With the release date of commercial Corona version approaching, one thing was absolutely obvious: the need for a new website. We have been preparing the website for quite some time now. Sorry for letting you wait for so long, but we hope that it was worth it!
All posts by Adam Hotový
Alpha v7.2
Calm down your horses. This is NOT the final version. This is basically the re-branded version Alpha 7.1 but with one significant difference – it will work after 31.12.2014 till the end of February 2015. Go get it now.
Simply said – It is completely the same as Alpha 7.1, but you can use after New Year for two more months! This version was released due to the version 1.0 delay.
Fact sheet and list of changes of Alpha 7.2 for 3ds max:
- Extended period of use – It will work until 28.2.2015
- Same feature set as Alpha 7.1
- 100% compatibility with Alpha 7.1
- You can combine Alpha7.1 with Alpha7.2 in DR/backburner/renderfams without a problem.
- Uses our new logo
- Nothing else
Download
You can download the new version here: https://download.corona-renderer.com/a7.2.zip
Adam & Ondra
Corona Renderer – Project Update
Development Delay
Bad things first, so let’s jump straight into it without sweet talk.
We are aware that you all expecting the release of Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3ds max during November, but I have the sad obligation of telling you that it will not happen. There are some delays in non-application related things we have to deal with before the release.
We still aim to release Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3dsmax as soon as possible – so keep your fingers crossed for the beginning of January 2015.
We are really sorry about this, but delays seem to be almost inevitable in all software development. When we were forced to decide what to do, we chose postponing the release a bit, rather then releasing something that is not quite ready.
Making of: Barts Square project by The Boundary in collaboration with Iain Banks
Another great making of, this time from our friends from The Boundary in collaboration with Iain Banks. It was written by Henry Goss, who is the founder of The Boundary together with Peter Guthrie. The studio is based in London and specializes in high end visualizations.
Making of: Barts Square project
The Boundary, working in collaboration with Iain Banks was provided a unique opportunity with the Barts Square project (click for gallery) to challenge our usual work flow and test something new. Our typical workflow involves modelling in Sketchup, exporting to 3ds max, rendering with Vray 3.0 and post production in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.
Ever keen to embrace new technologies, both Iain Banks and The Boundary have been experimenting with Corona Renderer for some time but had not found a project suitable for testing it in a commercial ‘real world’ setting. Barts Square seems the perfect project being largely interior shots a large number of images and a good time scale allowing for experimentation.
Continue reading Making of: Barts Square project by The Boundary in collaboration with Iain Banks
Version 1.0 Sneak Peek: Interactive Rendering
As version 1.0 for 3dsmax is behind the corner, we have decided to post a series of articles showing new functions & features which you can expect.
I have prepared a longer video showing Interactive capabilities of Corona Renderer in combination with our CoronaScatter (old version) which comes for free with the renderer.
The video shows two demo scenes. First one is the all-time favorite demo for GPU renderers – a car lit with HDRi, but I decided to do it with a little spin. The second one is a more realistic scenario which you will encounter in archviz – non-proxied vegetation which uses opacity maps, the multitexture plugin in diffuse, translucency, and bump mapping.
The car scene was kindly provided by Ludvík Koutný, and the tree model by Juraj Talcik from TD Visual.
Videos
Corona Interactive + Scatter
Bonus video: turning it up to 11: Corona Interactive – extreme polycount test (5.5 Trillion polygons)
Corona Interactive Facts
- Runs on CPU (No special HW needed)
- Shares over 99.9% of code with standard Corona Renderer (ie. same render engine)
- Same results as the final frame rendering (What you see is what you get )
- Same set of features as standard Corona Renderer (geometry, proxies, motion blur, dof…)
- All 3ds max maps and 3rd party maps are supported
- Truly interactive (Change materials, lights, geometry while rendering, no need to restart interactive mode)
- It is bundled for FREE!
Hardware Used in Demo
First video – intel i7 4930k 3.4Ghz, 32GB RAM
Second video – intel i7 2600k – 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM
Let us know what you think.
Adam & Ondra
Discussion about Prices & Licence Politics II.
Discussion benefits everyone
First, thanks a lot for all your responses, suggestions, opinions & messages – good spirited and even not-that-positive ones. They both count as they show us different views. Since some points we made in the original article were not clear, there was some confusion and questions we want now to clear out.
This follow up article tries to explain some points better and answer you all questions where we know the answer (there are some questions where we ourselves do not have the answer yet, however our intentions and visions are crystal clear).
Also we have decided to change couple of things based on your suggestions. We try to be as fair and transparent as possible.
I have decided to write this blog post in Q&A fashion. Most of the questions were raised by you. Also some facts and topics we did not cover in the first article are published in this one.
Make yourself a tea or coffee and enjoy the long blog post.
Continue reading Discussion about Prices & Licence Politics II.
Prices & Release Date of Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3dsmax
Thanks to a discussion with Corona Renderer users, we have decided to adjust some of the things in this article. Please read follow-up article here.
Prices & Licensing
One of the most complicated topics which we have encountered yet. We are talking about this for the second time. This time we have much clearer image, but still it is a big step into the unknown. We have done our research, calculated costs of future development, compared licensing options, exchanged numerous emails, made countless hours on skype and killed couple of hours on meetings regarding this topic. You can read the results below.
Continue reading Prices & Release Date of Corona Renderer 1.0 for 3dsmax
SOA Academy Day #5
State Of Art Academy Day #5
Friendship
Friendship. That is probably the best word to describe this event. That was something what was clearly visible everywhere you looked. And I had the opportunity to experience it twice as a speaker. During Academy Day #3 as an lecturing artist and this year as “representative” of our Corona Renderer. But main part of Corona presentation was done by the creative duo from TD-Visual – Juraj Talčík & Veronika Demovičová.
Without their extensive help, expertise and superb works our Corona presentation would not be possible. So I would like to express my thanks once again here. Díky moc!
For those of you do not know what SOA Academy Day is, I will use the official line:
“A two day workshop for professionals and passionate architectural visualization artists.”
But for me it was more about meeting people, friends, “converting” virtual friends to real ones and meeting new and old Coronauts:) It was simply amazing experience as always.
Corona Alpha1 for Cinema4D is out!
Cinema 4D here we go!
First public build of Corona Renderer for Cinema 4D is here and we would like to give a warm welcome to new Cinema Coronauts.
If you cannot wait any longer, the latest official releases can be found on our download page, but I would still recommend you to read this article carefully anyway, so you will know everything about this build, installation, features and limitations.
3D World CG AWARDS 2014
And unexpected becomes reality… We have been nominated for 3D WORLD CG AWARDS 2014 in sub-category “New Application“ in “Technology Awards” section.
That is a BIG THING for us. Whatever the final outcome will be, we are very happy that we made it that far.
But none of that would be possible without you – users, forum moderators, scripters, plug-in developers, bloggers, alpha testers, content creators and all the people who helped us to get this nomination. We want to say big & fat Thank you!
If you feel like pushing us even more to the limelight of the reflectors and you do like what we do, support us by voting for us in this round. And who knows, you might send us to the final round where jury will decide the winner.
Thank you Coronauts!
Adam