research-article

The Design and Evolution of Disney’s Hyperion Renderer

Authors:

Matt Jen-Yuan Chiang,

Yining Karl Li,

Daniel TeeceAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), Volume 37, Issue 3

Article No.: 33, Pages 1 - 22

https://doi.org/10.1145/3182159

Published: 27 July 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Walt Disney Animation Studios has transitioned to path-traced global illumination as part of a progression of brute-force physically based rendering in the name of artist efficiency. To achieve this without compromising our geometric or shading complexity, we built our Hyperion renderer based on a novel architecture that extracts traversal and shading coherence from large, sorted ray batches. In this article, we describe our architecture and discuss our design decisions. We also explain how we are able to provide artistic control in a physically based renderer, and we demonstrate through case studies how we have benefited from having a proprietary renderer that can evolve with production needs.

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Index Terms

The Design and Evolution of Disney’s Hyperion Renderer
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Rendering
      1. Ray tracing

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics Volume 37, Issue 3

Special Issue On Production Rendering and Regular Papers

June 2018

198 pages

ISSN:0730-0301

EISSN:1557-7368

DOI:10.1145/3243123

Editor:
Kavita Bala
Cornell University

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Copyright © 2018 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 27 July 2018

Accepted: 01 January 2018

Received: 01 November 2017

Published in TOG Volume 37, Issue 3

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3711853
Khattar AZhu JYan LMontazeri Z(2025)A Texture‐Free Practical Model for Realistic Surface‐Based Rendering of Woven FabricsComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.15283Online publication date: 2-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.15283
Li YZhu CNichols GKutz PHuang WAdler DBurley BTeece D(2024)Cache Points for Production-Scale Occlusion-Aware Many-Lights Sampling and Volumetric ScatteringProceedings of the 2024 Digital Production Symposium10.1145/3665320.3670993(1-19)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3665320.3670993
Li HMcbride ARodrig SCulp G(2024)A Pipeline for Effective and Extensible StylizationACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Talks10.1145/3641233.3664336(1-2)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2024
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Zhang XRöthlin GZhu SAydın TSalehi FGross MPapas M(2024)Neural Denoising for Deep‐Z Monte Carlo RenderingsComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1505043:2Online publication date: 15-May-2024
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