3D content creators are clamoring for NVIDIA Instant NeRF, an inverse rendering tool that turns a set of static images into a realistic 3D scene.
Since its debut earlier this year, tens of thousands of developers around the world have downloaded the source code and used it to render spectacular scenes, sharing eye-catching results on social media.
The research behind Instant NeRF is being honored as a best paper at SIGGRAPH - which runs Aug. 8-11 in Vancouver and online - for its contribution to the future of computer graphics research. One of just five papers selected for this award, it's among 17 papers and workshops with NVIDIA authors that are being presented at the conference, covering topics spanning neural rendering, 3D simulation, holography and more.
NVIDIA recently held an Instant NeRF sweepstakes, asking developers to share 3D scenes created with the software for a chance to win a high-end NVIDIA GPU. Hundreds participated, posting 3D scenes of landmarks like Stonehenge, their backyards and even their pets.
Among the creators using Instant NeRF are:
Through the Looking Glass: Karen X. Cheng and James Perlman San Francisco-based creative director Karen X. Cheng is working with software engineer James Perlman to render 3D scenes that test the boundaries of what Instant NeRF can create.
The duo has used Instant NeRF to create scenes that explore reflections within a mirror (shown above) and handle complex environments with multiple people - like a group enjoying ramen at a restaurant.
The algorithm itself is groundbreaking - the fact that you can render a physical scene with higher fidelity than normal photogrammetry techniques is just astounding, Perlman said. It's incredible how accurately you can reconstruct lighting, color differences or other tiny details.
It even makes mistakes look artistic, said Cheng. We really lean into that, and play with training a scene less sometimes, experimenting with 1,000, or 5,000 or 50,000 iterations. Sometimes I'll prefer the ones trained less because the edges are softer and you get an oil-painting effect.
Using prior tools, it would take them three or four days to train a decent-quality scene. With Instant NeRF, the pair can churn out about 20 a day, using an NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU to render, train and preview their 3D scenes.
With rapid rendering comes faster iteration.
Being able to render quickly is very necessary for the creative process. We'd meet up and shoot 15 or 20 different versions, run them overnight and then see what's working, said Cheng. Everything we've published has been shot and reshot a dozen times, which is only possible when you can run several scenes a day.
Preserving Moments in Time: Hugues Bruy re Hugues Bruy re, partner and chief of innovation at Dpt., a Montreal-based creative studio, uses Instant NeRF daily.
3D captures have always been of strong interest to me because I can go back to those volumetric reconstructions and move in them, adding an extra dimension of meaning to them, he said.
Bruy re rendered 3D scenes with Instant NeRF using the data he'd previously captured for traditional photogrammetry relying on mirrorless digital cameras, smartphones, 360 cameras and drones. He uses an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 GPU to render his Instant NeRF scenes.
Bruy re believes Instant NeRF could be a powerful tool to help preserve and share cultural artifacts through online libraries, museums, virtual-reality experiences and heritage-conservation projects.
The aspect of capturing itself is being democratized, as camera and software solutions become cheaper, he said. In a few months or years, people will be able to capture objects, places, moments and memories and have them volumetrically rendered in real time, shareable and preserved forever.
Using pictures taken with a smartphone, Bruy re created an Instant NeRF render of an ancient marble statue of Zeus from an exhibition at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum.
Stepping Into Remote Scenes: Jonathan Stephens Jonathan Stephens, chief evangelist for spatial computing company EveryPoint, has been exploring Instant NeRF for both creative and practical applications.
EveryPoint reconstructs 3D scenes such as stockpiles, railyards and quarries to help businesses manage their resources. With Instant NeRF, Stephens can capture a scene more completely, allowing clients to freely explore a scene. He uses an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU to run scenes rendered with Instant NeRF.
What I really like about Instant NeRF is that you quickly know if your render is working, Stephens said. With a large photogrammetry set, you could be waiting hours or days. Here, I can test out a bunch of different datasets and know within minutes.
He's also experimented with making NeRFs using footage from lightweight devices like smart glasses. Instant NeRF could turn the low-resolution, bumpy footage from Stephens walking down the street into a smooth 3D scene.
Find NVIDIA at SIGGRAPH Tune in for a special address by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and other senior leaders on Tuesday, Aug. 9, at 9 a.m. PT to hear about the research and technology behind AI-powered virtual worlds.
NVIDIA is also presenting a score of in-person and virtual sessions for SIGGRAPH attendees, including:
The Next Evolution of Universal Scene Description (USD) for Building Virtual Worlds
Real-Time Collaboration in Ray-Traced VR
Meet the Researchers: How to Use NVIDIA Kaolin in Your 3D Deep Learning Workflows
The Future of Extended Reality: How Immersion Will Change Everything
Learn how to create with Instant NeRF in the hands-on demo, NVIDIA Instant NeRF - Getting Started With Neural Radiance Fields. Instant NeRF will also be part of SIGGRAPH's Real-Time Live showcase - where in-person attendees can vote for a winning project.
For more interactive sessions
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
3D content creators are clamoring for NVIDIA Instant NeRF, an inverse rendering tool that turns a set of static images into a realistic 3D scene.
