Course prerequisites

[Narrator] - Let's begin with the course prerequisites. In this course, we're working with Arnold core version 5. Solid Angle and Autodesk have at least Arnold plugins for many 3D applications, and each of those plugins is based on a common code base, which is the Arnold core. MtoA is the Arnold rendering plugin for Maya. The versioning for the plugins is separate from the versioning of the core. Version 2 of MtoA uses version 5 of the Arnold core.

I strongly recommend keeping the Arnold plugin up to date. As I described in a previous movie, the Arnold plugin is updated very frequently and it's always a good idea to check the Solid Angle website to make sure you have the latest version. Another prerequisite for the course is basic knowledge of rendering in Maya. It's assumed that you have some experience with the Maya renderer, such as the software renderer, or mental ray, and know the fundamental techniques of materials, lighting, and rendering. Most of what you know already will apply in the Arnold domain, and I'll do my best to point out the differences so you can have a smooth transition to this new renderer.

And finally, I'd like to talk just a little bit about computer hardware. You need a graphics workstation that's up to the task of advanced rendering in Maya. But for Arnold you don't need to worry about the graphics hardware or the video card, because Arnold is a CPU renderer and does not use a graphics card for rendering, it only uses the central processor. Arnold is very fast and efficient, and multi-core aware. It takes full advantage of multi-processor and multi-core systems, and gives you control over CPU usage.

The more processing cores your computer has, the faster your renders will be. And those are the prerequisites for the course.