Flaneer

As a 3D artist, your time in the studio is precious. Demand for quality work is at an all time high and the workload can be overwhelming. As such, you’ll find yourself using more polygons and spending much more time rendering scenes. This means your GPU or CPU use will go up, translating into more costs. Fortunately, you can save on both costs and time by outsourcing an online render farm solution.

The need for improved prices and time-saving rendering services brought about online rendering farms. All you need to know is how to choose the perfect one for your needs.

In this article, we define an online rendering farm, discuss its worth, what to consider when choosing one, and the top 10 cloud-based render farms you can utilize for your studio today.

‍

What is an Online Render Farm?

An online render farm is a cloud-based service that allows you to render scenes online. They aim to take the hard and heavy tasks of 3D rendering away from your computer.

Your personal computer will take days to render your work and will deliver low quality. Additionally, when rendering on your computer, the high processing power required will make it impossible for you to do anything else. Online rendering farms rely on the high computing power of thousands of CPUs and GPUs to deliver high-quality images and animations in minutes.

So, why is this so important to an artist?

‍

Why Using an Online Render Farm is Worth it

Is an online render farm ideal for you? To answer this, you must first look at the advantages of using an online render farm.

‍

Scale Up Rendering Capacity

If you are a freelancer, you might stay away from large projects due to low computing power. An online render farm provides you with enough computing power for large projects.

You’ll work on your projects in low resolutions and use an online render farm to render them in high resolution. They also provide noise-free quality.

You’ll take up big projects knowing you can deliver quality in a short period. You also avoid a backlog of unrendered work.

‍

Reduced Expenditure

Owning a render farm can be a costly affair. You’ll need powerful hardware to render your projects, which will require funds.

You’ll have to buy expensive hardware, cater for maintenance and support services, update the system and settle high electricity bills. You can avoid this by using the services of an online render farm, where you don’t have to worry about any of these.

‍

Early Project Delivery

One of the biggest concerns for small businesses and entrepreneurs when picking a project is time. The bigger the project, the more rendering you need and, as a result, more time finishing a project. For someone who has spent hours modeling and designing, the wait can be tormenting. Additionally, your customers will have a delivery deadline that you must meet.

You can deliver your content effectively on time with a cloud-based render farm. The high computing power works fast and produces quality work in minutes or hours. Your personal computer would complete the task in days.

Without a doubt, online render farms have advantages. But what are the signs that using them is beneficial to you?

You can choose to outsource your rendering functions if:

You have a fast-approaching deadline
If you lack the resources(time and money) to buy and maintain render hardware
Your projects are too big for your hardware, or you rarely need a render farm

‍

What to Consider When Choosing an Online Render Farm

Now that you know an online render farm is good for you, how do you pick the best? There are different things to consider when finding the best render farm. However, they’ll vary depending on the project and needs.

Here are the top things to consider when looking for the best render farm.

‍

Computing Power

You are outsourcing your scene rendering because you don’t have the computing power to finish the project in time. Thus, you need to ensure the online render farm has the right hardware.

Here are some of the things to check:

Type of processor
Graphic cards
Number of cores used

A platform with more powerful hardware guarantees quality work within minutes.

‍

Ease of Use and Support

You are trying to save time with an online render farm. Thus, you’ll need one that is easy to understand and navigate to finish your projects on time. So go for a service provider that has a user-friendly interface.

Additionally, check the kind of support they offer. For example, a good online render farm should be available to provide any help on problems when they occur.

‍

Software Compatibility

Cloud render farms support specific modeling software. While they support some of the leading software like Blender, Maya, Corona Render, V-Ray, and Octane, not all versions and plugins are compatible.

You have to ensure the service you choose supports the software version and plugins you use.

‍

Price

The work’s weight and value determine the render farm you need. If you are a small business or hobbyist, you may want a render farm that offers the lowest prices.

‍

Availability

A render farm has a finite number of machines to rent. If you are in a hurry, you are more likely to choose a render farm with a high number of machines and a high availability rate.

‍

IaaS vs. SaaS

IaaS(Infrastructure-as-a-Service) render farms give you full control of the remote servers. You’ll install your preferred software to ease your work. They are usually ideal if you have large projects with good financing.

‍

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) render farms offer a platform to upload your scene, set the parameters and run it. However, you’ll not be able to identify a problem until the rendering is over. They are ideal for small projects and hobbyists who don’t need control over the process.

‍

Top 10 Cloud Render Farms

Artists and motion designers are spoilt for choice when it comes to online rendering farms. The need has given rise to hundreds of providers providing render services at different prices, simplicity, and features. Below we discuss our top 10 Online Render Farms.

‍

Rebus Render Farm

Rebus farm is the perfect cloud render farm for someone in need of high capacity for data rendering. In addition, their XEON CPUs support most of the major 3D software and systems.

Rebus provides services based on SaaS, where you submit your scenes through a plugin from your software and let the system run. It also provides CPU and GPU rendering, where the former operates with AMD’s Thread Ripper 3970X and NVIDIA’s Quadro RTX 6000 for the latter.

‍Price: 0,014 $ per GHz and 0,011 $ per OBh

Power: Cinebench of 4.7 Mio and octanebench of 26.259

‍

Concierge Render

If you are looking for a lowly-priced online render farm, Concierge Render is perfect for you. It is an easy-to-use system that allows you to upload scenes for rendering from any device with the internet and a browser. You’ll leverage zero queues and wait times with generous bulk purchase discounts. You’ll also access free render previewing and an array of render quality options.

The downside to Concierge Render is that it is exclusive to three software; Blender, Cinema 4D, and Redshift users. It means the users of the other hundreds of 3D software can’t use the online render farm.

Price: $ 0.50 GPU/Hour

Power: 45,000 GPUs

‍

iRender Farm

iRender Farm is one of the best online render farms with very powerful GPU and CPU hardware. The system manages heavy tasks for large companies and has a simple-to-understand and use interface.

The cloud-based render service is based on IaaS and is accessed through Remote Desktop Applications. You’ll install your software on their servers, and you are ready to start. The pricing is low, and you’ll access customer service in a few clicks. Additionally, they support most of the major 3D software.

The only downside is that it doesn’t offer SaaS services.

Price: $0.75 per node/hour

Power: CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2673 v3 | GPU: RTX 3090/ RTX 3080 / GTX 1080 Ti cards/ RTX 2080 Ti | RAM: 128GB

‍

Flaneer Render Farms are the perfect cloud render farm solution, and make Flaneer a fully fledged studio in the cloud. Work on your assets in your Flaneer Virtual Workstation, and submit your scenes and work to its render farm with a built in plugin. Manage your queue, the power you want, and vizualize your results, all in one place.

Flaneer provides both CPU and GPU rendering with second generation 3.3 GHz AMD EPYC processors and NVIDIA A10G Tensor Core GPU, and is compatible with Redshift, Yeti, Nuke, Maya, Keyshot, Houdini and Cinema 4D.

Price: Starts at $0.043/hour per CPU core and $1.123/h per GPU

‍

Render Rocket

Render Rocket has a lot to offer, especially for artists and designers with limited funds. The online render farm offers users quick unlimited previews and free storage, allowing them to work faster and correct mistakes. The users can then concentrate on design and presentation.

‍

The leading render service provider offers averagely low prices and supports much 3D software. It recently joined the list of Cinema 4D renderers.

‍

Price: $0.70 per core/hour

Power: Over 100 Eight Core Servers of capacity

Fox Render

Fox Render is a Saas cloud render service that operates in more than 55 countries. It allows you to submit your work to be rendered through any device with a browser or using plugins from your software.

You’ll use plugins from various design software, with the leading being 3Dsmax, Maya, Houdini, Blender, and C4D. It also provides detailed documentation and tutorials to guide you on how to use the online rendering service.

Fox Render also gives reasonable pricing, and a $25 render credit to gauge their services after registration.

Price: 0.06$/core/hour for CPU and 2$/node/hour for GPU.

Power: Cores per node: 16 cores/ GPUs per node: 2/ Number of Nodes: 6000.

‍

AnimaRender

If you use different designing software, AnimaRender will give you the best service options. The online render farm provides CPU and GPU services and supports Houdini, Blender, Cinema 4D, and Maya.

The service is simple to use with an easy-to-follow guide. All users need to do is upload their scenes, set the proper apparatus, and let it run. Additionally, it allows you to upload dump files, which are automatically deleted after ten working days.

AnimaRender offers 24/7 support with experts ready to help you solve any problems. However, they are the cheapest in the market.

Power: CPU: 2 Xeon E5-2670 v2, 2.6GHz, 8 cores/ GPU: 8x GTX 1080 and 5x GTX 1080Ti/ RTX 2080Ti/ Number of Nodes: 500/ RAM per node: 64 – 128 GB.

‍

Garage Farm

Garage Farm offers CPU and GPU rendering services at low prices. Designers and artists get access to various pricing options that fit their budgets. In addition, the user interface is easy to use and supports all available modeling software.

The software has reliable customer service channels opened 24/7 to ensure you have the most satisfying experience. It is most suitable for VFX, ArchViz scenes, and product visualization.

On the downside, they currently don’t support the popular Octane Render and Redshift.

Price: $0.0075/Ghz /hour | $0.00125 per OB hour.

Power: 20,000 CPU cores | 500,000 CUDA cores.

‍

RenderNation Farm

RenderNation is the perfect online render farm for anyone looking for quick, high-quality results. It ensures that designers and artists deliver their projects on time and satisfy customer demand. The service provider also supports a range of old and modern plugins meaning your options are wide.

Additionally, the cloud-based render service maintains an up-to-date blog that details developments in the rendering world. They also offer competitive prices, ideal for various budgets.

Price: $ 2.42/ Server/ Hour.

Power: 220 Intel Xeon 2.5 GHz.

‍

Ranch Computing

Ranch Computing offers services to large and small enterprises, designers, and artists. They offer ‘rent’ or ‘buy’ options to cater to those who want the services regularly and those with light rendering demands. Furthermore, they offer CPU and GPU services without explaining the type. They, however, provide the level of service quality they offer.

Finally, the cloud-based render farm supports most of the 3D designing software.

Price: Starting from $ 0.018 per GHz/Hour.

Power: CPU: 2 Xeon E5-2697A V4, 2.60 GHz, 16 cores/ Number of Nodes: 500/ RAM per node: 128 – 256 GB.

‍

Get the Best Out of an Online Render Farm

Rendering your 3D models shouldn’t involve long waiting hours. Instead, produce the highest quality projects and meet customer deadlines with a good online render farm. The trick is to know how to choose one that meets your needs. Check on the pricing, computing power, compatibility with your software, and customer care they offer before picking.

‍