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Yearly Archives: 2018

modo 12.2 denoise optix comparison

The new Modo denoiser is now supported on RenderStreet

      Modo, News

We always strive to offer complete support for all the functionality of the 3D packages we support on our render farm. So we upgraded our systems to include the new features added by the latest release of Modo – the NVIDIA® OptiX™ denoiser (introduced in Modo version 12.2). The denoiser is GPU-based and, on our infrastructure, it runs on specially-configured servers that are also equipped with high-performance dual Xeon E5-series CPUs.

You can see below some tests made with the denoiser in a simple scene from Modo’s samples. There were three renders: one with the default quality settings of the scene, one with low-quality settings and the third with the same low-quality settings, plus the denoise step. All the renders were made at 2220 x 1440 px.

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Eevee rendering supported on RenderStreet

      Blender, News

Eevee is the new PBR engine introduced with the major 2.80 release of Blender as a fast rendering tool for 3D artists. Created as a real-time engine, it opens up new possibilities for your projects – both when used independently and when used in combination with Cycles.

Starting now, Eevee rendering is supported on RenderStreet on our GPU servers. We are reinforcing our commitment to fully support 3D artists and to provide you with the tools you need for your work. We are the first (and currently, the only) render farm offering support for Eevee at this moment.

Happy blending!

Image “Ember Forest” created by Mike Pan

RenderStreet just works. I typically work with bleeding edge tools and software, and there are always compromises in terms of ease of use. In this regard, RenderStreet was a breath of fresh air. Within minutes of signing up, I was generating high detail renders. I was continually surprised by neat little features such as real-time video previews and compressed downloads which made my life so much easier. Coupled with amazing, proactive support, I’d have no hesitation in recommending RenderStreet to anyone. Thanks so much!

Phil Sullivan,
The Pulse

Jonas Melin’s Arts Program story

      Blender, Interviews

Jonas Melin – Teacher and Program Leader

In Sweden’s Upper Secondary School, there is a three year higher education preparatory Arts Program held by S:t Eriks Gymnasium. It features an animation topic that aims to develop students’ abilities to communicate using digital tools.

We’ve recently had a talk with the program leader, arts and design teacher Jonas Melin, to understand his perspective on animation and to hear the Program’s story.

“When we started this Animation profile in 2011, we had a big problem with the render times for 3D. Our computers are good for 2D, but for photorealistic renderings, they are way too slow.” – Mr. Jonas Melin, teacher and program leader

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David Letondor – The Digital Watchmaker

      Interviews
“In reality, nothing is perfect and our brains know that!” – David Letondor

David Letondor

David describes himself as a self-taught 3D artist.
 Having learned Maya on his own (by reading the documentation, no less…) he eventually landed a job in an architectural visualization company.
He then went to work for a company in Geneva making 3D models of watches by high-end Swiss manufacturers such as Vacheron Constantin. I happened upon one of his watch models online and was immediately taken with their intricate details and complexity.

I wanted to pick his brain on how he goes about creating such complex works and asked him a few questions.

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Switch to yearly

New RenderStreet One yearly option

      News

Since the launch of RenderStreet One, the monthly subscription plan has become our most popular option for artists requiring a fixed cost, always-on rendering solution.

Last year we’ve added two new payment methods that you’ve been asking for, Paypal and American Express. This update also unified the payment interface so everything was brought together making it easier to manage subscriptions and credits all in one place. Also in 2017 we have introduced a couple of new options for our members, the ability to render longer frames, and support for Modo rendering.

Now in 2018, because many of you asked, we thought you should start the year with some good news and a happier wallet so we’ve made RenderStreet One available as a yearly subscription.

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Tobias Steiner – I couldn’t be happier with the results

      Testimonials and user feedback

I just wanted to send everyone at Render Street a big thank you for doing what you’re doing to bring this service to us.
I have been using the service for a few days now and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Being at the helm of a small company with big creative content to deliver, you have given me something that is rare to find in this industry.
Peace of mind and a great deal of stress relief. My clients are thrilled and so am I.

Thank you so very very much for creating Render Street and RenderStreet One!

Tobias Steiner,
FrameHaus LLC

Benchmark 6 - Victor. Render time in h:mm:ss, lower is better

Blender 2.80 hybrid (CPU+GPU) rendering – speed and quality

      Blender, Tutorials

Update January 2019: One year after the initial post, we ran the battery of tests again, using the latest Beta version of Blender 2.80 and the official 2.79b release. The visual quality has improved significantly and now the 2.80 renders look very close to the 2.79 ones. As we have upgraded our infrastructure, we added the new GPUs to the mix as well. Read below for the charts and our comments.

The upcoming major release of Blender – version 2.80 – has a lot of buzz surrounding it. And for good reason, too. There’s the brand new Eevee engine, showing a lot of promise. And there is a truckload of new features – new grease pencil, workspaces concept, layers and collections, and many others. On the performance side, there are also significant improvements, and a notable addition is the new hybrid render mode. This allows rendering using both the CPU(s) and the GPU(s) from the same machine, promising speed improvements in all Cycles renders.

The hybrid rendering mode is indeed an interesting feature. It has been present in V-Ray for a while with good results. So, naturally, we were excited to see it come in Blender for Cycles, too. Because it so happens that there are a large number of GPU machines in our backyard, that also have pretty powerful CPUs, we decided to put the new feature to the test.

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Looking back at 2017 – 3D Rendering report

      Rendered with RenderStreet, News

It’s the beginning of a new year and, as it’s our tradition by now, we’re sharing with you some of the behind-the-scenes activity from our farm. So, if you’re curious to learn how and what we did last year, read on.

If you’ve been using (or just following) us for a while, you know by now that we’re continuously improving our service and 2017 was no exception. We’ve rolled out a number of new features, both visible and invisible, sharing the same goal: to make your life easier. The ones that I’d add to a quick highlight list are: adding Modo support, unifying the payment system, adding upgrades to the monthly plan RenderStreet One and adding cloud operations for upload and download. And just a couple of weeks ago, in December, we released a network optimization upgrade for RenderStreet One for easier management of large assets. The effects have been very positive: the transfer time for large projects has been cut by up to 60% in some cases. This means more rendering power available to you!

Moving on to the numbers, here are the most relevant facts for our activity:

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