Redshift
The GPU rendering engine at the center of this page. Redshift renders complex scenes in minutes and keeps data beyond VRAM out-of-core. It runs native in Cinema 4D and as a plugin across every other supported host.
Production-grade 3D rendering, at GPU speed
For VFX artists, product and architectural visualizers, and technical artists who need production frames fast
An overnight render queue costs you a full day, only to find out the lighting was wrong. A hero scene runs past your GPU's memory. Every application wants a different renderer. Redshift is a GPU-first production renderer that renders complex scenes in minutes and keeps data beyond your GPU's VRAM. It runs natively in Cinema 4D and as a plugin for Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Katana, ZBrush, Vectorworks, and Revit. Start free for 14 days.
What is 3D rendering?
3D rendering turns a 3D scene, including its geometry, materials, lights, and cameras, into a finished 2D image or animation frame. How that conversion works depends on the goal. Path tracing follows physical accuracy of rays of light. Other engines take faster approximations of light transport to hit production deadlines. Real-time preview in the viewport is a working tool on the way to a final render, not the render itself. Redshift is a GPU engine tuned for speed that still resolves photoreal light, and it scales to scenes larger than a single card's memory.
Benefits
Streamline your 3D rendering workflow
Kill the overnight render queue
A CPU queue can cost you a full day to find out the lighting was wrong. Redshift previews the look with progressive, interactive rendering while you work, then resolves the exact final frame on the GPU in minutes, so you catch problems while the idea is still fresh.
Render scenes bigger than your VRAM
Say a hero asset runs past a GPU's memory fast, thanks to hundreds of millions of unique polygons and high-resolution textures. Redshift keeps geometry and textures out-of-core, past the limits of the card, and shares that memory across multiple GPUs. Texture data scales far beyond what a single card holds, effectively without a hard ceiling for production work. The model keeps full detail and the render still runs.
One renderer across your whole pipeline
Switching engines between applications splits the work and the look. Redshift runs natively in Cinema 4D and as a plugin in the other hosts your team uses, and a Cinema 4D or Maxon One license carries the renderer into those third-party hosts on the same workstation. One engine carries the shot from first block-in to final frame.
Our Users
Built for you
Capabilities
Built for heavy scenes and mixed hardware
GPU rendering built for GPU, not bolted on
Redshift was built for the GPU from the start rather than adapted from a CPU engine, so the speed comes with production controls instead of in place of them. The adaptive sampler is a lever you tune per shot. Dial toward speed when a frame is filler, or toward accuracy when it carries the scene. A CPU mode is there when a job calls for it, and a real-time GPU mode handles previz and simpler projects.
- Purpose-built GPU architecture (not a ported CPU engine)
- Adaptive sampler tuned per shot
- Irradiance point cloud for fast GI
- ML denoising as a finishing aid
- CPU mode and a real-time GPU preview mode
Renders past the limits of your VRAM
Out-of-core is the real edge. Redshift keeps both geometry and textures beyond the GPU's memory and shares that memory across multiple cards rather than dropping to the smallest one. A scene with hundreds of millions of unique polygons and high-resolution textures renders with ease, without simplifying the model.
- Out-of-core geometry and textures
- Multi-GPU memory pooling
- Scenes with hundreds of millions of unique polygons
- No proxy pass to fit VRAM
- Full-detail models at render time
Runs on your hardware, not one vendor's
Redshift uses hardware acceleration wherever it finds it, so the renderer is not tied to a single GPU brand. It runs on every major GPU platform and on CPU, and it uses each platform's ray-tracing hardware where present.
- NVIDIA CUDA and OptiX ray tracing
- Apple Silicon via Metal, with hardware RT on capable chips
- AMD on Windows, with hardware ray tracing via HIP RT on current-gen Radeon cards
- CPU rendering via Intel Embree when needed
- 8 GB VRAM minimum, 16 GB or more recommended
A shading toolkit for photoreal or stylized
Redshift ships energy-conserving PBR (physically based rendering) materials plus the effects that sell realism, from subsurface scattering to caustics and dispersion. Utility and imperfection shaders cover worn looks, and toon shaders handle fully stylized, non-photoreal work. Machine learning denoise cleans the result.
- Energy-conserving PBR materials
- Random-walk subsurface scattering
- Caustics, thin-film, dispersion
- Utility and imperfection shaders
- Toon shaders for stylized looks
Integration
Bring Redshift into your host
Redshift rarely stays in one application. It runs natively in Cinema 4D and as a plugin across the other hosts a pipeline touches, and one Cinema 4D or Maxon One license carries the renderer into those third-party hosts on the same workstation. The Houdini and Solaris integration goes deep: scatter thousands of objects and randomize shaders through attributes, then write a Redshift-ready USD asset you reuse for the life of the show. Host support and minimum versions stay current in the Redshift Compatibility Chart.
- Cinema 4D: native (2023+)
- Maya (2018+), 3ds Max (2018+), Houdini (19.0+, Solaris/USD)
- Katana (5.0+), ZBrush (2023+, Redshift Bridge)
- Vectorworks (2026.4+), Revit (2025 to 2027)
- Cross-host license tied to the workstation
Our Solutions
All you need for 3D rendering in one go
Redshift is the engine, and the work around a render sits in a few Maxon tools that share one subscription. ZBrush sculpts the high-detail model. Cinema 4D builds and lights the scene. Redshift renders it on the GPU. Autograph and Red Giant finish the frame in post. Maxon One covers the whole set, so the render moves from first sculpt to final frame in one pipeline.
Cinema 4D
Where you build and light most Redshift scenes. Cinema 4D includes Redshift with every subscription, and its MoGraph toolset drives the motion and scatter that fill complex frames. The scene you render starts here.
ZBrush
Where the high-detail model sculpting happens. ZBrush creates the dense geometry and fine surface detail, and the Redshift Bridge renders it with Redshift right inside ZBrush, so the sculpt feeds straight into the render. A natural jumping-off point for the ZBrush solution page.
Autograph
Maxon's own compositor for finishing a Redshift render. It reads AOVs and cryptomatte and composites them in a USD-aware workflow. It is free for individual artists, so the frame stays in the Maxon toolset from render to final.
Red Giant
Red Giant finishes the rendered frame inside a third-party host. Redshift outputs AOVs and cryptomatte, and Red Giant grades the color and composites the passes in After Effects, Premiere Pro, or DaVinci Resolve. The render leaves Redshift and lands in post without a detour.
Maxon One
Maxon One is a comprehensive bundle that includes a subscription for Cinema 4D, Redshift, Red Giant, ZBrush, and all other Maxon 2D and 3D tools. It suits an artist or studio that wants everything under a single license.
Tutorials
Learn 3D rendering on your own schedule
Start with a guided pass. These three tutorials cover the range, from a host-agnostic introduction to the newest host families.
Watch now
Getting Started with Redshift in ZBrush
Ian Robinson
Watch now
Redshift for Vectorworks: Introduction to the Interface
Jonathan Reeves
Watch now
Case studies
Made with Maxon
Testimonials
What designers say
How it works
How to get started with Maxon's 3D rendering tools
A Redshift job runs a short arc from scene to delivery. The four steps below follow one real shot, a Houdini and Solaris scene, from import through the handoff to compositing.
1. Build or import your scene
Bring geometry into your host, native in Cinema 4D or through the Redshift plugin in another supported application. Redshift reads the host scene natively (cameras included), using the host camera's position, focal length, and aspect ratio, then layers its own render parameters on top. The scene arrives ready to light rather than rebuilt.
2. Light and shade with live feedback
Assign materials and lights, and the interactive preview shows them resolve in near real time, so more time is spent on look-dev than render-and-wait cycles. On a Houdini and Solaris scene, this is where you lay out and scatter objects as well as drive shading and shader variation through per-object attribute data on your scatters.
3. Render on the GPU
Send the scene to a GPU render that is multi-GPU aware and streams out-of-core when the scene runs past VRAM. The dense hero frame renders without a proxy pass or a stripped-down model.
4. Export passes or hand off
Write AOVs and cryptomatte for Nuke, After Effects, Autograph, DaVinci Resolve, or Red Giant, or save a Redshift-ready USD asset the rest of the show can reuse. The render leaves Redshift in the form the next department needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GPU rendering faster than CPU rendering?
Yes, for most artists and smaller studios, particularly on complex scenes. A GPU runs the massively parallel math of ray tracing far faster than a CPU of similar cost. The honest caveat is scale. A large facility with a big CPU render farm can still outpace GPU at the extreme high end, though that is not where most work happens.
Can Redshift render a scene bigger than my GPU's VRAM?
Yes. The out-of-core architecture keeps geometry and textures beyond the card's memory, so a scene with hundreds of millions of unique polygons and high-resolution textures renders without simplifying. Redshift also shares that memory across multiple GPUs rather than dropping to the smallest card. This misconception about GPU rendering is common , but out-of-core answers it.
Do I need an NVIDIA GPU to use Redshift?
No single GPU brand is required. Redshift runs on NVIDIA through CUDA and OptiX, on Apple Silicon through Metal, on AMD under Windows, and on CPU when needed. The renderer uses whatever hardware acceleration it finds rather than locking you to one vendor.
Does one license work across Cinema 4D, Houdini, and Maya?
Yes. A Cinema 4D or Maxon One Redshift license is tied to the workstation, so the same seat runs Redshift natively in Cinema 4D and through the plugin in the third-party hosts on that machine. A team that moves between applications does not need to buy the engine twice.
What do I need to run Redshift?
You need 8 GB of VRAM as a minimum and 16 GB or more for comfortable production work. More VRAM keeps larger scenes resident on the card and renders fastest, while out-of-core handles the scenes that still overflow. Any of the supported GPU platforms will run it.
Will AI image and video tools replace 3D rendering?
AI will not replace the frames that carry a project. AI works well for fast, low stakes work such as a background element or a quick camera move on a still, as well as hybrid shots. Hero and final frames still call for a real render, where AI struggles to hold everything visually consistent under art direction. The practical pattern is hybrid: render the hero in Redshift, fill the background with AI, then finish in compositing.
Render your heaviest scene without the wait
Redshift renders complex scenes in minutes and keeps data beyond VRAM, on the hardware and hosts you already have. ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Redshift, Autograph, and Red Giant come together in Maxon One, from first sculpt and block-in to the final graded frame. Try it on a real scene.
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