Why You Can't Render Pokemon Cards in Blender

Technological concepts & why Blender struggles with holographic Pokémon cards

The video explains that Pokémon cards with holographic/iridescent foil contain a diffraction grating-type material—microscopic repeating grooves/holes.

Diffraction gratings create effects that look like multiple “reflection clones” of a single light source:

• With one light source, turning the card shows many specular reflections at once, forming “orders” of constructive/destructive interference.
• The effect also produces rainbow colors because different wavelengths interfere at different angles.

Most renderers (including Blender renderers) simplify light to rays (approximating wave behavior), which breaks the physics needed for diffraction-grating interference.

Key limitation (as stated in the video)

• Cycles can’t split one reflection into multiple diffraction orders the way a diffraction grating requires.
• Cycles can do thin-film interference style color tinting, but not the full multi-order diffraction behavior needed for holo-foil.

Render-engine comparisons / feature mentions

• The video claims only one render engine ships a shader for this kind of diffraction behavior (stated as not Cycles).
• Octane is mentioned as capable of producing the effect:
  • In a 2027.1 release, Octane supposedly introduces a physical optics material that renders holographic diffraction “flawlessly” (as claimed by the speaker).

The video’s tutorial content: how to recreate diffraction in Blender

The creator challenges themselves to build a diffraction shader in Cycles, but ultimately reuses/extends an older, better community solution by a Blender artist.

Credited artist/source

• The speaker credits a Blender artist/source named Cee Crop, who previously created solutions ~12 years earlier.

Three available solutions (with tradeoffs)

1) Physically accurate OSL script (high fidelity, impractical)

Uses a physically accurate OSL (Open Shading Language) script plugged into shader nodes.

• Looks great from afar, but:
  • Close-up appears like grainy/“confetti” illusion.
  • Cannot be denoised/rendered cleanly by simply increasing samples.
  • GPU rendering issues: OSL hits a “group data size” type error → forces CPU rendering.
  • Performance is described as slow: single frames take minutes even on a high-end system.

2) “Balanced” nested-glossy shader (best general-purpose)

Avoids OSL and works with standard glossy shaders.

Implementation notes:

• Uses nested node groups within node groups, effectively repeating a process about 30 times.
• Builds multiple glossy color components:
  • 1 base color + 4 additional colors per stage
• Uses offset normal angles so colors split like diffraction orders.

Control logic:

• The math controls splitting based on:
  • wavelength
  • viewing angle
  • order number

Tradeoffs:

• Not a perfect “real rainbow” (some color splits can look obvious at times).
• Still relatively heavy due to ~30 shaders.

The speaker says this was the best general-purpose option and was the one that enabled making the final Pokémon card.

3) Lightweight “painted-on” hologram hack (fast approximation, limited realism)

This is not a true diffraction shader. It’s a manually painted color effect that simulates appearance for a single-light scenario.

Limitations:

• Won’t respond correctly to HDRI
• Won’t respond to reflections of other objects
• Won’t respond to a second lamp

Strength:

• Extremely lightweight and easy to layer on top of another material.

Sources / availability

The speaker states the three solutions are available under Creative Commons and can be downloaded via a link in the video description.

Main speakers / sources

• Primary speaker/author: the video creator (unnamed in the subtitle text).
• Referenced Blender artist/source: Cee Crop (creator of the diffraction solutions).
• Renderer reference/source: Octane (render engine) and its 2027.1 physical optics material (as described by the speaker).