“Light my shiny render pass!” by Yaraslau Lebedzeu at Blender Conference 2025

Rendering relies heavily on approximations of physical reality, which can sometimes fail to capture complex optical effects. This is one reason why 3D renders don’t always appear true to life. Yaraslau will explore phenomena such as birefringence, gradient index of refraction, diffraction, and the challenges of spectral rendering—topics that go beyond the limits of the RGB color model. He will also discuss when simplified models fall short and what Blender’s Cycles renderer can accurately mimic.