Mental Ray is Dead - Long Live Arnold

Mental Ray 3D Render

NVidia, makers of the once-ubiquitous ray tracer Mental Ray, have announced in a press release that it is to be discontinued.

Mental Ray used to come bundled free with Autodesk Maya and, until recently, have released a version of their software which is free for student use.

This was good news for animation students, because Mental Ray has a number of advantages over its successor Arnold.  In particular, you can achieve some very quick and attractive lighting setups in Mental ray using Physical Sun & Sky, the closest thing Maya has to a "Make It Look Cool" button.  This can be done in just a few quick steps - and gets a great result in a hurry.



However, now that Mental Ray has been discontinued, we're all going to have to get used to a future without it. To see a playlist of videos showing how to use Arnold, follow this link.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.