Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/832212
81 Q2 2017 / CINEMONTAGE 81 Q2 2017 / CINEMONTAGE TECH TIPS SOLID ANGLE JOINS AUTODESK In 2016, Autodesk, a leading provider of 3D software, acquired Solid Angle and bundled Arnold with Maya 2017, its 3D modeling and animation package that is widely used in Hollywood. Arnold replaced Mental Ray, Maya's previous built-in renderer, so that anyone who buys Maya can now use Arnold to render. This brings a huge influx of new users and even wider acceptance in the motion picture industry. While some may still prefer to render with another third-party rendering solution, why would you when you've got Arnold at your fingertips? While the acquisition by Autodesk may open new vistas for Arnold, it was also a cause for concern to some users. There are other versions of Arnold besides Maya, such as MAXON's popular CINEMA 4D, which enjoys a thriving community of enthusiastic users. Arnold also works with Houdini by SideFX Software. Does that mean that users of those programs will be cut off? According to Solid Angle, the answer is a resounding "No." The company has promised that development will continue unabated on all platforms. CPU VS. GPU According to Solid Angle, Arnold 5, recently released on April 12, is an evolution in rendering which not only contains new features but represents a significant transition to a new internal architecture, paving the way for "new developments to come." One of these new developments is no doubt the upcoming GPU version of Arnold — something Marcos Fajardo officially spoke about during his talk at last year's SIGGRAPH. What's GPU rendering you ask? The past few years have seen the emergence of rendering programs that use your GPU (graphics processing unit) to create final renders. Traditionally, GPUs are used during modeling and animation, but CPUs (central processing units) are used to render the final frames. However, thanks to developments like CUDA (compute unified device architecture), some developers found a way to speed up the final rendering process by using your graphics card to also generate the final high-quality images. However, as Fajardo points out, GPU rendering, as promising as it may be, is not really a replacement for CPU rendering. Not yet anyway. To begin with, there are a wide range of CPUs and GPUs at different price points. How much of a speed increase you may get from the GPU version of Arnold, as opposed to the CPU version, is based on your hardware. If you have a cheap CPU and an expensive GPU, you will see a major boost in speed. However, if you have a cheap GPU and an expensive CPU, the results will be disappointing — if there is any speed-up at all. Top: Solid Angle's Marcos Fajardo (foreground) and his team accepting a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for Arnold in 2017. Left: Arnold was the renderer for the 2013 motion picture Gravity. Visual effects by Framestore