Which render engine
for your scene?

These recommendations come from fifteen years of 3D films for luxury houses, fragrance, jewellery, watchmaking, beauty. The score always starts from the material (what the physics of the scene demands), then adjusts to production: still or animated shot, deadline, output resolution and available hardware. Speeds are relative and qualitative: they depend too much on the scene to be quoted honestly as numbers.

• Karma XPUHoudini’s engine, hybrid CPU + GPU, declared production-ready since Houdini 20. Relevant when simulation (fluids, volumes) and rendering live in the same Houdini pipeline.
• CyclesBlender’s path tracer, CPU and GPU. A solid option for studios producing in Blender.
• Unreal Engine · Path TracerUnreal’s path tracer, considered production-ready since Unreal Engine 5.5. Interesting for sets and environments, to be validated case by case on luxury’s most demanding materials.