Surreal animated character with light rays

Beyond Pixar: How Modern Animation Studios are Reinventing Realism

Avery Sinclair in Tech & Innovation June 2025 • 3 min read.

"Discover the groundbreaking technologies that power today's most visually stunning animated films, and how they're pushing the boundaries of what's possible."

For years, Pixar set the gold standard for animation with its groundbreaking photorealistic rendering techniques. But the world of computer-generated animation and visual effects never stands still. Over the past decade, there's been a major shift in how studios approach production rendering, moving away from older methods like Reyes-based algorithms towards more physically-based systems rooted in path tracing.

What exactly does this mean? Instead of simply creating images that look good, studios are now striving for a level of realism that mimics how light and surfaces interact in the real world. This pursuit has led to the development of entirely new rendering systems designed to tackle the unique challenges of modern animation.

The good news is that some of the key players in the industry have recently published in-depth looks at the tech behind their films. In May 2018, ACM Transactions on Graphics released a special issue dedicated to the comprehensive systems papers from the developers of five of the most significant production renderers. In this article, we'll dive into the key takeaways, exploring how these advancements are shaping the future of visual storytelling.

The Path to Photorealism: Key Technologies and Techniques

Surreal animated character with light rays

At the heart of this revolution lies path tracing, a rendering technique that simulates the way light travels through a scene by tracing the paths of individual light rays. This approach allows for incredibly realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections, creating a level of visual fidelity that was once impossible.

Several studios are paving the way. This transition has led to the creation of sophisticated rendering systems, each with its own strengths and design philosophies. Here are some of the key renderers that are pushing the boundaries:

Arnold: Developed by Solid Angle and used on countless feature films, Arnold is known for its brute-force approach to path tracing, delivering exceptional image quality through raw computational power.
Hyperion: Walt Disney Animation Studios' Hyperion renderer is designed for artistic control, allowing animators to fine-tune the look of their films with incredible precision.
Manuka: Weta Digital's Manuka is focused on spectral path tracing, capturing the full spectrum of light for unparalleled realism and color accuracy.

While each renderer has its own unique features, they all share a few common foundations: path tracing, bounding volume hierarchies for ray intersection acceleration, support for various geometric primitives, and multi-threading capabilities for CPUs.

The Future of Rendering: What's Next?

As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more advancements in rendering techniques, like real time ray tracing, that are tailored for faster feedback and improved performance. Whether it's precomputation versus runtime computation, RGB versus spectral rendering, or out-of-core rendering versus requiring scene geometry to fit into memory, these choices will continue to shape the visual landscape of animation and visual effects.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1145/3209621.3214901, Alternate LINK

Title: Design And Implementation Of Modern Production Renderers

Journal: ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 Panels

Publisher: ACM

Authors: Matt Pharr, Brent Burley, Per Christensen, Marcos Fajardo, Luca Fascione, Christopher Kulla

Published: 2018-08-12

Everything You Need To Know

How are modern animation studios achieving greater realism compared to older techniques?

Modern animation studios are moving towards physically-based rendering systems rooted in path tracing. This approach simulates how light and surfaces interact in the real world, leading to more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections than older methods like Reyes-based algorithms. The shift allows studios to create visually stunning animated films with unprecedented realism.

What is path tracing, and how does it contribute to photorealistic rendering in animation?

Path tracing simulates the way light travels through a scene by tracing the paths of individual light rays. This technique allows for realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections. Bounding volume hierarchies accelerate ray intersection. Geometric primitives are supported, and multi-threading capabilities for CPUs are used for efficiency.

Can you describe the key features and design philosophies of rendering systems like Arnold, Hyperion and Manuka?

Arnold, developed by Solid Angle, is known for its brute-force approach to path tracing, delivering exceptional image quality through raw computational power. Hyperion, used by Walt Disney Animation Studios, allows animators to fine-tune the look of their films with incredible artistic control. Manuka, Weta Digital's renderer, focuses on spectral path tracing, capturing the full spectrum of light for unparalleled realism and color accuracy.

What does spectral path tracing offer in terms of visual accuracy compared to traditional RGB rendering, and which renderers use it?

Spectral path tracing, used by Weta Digital's Manuka renderer, captures the full spectrum of light, not just the RGB components. This approach results in more accurate and realistic color representation compared to traditional RGB rendering. RGB rendering is an older method to Spectral rendering.

What future advancements in rendering techniques might we expect to see, and how could choices like precomputation versus runtime computation impact the field?

Future advancements in rendering techniques may include improvements to real-time ray tracing, which would enable faster feedback and improved performance during the animation process. The choices made between precomputation versus runtime computation, RGB versus spectral rendering, and out-of-core rendering versus requiring scene geometry to fit into memory will shape the evolution of visual effects.