Lots of good info here. Octane caught my interest a while back when I was researching the same type of questions after having a bit of a disappointing exp w/ vray2. I’m now using Iray (nvidia). The iMaterials concept along w/ the possibility of physically based lights are what got me interested. The RH UI is clunky and underdeveloped but it does import Algorithmic ( or whatever that mat’l editor’s proper name is) and there’s dedicated cloud-based rendering gpu services using Iray server ( eg Nimbi\Jarvice) that allow me to scale my processing power w/o funding Nvidia’s next gpu development by having to purchase ridiculous qty of gpu to get the turnaround of vray output speed. Good luck!
Ryan in case of Thea all materials are compatible and you can share models between modeling apps in Thea model file so only thing you have to do is learn blender which is free 
but youre right through whole process going back and forth no matter how it works is always slower and painful. Btw are there somewhere online any highend animations made with bongo? Iirc bongo was very limited in its capabilities. Something changed here?
Hello CountryGolden and folks, I hope this finds you well! Sorry for my “late arrival” on this topic.
I am not sure you’ve crossed paths with this innovative software Unicorn Render; it can be downloaded from UnicornRender.com. FYI, Unicorn is a standalone Physics-Based photorealistic Renderer (PBR) for Windows, works really fast and scales performance appropriately depending on your nVidia GPU (which by the way is required); it supports importing MDL materials and 3D models originated from a large number BIM/CAD applications, and, in fact, works well with many of them (eg. Revit) affording a live-connection between modeling and the PBR. Check out the output at the “Gallery” from the above mentioned site, obviously still-images, as well as the 360 panoramas for viewing with VR-headsets/smartphones, and the animations (ditto “Features” section). See here recent article published in AECbytes: http://aecbytes.com/newsletter/2017/issue_89.html
Once downloaded and upon installing it, I recommend to choose the TRIAL option since it will provide 15-days of the top-most full-featured experience for 15 days. This resource I hope should help you get started: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuzXmzWDJs5DtoNdg3rSR-rRPnVcGr25L
Also know that in case any of you, or someone you know, is involved in some capacity at an academic institution kindly be aware that it is FREE for students and faculty, as well as of course for the institution itself. I hope you enjoy giving it a run and if you need help feel free to contact me!
Best!
Diego
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Hi D-W, that is GREAT info, I didn’t know that – definitely a big plus. This now has me wondering if it would be possible in the future to share materials between Cycles in Rhino and Cycles in Blender as well . . . hmmm.
I think the capabilities of Bongo are of course totally dependent on what you’re using it for. I think for most product and architectural animations it’s capable. But, if you want to dive into complex cinematic effects, then definitely not, i’d go with Blender, Cinema4d, or Modo, personally. Overall, I think Bongo is more powerful that most people think it is, as I’ve discovered some things that I had no idea it could do. On the other hand, there are a few key features that would make a HUGE difference in it’s output that I’m hoping will be added in V3. I do know they are planning on adding physics calculations to V3, which will be a pretty big deal I think. They need to add vertex information to models so object motion blur can be achieved and they need to add alembic support for sure to make things like adding in animated people to architectural scenes. I know there’s a lot on the list for V3. With that being said, there’s a “one click” output option from Octane for Rhino that will port the animation to render in the Octane Standalone, in which case you can add object motion blur to bongo animations, also alembic. So for now, there’s a quick and simple workaround.
Not sure I’d call these “high end” but they do exactly what the intent was for with regards to the product. I did these all with Rhino/Bongo/Octane. Again, nothing fancy here, but solid basic animation. There’s one video I wish I could show that is more “fancy” and has a bit of VFX work in it, but i’m under and NDA and the client hasn’t released it to the public yet. The 4 videos below are meant to be informational videos, not “sexy” videos. I do think however, you CAN make a “high end” awesome looking video with Bongo if you desire – a lot of the animations I’ve scene recently haven’t really incorporated any super high end animation functionality – it’s been more the artist, camera angles, etc. Again, these aren’t anything fancy, but also to be fair to Bongo, I’m not using many of it’s features in these videos either . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXy6s291Vb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7cnMQum9aQ
A post was split to a new topic: Rhino and Blender workflow