Monday, November 2nd, 2020 Posted by Jim Thacker

Eye candy: Chaos Group’s 2020 V-Ray showreel


Chaos Group has posted its 2020 V-Ray showreel: a three-minute compilation of the best new visual effects and animation work created using the production renderer for 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D and Houdini.

Below, we’ve picked out some of the highlights, with links to technical breakdowns of the projects.



See VFX breakdowns of the best movies and TV series created using V-Ray
Although the reel spans a range of formats, the most universally recognisable moments are those from movies and TV series – as in previous years, many of them contributed by Scanline VFX.

The studio regularly posts breakdowns of its work on its Vimeo channel, like the ones deconstructing Captain Marvel’s energy effects and Spider-Man: Far From Home’s fluid simulations (embedded above).

Mackevision also makes regular appearances on V-Ray showreels, and also creates great technical breakdowns of its work, like this one for Season 2 of Netflix’s Lost in Space.

And it’s nice to see the work of Bulgarian effects studio Bottleship VFX – headquartered just down the road from Chaos Group itself – featured again, for its work on Chinese sci-fi epic Shanghai Fortress.

While the movie itself may be less familiar to Western audiences, the effects are spectacular: Bottleship’s making-of video made our list of the 10 best VFX and animation breakdowns of 2019.



Fewer breakdowns for the commercials featured, but you can see the full projects online
Of the short-form work featured on the reel, Ixor VFX has one of the best making-ofs in the shape of this breakdown of its complex fluid simulation from an ad for Shell’s Helix motor oil.

Sadly, we aren’t aware of tech breakdowns for the more stylised animations featured on the reel, but you can at least see the full projects on the Vimeo channels of the studios responsible.

Some of the most colourful come from US studio Buck, Amsterdam’s Ambassadors, and Brazil’s Vetor Zero.

And if you’re wondering why there is no architectural visualization work – one of V-Ray’s main user groups – Chaos Group has a separate arch viz reel, although it hasn’t been updated this year.

Read more about V-Ray on Chaos Group’s website


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