...This has been a long time coming.
I have been working on my mythical creatures project for a while now, a long while, actually. I am increasingly seeing the disadvantages that would come with rendering in blender render. Yet, I am undeniably wary of rendering in cycles due to all the problems it presents, or the one, glaring problem: time. As such, I have decided to lay down my thoughts and come to a decision: blender render or cycles (I honestly have no idea where this is going to go).
Blender Render:
Familiarity - I am extremely familiar with blender render and all of it's pitfalls. I have enough experience with this system to know how to fix things if and when something goes wrong. I also know what the result is going to be.
Reliability - Blender render, while not the most glamorous, is a reliable system. I know that I will have an end result without any weird glitches. I have worked with armatures, water, and terrains, and I know it works.
Time - Perhaps Blender render's greatest advantage, it renders MUCH faster than cycles. Each frame takes at most 4 minutes to render, and even my longest animations have only taken 2 days at most to render.
Quality - Herein lies blender's pitfall, the quality is not as great as what cycles offers. The animations will always carry a certain plastic look to it, which is not ideal.
Cycles Render:
Familiarity - I am not familiar with cycles render, at all. This is due to the fact that, until now, I have never been foolish enough to consider this path. I will undoubtedly face difficulties that I will have no idea how to solve, and I do not possess even the most minute inkling of how it will turn out. However, I have rendered stills with cycles before, and I know that aspect of it.
Reliability - I have had an issue with cycles rendering in the past that I still do not know how to fix, it is undoubtedly uncharted territory for me, and in that aspect, reliability simply goes out the window.
Time - Herein lies cycles' greatest disadvantage, it renders at the speed of a snail. Stills alone take a lot of time in cycles, and an animation will undoubtedly take at least a week...if I'm lucky. This comes with infinitely decreasing the processing speed of whatever poor computer I chose to inflict this torture on as well as constant anxiety as to what happens if something gets messed up.
Quality - The only reason I am even considering cycles, it's quality. Rendering in cycles gives me the ability to keep emission textures on the creatures to maintain the mythical creatures, make the
hippocampus iridescent, make it not so plastic-like, have foam in the water, and just make everything look better. As a plus, it is the industry standard and what I'm going to have to use eventually. Every cool effect I might think of adding is in cycles and not blender render, and it is widely accepted as the superior quality render engine by the 3D community.
Final Result:
Every sign points to blender render, which is why I'm choosing...cycles. Why, you might ask, am I doing this? Is it because I am a masochist? Perhaps. Either way, this is a bridge I was eventually going to have to cross, I'm simply ripping the band-aid off now (future me is going to hate me). I'm probably going to cry, but things will look better in cycles, and I have not wasted two marking periods on this animation to have it look mediocre.
I regret everything already.
Work Log
Monday 12/10: Finished wolf armature, started phoenix armature
Tuesday 12/11: Worked on phoenix armature
Wednesday 12/13: Finished phoenix armature, started on hippocampus, then got told to 3D print the wolf.
Thursday 12/14: Worked on wolf hair, fixed hair problem
Friday 12/15: Started prepping wolf for print, met old friend, learned the 'l' key can help my life a lot (pretty sure I knew it and forgot).
I have been working on my mythical creatures project for a while now, a long while, actually. I am increasingly seeing the disadvantages that would come with rendering in blender render. Yet, I am undeniably wary of rendering in cycles due to all the problems it presents, or the one, glaring problem: time. As such, I have decided to lay down my thoughts and come to a decision: blender render or cycles (I honestly have no idea where this is going to go).
Blender Render:
Familiarity - I am extremely familiar with blender render and all of it's pitfalls. I have enough experience with this system to know how to fix things if and when something goes wrong. I also know what the result is going to be.
 |
| Blender |
Time - Perhaps Blender render's greatest advantage, it renders MUCH faster than cycles. Each frame takes at most 4 minutes to render, and even my longest animations have only taken 2 days at most to render.
Quality - Herein lies blender's pitfall, the quality is not as great as what cycles offers. The animations will always carry a certain plastic look to it, which is not ideal.
Cycles Render:
Familiarity - I am not familiar with cycles render, at all. This is due to the fact that, until now, I have never been foolish enough to consider this path. I will undoubtedly face difficulties that I will have no idea how to solve, and I do not possess even the most minute inkling of how it will turn out. However, I have rendered stills with cycles before, and I know that aspect of it.
Reliability - I have had an issue with cycles rendering in the past that I still do not know how to fix, it is undoubtedly uncharted territory for me, and in that aspect, reliability simply goes out the window.
Time - Herein lies cycles' greatest disadvantage, it renders at the speed of a snail. Stills alone take a lot of time in cycles, and an animation will undoubtedly take at least a week...if I'm lucky. This comes with infinitely decreasing the processing speed of whatever poor computer I chose to inflict this torture on as well as constant anxiety as to what happens if something gets messed up.
hippocampus iridescent, make it not so plastic-like, have foam in the water, and just make everything look better. As a plus, it is the industry standard and what I'm going to have to use eventually. Every cool effect I might think of adding is in cycles and not blender render, and it is widely accepted as the superior quality render engine by the 3D community.
Final Result:
Every sign points to blender render, which is why I'm choosing...cycles. Why, you might ask, am I doing this? Is it because I am a masochist? Perhaps. Either way, this is a bridge I was eventually going to have to cross, I'm simply ripping the band-aid off now (future me is going to hate me). I'm probably going to cry, but things will look better in cycles, and I have not wasted two marking periods on this animation to have it look mediocre.
I regret everything already.
Monday 12/10: Finished wolf armature, started phoenix armature
Tuesday 12/11: Worked on phoenix armature
Wednesday 12/13: Finished phoenix armature, started on hippocampus, then got told to 3D print the wolf.
Thursday 12/14: Worked on wolf hair, fixed hair problem
Friday 12/15: Started prepping wolf for print, met old friend, learned the 'l' key can help my life a lot (pretty sure I knew it and forgot).
Comments
Post a Comment