Author Topic: Switch from Arnold to Corona?  (Read 6530 times)

2020-11-07, 12:14:40

bombastic80

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Hello together,

so far, I'm an Arnold user, but I am considering switching to another renderer like Corona 6.

Now I´m Working on VFX for Film and now I have a few questions and hope you can help me.

Can Corona EXR 32 bit files with layer?

Arnolds Denoiser ( not Optix, the Arnold Denoiser for EXR) can Denoise EXR, can this Corona as well as all Layers / Passes / AOVs / Multipasses

Can particle systems be used? I Use TurbulenceFD, FumeFX and X-Particles for Flame, Dust, Smoke etc.

Is Coronas Node Editor comparable to Arnold's?

Can it handle very great Scenes?

Compositing, 3D character creation, everything falls into my area of ​​responsibility and I just need a reliable renderer.

I hope you can help me and maybe Corona is just the right renderer.

« Last Edit: 2020-11-08, 13:35:18 by bombastic80 »

2021-05-19, 12:14:03
Reply #1

uniontrade

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Hello Corona render is so friendly... but for characters, visual effects I think arnold is better
Corona render is more oriented to realistic results...
for example Corona render not have a toon shader, I am not a very expert guy with arnold
but the corona render  nodes is so so good for work... is the things I can tell you about it :-)

2021-05-21, 12:46:09
Reply #2

Mac_Mac

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Hi there!
I use both. Below some of my thoughts:
- yes corona can save as exr, but Arnold's drivers system is way better
- AOVs/render passes - in corona you have to do it manually for every project/scene. No presets like in Arnold
- no cryptomatte in corona :(
- XP and Turbulence FD are not supported. Using xpGenerator is a nightmare
- no scatter system
- you can use corona instances but not as good as in Arnold
- material node system is great in Corona. Clear and friendly
- Corona supports almost all C4D native shaders
- Arnold has more special shaders
- generaly Arnold's materials node system is not as pleasant as Corona.
- lights in Corona have less scene option than Arnold, you can on/off visibility, reflections etc. but you can't set the strenght of those effects
- Arnold works better with big scenes
- Arnold is more stable, actually I don't remember when I have last crash w. Arnold. Corona likes crashing but I've nottice it only when Cycles4D is installed...strange but w/o Cycles Corona works well on my system
- renders from Corona look awesome, I like them more than images from Arnold
- Corona has great denoiser. Arnold's is complicated and gives worst results IMHO
- Corona is way faster than arnold (on CPU)
- lightmixer is incredible, I love it. A newest version of Arnold has imager for lightmixer but again, it's more complicated
- Corona has own frame buffer, better than C4D picture viewer
- you can save Corona render in it's own format and resume it later. This is great. Not sure if you can to that in Arnold
- Corona is ready to render out of the box. Actually the very first render looks great. In Arnold you have to dig throuh bunch of render settings

So...If you are in VFX and using special plugins as XP, TFD etc. forget about Corona. If not, you can use both for motiongraphics, animations etc... but only with a support of render farms - sorry Corona and Arnold aren't the speed beasts.
If you are doing stills - use Corona. Renders are mindblowing and you will get the results you want faster.
I use Arnold only for short intros/outros, not for stills. It's about 20% of my work. Rest is Corona. My default render engine is Corona, as well as the materials :)
Cheers!
« Last Edit: 2021-05-22, 15:19:37 by Mac_Mac »

2021-05-22, 15:26:54
Reply #3

aler

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I use both. Below some of my thoughts...
Although I didn't ask that and I do not use Arnold, but nevertheless, it was very interesting to read about the comparison.
Mac_Mac, thanks for such a complete response!

2021-05-24, 14:29:48
Reply #4

indexofrefraction

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well, i tested arnold a bit the last 2 weeks and i had loads! of crashes, even with simplest scenes.
some stuff in arnold is weird and super user unfriendly. on the newest arnold i wasnt able to have a glass window letting light pass. needs a comptag.
on the other hand corona is the only renderer who thinks it is not important to have a manual.  forum support could be better, too
what kills arnold for me is that interiors are rendering way too slow. not sure if i'm doing something wrong, but my guess is 3-4x the rendertime of corona or vray
another bummer is that arnold doesnt use real world values for lights/cameras. you have to "feel" it
i gave up on arnold with the feeling that in parts it is years ahead and in parts years behind.
« Last Edit: 2021-05-24, 14:48:40 by indexofrefraction »

2021-10-01, 11:07:17
Reply #5

haffy

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I have also been testing Arnold, with the focus on GPU. And I also have ALOT of crashes, displacement maps is a no go on GPU.
I realy like the bokeh (DOF blur) in Arnold, and would love to use GPU. But it's to many crashes and the denoiser is a joke.