Blender Evee Cycles or Vray?

#1

Hi Guys,

I have been using mostly 3ds max and vray and corona…wanted to try Blender for animation project i am not familiar with Evee or Cycles at all and how to they compare to vray rendering…would they produce the same quality ?

Thanks

#2

Since Blender is free, the best feedback is from trying it out first hand.

Eevee is a real time renderer, akin to other competitors out there like Marmoset or Unreal Engine. It uses PBR which is considered the industry standard.

Cycles from what I gather is meant to be a fast previewer although not intended to be the final render.

But as a question if Blender can keep up with other AAA production tools, I think we’ve known the answer for years. It’s been used before in Hollywood and Television level environments, game studios like Ubisoft officially use it.

The only reason it’s not everywhere is because many studios have built their own pipelines since 2008 that’s just not worth changing out at the moment.

I will also post examples and you can find comment threads inside with more helpful information:

#3

Hi Jordan,

Thank you for your answer! and additional links.
…Since I am in the archviz .I do know that company i piplines is one of the reasons for it not being used and also the pipline with Autocad Revit etc has it problems…
In this case I am just testing and looking for realism…level that I still don’t see from the Evee will try Cycles …

Thanks

#4

Out of curiosity, can you define the level of “realism” you are looking for?

In my past experience working with Archviz, I actually came across many companies who did want real-time graphics. The reason is because they found clients who want to see their renders in Virtual Reality, or even be able to demo it in front of them and making real time changes to wall colors, paint, etc.

Here’s one example of a company I once applied for (not promoting them, just citing proof)

Realism in my opinion, doesn’t always come down to software. It’s always based on what the Artist can do working within certain constraints and applying their knowledge of art theory.

Hence why you can look at Hollywood movies made 20 years ago and still find “realism” despite any tools they used being outdated by today’s standards.

#5

Yes Jordan you are absolutely right 90% of it is the technique and things you mention …the other part is just for self satisfaction subtle differences in the light …like Fstorm light is better than old Vray versions etc…Realtime still has some small difference when static shots are compared in certain scenarios…

#6

would they produce the same quality ?

Depends. As Jordan pointed out, it’s 90% the artist. But the 10% can make a difference. And V-Ray and Eevee is apples with oranges.

So one word to the renderers since you struggle with the choice of your render engine. And you better decide beforehand. Since things like materials and lighting are fundamental different between Cylces and Eevee.

Eevee is a realtime renderer. The primary goal of realtime renderers is speed. Games uses realtime rendering for that reason. You need to have 50 fps to play a game. And it uses tricks to achieve this speed. Like Normalmaps instead of real geometry, faked caustics, prebaked shadows, and so on And it does not aim to be physical correct. To make it look good is your job then.

Cycles is a so called offline renderer. Physical correct. Everything needed is calculated instead of faked. And it is officially a unbiased renderer. Inofficially it uses some guidance, which makes it imho in fact to a biased renderer. In best case a hybrid. But the code base is unbiased. And unbiased means accurate, noisy and slow.

What always made me scratch my head is that Cycles aims at animation. Unbiased renderers are usually the worst choice then. Noise- and speedwise. But nowadays you can at least compensate the noise part with a denoiser. Remains the speed issue. One image can render hours. The same image with a realtime renderer can render in a fraction of a second.

V-Ray is a so called biased offline renderer. There is also a realtime version of it around. But let’s for this moment just talk about the biased offline version. Biased means that you do some guided calculation. And don’t fire just rays into the scene at good luck. A biased renderer is usually much faster than an unbiased one.

But V-Ray is still no good choice for animation. At least the offline version. I would suggest a renderer like Pixar’s Renderman instead, which is optimized for movies. And nowadays i would even recommend a realtime Renderer. Since it is so much faster. V-Ray RT or D5 for example in case you want to stay in Max( switching the platforms means you need to learn lots of new things). Or Eevee when you want to work in Blender.

The only reason it’s not everywhere is because many studios have built their own pipelines since 2008 that’s just not worth changing out at the moment.

This is not true. It’s still a matter of the tools. And the studios have still no reason to switch. Not even when Blender would be at the same level. You switch for improvements, not for a nice logo. Since switching itself costs money time and energy already. And all your old data would be not longer available then.

On top of that, Blender did and does not integrate well into pipelines. Especially not into existing ones. See problem above with existing data. Every new version brings the danger that for example FBX breaks. It is reverse engineered with every new version. Blender bones system is everything but ideal and pretty aged. And cannot compete with Maya for example. It’s the only bones system that i know where you have to model your character in a weird pose with already bent joints so that IK works as intended. T Pose makes trouble. Polygon modeling tools are weak. Periphery is still in big parts not on par with the industry tools. And so on.

You can get your job done, no question. And every version gets more powerful. The differences to the big boys are nowadays not this big anymore. But it’s imho still the weakest solution at the market. Its biggest benefit is that it is free. Available to everyone.

That said, it can still be good enough for your needs. I personally love it despite all its flaws. Else i would not have forked it to make it even better. And it is pretty stable. And it is never wrong to learn other tools like Blender too. Just don’t expect that the grass is really greener at the other side :slight_smile: