MAXON Acquires Redshift Rendering Technologies

Maxon this week has announced it has acquired Redshift Rendering Technologies, Inc., developers of the Redshift rendering engine. Redshift’s market claim is it is the world’s first 100 percent GPU biased renderer, built to meet the specific demands of the current market for high-end production.

Redshift offers an extensive suite of features that make rendering complicated 3D projects remarkably faster than traditional rendering solutions. Redshift is available as a plugin for Maxon’s award-winning Cinema 4D and other industry-standard 3D applications.

“Rendering can be the most time-consuming and demanding aspect of 3D content creation,” said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. “Redshift’s speed and efficiency combined with Cinema 4D’s responsive workflow make it a perfect match for our portfolio.”

01 – Redshift has joined the Maxon family.

“We’ve always admired Maxon and the Cinema 4D community, and are thrilled to be a part of it,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, Co-founder and CEO, Redshift Rendering Technologies. “We are looking forward to working closely with Maxon, collaborating on [the] seamless integration of Redshift into Cinema 4D and continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible with production-ready GPU rendering.”

Redshift has made a name for itself as an indispensable rendering solution for respected companies like Technicolor, Digital Domain, Encore Hollywood and Blizzard. Noteworthy projects where Redshift has been employed for VFX and motion graphics include Black Panther, Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Rampage, American Gods, Gotham, The Expanse, and more.

For more detailed information and a FAQ, visit the Maxon site. There is also an excellent Q&A page here on Maxon about the Redshift acquisition and what it means for each company.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

When it comes to GPU renderers here on Architosh we think of Octane from OTOY, among others. However, many GPU renderers are only “unbiased” renderers, sometimes referred to as physically accurate renderers. A basic primer on the mathematics of “unbiased” renderers can be found in this Wiki article, but the Chaos Group goes a bit deeper in “The Truth About Unbiased Rendering,” an article coming from a company that makes arguably the most popular renderer which happens to be of the biased type. 

While the debate about what type of renderer is better (ie: biased vs unbiased) or if an unbiased renderer is ever truly physically accurate, can rage on for eternity, one thing is not debatable and that is that GPUs have been offering speed advantages for years in the rendering world. Since Redshift claims that it is the first biased GPU renderer, one can surmise that all other GPU renderers before Redshift have tended towards unbiased rendering. If you are a long-time Architosh reader you will call our OTOY articles from many years back talking about its unbiased GPU rendering. 

Redshift, founded in 2012, is based in sunny Newport Beach, California. Its founders at one time all worked at Double Helix Games (now Amazon Games), with Nicolas Burtnyk beginning his career inside the well-regarded research group at Alias (now Autodesk). Richard Kerris, instrumental to bringing Maya to the Mac, was also at Alias before heading to Apple. While the company is young, the founders are vets with deep experience. 

This Maxon acquisition looks like a very strategic move for the German 3D software company. While rendering speed has always been an important metric, in the new era of immersive (VR/AR) and interactive rendering (eg: Lumion, Twinmotion) speed is even more critical. Gone are the days when a viz team in a prestigious architecture firm is going to wait around forever for a drop-dead gorgeous rendering as its tour de force component of a critical client presentation. There are just too many other exciting methods today to get design concepts in front of clients. Read our latest feature on NBBJ’s incubated startup Visual Vocal, for example. 

Given Maxon’s role amongst the AEC and BIM-centric Nemetschek Group, Redshift’s technologies will factor in nicely, particularly for Nemetschek Group software apps that run best with powerful GPU setups.