Montreal-based visual effects studio Rodeo FX has adopted the Arnold rendering system from Solid Angle for all of the company’s rendering needs. Arnold Core and Arnold for Softimage play a significant role within Rodeo FX’s pipeline for feature films, TV shows and commercial projects.
“Arnold allows our artists to better spend their time focused on the creative aspects of lighting a scene, rather than on having to act as a data manager organizing multiple versions of multiple passes of data,” said Jordan Soles, Rodeo FX’s chief technology officer. “The interactive nature that Arnold provides allows our artists to move lights freely within a shot, with results that can be seen almost instantaneously. My incredibly positive experience working with Arnold on numerous films at Sony Pictures Imageworks made our decision to adopt it here at Rodeo FX very easy.”
Soles explained that since installing Arnold, the sheer number of versions it takes for Rodeo FX digital artists to reach a final render has decreased, while the quality has increased. The render times and memory needs are more consistent and dependable, allowing the company’s productions to build better schedules and deliver shots more efficiently.
“Arnold has dramatically improved our look development since we first began incorporating it into our rendering pipeline a few years ago,” said Matthew Rouleau, Rodeo’s head of CG. “Its ease of use and incredible interactivity have made our lives a lot easier. We can now spend far less time on the technical aspects of rendering, and more time creating beautiful assets and images.”
“After having done due diligence, we determined that Arnold was the right fit for us, and we’ve adopted it into all of our tool sets,” explained Sébastien Moreau, president, founder and VFX supervisor, Rodeo FX. “We trust this tool, and we are confident that we can throw extremely complex assets through the pipeline now. Arnold will consistently deal with all of this critical data in a highly dependable way.”
Arnold was designed to efficiently process the complex geometric datasets required for feature-length CGI animation and big-budget visual effects, while at the same time simplifying the pipeline, reducing the number of passes, minimizing storage requirements and enhancing interactivity for lighting artists.
