Arnold vs Corona Renderer: What Program to Choose?

By pitting Arnold vs Corona Render, you can get a clear idea of which software is better suited for creating realistic pictures, character animations, and adding various VFX. Both options are supplied with basic features that will allow you to produce photorealistic images with minimum effort. The key distinction between the two software is that Corona Renderer is easier to use than Arnold while also being available at a lower price.

Arnold is a state-if-the-art Monte Carlo ray tracing renderer that is integrated into Autodesk 3D software. It’s primarily aimed at 3D artists who need powerful animation and visual effects functionality.

‌Corona Renderer is suitable for users that are into processor rendering but want to reduce the time they spend on performing such tasks. The software allows preparing a render in just a couple of clicks while minimizing the number of freezes and stutters you experience during the rendering process.

Arnold allows you to smoothly switch between processor and graphic card rendering, as dictated by your needs. You can use this software on Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, and it also comes with a refined Toon system. Additionally, Arnold is commonly supported by various cloud-based rendering farms like Pixel Plow.

While Arnold is typically used for producing stunning renders, the general workflow of this plugin is also extremely pleasant due to its intuitive design and advanced production functionality. This rendering software can be used as a plugin for software like 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Houdini, Cinema 4D, and Katana. Arnold includes such features as subsurface scatter, 3D motion blur, OSL support, Light Path Expressions, the ability to add various effects, etc.

This software excels at ray tracing instances of multiple objects in a scene while offering better transformation and material override than Corona. Additionally, Arnold is supplied with a larger number of special shaders like the standard Surface shader, which allows you to create a broad range of materials and looks.

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Allows enabling GPU rendering. Arnold lets you swiftly produce approximations of the final result. Thanks to this feature, you can preview how specific textures and lighting will look together in the final render without having to waste hours to get the result only to see something that you don’t like. This can be done by checking out the preview window that updates the scene in real-time.

Impressive volumetric rendering. This system allows you to visualize effects like smoke, clouds, mist, and flames, meaning the exported render will have a cool, photorealistic look and feel.

Premade materials for experimenting with various textures. To ensure the software doesn’t take up much space, the developers decided against supplying it with an integrated material library. Thankfully, they’ve made such a collection available online, allowing you to try out different premade textures without having to create them manually. The range of provided materials is expansive and includes glass, wood, stone, and so on. Each offered asset can be applied to your objects by using the convenient drag-and-drop method.

Fantastic choice for designing photorealistic CG characters. Arnold enables users to make significant sculptural adjustments, apply various texture maps, and customize their assets as they see fit. The provided Standard Shader makes it possible to create any material you want while making its details more defined, particularly near recessed areas around all the main facial features. This character creation software is also supplied with a Standard Hair Shader that serves for rendering hair and fur while being based on d'Eon and Zinke models that allow specular and diffuse shading.

State-of-the-art motion blur feature. 3D motion blur affects the shadows, volumes, indirect lighting, reflections, and refractions. Additionally, Arnold provides deformational motion blur and rotational motion features.

Integrated Cryptomatte. This software is compatible with Cryptomatte, offers ID matte creation functionality. It automatically produces ID mattes with adjustable motion blur, opacity, and depth of field. This tool also lets you conveniently manage the ID mattes included in the project by using names, object namespaces, and material titles.

Requires powerful hardware. If you want to take full advantage of Arnold’s GPU rendering functionality, you need to have the best computer for 3D modeling the market has to offer as well as one of the latest NVidia RTX GPUs. If you want to use this software with several RTX GPUs, you’ll also need an NVLink (SLI Bridge) since Arnold doesn’t properly scale across multiple cards without it. On the other hand, if you plan to only use Arnold for CPU rendering, you’ll need a processor with as many threads as possible.

The Corona Renderer is among the most beginner-friendly rendering engines on the market. The average new user will learn how to use it within a single day. Similar to Arnold, this software comes with an interactive GPU rendering mode that allows you to instantly preview approximations of the final render. Corona also includes an integrated denoiser that utilizes data obtained from render passes and the 3D scene to get rid of the noise in the image.

This software can be paired with a broad selection of third-party plugins, allowing you to continue employing the tools that are already a part of your workflow. Regardless if you’re using Corona’s Interactive Rendering or creating the final render, you can continue taking advantage of plugins like iToo’s Forest Pack and RailClone, Siger Shaders, Quixel Megascans, Allegorithmic Substance, Phoenix FD, FumeFX, Ornatrix, Hair Farm, and several others.

The Corona Renderer is also supplied with an array of other handy features such as real-time effect post-processing in the render frame window or the capability to adjust the lighting mid-rendering by employing the light mixing feature. Lastly, the software has a decent-sized material collection that allows you to make your scene more photorealistic or can be used as a basis for the rest of your project.

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Photorealistic lighting and materials. The software provides both biased and unbiased rendering options, allowing you to receive vibrant, photorealistic results that don’t have any splotches, interpolation artifacts, or other flaws. Corona also has a Fast Caustics Solver option that allows you to add caustics to the project with maximum convenience. After they’ve been enabled, reflective caustics will be automatically calculated for all used materials. Additionally, you can turn on refractive Caustics for specific materials.

4K Cache for high-speed rendering. This cache has a noticeably higher speed than regular path tracking and it doesn’t run the risk of damaging your project with artifacts, missing contact shadows, etc. 4K cache is the perfect solution for creating animations, as it drastically reduces flickering even when working with dynamic light sources or geometry.

Examines noise in the 3D scene. The denoising function examines all the noise in the 3D scene, meaning it isn’t a regular 2D post-process. It can be employed for minimizing the number of passes required to receive a noiseless image while reducing the rendering time up to 70%. This feature can also delete fireflies (hot pixels) from your render. You can freely adjust the denoising degree in the VFB after the rendering is done, meaning you’re not forced to guess the optimal level when choosing the initial rendering parameters.

Great at processing multiple light sources. Corona excels at rendering scenes with multiple light sources without increasing the render time, allowing you to optimize your project without any extra delays. If you draw an Arnold vs Corona Renderer comparison, you’ll notice that the latter doesn’t have as many scene lighting options. The software lets you turn the visibility on and off or enable/disable reflections but you can’t adjust the effect’s intensity.

True 3D volume materials. The software’s Volume Material has an “Inside Volume” feature for designing true 3D volumetric materials. For instance, if you create a 3D noise map, you can add fog that has different density levels across the 3D scene. When paired with the Corona Distance map, there’s no limit to how many realistic effects you can achieve.

Supports most Phoenix FD functions. Corona supports most features included in Phoenix FD, allowing you to run its simulations straight from 3D sculpting software like 3ds Max. Both 3ds Max and Cinema 4D allow you to load and render industry-accepted OpenVBD assets by employing the Corona Volume Grid object, enabling users to utilize simulation results imported from Blender, Houdini, Phoenix FD, and other software.

Can only be used in 3ds Max or Cinema 4D.

Both programs can be tested for free. After the free trial expires, you can purchase Arnold for $45/month or $360/year. Meanwhile, CoronaRenderer costs $289.99 a year.

The winner in the Arnold vs Corona Renderer battle depends on your skillset and tasks. If you work with visual effects and frequently use third-party plugins, then Arnold is the better option. It comes with features like Cryptomatte, instance ray tracing, and special shaders while being better suited for rendering large scenes. It also offers smooth performance and doesn’t suffer from random crashes.

If you do most of your work with still images, you should go with Corona. While the software doesn’t have presets like in Arnold, it comes with a material library and offers support for most C4D native shaders. Besides, this option includes a terrific denoiser feature and a fantastic light mixer. Finally, Corona allows you to save your project in its proprietary format and continue working on them later.