Intel Embree Wins Academy Scientific and Technical Award

In February 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Intel Embree ray tracing library a Scientific and Technical Achievement Award. Intel Embree’s ray tracing for geometric rendering was recognised by the Academy for its contribution to innovation in the moviemaking process. This tool is part of the Intel oneAPI Rendering Toolkit.

The Scientific and Technical Awards were introduced in 1931 to recognise the achievements of pioneers and science and technology’s critical role in advancing motion picture production.

What is Intel Embree?

Ray tracing methods combine the physics of light with 3D objects and their surface materials to generate lifelike images, including mathematically correct reflections, refraction, shadows and more. Rendering developers, graphics application engineers and content creators use Intel Embree to deliver high performance, high fidelity visual experiences.

Intel Embree’s production-ready capabilities allow creators to inject photorealism through premier, realistic lighting effects, such as reflections and shadows on hair, fur, mirrors or any object; complex motion blur for multiple moving objects like vehicles, propellers and birds; and complex geometries like ray-oriented disks, spheres and normal oriented disks to render particle effects such as sand and foam. This is in addition to other features, such as multi-level instancing to render complex scenes.

Intel Embree helps developers optimise rendering applications on existing hardware to utilise advanced technologies such as Intel SIMD and Intel AVX-512 on Intel Xeon and Core processors and emerging Intel XPU platforms, such as Intel Xe architecture (GPUs). Users achieve real-time performance, fast render cycles, cost efficient production and memory savings. This in turn provides more time spent on quality rendering and less time on compute.

How is Intel Embree used?

Its ray-tracing capabilities include studio photorealistic visual effects, animated films, scientific visualisation, 3D product and architectural design, and gaming visuals such as terrain and shadows. The open source library is also integrated into many popular industry rendering tools, such as Blender, Chaos Group’s V-Ray, DreamWorks Animation’s MoonRay, Kitware’s ParaView, Corona Render, Maxon Cinema 4D and Cinebench, and others.

Here are the films where Intel Embree was used to deliver stunning visuals:

• “Bumblebee” — Allspark Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Tencent Pictures Platinum Dunes, Paramount Pictures, using Chaos Group V-Ray
• “Cyberpunk 2077” — Goodbye Kansas Studios using Chaos Group V-Ray
• “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” — DreamWorks Animation using MoonRay
• “Lego Batman” — Animal Logic using Glimpse
• “Manou the Swift” — Luxx Studios using Chaos Group V-Ray
• “Next Gen” — Baozou in association With Tangent Studios using Blender; Media courtesy of NETFLIX Inc.
• “Peter Rabbit” — Animal Logic using Glimpse
• “Secret Life of Pets 2” — Illumination Entertainment using the Illumination Mac Guff renderer
• “Spider-Man, Far from Home” — Sony Pictures using Framestore Freak
• “Spring” — Blender Animation using Blender
• Thanos from “Avengers: Infinity War” — Marvel Studios, Digital Domain, using Chaos Group V-Ray
• “The Grinch” — Illumination Entertainment using the Illumination Mac Guff renderer
• “Trolls” — DreamWorks Animation using MoonRay

Find out more

Read the full press release here.

Intel is hosting a technical online workshop all about the Intel oneAPI Rendering Toolkit on 8 June 2021. Find out more and sign up here.

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