AUTODESK ARNOLD

🎯 Who is it suitable for

Arnold is designed for:

• VFX and CGI Artists working in cinema, TV, advertising and games

• Animation studios that need reliable and scalable renders

• Architectural and industrial visualizers for complex scenes and realistic settings

• 3D Freelancers looking for a professional renderer integrated into major modeling software

🧩 Main features

🌐 Physically accurate rendering (PBR)

Arnold simulates the behavior of light in the real world, offering consistent, realistic and balanced results. It supports effects such as reflections, refractions, soft shadows, light scattering, subsurface scattering and caustics.

💡 Advanced lighting

Includes a wide range of physically correct lights (area, point, spot, distant, mesh light, photometric) and supports HDRI sky domes, environmental textures and light portals for realistic management of global illumination.

🧱 Customizable materials and shaders

Arnold offers a very flexible and powerful node-based shading system, compatible with the OSL (Open Shading Language). It supports standard shaders such as Standard Surface and toon shading for stylized results.

🔁 Real-time interactivity

Thanks to the IPR (Interactive Preview Render), artists can see real-time changes to lighting, materials and framing without having to wait for long rendering times.

🧪 Support for complex and procedural geometries

Arnold easily handles millions of polygons, displacement, hair/fur, particles, volumes and instances, ensuring high performance even with very heavy scenes.

🔥 Volumetric rendering

Advanced capabilities for rendering fog, smoke, fire and volumetric liquids, with the ability to integrate data from physical simulations (OpenVDB).

🎞️ Deep EXR and AOV

Support for multilayer rendering with advanced outputs (AOVs – Arbitrary Output Variables) for flexible and professional compositing.

📦 Integration with 3D software

Arnold is integrated or available as a plugin (MtoA, C4DtoA, HtoA, KtoA, MAXtoA) for major modeling and animation tools:

• Autodesk Maya

• Autodesk 3ds Max

• Houdini

• Cinema 4D

• Katana

🧠 GPU and CPU rendering

Arnold supports hybrid rendering on both CPU and GPU (via NVIDIA RTX), allowing a perfect balance between quality and speed. The switch between the two engines is simple and maintains consistency in the results.

💻 Compatibility and system requirements

🖥️ Supported operating systems:

• Windows 10 and 11 (64 bit)

• Linux (various compatible distributions, including CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora)

• macOS Monterey and higher (CPU rendering only)

⚠️ GPU rendering is supported only on Windows and Linux, with CUDA compatible NVIDIA cards (RTX series recommended).

🧠 Recommended hardware requirements:

• Processor: Multi-core Intel® or AMD with SSE4.1 support

• RAM: Minimum 16 GB (32 GB or more recommended for complex scenes)

• Video card (for GPU rendering): NVIDIA RTX with at least 8 GB VRAM, CUDA 11+ support

• Disk space: SSD with at least 10 GB free for installation and cache

• Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher

🌐 Internet connection required for license activation and updates.

🧰 What is included

• Native plugins for Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Cinema 4D and Katana

• Node-based shading system, OSL support and standard PBR materials

• CPU and GPU rendering, with the possibility of dynamic switching

• Interactive rendering engine (IPR)

• Tools for volumetric and fluid rendering

• Advanced management of AOVs and compositing pass

• Support for HDRI images, high dynamic range textures and OpenVDB files

• Distributed rendering and resource management via Arnold License Manager

✨ Why choose Autodesk Arnold

Arnold represents the perfect balance between power, visual quality and creative control. It is designed to tackle the challenges of modern production, providing accurate and scalable renders even for the most complex scenes. Its user-friendly interface, combined with advanced features, makes it an indispensable tool for professionals who demand the utmost in terms of quality and realism.

Whether it's a cinematic animation, a product advertisement or an architectural visualization, Arnold guarantees professional, consistent results ready for post-production.