Instead, Maxon is banking on Redshift as their future in rendering. Pro Render has been dropped from Cinema 4D as of version R23 and the native Physical Renderer is no longer being developed. Is it purely speed? Versatility? The look it delivers? Stability? There are so many criteria to consider, I suggest making your own pro-con list and see which one rises to the top. I encourage you to map out what you value in a renderer.

You need to do your homework, download the trial versions of all three and take them for a test drive. As always, things change, so check back here once in a while if you keep tabs on what I’m using in my daily workflow. I was really hoping their purchase by Maxon would have led to tighter integration, but it hasn’t. Redshift has fallen out of favor a bit for me. The stability improvements Otoy has made since 2020.2 have me back on the Octane train. Since the last time I updated this article, I’ve switched to mostly an Arnold GPU + Octane workflow.

UPDATE: For those who have read this article in the past, you may have noticed a big change here. There is a full breakdown of my thoughts below if you really want to dig in. Octane is fast as hell and looks gorgeous (especially with an ACES workflow). Arnold is versatile, rock-solid, feature-packed and creates photoreal images with ease. So What’s the deal, Chad? What should I use? Well, I recommend to everyone the same two I use on a daily basis. Below you’ll hear my thoughts on what I consider the big three render engines, Arnold, Octane, and Redshift. So, I recently collected all my thoughts and decided to update my ideas on rendering in Cinema 4D (my favorite 3D application). I’ve been doing 3D professionally for over twenty-five years, built pipelines, ran jobs (large and small), creative directed at several award-winning studios, and during that time, I’ve used MANY different render engines. “What renderer should I use? Which one do you like the best?” Ok, so here’s my answer… It’s the number one question artists ask me.

C4d render farm