Cloud GPU workstations for VFX, 3D and finishing. Run the tools you already use, streamed to your browser, and pay only for the hours you use.
Leave your full name and contact details and we'll get back to you regarding your trial credits and beta account. We look forward to seeing you.
A capable VFX workstation is a multi-thousand-pound tower that sits idle between jobs. Smokestack gives you the same power by the hour, only when you have work to do.
Skip the upfront cost of a GPU workstation. Every machine comes with an NVIDIA RTX GPU with 20GB of VRAM, ready when you are.
Pay by the hour while you work, then delete the workstation and the cost stops. The only monthly cost is optional persistent storage, if you want to keep files between sessions.
Drivers, operating system and software are set up for you. No upgrade cycles, no repairs, no noisy tower under the desk.
Pick a small machine for a quick edit, or a 32-core, 128GB RAM unit for heavy comp or CG, and change as often as your projects do. Stay nimble.
Pay only for the hours you use. No monthly minimums, no hidden fees.
Perfect for individual artists needing bursts of heavy compute.
For those looking for a mix of affordability and power.
Great for day-to-day power users.
The biggest and best, for when you need absolute power.
Smokestack gives VFX, 3D and finishing artists a high-performance cloud GPU workstation that streams to your web browser. You launch one in minutes, work as you would on a desktop machine, and pay by the hour.
Every tier has an NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada GPU with 20GB of VRAM and 512GB of NVMe storage, running Rocky Linux on Akamai (Linode) cloud infrastructure in Europe. The tiers differ in CPU cores and system RAM, from 4 cores and 16GB on Starter up to 32 cores and 128GB on Ultra.
You can choose Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Flame, Blender, Nuke, Houdini, Unreal Engine and DaVinci Resolve when you create a workstation, and pick the exact version of each. They are installed for you as the workstation starts. Commercial software needs your own licence.
You buy prepaid credits, where 1 credit is £1, and each workstation is charged its hourly rate for every hour or part-hour it exists. There are no subscriptions, monthly minimums or hidden fees. The one exception is optional persistent storage for keeping files between workstations, which is charged monthly.
Yes. A workstation is billed until you delete it, whether or not you are using it, because the cloud hardware stays reserved for you. Delete it when you finish to stop paying.
A workstation's own drive is wiped when you delete it, so save anything you want to keep first. To keep files between workstations, add optional persistent storage: fast NVMe block storage that attaches straight to your workstation as a local drive, not a network share. Sizes run from 100GB to 2TB, starting at £15 a month.
Only a modern web browser and a stable internet connection. The desktop is streamed to your browser as low-latency video and audio over a single secure connection, so there is nothing to install on your computer.
Yes. The stream can run in full 4:4:4 colour, which keeps the colour detail that standard video streaming throws away, for reliable keying and crisp UI text. It runs at up to 60 frames per second.
Yes. Pen tablets such as Wacom work through the browser, with pen pressure passed to your applications.
Yes. You can add a second display, which opens in its own browser window that you put fullscreen on your other monitor. Windows move between the two screens as they would on a local machine.
Drag files onto the stream to upload them, and download them from the transfer panel. With persistent storage you can also browse, preview and download your files from the dashboard between sessions, including frame sequences.
Yes. Set a storage pool as your Flame storage and every workstation you start with Flame automatically keeps its projects and framestore on that pool, so they survive when you delete the workstation.
Smokestack is in closed beta. Join the waitlist on this page and we will be in touch about your beta account and trial credits.