How Long Does It Take to Render a 3D Animation?

What determines 3D animation render time

Render time for animation depends on three main factors: the length of the animation in seconds, the resolution and frame rate targeted, and the complexity of the scene, including lighting, reflections, and number of objects.

A short, simple architectural fly-through can render in a few hours per finished minute on a strong render farm, while a complex scene with heavy reflections or particle effects can take significantly longer per frame.

How to plan around render time

Because rendering happens after the creative and modeling work is done, it should be scheduled as its own phase in a project timeline, with buffer time in case a scene needs adjustment after an initial test render.

Studios that use cloud or distributed render farms can often compress this phase significantly compared to rendering on a single workstation.

Questions to ask before you decide

• Do they render on local workstations or a distributed render farm?
• What resolution and frame rate is the render time estimate based on?
• Is there time built in for a test render before the final pass?

Explore Rendimension's 3D walkthroughs to see how this fits your project.