Iray or Delight for Animation?

Deke

I'm getting ready to tackle an ambitious animation project…a 20 minute film. I was set to study and utilize the existing tools and really get to know them: uber lighting, 3Delight rendering, etc. Then Iray comes along and promises better quality renders especially in terms of skin. Is there any consensus on which workflow-render path is the best way to go for animation? I've even thought of a mix…using 3Delight for faster renders and Iray for close-up shots of faces. Regardless I'd be rendering in layers - foreground, background, etc - and compositing in After Effects.

a-sennov

Use both. They have their strengths and weaknesses. 3delight has displacement, motion blur, stylized rendering (think toon or noir style), is faster with simple lighting, can produce completely noiseless picture (if not using UE2 or AoA Advanced light). Iray simulates light propagation in GI scenario better and is faster in this case provided that you have right hardware :), materials and lighting are simpler to setup, has better control over the rendering time which is important for animation with all that thousands of frames.

So just use right tool for right task :)

WendyLuvsCatz

Iray actually renders quite fast with single dressed figures I found, I can have it in viewport like Octane though it does depend on your card.
You can limit samples for faster animation renders.
3Delight I have never found a fast way to use :lol:

Deke

I was wondering if iray could be used for faces and 3d for the scene. Probably not as both require their own lighting scheme. I think. I'm still learning both of them. I have a 2 GB video card but even that can be sluggish with Iray. Limiting the renders is sure a nice trick to speed things up.