Vehicle I just worked on

Vehicle is all CG and the backplate is photography.

http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/11/13/despite-sliding-doors-seating-for-ford-says-new-transit-connect-wagon-isn-minivan/Ybzq7r90yWrioAz9HJBnPN/story.html

Here is a variant.

Arnold vs. V-Ray (significant difference)

The Arnold render took 1min 41 secs and V-Ray 11min 38sec. Also note: I am a lighting TD and have been working with V-Ray for over 3 years in production. I have V-Ray in the DMC workflow using QMC GI with 3 bounces and 8 subdivs (default). Arnold is also at 3 diffuse bounces.

Arnold Interior Test (classroom)

So, the aiSkyDome light shader uses multiple importance sampling and renders better quality than just area lights at the window entrance with directional light.

My settings here on my home machine (Mac Pro 1.1 - Quad Core)

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            5150  @ 2.66GHz

 (cat /proc/cpuinfo)

home machine My settings are:
aiSkyDomeLight samples: 6
AA samples: 8
GI (diffuse) samples: 8
Glossy samples: 5

and my diffuse bounces are at 2.

The render took 7.8 hrs.

I am looking into optimizing my settings :]

Diffuse to diffuse path tracing is almost as bad as glossy (specular) to glossy (specular) path tracing.
X__X

Arnold Cornell Box (ish) Test

These were rendered at sampling settings of 6 (AA), 4 (GI [diffuse hemi]), 2 (glossy), and 4 (raytraced SSS). The Diffuse GI bounces were set to 3 to max the native V-Ray QMC GI.

Render took 15min 40secs (700x560)

and the second took 1min and 1 second longer with the volumeScattering.

Arnold First Tests

Modeling and rendering in V-Ray

Tuk Tuk work in progress (Inspired by Art in Motion)