Chaos has launched V-Ray for Blender Community Edition making its 3D renderer free for all Blender users.
“For years, Blender has been the great ambassador for our industry, an accessible entry point that gives people the confidence to become 3D artists,” said Vlado Koylazov, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation at Chaos. “With this free version, we want to actively support this vibrant community and all the important work being done by The Blender Foundation, so new artists can aim even higher.”
The Community Edition will be a “powerful foundation for portfolio building, 3D learning, online coursework, YouTube content and other small-scale personal and freelance projects, giving users everything they need to create stunning visuals. And while the free licenses are initially valid for three months, they can be renewed an unlimited number of times by taking a short survey.”
“Blender has continued to evolve and become an industry-standard piece of software, in part because of integrations of trusted render engines like V-Ray,” said James Tralie, Creative Director and Senior Producer at NASA. “V-Ray operates perfectly with my usual Blender workflow and makes it incredibly easy to add precise details, dial in lighting, and finalize my render effects. In true Blender fashion, the availability of a free version lowers the barrier of entry for this world-class software even more.”
While the Community Edition can handle most projects, it will not include certain features still reserved for teams and large-scale productions. Limitations include no pipeline integration tools or support, a cap on resolution and output quality, and no distributed rendering.
Jon Creamer
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