1. WHAT IS ARNOLD?
Arnold is a powerful rendering engine that uses ray tracing, designed to meet the complex demands of visual effects (VFX) and animated film production. It utilizes a method called Monte Carlo ray tracing or path tracing, which involves sending numerous random light paths for each pixel and averaging these to create the final image. Today, Arnold is used by over 300 studios worldwide, including industry leaders like ILM, Framestore, and MPC. Due to its significant impact, Autodesk acquired Arnold in 2016. This rendering engine has been central to the creation of countless films, from animated features to blockbuster visual effects-heavy productions. Arnold is available as a standalone renderer on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS, and integrates with popular 3D software like Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D, and Katana. It is the built-in interactive renderer for Maya and 3ds Max.
Arnold primarily uses CPU-based rendering. While Arnold introduced GPU rendering capabilities in early 2019, many users have noted that CPU rendering often provides superior results. CPU renders tend to produce less visual noise compared to those processed on a GPU.
2. BEST RENDER FARMS 2023 FOR ARNOLD
Arnold consistently delivers exceptional image quality and is designed for an efficient production workflow. Generally, if you’re working on animation or VFX projects, using a render farm is highly recommended. Without one, rendering with Arnold can become time-consuming. Render times can take hours or even days using just a CPU. If you need to speed up your render time, increasing the number of nodes rendering simultaneously can be an ideal solution. However, building a powerful workstation or your own render farm with a large number of render nodes will cost you thousands of dollars. The expense of acquiring floating licenses for all nodes can also be a major obstacle. Beyond investments in machines and licenses, operational costs, such as electricity and maintenance, add up. Is there a streamlined, economic solution for accelerating render times? The answer is yes. Render farms are designed to address these issues by harnessing the processing power of hundreds of CPU render nodes. Here are the top render farms which render on CPU:
- Fox Render Farm
- Rebus Farm
This list is based on our research, usage and evaluations of render farms worldwide. We ranked the render farms based on factors including usage time (upload time, setting file time, render time), cost, cost per frame, and support.
