I'm struggling to find the right fit in a renderer right now. I've started to do more animation, and as such, need a solution with some speed.
I started with Mantra, naturally, and it's still my favorite for flexibility. But speed is lacking, especially when dealing with complicated lighting scenarios - lot's of refraction, SSS, etc.
For a short while I was using Octane, but I ran into memory issues a couple times, and I found that very frustrating.
Currently I'm using Arnold, which seems on average to be a bit zippier than Mantra (though you lose flexibility.) There's a pretty good deal with Gridmarkets which alows you to render without the need for purchasing your own license. So far this has worked well, but on slower renders it starts to get a bit pricey.
I haven't tried Redshift, but from what I've read it doesn't have the memory limitations of Octane, which makes it rather attractive.
What are your experiences/recommendations?
