Angie is a state-of-the-art hybrid CPU and GPU renderer for Clarisse users from Isotropix. It allows user to render on CPU, GPU, or both combined, Angie has simplified controls to remove complexity, is OSL and MaterialX-ready, and has been built from the ground up to maximize render performance.
Isotropix was founded in 2011. For the past decade, the company has been streamlining workflows of CG Artists working in studios such as DNEG, Industrial Light & Magic, WETA Digital and Dreamworks Animation. First released in 2012, Clarisse has been key in the creation of over 200 feature films and television series, including three Academy Awards for Blade Runner 2049, First Man and the just recently awarded Tenet.
The early access release of Clarisse 5.5 with its new renderer, Angie has just been announced. Developed to integrate into Clarisse’s interactive CG workflow, Angie lets users render on a CPU, GPU, or both combined. Anyone with a Clarisse license, including Personal Learning Edition (PLE) and trial licenses, can download the early access build of Clarisse 5.5.
Angie adds an additional powerful rendering solution to Clarisse, enabling CPU and GPU final rendering based on NVIDIA OptiX hardware-accelerated ray tracing. It can work in tandem with or in place of the classic Clarisse renderer, which will remain part of the software. Angie’s use of hybrid rendering advances, along with its simplified controls, gives users at every level fast, easy access to maximum rendering performance, that is consistent when rendering on either a CPU or GPU.
“Clarisse is well known for the speed and interactivity of its state-of-the-art CPU rendering engine,” said Sam Assadian, CEO of Isotropix. “But Angie is a revolution. The CPU can render images on average twice as fast as the classic Clarisse renderer. While on a high-end laptop the GPU is on average six times faster than the CPU, making it twelve times faster than the classic Clarisse renderer. For indies and small studios, Angie puts the power of a small render farm immediately at hand.”
Isotropix continues its commitment to VFX standards compliance with Angie, adding full support for Open Shading Language (OSL) to make Clarisse more open and highly customizable, which is especially helpful to users developing custom shaders. Angie also adds support for MaterialX, a technology created by LucasFilms, that gives users the freedom to easily import and export look development out of Clarisse.
“At Isotropix we were one of the first to integrate open-source technologies like Alembic and USD. Now, we’re embracing MaterialX, a game changer for our industry. And we chose to rely on OSL to support it in Angie, not only for its amazing CPU and GPU performance, but also for the freedom OSL can bring to our clients,” said Sebastien Guichou, CTO and co-founder of Isotropix.
Angie also takes Clarisse users one step closer to working in real-time with a new Previz render mode that renders on a GPU up to 20 times faster than a CPU. Along with the NVIDIA OptiX denoiser, this delivers real-time, photorealistic feedback, taking set dressing, lookdev, previz and art direction of production-ready environments to the next level.
“We have been working closely with Isotropix to bring GPU rendering to Clarisse for some time, and firmly believe that Angie represents a big step towards real-time, final-pixel rendering technology,” said John Ison, director of media and entertainment partnerships at NVIDIA. “Now, with the additional power of the GPU, it has never been easier for so many different types of users to reach this level of photorealism, in near real-time, as they can with Clarisse and Angie.”
