MoonRay
Render production images and animation with MoonRay, a project of the Academy Software Foundation.
About MoonRay
MoonRay is a production renderer for images and animation, developed as a project of the Academy Software Foundation. It was originally developed at DreamWorks Animation and has been used on feature films including How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Bad Guys, Kung Fu Panda 4, and The Wild Robot.
The homepage describes a library of production-tested, physically based materials, a USD Hydra render delegate, and multi-machine and cloud rendering through the Arras distributed computation framework. Support for MaterialX shader graphs is listed as work in progress, and the moonray_gui_v2 interface is described as a prototype. A Snap installer for Linux was developed with Canonical.
Key features
- Library of production-tested, physically based materials
- USD Hydra render delegate
- Multi-machine and cloud rendering via the Arras framework
- Work-in-progress rendering of MaterialX shader graphs
- Prototype moonray_gui_v2 tool with a path visualizer and scene inspector
- Snap installer for Linux, developed with Canonical
Best for: Production teams and technical artists who render images and animation on Linux and need physically based rendering with distributed or cloud rendering.
Good for
- Used on feature films, and DreamWorks uses it for all of its feature film production
- Listed as in active development, with regular releases in the release notes
- Available as a Snap package for Linux distributions
Watch out for
- MaterialX shader graph support is described as work in progress
- The moonray_gui_v2 interface is described as a prototype
MoonRay at a glance
- Website
- openmoonray.org
- Category
- Design & Creative › Video Editing & Animation
- Type
- Online tool
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Platforms
- Linux, Web
- Open source
- Not stated
- Last checked
- Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
Guides for Video Editing & Animation
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MoonRay FAQ
How can MoonRay be installed on Linux?
A Snap installer for MoonRay was developed by DreamWorks and Canonical and is listed in the Snap Store.
Is MoonRay used in film production?
The homepage lists several feature films that used MoonRay, and states that DreamWorks uses it for all of its feature film production.
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