.
• 24/7 assistance: iRender’s attentive agents are always ready to support all your queries.
• All software compatibility: iRender’s PCs are built to meet the configuration needs of all 3D software and rendering tools at a variety of cost levels for users to choose from.

New users will get a 100% bonus for the first transaction within 24 hours of their registration. No minimum amount!! If you top up 50$, you will get 100 points in total to hire our machines.

REGISTER NOW

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me through email duongdt@irender.vn or our 24/7 support team for a quick response.

Thank you for reading & Happy Rendering!

Source: Chaos, Google for Developers

Since version 2022, Maya has used ACES as its default config, without further action required. ACEScg is also the default rendering space in Maya 2022 and the default view transform is the ACES Output Transform for sRGB. Therefore in this article, let’s have a general understanding of ACES workflow in Maya.

The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) is a color management and image sharing system developed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With ACES, you can work with color, coding, and transformation. ACES also enables you to work consistently if you have to transfer working material between different departments, or to create archival materials with a high dynamic range and wide color gamut, thanks to its ability to store all the data of digital images in the same mathematical space.

Some of the ACES features include:

• • • • Wide range of color and light, exposure.
      • Predictable image display on a wide range of display devices.
      • Preserving the full range of highlights, shadows, and colors.
      • Simplifying the matching of images from different cameras.
      • More accurate color display with no incorrect color values.
      • Work in Linear color space.
      • No over highlight and clamp, on bright areas of the image, etc.

ACES consists of several components:

Input Device Transform (IDT) – Color conversion from input material. You can call it Input Transform.

Reference Rendering Transform (RRT) – Color transformation from scene-referred to display-referred space, using an S-shaped tone curve, image preparation for output.

Output Device Transform (ODT) – Transforms to an output device, a transformation such as Rec. 709, DCI-P3, Rec.2020. In practice, the RRT and ODT are combined and called an Output Transform.

Using ACES system, you can provide Output Transforms for a wide assortment of displays and projectors. You’ll want to choose the appropriate Output Transform for your situation based on the following factors:

Your device (monitor or projector) and how it is calibrated. This could range from a simple sRGB monitor to an HDR monitor calibrated to Rec.2100-PQ, to a digital projector calibrated to DCI-P3. Each type of device will use different viewing environment, according to ACES system documentation. For example, monitors such as sRGB or Rec.709 will use a dim environment (rather than a dark environment).

Your creative white point. The native white point of ACES is D60 and this is the most-used white point of cinema-oriented projects. However, ACES also provides transforms that adapt to D65, which is commonly used for video-oriented projects. Ideally, the display device would be calibrated to match the creative white point, but this is not always possible. In those cases, the ACES system provides Output Transforms labeled “D60 sim.” to simulate the D60 white point on a device calibrated to another white point (such as D65 or DCI).

ACES contains different color spaces, we will look at the main ones:

ACES 2065- 1 – This is a wide-range Linear, color space, with a larger coverage than the human eye, so it is used for archival copies and transfer of material between departments. ACEScc and ACEScct – Logarithmic color spaces intended for color correction. ACEScg – This is a Linear space for working with CG/VFX. This is the space you need to use as the main color space for working with color set-up and light in your rendered images.

For simplicity, the default OCIO config file in Maya contains only the most important transforms and color spaces. The instructions below are written using the open-source ACES config that is widely used in workflows with other applications, and which contains a larger set of transforms. However most of these extra transforms are rarely used in practice, so it is recommended to use the default Maya transform if you are just starting out.

• • • • First, download the OpenColorIO (OCIO) configuration package for core ACES transforms: https://github.com/colour-science/OpenColorIO-Configs

This can be done in two ways:

• • • • Next, add the path to the downloaded ACES configuration in Maya (most 3D graphics packages already contain a predefined configuration package), but in this case, we will use the downloaded version.
      • Install the OCIO variable with the path to the config.ocio file. This can vary according to your system (you can install OCIO as the default color configuration for all apps). This can be in the Maya.env or in the user Preferences (similar to the OS variable but only for Maya). For example:

        OCIO = C:\OCIO\aces_1.2\config.ocio

• • • • Or you can set the path to the config.ocio file in the Maya Preferences for working with projects.

We will consider the second option:

• • • • Start Maya and create a New Project. Open the Preferences window (Windows -> Settings/Preferences -> Preferences). Go to the Color Management

• • • • Set the path to config.ocio at OCIO Config Path
      • Enable Use OCIO Configuration

• • • • Rendering Space ACES – ACEScg.
      • Set the View Transform option based on the discussion above in section ACES Output Transform Choices. For example: “sRGB (ACES)”.

Now, to configure the default color space assigned to textures, you should go to the Input Color Space Rules in Preferences. If your workflow involves putting a color space name (from the config) somewhere in the file path, use the Add Color Space Name Rule button. Or you can define other rules based on the file extension or some other aspect of the naming.

The main color spaces for conversion will be:

• • • • Scene-linear Rec.709-sRGB– for Linear images that use the Rec.709 or sRGB primaries/gamut (which are the same).
      • RAW– for images that do not require conversion (scalar masks, Displacement, Roughness).
      • sRGB– recommended color space for sRGB image textures 8-16 bit (JPEG, PNG).
      • ACEScg– Color space for images that are already converted to ACEScg.

When converting images to sRGB, they will appear darker than the original. Don’t worry as it is normal and gives you the opportunity to work with higher light values without losing contrast.

For all other images, not converted to ACEScg, you will need to individually set up the color space for the Image and File nodes.

If you create a project with ACEScg as the rendering space, remember to set the Color Space so that all images get correctly converted to ACEScg. Images in other color spaces will look wrong without conversion.

iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

You can create a machine then install Maya with these tools on our remote machine (first time access only), add license, and render with any render engines, like Redshift, V-Ray, Arnold, etc. 

We suggest our multi RTX4090s or RTX3090s for Maya. Especially Redshift, V-Ray can utilize multiple GPUs system really good. Arnold latest version is also upgraded to be able to support multiple GPUs more.

Let’s see some tests on our servers for Maya with Redshift, V-Ray and Arnold:

iRender also provides you more services. We have a useful and free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has a pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service via livechat with real humans who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

Especially, if you use Maya with Redshift, now you can access our remote servers use our Redshift license for free. For Maya, kindly install and use your license.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source: Doug Walker and Slava Sych from autodesk.com

Rendering is the last step to visualize your hard and long worked hours into amazing image or animation. It could be a sweet dream if the render time is fast but could be a nightmare if it takes longer than you want. To avoid the long render time, it not just comes from the hardware, but from the projects itself. Let’s learn some optimization tips to reduce your render time in V-Ray in this article.

Models are made of many polygons. And normally, more polygons means that your models are more detailed, which leads to long render time.

In a scene, you should know which models are to focus on and need to be more detailed, while others are not necessarily detailed. By doing this, you drop the polygon count in a scene and the render time can reduce drastically.

V-Ray offers some solutions to optimize your heavy scene for faster rendering, like VRayProxy. It helps you load a geometry only during rendering, which means that your scene will take much less RAM to render while using the available resources more intelligently.

Or the Chaos Cosmos asset library contains many high-quality smart 3D assets, materials and HDRIs that are curated to make sure they’ll always look good and are optimized for rendering no matter which platform you choose. You don’t need to make all of the models or assets in the scene but find them from Chaos Cosmos and be ensured they are modelled correctly with no overlapping faces or loose vertices.

VRayEnmesh is also a great solution for adding the tiniest details to your mesh and takes very little RAM to render, even less than displacement maps, instead of fully modeling intricate 3D patterns.

Chaos Cosmos is not only good for your modeling, but also for your shading. It provides complex high-quality materials that would take hours to create from scratch and you can take advantage of that.

However, some materials may be too heavy and increase your render time. And sometimes, they don’t fit in your scene at all. Therefore, if you want to reduce render time in V-Ray, make sure you check all the setup and unnecessary effects such as glossy reflections and refractions that probably won’t be visible depending on the distance or size, missing maps or overly complicated shader trees.

You also need to pay attention to a hidden issue that most people usually neglect: oversized bitmaps. It may take a huge chunk of your RAM and slow your render and make no difference in the final result.

Always think about how to optimize and set up your light intelligently, if you want your scene to look good/photorealistic and render faster. You can avoid overly bright lights as they overexpose areas in your scene, which takes longer to render as the computer needs time to do all the calculation needed to show a bright, flat area.

V-Ray offers some solutions to optimize your lighting, such as V-Ray’s Light Mix. You can use it in the VFB to test and finetune your lights, making every light count.

Or you can use a V-Ray dome light as a skylight, whether you’re using a HDRI or V-Ray’s Sun & Sky system with procedural clouds. The dome light is really fast and easy to control and doesn’t require light portals or any other elements to create great environment lighting.

Don’t forget to optimize your render settings, to reduce the render time in V-Ray even further.

You can check V-Ray’s image sampler. It uses noise levels to determine the “quality” of the rendering. Lower noise threshold and high subdivisions mean high quality, while high noise threshold and low subdivisions mean opposite. You can experiment and tweak it on different regions of your rendering, to find the good balance between the amount of noise and the time it takes to render.

One more solution is V-Ray Denoiser, helping you capture the noise in your image and smooths it out to make your rendering look even better in a fraction of the time it would take to reach the same noise level without it.

iRender provides you a high-performance and configurable server system for 3D rendering, AI Training, VR & AR, simulation, etc. We believe that design and creative activities are private and personal that only you artists will know what you want with your animation.

You can create a blank remote machine, then install V-Ray and your 3D software, add your own licenses and start to render like how you always do on your local computer.  

V-Ray can utilize GPU rendering power, we choose to provide RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. You can refer to these articles to see how V-Ray performs on these graphics card, especially RTX 4090 being the fastest when it comes to V-Ray rendering.

iRender powerful RTX4090 for V-Ray rendering

Top GPU for Redshift, Octane and V-Ray in 2023

Compare RTX 4090 vs RTX 6000 Ada vs RTX A6000 for content creation

If you have more GPUs, the render time will reduce more. However, don’t expect a perfectly linear reduction.

Let’s see our test with V-Ray on our graphics cards RTX 4090 and RTX 3090:

Not only those powerful configurations, iRender also provides you more services. Free transferring tool named iRender drive for macOS or Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend using our all-in-one application iRender GPU to work, and you don’t need to come to our website. Our price is flexible with hourly rental which has a pay-as-you-go basis, daily/ weekly/ monthly subscription with discount from 10-20%. Plus, you have 24/7 support service via livechat with real humans who will support you whenever you encounter an issue.

Register an account today to experience our service and enjoy a very big promotion 100% bonus for new user. Or contact us via WhatsApp: (+84) 916806116 for advice and support.

Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Source and images: Ricardo Eloy from chaos.com

Maxon has released Cinema 4D 2025.1, the latest version of its 3D software for motion graphics, VFX and visualization work. 

The latest update significantly enhances Cinema 4D’s Boolean modeling system by boosting the speed and stability of Boolean operations, and enabling the creation of more intricate Boolean hierarchies. Additionally, the simulation toolsets have been updated with features such as a new Particle Node Modifier, alongside improvements to Scene Nodes, animation tools, and USD workflows.

Let’s explore it with iRender in this blog!

Workflow is consistent with the previous Boole generator, but is “faster and more robust”, particularly when animating Booleans.

Unlike the Boole object, which is limited to two inputs, the new generator supports any number of input objects, making it possible to create more complex geometry.

Nested hierarchies of Boolean operations can be achieved with multiple groups and generators. Vertex, edge, and polygon selections are retained, and attributes like UVs and colors are preserved just as they are for selections. 

The introduction of Collision Noise adds a unique, per-scene random vector to the contact and bounce responses, akin to Bullet, diversifying collision behaviors. The restrict movement on contacts feature prevents unwanted movements from fixed constraints, thus reducing intersection issues. 

Additionally, Collision Priority allows prioritization between colliders and dynamic objects, offering split average or extra pass solve methods.

The MoGraph Matrix has been updated to sync with the simulated positions of rigid bodies. The thickness attribute is now referred to as the search radius, indicating the area for collision detection. 

For smoke and fire simulation, the Pyro toolset gets a new “Out of Core” Storage option, making it possible to perform larger simulations by assigning more GPU memory to Pyro.

There is also a new Ambient Temperature control for simulations, and new options to have simulation pressure control Vorticity and Turbulence.

System properties for Particles are exposed in the Simulation Scene Settings.

Add and define custom particle properties to be used in emitters and modifiers.  Emitters and Modifiers can define output data to be generated for the defined custom property, each will have its own unique data that is outputted. When custom properties are defined, parameters corresponding to their type will appear under the Custom tab of the Emitter objects.

Animators get workflow improvements including the option to copy and paste data in the Powerslider in the same way as the Timeline, and the Tween Tool gets a Global Space Mode. IK tag supports an option to “Rotate to Goal” allowing the first bone in the chain to rotate to the goal improving stability.

Render Ranges allows for user specified ranges of frames to be rendered and Custom Frames allows for multiple individual ranges to be entered. When rendering, C4D will now check all existing frames before the render starts and allow you to skip frames that already exist.

Changes to the Scene Nodes system include the option to use child objects or linked objects as generators to create custom mesh or spline generators.

There are also new Geometry by Type and Geometry Info nodes, and updates to existing nodes. Set Points Value adds an option to center points relative to the bounding box of selected points. Noise Modifier adds support for displacing splines and Relative Noise scale.

For pipeline integration, support for USD workflows has been expanded.

Users can now import character animation in USD format, including joint hierarchies and skin weighting; and can import and export some animated camera and light settings. 

 The new modernized XRS brings improved speed and stability to reinforce a collaborative workflow ensuring artists can manage complex scenes with confidence.

iRender is a Professional GPU-Acceleration Cloud Rendering Service provider in HPC optimization for rendering tasks, CGI, and VFX. We offer you high configurations of machines with high-end specifications like AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 3955WX @ 3.9 – 4.2GHz or AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz, RAM 256GB, Storage NVMe SSD 2TB. With a wide range of GPU servers (1/2/4/6/8x) – RTX 4090, you can choose the server that suits your needs to start the rendering process. 

Cinema 4D often comes with third render engines like Octane, V-Ray, Arnold or its now standard renderer Redshift. Whether or not you use any of those render engines, you still can find a suitable package at iRender. You can create a machine with pre-installed Cinema 4D, add license, and modify, adjust and render by yourself there. 

Let’s see some of Cinema 4D benchmark with Redshift, V-ray and Octane below

Currently, iRender offers a special promotion for new users, a 100% bonus program for the first deposit within 24 hours of registration, making it an attractive option for those looking to optimize their rendering budget. Just register and get our best deal!

For more detailed information, please contact us via Live chat 24/7 or WhatsApp: +(84)915875500 or Email: vyvtk@irender.vn

iRender – Happy rendering!

References & image sources: cgchannel.com & support.maxon.net