RandomControl Revamps Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie with Advanced Animation and USD Support

RandomControl, the developer behind Arion renderer, has kicked off its 2024 upgrade cycle for Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie. These GPU renderers cater to industrial designers and entertainment artists, offering powerful new features to enhance their creative process.

New Animation System Brings Fresh Workflow

Maverick Studio 2024.1 and Maverick Indie 2024.1 introduced a comprehensive new animation system. Users can now create sophisticated technical animations via keyframing or by utilizing a novel set of Motion Controllers. This development marks the first major update in over a year for both applications, underscoring RandomControl’s commitment to advancing its offerings.

In a recent blog post, RandomControl detailed the goal of making every attribute animatable within the software, covering elements like object positions, lights, materials, and background environments. This flexibility is particularly useful for crafting marketing visuals, eliminating the need for external video-editing software.

Enhanced Features Beyond Animation

Alongside the new animation system, the 2024.1 releases included several other notable enhancements:

• Tonemap Frontplate: A tool for adding animatable logos or watermarks to renders.
• Increased Texture Baking Resolution: The maximum baking resolution can now reach 8K, up from 4K.
• Enhanced Scatter Modifier: Now supports up to eight sources.
• Performance Improvements: Better interactive preview rendering (IPR) and heavy scene handling.
• Pipeline Integration: Enhanced support for materials in Substance .sbsar format and the ability to export animated GIFs.

USD Support in 2024.2 Updates

Following the foundation laid in 2024.1, the latest updates (2024.2 and 2024.3) build upon these improvements. Most significantly, RandomControl has introduced initial support for USD (Universal Scene Description). Users can now import data in .usd, .usda, .usdc, and .usdz formats, though RandomControl acknowledges this functionality as still in early stages.

About Maverick Studio and Maverick Indie

Maverick Studio, launched in 2019, is specifically designed for product and automotive visualization. It features a drag-and-drop workflow for PBR materials and lighting setup, coupled with a physically accurate spectral render engine that includes built-in denoising. It is optimized for CUDA-based hardware and supports out-of-core rendering, allowing for efficient handling of large datasets.

Maverick Indie, introduced in 2019, complements Maverick Studio with a more budget-friendly version aimed at entertainment work. While it retains core rendering capabilities, it lacks support for CAD file formats and features such as NURBS and cross-section rendering.

Pricing and System Requirements

Both Maverick Indie and Maverick Studio are exclusive to 64-bit Windows systems and require an RTX-compatible NVIDIA GPU. Perpetual licenses for Maverick Indie cost €249.99 ($260), with rental options starting at €19.99 per month ($21/month). Perpetual licenses for Maverick Studio are priced at €499.99 ($520), with rental options starting at €39.99 per month ($42/month).

For a detailed feature comparison between the two versions, visit this page.

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