How To Unlock Blender's Cycles Full Power Using Render Network

Blender's Cycles is a popular and powerful path-tracing renderer known for producing highly realistic results with artistic control and flexible shading nodes for production needs. However, it has some downsides, most notably, slower render times compared to real-time engines like Eevee, especially when dealing with complex scenes. Cycles also places a heavy load on system resources, requiring strong hardware, and may not be ideal for fast iterations.

Fortunately, there are ways to keep your focus on creating and skip long wait times, even without a high-end PC. One such solution is to use the Render Network, which provides an affordable alternative to traditional rendering by linking artists to a worldwide network of idle GPUs, everyday computers whose owners earn rewards by sharing their hardware.

Earlier this year, after a six-month beta testing phase with experienced artists, the Render Network officially launched support for Cycles, bringing its high-performance GPU rendering to the leading open-source 3D ecosystem's beloved renderer. This milestone advances the democratization of 3D content creation with accessible, professional-grade tools, plus, the Render Network also joined the Blender Foundation as a Corporate Patron, strengthening its commitment to the community.

Why This Matters to Blender's Cycles Artists

The Render Network supports other industry-standard GPU renderers like OctaneRender and Redshift, allowing artists to continue working with the tools they're familiar with. It's a secure and scalable platform, trusted by thousands of professionals across film, music, and immersive experiences and used on projects such as Westworld and the 4K restoration of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Similarly, with support for Cycles, you can continue enjoying all its benefits while gaining access to high-performance decentralized GPUs. This lets you quickly render complex scenes, from 8K to 16K, with detailed geometry and advanced lighting. Also, it's cost-effective: you only pay for what you use, avoiding expensive hardware upgrades and ongoing maintenance.

Getting Started

Extensive documentation and educational materials for using Cycles with the Render Network are available in the Render Network Knowledge Base. Steven Scott from the Render Network team, who led the Cycles integration, has also created a 20-part video tutorial series that walks you through essential steps to optimize your Blender workflow on the platform.

One important point to note in today's age of digital subscriptions is that Blender artists don't need a subscription to access the Render Network. You can start using Cycles on the Render Network by clicking this link.

Here's a rough example of how it works: imagine you're working on some visualization. After finalizing your scene with realistic materials, HDRI lighting, and such, you go to the Render Portal to upload this Blender project file along with all linked assets to the Render Network. It's currently required for the .blend file to be compressed into a .zip format.

After selecting Blender and completing the processing, you click on Create New Job to access the rendering options and begin configuring your render settings. Once you've finalized your settings, you select your preferred output method and specify your Render Tier along with payment type.

While the job runs, you can monitor progress with a dedicated progress bar and get real-time updates. After completion, you can click on each frame to review and rerender if needed. Once you're happy with the results, Approve All Frames to download the full final render.

Why You Should Consider The Render Network Over Other Rendering Options

Traditional render farms are often costly and constrained by hardware limitations. The Render Network offers a decentralized approach that provides better flexibility, scalability, and affordability. Also, it shows its commitment to open-source tools and supporting artists by backing the Blender Foundation.

Check out the Knowledge Base for tutorials and workflow tips, and try rendering your next Cycles project on the Render Network.

New users get 50 euros in free credits to get started, which covers about 300 frames or 30 seconds of animation, depending on your project.