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Pixar freeware 'Toy Story' 3D RenderMan software

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發表於 2014-6-6 12:24:09 | 顯示全部樓層 |閱讀模式
by Joe Miller Technology Reporter, BBC
3 June 2014 Last updated at 11:28
The 3D rendering software behind films such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Harry Potter is to be given away free for non-commercial use.

RenderMan, which is developed by Pixar, has faced increased competition from rival animation rendering programmes such as VRay and Arnold.

Although Pixar, which is owned by Disney, produces its own films, it licenses RenderMan to rival studios.

The company has also cut the price of its software for commercial use.

“Anyone with an interest in computer graphics will have free access to a state-of-the-art renderer”
Nick Cannon
MPC Film

In a statement, the firm said it would release a free version of RenderMan "without any functional limitations, watermarking, or time restrictions".

"Non-commercial RenderMan will be freely available for students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use," it added.

Ian Dean, editor of computer graphics magazine 3D World, told the BBC the move "could be seen as a reaction to the rise of alternatives such as Arnold," but that Disney/Pixar are also looking to "build a community".

He added that RenderMan, which has been around for more than 25 years, was "very important at the higher end of the entertainment, animation and visual effects industries".

London calling

The new version of RenderMan was unveiled in London, which has become a global hub for the visual effects (VFX) industry.

Pixar's business director Chris Ford said his company chose to make the "most important announcement concerning RenderMan in over a decade" in London because of the importance of its VFX community.

Lee Danskin, the technical director of Escape Technology, which sells RenderMan to VFX houses in the UK, welcomed the move, saying the software would be more widely adopted as a result.

"In the last 18 months, a lot of new players have entered the marketplace," he told the BBC.

"They got there quicker than Pixar, but this is Pixar's answer - and it's quite an answer."

But, Mr Danskin explained, RenderMan is "not something you can just pick up and start using" as familiarity with animation software is a pre-requisite.

MPC Film - the company that did the visual effects for Game of Thrones, Godzilla and Life of Pi - said it welcomed the free RenderMan release, as it would acquaint up-and-coming artists with the software.

"It's great news that anyone with an interest in computer graphics will be able to have free access to a state of the art renderer from Pixar, the very same software that the world's leading computer graphics artists use to render the images seen in the vast majority of feature animation on live action visual effects films," Nick Cannon, director of technology and operations at MPC Film told the BBC.

The new version of the software is due to be released ahead of the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (Siggraph) conference in August.
 樓主| 發表於 2014-6-6 12:25:26 | 顯示全部樓層
Pixar Studio press release

Pixar Animation Studios Announces Monumental Innovations In Film Rendering

Advanced Global Illumination, New Pricing, Free Non-Commercial Use

EMERYVILLE, CA – (May 29th, 2014) Representing years of research and development, Pixar Animation Studios today announced a series of important innovations in the latest version of its forthcoming Academy Award®-winning RenderMan software that will radically impact the way film imagery is rendered and accessed by everyone. This generational shift in RenderMan establishes an entirely new modular rendering architecture called RIS that provides highly optimized methods for simulating the transport of light through multiple state of the art algorithms, including an advanced Unidirectional Path Tracer and a Bidirectional Path Tracer with Progressive Photon Mapping (also known as VCM). Along with major feature and performance enhancements, physically-based, artist-friendly workflows, progressive re-rendering, and the established advantages of RenderMan’s traditional REYES architecture, RenderMan now offers two rendering modes within one unified environment, providing the most advanced, versatile, and flexible rendering system available.

With rendering technology constantly evolving, RIS represents a forward-looking framework through which Pixar can deploy additional rendering methodologies as they become available.  RenderMan is the conduit through which applicable advanced research from within the Walt Disney organization will be channeled into the production industry, including in the forthcoming release, Disney’s Principled BRDF shader and supporting materials.

"This truly brings the future of fully photo-realistic ray-traced rendering to RenderMan” said David Hirst, Global Head of Lighting at MPC. “We did tests with the production assets from one of our latest movies and were completely blown away by the speed and how interactively we could preview and render these assets. The RIS based integrator is going to change the way we work, with more scalable rendering and faster results.”

As a further commitment to the advancement of open standards and practices, Pixar is announcing that,in conjunction with the upcoming release, free non-commercial licenses of RenderMan will be made available without any functional limitations, watermarking, or time restrictions. Non-commercial RenderMan will be freely available for students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use. Those interested in exploring RenderMan’s new capabilities are invited to register in advance on the RenderMan website to access a free license for download upon release.


Effective immediately, Pixar is also announcing that the price of the current version of RenderMan is $495 per license for commercial use, with customized peak render packages offering built-in “burst render” capability. The upcoming RenderMan release will combine the functionality of the previously separate RenderMan Pro Server and RenderMan Studio through a flexible license, providing unmatched versatility in allocating artist or batch render assets at different stages of production.

Availability

The new RenderMan is being released in the timeframe of SIGGRAPH 2014 and will be compatible with the following 64-bit operating systems, Mac OS 10.8 and 10.7, Windows 8, 7, and Vista, and Linux. Autodesk Maya compatibility is with versions 2013, 2013.5, 2014, and 2015.  Pixar’s annual maintenance program benefits customers with access to ongoing support and free upgrades. For more information please visit www.pixar.com or contact[email protected].

About Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is an Academy Award®-winning film studio with world-renowned technical, creative and production capabilities in the art of computer animation.  Creator of some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time, including "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc.," “Cars,” "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille," "WALL•E," "Up," "Toy Story 3” and “Brave,” the Northern California studio has won 30 Academy Awards® and its films have grossed more than $8.3 billion at the worldwide box office to date. “Monsters University,” Pixar’s fourteenth feature, is now available on all home entertainment platforms.


Pixar & RenderMan are registered trademarks of Pixar Animation Studios.
Mac OS is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc.
Windows and Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.




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