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[rellik420]

It's not anim8or related, but I think it's too good to pass up. I really don't know anything about the program, but I know it made the Toy Story movies, as well as some of their other movies.

The are giving it away for free and I like free stuff. You need to register for it at the pixar website.

Just thought I'd let you guys know about it.

[davdud101]

WOW. Renderman is serious!! I'm not big on animation but I might jump on it just for the heck of it

[Kyle]

Wow, never thought it would see a public release, let alone free.

It looks like it wont be out until August. I just registered though.  I hope I can manage to figure out the basics at least. I kinda doubt it. But it would really bring everything full circle for me if I could render my Andy's Room project using Renderman.


Anyone know much about it? Is renderman strictly for rendering, or can I rig and animate as well? Would I need something like Maya to render my anim8or stuff with it? I'm new to alternate renderers in general.

[Raxx]

I'm pretty sure Renderman is strictly for rendering, though I'm thinking there will be a good toolset and possibly a nice interface attached to this one. Not sure if anyone recalls it, but I made a .rib toolkit for the object editor a while ago. That's the format that renderman renderers use if they aren't directly interfaced with using their APIs.

[Kyle]

So, is it possible to export a scene with everything left in tact, (textures and all) in a way that Renderman could understand? (or Maya too now, I just started using that on a whim, don't know how long I'll stick with it)

[Raxx]

Renderman likely has a plugin to directly interface with Maya, among other programs.

With Anim8or, there's nothing easy at the moment. Potentially you could use the sequential exporter tool I made not long ago, and then batch render those. Otherwise someone would have to create a 3rd party converter for it. I could toss it in with my plans for the .DAE converter I'm working on, but it's a long ways off.

[thecolclough]

I'm pretty sure Renderman is strictly for rendering...

i believe Pixar have developed two major pieces of software for their own use: Marionette is their modelling and animation system (used by literally nobody else in the world, as far as i know), while Renderman is, as Raxx says, just for rendering.  I'm not even sure if it's a renderer as such, or just a compatability layer that can sit in between animation systems like Marionette or Maya and the final rendering program - basically a data translation service that lets you export from any animation system to any renderer.  Whatever it does, though, it's among the most widespread pieces of professional CGI software out there, being used by visual-effects houses like ILM, Weta Digital etc, as well as animation studios like Pixar.

[Kyle]

Marionette is an older one, the thing they use now is called Presto.

[thecolclough]

Marionette is an older one, the thing they use now is called Presto.

ah, yes - i used to know that, but it had slipped my mind

[Kyle]

This is from an email I got from them today. Confirming what I already knew really.

We have received many questions about Non-Commercial RenderMan, particularly about what it can do and who it is best suited for. Here is a short summary of what you can expect.

First as a reminder, RenderMan is not a standalone animation system. It requires a modeling and animation solution to provide it with scene data to render photorealistic images. Well known CG authoring solutions compatible with RenderMan include Autodesk Maya, Maxon Cinema4D, Side Effects Houdini, and The Foundry's KATANA. In addition, familiarity with computer graphics (including modeling, animation, lighting, and rendering) is important to properly utilize RenderMan's capabilities. If you are unfamiliar with the process of creating and rendering images, we suggest first becoming familiar with one of the above solutions. RenderMan itself provides advanced tools for shading, lighting, and the final rendering of visual effects.


Doubt I'll be able to figure this out enough to use it. I haven't gotten far in Maya. :\ Cant even find the render button. I know what it looks like, its supposed to be a clapper icon, but its nowhere to be seen on my copy.