What does Pixar's Renderman do?

[rsalonen]

It's not an upgrade
it's an external Renderer, a own program which work together with Maya with MTOR (which make Maya and Renderman communicate).

You do not use Mayas hypershade shaders for Renderman, you use it's own shader system, called Slim.

Renderman is a great renderer, probably the best out there, use in allmost all big motion pictures etc.

[playmesumch00ns]

Originally posted by Solve
Is it an upgrade over Maya's default render, which in all honesty is a piece of crap.

Like a lot of things in life, you get out what you put in.

[alexx]

Originally posted by playmesumch00ns
Like a lot of things in life, you get out what you put in.

hihih :applause:

[stunndman]

Originally posted by alexx
hihih :applause:

woah - nice cow - do you have a full res version of your avatar ?

[alexx]

i did not do it.. got the pic as a joke in mail..

here is the bigger one:

http://bigott.gmxhome.de/pics/dolphins.jpg

cheers

[svenip]

is it "wonder cow" ??? alexx :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[alexx]

to infinity and beyond :)

[Tom N.]

speaking of nice avatar... this will sound dumb, but how do you get one?

-Tom the guy whos messageboard name is lonely without a picture:hmm:

[ThirdEye]

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40111 :wavey:

[alexx]

myProfile->edit Options->Avatar->Change Avatar

[Solve]

No need to insult my work, Maya's render does suck. That's just a fact.
The renders come out looking like bad quaity pixaled 2D images.

[alexx]

unfortunately playmesumch00ns is right..
and as a matter of fact you are as well..

mayas renderer is quit bitchy.. sometimes the results are 101% what you want without flickering or something and in other cases it just tells you that it is finished and it is not..

the AA settings need about a doctor degree to get them work and sometimes even a professor wont be able to help..

but overall i can just say that i saw great pictures coming out of it..
i am the last one on earth who would say it is a great renderer.. but it is possible to get a result that works.. others are better for sure.

cheers

alexx

[Modulok]

No need to insult my work, Maya's render does suck. That's just a fact.
The renders come out looking like bad quaity pixaled 2D images.



Again...


Like a lot of things in life, you get out what you put in.

:applause:
-Modulok-

[Tom N.]

Ohh I dont have 20 yet thats why... thanks guys

[playmesumch00ns]

Solve:

Wasn't meaning to insult your work man, it's just every other day on this board there's a post from someone saying "My renders look crappy, Maya stinks!".

As alexx said, it takes a looooooooooot of patience to get the best results, but excellent results are possible with a little time and effort.

As for Renderman, the reasons why it's great are many. Some of the highlights include:

RAT, the Renderman Artist Toolkit gives you:
- PRMan, possibly the best renderer in the world
- MTOR, excellent plugin utilities for getting your Maya animation to PRMan (or any other Renderman-compliant renderer)
- Slim, shader editor which makes Maya's hypershade look like Windows Paint
- It, an image viewer and scriptable compositor
- Irma, essentially IPR for PRMan

PRMan is fast -- adding displacement mapping and motion blur to your scene adds fractions of a second to your render-time -- and can handle huge amounts of geometry without so much as a blink.

The best thing about the Renderman standard is probably Shading Language. You can get great results just making connections in Slim, but start getting your hands dirty with SL and new worlds of shading possibilities open up before you.

Up until version 10, PRMan was a scanline renderer. Now version 11 features hybrid raytracing and GI, which while slow at the moment promises to be much faster by version 12. The most exciting part of PRMan 11's new features is the same as what's so great about previous versions, namely the control it gives you over every stage of the rendering process. With Renderman, the only limitation is your imagination (and your programming skill!).

Oh, nearly forgot Pixar subDivs. Yum!

haha! I could wax lyrical about Renderman all day! Despite nearly having a nervous break-down due to it while completing my last project (just finished today!!), I still love it :love:

One thing I would say, is if you find Maya's renderer daunting, you'd better be prepared for a steep learning curve. But put in the hours with Renderman and it'll reward you a thousand-fold!:thumbsup:

[rsalonen]

Hey playmesumch00ns, that was a great explanation about rman, better than mine ;)

Do you know anything about SL writing? any webpages, any books?

[rollmops]

3drender discussion with Jeremy Birn (http://www.3d-discussion.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000564)

Some explanations in a thread called:
"MR vs Renderman"

[somlor]

Originally posted by Veqtue
Hey playmesumch00ns, that was a great explanation about rman, better than mine ;)

Do you know anything about SL writing? any webpages, any books?
I just received my copy of Essential Renderman Fast (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852336080/seanomlorsstu-20) today actually and it looks like a great way to quickly get started with RMan, which has had an esoteric stigma for too long.

[s]

[playmesumch00ns]

somlor:
That book's written by one of my lecturers! I've had a flick through and it seems like a good introduction. It certainly fills in the foundation-gap between no-knowledge and Advanced Renderman. I believe Ian's also offering some support for readers. Check his thread over at pixar's renderman discussion forums for details.

Veqtue:
Can't think of any off the top of my head. The best resource for learning SL is undoubtedly "Advanced Renderman". It's great reference for all aspects of rman, particularly SL. I'd advise you to get the book, try what's in there and then dry dissecting some shaders at the
Renderman Repository (http://www.renderman.org/RMR) .

Goodluck! It helps to have a solid grounding in 3D maths before you start this stuff.:)

[somlor]

Originally posted by playmesumch00ns
somlor:
That book's written by one of my lecturers! I've had a flick through and it seems like a good introduction. It certainly fills in the foundation-gap between no-knowledge and Advanced Renderman. I believe Ian's also offering some support for readers. Check his thread over at pixar's renderman discussion forums for details.

Yes he did set up a yahoo group and I think a web page also. Is your class with Ian on Renderman? I really wish I could find a class on that out here in the Bay Area. You'd think I'd be able to seeing as I live twenty minutes from Pixar. :shrug:

[s]

[acidream]

One of my old professors at SCAD wrote a small book on renderman. It's good for beginners, and very well written. It is available online in PDF format at:
http://cmpa.ca.scad.edu/faculty/kesson/Ca301/bookindex.html

[playmesumch00ns]

Somlor: Nope, you'd think we'd get a pretty comprehensive introduction considering how important rman experience is for getting a high-end job! Ian basically gave us a couple of hours explaining how rman works and why it's so good. There was also some workshop time with a demostrator which showed us how to work RAT, but I feel we could have had some more!!

Ian took us for Principles of Computer Systems in the first year and Operating Systems Techniques in the second year. He's one of those guys that pretty much knows everything! I have great respect for him.

[Modulok]

This is almost OT, and I should probably start a new thread, but:

Is there anyway...err...legal way that I can get ahold of PRman without having to fork out a ton of $, does pixar have some sort of PLE type version of it? Or am I pretty much screwed until I run into some more cash?

Thanks
-Modulok-

[beaker]

I doubt pixar would ever make a PLE version. There are plenty free renderman compliant renderers: Aqsis, 3Delite, BMRT. To connect them to maya use Liquid.

Aqsis: http://www.aqsis.com/
3Delight: http://www.3delight.com/
BMRT: http://herakles.zcu.cz/education/mpa/index.php

Liquid: http://www.nomadicmonkey.com/tools.html

Also Pixar offers edu licenses. They are 25% of the commercial prices. Still expensive though.
https://renderman.pixar.com/products/pricelists/educational.html

[Modulok]

Thanks beaker :thumbsup:

-Modulok-

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