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two.oh
05-14-2003, 06:35 AM
hi everyone, this question is for people who have experience in renderman....

im trying to figure out everything i need to know before i start modelling and animating my concepts into maya for my senior thesis project.

now, im taking a renderman class next semester, and at the end of the semeter, my thesis will be due. i essentially have 8 months to complete this project, will learn renderman in 4 months time.

is it possible to just model the characters, rig em, animate em and get the camera angles right and just texture them and light em in renderman later? in other words, would you people suggest me taking the class and working on my thesis using my knowledge at the same time, or should i just do everything in maya and leave renderman for a time when im more experienced?

i ph33r renderman right now seeing how difficult it seems. i am a c++ programmer though so im guessing it wouldnt be too difficult.

any suggestions?
rebo
05-14-2003, 10:04 AM
I certainly think its a reasonable challange. However what do you have acess to MTOR and RAT certainly make the bridge from your maya scenes to the renderman rib much easier. If the college / school where your at only teaches the renderman standard with the aid of freeware products like 3d delight, you may be in for some trouble.

Take a couple of nights off to go thru some of the basic shader language tutorials, get a feel for MTOR (if thats the bridge you will be using), you will have a better idea then.

Its not as complicated as you imagine, certainly not for a C++ programmer.
iC4
05-14-2003, 11:13 AM
as far as I know just model and animate your scene. you can also light and texture it as long as you use only file textures and no maya procedural textures.

later when you have access to renderman just apply the shaders to your objects and lights.
fred22
05-14-2003, 11:31 AM
As far as being to hard you will be fine. MTOR is not needed its expensive and not everybody has it. I've seen guys with no experience in code write shaders and learn to script.

Check out Liquid Maya at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/liquidmaya/
This is open source free ware that needs to be compiled for your machine. This tool was used on Lord of the rings for their pipeline. Good tool to encourage.

Also a great renderman resource is www.deathfall.com, tutorials and sl builders and all kinds of things. And the highend3d render list server.

Hope this helps. As I myself am embarking on a renderman journey for final project.
two.oh
05-14-2003, 10:42 PM
wonderful feedback, thanks to all.

now, renderman only deals with textures/lighting/rendering right? those are the last stages of production anyhow and take up far less time than the pre-productiion and modelling and animating anyhow, so im guessing the overall feedback is saying i dont have much to worry about?
jeremybirn
05-15-2003, 02:30 AM
Yes, Renderman is a renderer, and you need to model and animate things before you render. But, ideally, a modeler should model to the needs of the rest of the production pipeline, including how it will be rendered. Renderman supports a different kind of Subdivision Surface than Maya, and works better with displacement mapping, so that might influence how you want to build things and your level of modeled detail. Some models are easier to get UV mapping into than others, as well.

-jeremy
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