A crystal figure, a soap bubble and a cut gem, rendered by Spectra with rainbow dispersion through the glass

Spectra Render

Valor Cat Studios presents realtime wave optics for Blender. Spectral, polarized and unbiased by construction, live in Blender's viewport on any ray-tracing GPU.

Visit spectra-render.com Join the beta

Diamond Body. Dispersion fire through cut crystal and thin-film colour on a soap bubble, traced wavelength by wavelength.

Light, solved as a wave.

Maxwell is the substrate, not a post-process. Interference, diffraction and polarization are computed per beam rather than painted on.

Spectral, always: Every path carries four wavelengths across the visible band, along with its full polarization state. There are no RGB approximations in the transport.
Fire in every facet: Wavelength-dependent index of refraction splits white light into rainbows. Diamonds sparkle because the physics says so.
An addon, not a fork: Install a zip into stock Blender. Spectra reads Principled-based materials, lights, cameras and colour management, with nothing to convert.

Live viewport: Valor Cat. Hero character scrubbed live in the viewport.

Four glossy spheres in a row, each with a different soap-bubble colour from increasing thin-film thickness — **Thin-film ladder.** Four spheres with increasing thin-film thickness. The soap-bubble and oil-slick colours are solved per wavelength.

A classroom with warm sunlight coming through window blinds and falling across desks — **Classroom.** Warm sunlight through the blinds of Blender's Classroom demo. Scene: Blender demo files (CC0).

Close-up of a praying mantis in macro — **Mantis.** Macro creature study under spectral global illumination.

Double-slit interference fringes rendered by Spectra — **Double slit.** Young's fringes emerge from the wave substrate itself. This is Spectra's primary physics prism.

More frames, features and supported hardware at spectra-render.com

The Valor Cat series

A bald puppet head with a black mask lies on its side on a desk beside a yellow pencil

Season 3

E02Cat Vs Fish In Space

E01Xonco Is Born

Season 2

E06Season Finale

E05Burmac Uses His Head

E04Sprinkles Goes Rogue - Part 2

E03Sprinkles Goes Rogue - Part 1

E02Burmac's Revenge - Part 2

Season 1

E04Musical Part 2

E03Musical Part 1

E02First Scratch

E02Prologue

E01From The Top

Films

Feline ParadoxFull film, award-winning CG animated film

Mirage MakerCalArts, 2014

Ben Reicher, Founder and CEO

Ben Reicher, smiling, wearing glasses and a blue shirt with a white marine life pattern, outdoors

Valor Cat Studios is an animation studio based in Los Angeles. I'm an 18-year Animation/VFX industry veteran who has worked at 36+ companies, a 3D generalist with a degree in Animation from CalArts.

My approach to this craft is rooted in curiosity. I believe knowledge is earned by trying everything, and wisdom by learning what to leave out. My biggest inspirations are WETA Digital and Batman The Animated Series.

Valor Cat is the R&D engine at the heart of my creative practice.

Résumé (PDF) IMDb

Posters and logos for projects Ben Reicher has worked on, including Venom, Jumanji, The Mandalorian, The Call of the Wild, Dora, Fortnite, Star Trek: Picard, Goosebumps 2, Free Guy, The Nutcracker and LEGO 2K Drive

Contact

Step up and join the cat uprising. Do stay in touch. We enjoy your company.

ben@valorcatstudios.com