Computer

The Computer Support page provides students with comprehensive guidance on computer specifications, brands, and hardware components for the entire program. It helps students understand the technical requirements for their studies and offers recommendations based on their chosen specialization, including Animation, Modeling, and VFX, so they can select and use devices that best support their workflow and learning needs.

Tiered Hardware Specifications for 3D / VFX

Minimum

High-End

3D Animator

Minimum spec: Best for learning, exercises, and small projects. Focus is on viewport playback rather than rendering speed. It can manage basic animation, modeling, and simple effects, but will slow down with larger assets, complex rigs, or higher-resolution textures. Rendering times will also be much longer.
Recommended spec: Balanced for multi-character animation, mid-size environments, and collaborative projects. More cores and RAM improve rendering and simulations, while a stronger GPU keeps the viewport responsive even with heavy textures and lighting. This tier is ideal for a 5–10 minute short film or final-year project without frequent bottlenecks.
High-end workstation: Mainly for VFX-heavy tasks, large-scale environments, or production-quality rendering pipelines. Many cores, higher clock speed, and a large memory pool shorten caching and render times. A workstation-class GPU allows handling of massive scenes, complex simulations, and multi-software workflows (e.g., Maya + Houdini + Nuke). Best for professional studios or advanced artists working under tight deadlines.

3D Modeling

Recommended spec: The sweet spot for most students and creators. Strong single-core performance (≥3.7 GHz base) keeps viewport interaction smooth and playback responsive, even in complex animation scenes. A balanced CPU/GPU setup gives solid rendering and simulation speeds without workstation costs. Ideal for short films, final-year projects, and group work.
High-end workstation: Needed for ultra-high-poly models, sculpting, large environments, or VFX-heavy projects. Extra cores, more memory, and a pro-grade GPU make it possible to handle millions of polygons, complex simulations, and high-res textures without stability issues. Best suited for studio pipelines and professional-quality output.

Visual Effects

The most hardware-demanding role in a 3D pipeline, requiring strong CPU, GPU, and memory for simulations, particles, fluids, and compositing.
Recommended spec: At least 32 GB RAM and 8 GB GPU VRAM, which serves as the baseline for modern workflows, allowing smooth handling of mid-size simulations, viewport previews, and multi-layer compositing.
High-end workstation: Essential for Houdini simulations, Nuke compositing, and Unreal Engine cinematic VFX, providing the cores, memory, and GPU power needed to manage large-scale, production-quality scenes efficiently.

Desktop vs Laptop

Desktop

Desktops generally provide higher performance and expandability compared to laptops. For CG creators (3D animation, modeling, VFX), desktops can accommodate powerful CPUs with more cores, high-end GPUs with larger VRAM, and faster memory, which translates to smoother viewport interaction, faster simulations, and quicker render times. They are ideal for handling large scenes, ultra-high-poly models, and complex simulations in software like Maya, Houdini, Blender, or Unreal Engine.

In entertainment, desktops excel at gaming and multimedia because they can sustain higher graphics settings and resolutions without throttling due to heat. For general work tasks, desktops provide reliability and longevity, as components can be upgraded individually (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage) to keep pace with evolving software requirements.

Pros:

Higher performance per dollar
More upgradeable and customizable
Better cooling allows sustained heavy workloads

Cons:

Not portable
Takes more space and requires peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse)

Laptop

Laptops offer portability and convenience, which is useful for CG creators who need to work on location or travel frequently. Modern high-performance laptops can run demanding 3D applications and perform tasks like animation, modeling, and mid-level VFX. However, due to thermal and power limitations, their CPU and GPU performance is usually lower than desktops with similar specs. Long render jobs or heavy simulations may take longer, and some high-end features (like maximum VRAM GPUs) may be unavailable.

For entertainment, laptops provide decent gaming and multimedia performance, especially in high-end gaming laptops, but they often throttle under extended load due to heat. For general work, laptops are versatile and space-saving, suitable for office software, video editing, and lighter CG tasks.

Pros:

Portable, can work anywhere
Integrated display, keyboard, and battery
Increasingly powerful with high-end CPU/GPU options

Cons:

Performance limited by thermals and power
Upgrades often restricted (RAM or storage in some models)
More expensive than desktops for the same performance level

Why Macs Are Not Recommended for CG Creation

While Macs are popular for design, video editing, and general creative work, they are not ideal for 3D animation, modeling, or VFX production. Most industry-standard CG tools such as Autodesk Maya, Houdini, 3ds Max, and many VFX plugins are developed and optimized primarily for Windows or Linux, not macOS. As a result, performance, compatibility, and workflow flexibility are often limited on a Mac.

Another major drawback is hardware upgradeability and GPU support. Macs use Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4 chips), which deliver strong efficiency but cannot match high-end desktop GPUs like NVIDIA RTX cards for viewport performance, GPU rendering, and large-scale simulations. Since CG workflows rely heavily on CUDA cores and GPU VRAM, the lack of NVIDIA GPU support on Macs is a serious limitation.

Additionally, Macs are much more expensive compared to equivalent Windows workstations or laptops. For the same budget, a creator can build or purchase a PC with significantly better specs (more cores, higher RAM capacity, and faster GPU). This makes Mac an inefficient investment for CG-focused production.

👉 In short: Macs are great for graphic design, editing, and motion graphics, but for 3D animation, VFX, and high-end rendering, Windows or Linux systems with NVIDIA GPUs are the industry standard and the far better choice.

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