Blender is an incredible tool for creating 3D scenes and visuals for use in all sorts of projects.
Over the years I have found this software to be one of the best creative tools for both of my studios; Sensebellum and Lumenarius.
However, it takes A LONG TIME TO RENDER… It is common for each frame to take many minutes with even the fastest computer. Now imagine you need 1,800 frames rendered for a 60 second video at 4K resolution and it could easily take days or weeks.
A good solution is to use the cloud! I.e. someone else’s computer!
In the past I have used Concierge Render but they have gone out of business since a merger and acquisition.
All I am looking for is a simple and easy to use platform with the following criteria:
Easy Upload. No FTP or weird client apps or buggy plugins. Simple!
Dashboard is Clear. Was it uploaded right? Where are my files? What is it costing? What is the progress?
Straightforward Pricing. I want to think of things in terms of dollars per frame. Hopefully cents. I don’t want to convert render hours to bespoke credits and then back to dollars.
Ability to Edit. Frame range, resolution, samples, noise threshold, etc. Having to re-upload each time to simply change what frames being rendered is a mess.
Plugins. Things like FlipFluids and ProceduralCrowds are a great feature!
Customer Support. Sometimes help is needed. English as a first language is essential.
For these tests I am using x2 files I have prepared. An easy file and a hard file. These represent most of the projects I am using.
Below you can see the final result of the files when rendered correctly.
Easy Render - 1920 x 1920
Hard Render - 3840 x 2160
To truly see which service is the best I ran through the top 12 services available online and have ranked them below.
Each has a few notes on the criteria I was looking for as well as a general score.
1) GarageFarm.NET
Score: 9/10
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Per Frame, Credits, Tiered
Edits: Everything!
Easy Frame Costs: $0.06 / 1:00 m
Hard Frame Costs: $0.16 / 4:09 m
Plugins: FlipFluids + Many
Pros: Great support, clean interface, many details, excellent pricing.
Cons: None!
2) RenderStreet
Score: 8/10
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: On Demand GPU or Monthly CPU
Edits: Frame Range, Resolution, Noise, Samples
Easy Frame Costs: $0.21 / 2:52 m
Hard Frame Costs: $0.57 / 7:40 m
Plugins: FlipFluids
Pros: Very simple and easy to use. Good support.
Cons: More expensive. 15 minute limit on render time. Pay to upgrade.
3) ConductorTech
Score: 6/10
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Time Based
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: $0.03 / 1:00 m
Hard Frame Costs: $0.12 / 3:47 m
Plugins: N/A
Pros: Active support. Fair pricing. Used to be ConciergeRender.
Cons: 3 different apps and plugins to manage while using. Unable to change anything related to frames, resolution, samples, etc; need to re-upload each time!
4) DropAndRender
Score: 4/10
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Unclear
Edits: Frame Range
Easy Frame Costs: $0.22 / 0:33 m
Hard Frame Costs: $9.66 / 5:51 m
Plugins: N/A
Pros: Quick support.
Cons: $9 for a single frame?!?! Involves 3 apps you need to use in conjunction. Confusing and hard to setup.
5) CloudRender.Farm
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: No
Pricing: Unclear
Edits: Frame Range
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: Unable to get to work. Support was semi-active.
Cons: Too simple of an interface. Cannot access downloads without submitting new render. When you do download you only get a broken .html file with an error.
6) Rentaflop
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: No
Pricing: Per Frame
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: $0.04 / 3:00 m
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: Unable to receive render credits. Broken links on website. Final render contained only 3 out of 100 frames...
7) BlenderGrid
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: No
Pricing: Per Frame
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: Simple?
Cons: Easy file never stopped “analyzing” so I have no idea if it works or not. No support.
8) FoxRender
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Render Credits
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: Sketchy FTP file uploader which gave errors on install. Only CPU rendering.
9) HelioRender
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work without payment)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Render Credits
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: Unable to redeem trial credits without providing payment first.
10) iRender
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: Yes
Pricing: Render Credits
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: Installer does not work. They used an installer helper on a trial period. Needed for access to service.
11) RanchComputing
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: No
Pricing: N/A
Edits: None!
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: Need to convert to bespoke file format before upload. Converter only works on Windows.
12) SuperRendersFarm
Score: 1/10 (Doesn’t work)
Dashboard: Yes
Desktop App: No
Pricing: Credits, Tiered
Edits: Frame Range
Easy Frame Costs: N/A
Hard Frame Costs: N/A
Plugins: N/A
Pros: None.
Cons: File never stopped analyzing.