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 Pixar Releases RenderMan 11 Posted by: amigo
Source: Press Release
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002
Those of you using RenderMan will be happy to know that Pixar have released version 11, with some of the features including Deep Shadow, Global Illumination, On-demand Ray Tracing, Caustics, Image based Illumination etc.
EMERYVILLE, Calif. (Nov. 20, 2002) -- Pixar Animation Studios today released RenderMan 11, the latest version of its Academy Award-winning visual effects software which is widely recognized as the industry standard for film and video production. RenderMan 11 combines significant performance gains with important new features such as ray tracing, global illumination, and deep shadows.
"We have added major features to this release of RenderMan, and we will keep doing so. The studios who choose RenderMan expect the best in both features and performance, and we will continue working to satisfy their needs," said Ed Catmull, President of Pixar.
Joe Letteri, Visual Effects Supervisor for Weta Digital, said, "The new speed optimizations in PRMan 11 gave us the breakthrough we needed to put the finishing touches on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. PRMan 11 has so many great new features that we couldn't use them all!"
"We are very excited about the release of RenderMan 11. There are many new features that will increase the efficiency of our rendering pipeline and, most importantly, add value to the quality and complexity of the images we produce," said Cliff Plumer, Chief Technology Officer for Industrial Light & Magic.
RenderMan 11 includes Pixar's Deep Shadow technology, an advanced shadow map format which produces highly realistic shadows, especially for animation. Deep Shadow technology also provides methods for pre-filtering shadows and collecting transparency and volumetric information, which enhances shadow accuracy and enables intriguing new effects.
RenderMan 11 delivers global illumination and ray tracing effects under precise control of the artist. Special effects such as reflections, refractions, color bleeding, and shadow penumbras have always been achievable in RenderMan, but RenderMan 11's new ray tracing subsystem extends these effects in compelling ways and allows them to be produced more accurately and in fewer steps. Shots which use existing techniques incur no performance penalty under the new architecture, while those that require these special effects gain unprecedented levels of artistic and computational control.
New technical innovations and aggressive optimizations in RenderMan 11 have dramatically accelerated its speed, especially for large scenes. These substantial performance gains, from the acceleration of fur and shadows, to the optimization of scenes with high depth complexity, are the direct result of intensive development in Pixar's own demanding feature film productions.
A simplified production pipeline is one of the most significant productivity benefits of RenderMan 11. New features such as direct rendering of shadows and reflections can lead to fewer rendering passes for some shots. More importantly, the extended architecture allows the whole pipeline itself to be streamlined. Artists and technical directors can now create more effects directly in their well-tuned, well-understood, RenderMan environment rather than managing multiple incompatible elements from disparate sources. The new ray tracing features provide advanced effects for projects of any size, but they can also simplify small jobs and pre-production testing by allowing people to concentrate on design problems without having to work through the big production issues associated with pre-computed maps and multi-source elements.
RenderMan 11 is available immediately. Product descriptions and pricing information can be found at renderman.pixar.com, Pixar's newly unveiled website for RenderMan product information and customer support.
New Features in Pixar's RenderMan(R) Release 11
-- Aggressive Optimizations
-- Shading Optimization
* Improved Culling of Hidden Geometry Before Shading
* More Efficient Sharing of Shading Contexts
* Improved Caching
-- Geometry Handling
* Hair and Fur Optimizations
* "Eyesplit" Problems Eliminated
-- Pixar's Innovative "Deep Shadow" Technology
* Semi-Transparent, Colored, and Motion Blurred Shadow Maps
* Pre-Filtering of Shadows
-- On-Demand Ray Tracing
* Reflections and Refractions
* Translucency and Colored Shadows
* Soft Shadow Effects
* Subsets for Grouping and Acceleration
* Arbitrary Ray Probes
-- Indirect Illumination
* Caustics
* Global Illumination
* Ambient Occlusion
* Image-Based Illumination
-- Release 11 Features Integrated with Existing Advanced Functionality,
Including:
* Distributed Parallel Network Rendering
* High Dynamic Range Imagery (HDRI)
* Level of Detail
* Motion Blur
-- All Features and Enhancements are Easy to Use and Available Through the
RenderMan(R) Artist Tools(TM)
About PhotoRealistic RenderMan(R)
Leading digital effects houses and computer graphics specialists use Pixar's RenderMan(R) because it is the highest quality renderer available anywhere and has been production tested through successful use in feature films for over ten years. Pixar's RenderMan(R) is stable, fast, and efficient for handling complex surface appearances and images. RenderMan's(R) powerful shading language and anti-aliased motion blur allow designers to believably integrate stunning synthetic effects with live-action footage. In addition, RenderMan(R) is backed by Pixar's technical staff who know the challenges of creating digital effects.
For more information on RenderMan(R), including product descriptions and price lists, please visit https://renderman.pixar.com
About Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar Animation Studios (www.pixar.com) combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation. Pixar has created four of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: Academy Award(R)-winning Toy Story (1995); A Bug's Life (1998); Golden Globe-winner Toy Story 2 (1999); and the Academy Award(R)-winning Monsters, Inc. (2001). Pixar's four films have earned more than $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The Northern California studios' next three film releases are Finding Nemo (May 30, 2003), The Incredibles (holiday 2004) and Cars (holiday 2005).
Related Links: Pixar Renderman website
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