Aftershock Logo

3D rendering workstations, built for viewport and final frame

Two jobs, one machine: a viewport that stays smooth when the scene gets dense, and render power that turns an overnight job into a lunch break. Most 3D artists start at FOCUS MAX. When the render queue is what holds up the week, FOCUS X and HYPERFOCUS take it from there.

  • 4.9 Stars on GoogleFrom more than 4,200 customer reviews
  • 3-Year WarrantyIndustry-leading full-system cover, extendable to 4
  • Lifetime SupportWe're here for as long as you own it
  • Award-Winning BuildersReliability proven by four years of awards
  • Built in AustraliaBuilt and tested by the people who support it
  • On-Site ServicingLess downtime — we come to you

Select your software

The machines that render them

Four machines on one ladder. FOCUS MAX is one strong card for the artist seat. FOCUS X adds a second when the render queue is the bottleneck. HYPERFOCUS takes up to six cards when the machine is the farm. CREATOR COMPACT is fourteen litres for the modelling desk. All four can be configured before we build them.

Focus Max

Built for GPU rendering
Focus Max
  • One strong GPU — the sweet spot for Redshift, Octane and Cycles
  • Card memory sized so full scenes stay resident, not out-of-core
  • Cores for Houdini solvers and Arnold CPU passes
  • Cooling that holds clocks through an overnight sequence
from AUD$4,199$4,999
You save $800

Ultrafocus

Advanced multi-GPU
Ultrafocus
  • Roughly half the wall-clock time on the same frame
  • Two cards — GPU render engines scale close to linearly
  • One card can run the render while the other drives the viewport
  • The step up when render time is the main constraint on the week
from AUD$10,399$10,900
You save $501

Hyperfocus

Multi-GPU render node
Hyperfocus
  • Up to six GPUs in a single chassis
  • Built for continuous sequence work, not the occasional still
  • Doubles as a simulation and cache machine for heavy Houdini work
  • Cheaper to run — and to manage — than three separate machines
from AUD$35,999$37,000
You save $1,001
New

Creator Compact

Pro level · the modelling seat
Creator Compact
  • Fourteen litres, one full-length graphics card
  • Modelling, layout and animation at full viewport speed
  • Renders locally, or submits to the machine that should be
  • A studio-floor machine rather than a render node
from AUD$1,849$2,850
You save $1,001

Focus and Creator run the same performance at each level — the difference is the chassis and how much of it you want on the desk. The full range shows every model and level side by side.

What each program needs

3D asks for two machines in one: the one you model on and the one that renders. Here is where each program puts the load, what it looks like when a machine is short of it, and which model we would start you on.

Tested beyond installation: a scene opens, the viewport holds up and a render completes. Render engines and plugin sets are checked separately.
ProgramWhat it depends onHow it shows upStart with
BlenderBlender

GPU and VRAM for Cycles, then cores for simulation bakes and the CPU side of the pipeline.

A scene that renders until it exceeds the card's memory, then falls back to the processor and takes hours.

Focus MaxOne strong card for the artist seat
MayaMaya

Single-core speed for rig evaluation, then GPU for Arnold and Redshift batch renders.

Animation playback that drops below real time on a heavy rig, and a shot sequence that runs past the deadline.

UltrafocusTwo cards on the render queue
Unreal EngineUnreal Engine

One strong card, not several. Real-time rendering does not divide across GPUs the way a batch render does.

Frame rate in the editor, Lumen and Nanite headroom, and how long a shader compile blocks the build.

Focus MaxA second card only for live output
Cinema 4DCinema 4D

GPU and VRAM for Redshift, with single-core speed for the serial parts of the scene.

Viewport lag as the MoGraph stack deepens, and sequence render times against a delivery date.

Focus MaxFocus X once sequences are daily
HoudiniHoudini

Cores, memory and disk for simulation — then GPU on top for Karma XPU and Solaris.

Sim times, cache sizes that fill a drive in an afternoon, and volumes too large to hold in memory.

HyperfocusFilm-grade FX and rendering
NukeNuke

Cores and memory for the comp tree, with one card carrying the GPU nodes.

Viewer response on a deep graph, and full-resolution plates that force a drop to proxy.

Focus MaxMore memory before more GPU
Render engines generally

VRAM is a wall, not a slider. A scene either fits in the card's memory or it does not.

A render that was fast yesterday failing today because one more texture set pushed it over the limit.

Size the card to the sceneNot to the benchmark

Where your work sits

Where your recent work sits matters as much as which program you open. Stills and single shots run comfortably on one strong card, and the money is usually better spent on memory than on a second GPU.

The professional load

Animation and lookdev on a deadline is where a second card starts paying for itself, because a render can run while you keep working. Simulation and film-grade VFX is the level at which the machine becomes the farm.

What makes a 3D workstation faster

In the order it matters for 3D work — not the order it appears on a spec sheet.

  • Graphics

    Redshift, Octane, Cycles and V-Ray GPU do the entire job on the card, and the same card draws your viewport. Nothing else on this list moves render time as much.

  • Processor

    Simulation is CPU work — Houdini solvers, cloth, fluids, destruction — and so are Arnold CPU, V-Ray CPU and Corona. Clock speed makes the viewport responsive; core count is what shortens a CPU render.

  • Memory

    Scene loading, sim caching, and keeping a DCC, a browser and a comp open at once. Running out of system memory part-way through a solve can discard an afternoon's cache.

  • Storage

    Sim caches and texture libraries are read and written constantly. Fast local NVMe is the difference between a cache that scrubs in real time and one that stutters — network storage is not a substitute here.

  • Cooling

    A render is a sustained full-load run, not a benchmark burst. Cooling is what keeps clocks where they should be in hour six, not just hour one.

Super powered production

Focus Max · Ultrafocus · Hyperfocus · Creator Compact

Super powered production

Custom-built workstations for professional 3D creators. Maya, Blender, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Unreal Engine — there is a model built for each stage: FOCUS MAX for the artist seat, Ultrafocus when renders hold up the week, HYPERFOCUS when the machine is the farm.

A 3D workstation is really two machines sharing a case. Modelling, layout and animation are interactive — the wait is on one CPU thread evaluating the scene and on how fast the graphics card redraws a dense viewport. Final-frame rendering is the opposite: it loads every core and every card in the machine, for hours.

Those two jobs want opposite things, and the machine has to do both. Buy on core count alone and it feels sluggish to work in. Buy around one fast card and it stalls when a sequence render lands. FOCUS MAX is specified as the balance point between them, and it is where we suggest most 3D artists start.

While you're working

Modelling · layout · animation · lookdev

What's under load

One CPU core doing scene evaluation, and the GPU drawing the viewport.

What makes it feel fast

High clock speed, a card with enough memory to hold the scene, and RAM headroom so nothing starts swapping.

What doesn't help

Extra cores. A 64-core CPU redraws your viewport no faster than a 16-core one — most DCC viewports still evaluate on a single thread.

The symptom

Scrubbing the timeline stutters, or the viewport lags behind the mouse.

Once you hit render

Final frames · sequences · simulation

What's under load

Everything — every core on a CPU renderer, every card on a GPU renderer, for hours at a time.

What makes it fast

GPU count for Redshift, Octane, Cycles and V-Ray GPU. Core count for Arnold CPU, V-Ray CPU and Corona.

What stops it

Running out of video memory. The scene either fails outright or falls back to out-of-core and slows by a multiple.

The symptom

The day is planned around a frame count rather than a shot list.

Video memory is a wall, not a slider

Video memory is a wall, not a slider

Every other spec on a workstation degrades gracefully. Video memory does not. If the scene fits on the card, it renders at full speed. If it does not, one of two things happens: the render fails, or the engine falls back to system memory and frame times go up by a multiple — not a percentage.

What fills it is predictable: 4K and 8K texture sets, displacement, dense hair and fur, volumetrics. A plain-looking interior with a full PBR texture library often sits heavier on the card than a hero character. Spec the card for the heaviest scene you ship, not the average one.

This is also why a second card is not the same purchase as a bigger card. On most GPU renderers the scene has to fit on every card — two cards render twice as fast, they do not hold twice the scene. Scenes that will not fit need more memory. Frames that take too long need more cards.

Where the power goes, by renderer

Each row is a different workload. The highlighted column is the component that repays extra budget for that work.

Your workloadGPU countmore cardsVideo memorybigger cardCPU coresmore threadsLocal NVMefast scratch
GPU renderingRedshift, Octane, Cycles, V-Ray GPUPrimary factorPrimary factorSecondary factorSecondary factor
CPU renderingArnold CPU, V-Ray CPU, CoronaMinimal effectMinimal effectPrimary factorSecondary factor
SimulationHoudini solvers, cloth, fluids, RBDSecondary factorSecondary factorPrimary factorPrimary factor
Real-time & virtual productionUnreal Engine, archviz walkthroughsMinimal effectPrimary factorSecondary factorPrimary factor
Modelling, layout, animationThe interactive half of the dayMinimal effectSecondary factorSecondary factorSecondary factor
Primary factorSecondary factorMinimal effect

Why choose Aftershock PC?

Anyone can order the same parts. What you are really choosing is who builds the machine, who tests it before it ships, and who answers the phone when something goes wrong two years from now. That is where we are different.

4.9 on Google from over 4,200 customer reviews

Best Custom Desktop PC Brand 2020–2023

8 years of workstation builds — universities, studios and practices

Award-winning build quality

Every system is checked as it is built, then stress-tested and fully updated before it leaves us — so problems are found here, not at your desk. It arrives ready to work, hand-foamed for safe transit anywhere in Australia. Four years of national awards say we get that right.

3-year warranty, lifetime support

Full-system cover for three years, extendable to four — the whole machine, not a chain of separate component warranties you have to chase. If something happens in transit or years later, a dedicated team gets you running again. Support carries on for as long as you own it.

On-site servicing available

Add on-site servicing and we come to you. No packing it up, no courier, no waiting while it travels both ways — a technician diagnoses and repairs it where it sits. It is the difference between days of downtime and hours of it.

Expert workstation team

A dedicated workstation team — not a call centre — with eight years of these builds behind it, trusted by universities, studios and practices. Call or email and an Australian expert helps you match the right tool to the job — before you buy, and long after.

The longer answer

What we actually check before a machine is packed, how we specify one in the first place, what happens in year three, and an honest comparison against buying off the shelf or building it yourself.

Why Aftershock

3D workstation FAQ

READY TO SHIP

Curated configurations held in stock and dispatched fast. Professionally built, tested and backed by Aftershock PC — no configuration required.

BUY NOW

CUSTOM WORKSTATIONS

Start with the machine built for your software, then change what you like. We build, test and optimise it before it leaves us.

SEE THE MACHINES

TALK TO AN EXPERT

Tell us the camera, the codec and how many seats. We'll come back with a spec and a price — written enquiries answered within one business day.

TALK TO A SPECIALIST
CONTACT US
Opening hours:Monday - Friday: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PMSaturday: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PMSunday: ClosedPublic Holiday Hours May Differ
Facebook iconInstagram iconYoutube iconTwitter iconTik-tok icon
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Refund Policy
Copyright 2026 AFTERSHOCK PC Pty Ltd – All Rights Reserved